Curiosity Question

[WoahGold]

It's a silly thing, but whenever I talk to anyone about riding and the subject gets around to what I ride the conversation seems to be the same whether the other person is a rider or not.
I tell them I ride a BMW and about eight times out of ten they say something along the lines of: "I didn't know BMW made motorcycles."
I'm just wondering how often this happens to you guys.

[frankenduck]

You're in Virginia.  Whadda ya 'spect?

I was riding the Oregon coast one day and the kid working at the gas station didn't know BMW made bikes.  Must have been his first day because lots of Beemers ride that coast.

My K75 doesn't say BMW anywhere on it.  No roundels and the valve and crank covers are hidden by the K1100RS fairing.

[Chaos]

Most riders I meet seem to know of Beemers, though many had no idea they made a triple.  My other bike is a Ural, and THAT is a whole different story!

[mystic red]

I was at the bank drive thru one time and BMW car was next to me and I said to her, " I didn't know BMW made cars." :lol:

[frankenduck]

If you really want to mess with their heads then explain to them that BMW made motorcycles before they made cars.  And before that they made airplane engines for WWI planes.  However, as part of the post-WWI Armistice at Versailles they were forbidden from making airplane engines so BMW turned to making motorcycles in the 1920s and then evolved to cars in the 1930s.

It hadn't really occurred to me until today (I don't spend my time thinking about boxers, mostly K bikes) but the boxer design is essentially a radial air-cooled engine with two cylinders.

[Lucky Lou]

It hadn't really occurred to me until today (I don't spend my time thinking about boxers, mostly K bikes) but the boxer design is essentially a radial air-cooled engine with two cylinders.

Did VW pinch the idea for the Beetle ??. Alot of people dont realise that BSA made guns before bikes (Birmingham Small Arms co )
Lou

[DRxBMW]

I tell them I ride a BMW and about eight times out of ten they say something along the lines of: "I didn't know BMW made motorcycles."
I'm just wondering how often this happens to you guys.

Stupid ass people are everywhere, sigh.

[argent brick]

Over the years, I have had about a half-dozen people make similar comments.

[frankenduck]

I was chatting one day with a HD guy next to me while we were waiting for our ferry to dock.

Him: "I've never ridden a BMW before. I hear they ride like Cadillacs."  :hehehe

[WoahGold]

Most of the bikes in my area are sport bikes, but I've seen a handful of the dual-purpose F and R bikes and two guys in the area that ride K75's (one of which is a real nice red K75S and has the Ohlins rear shock). My guess is that people just don't notice.

The boxer and radial engines both came out at roughly the same time I wouldn't be surprised if there was some relation. I'd like to get an old R bike someday.

Ural's are cool bikes, they stole the orignial design from the BMW R71

[Chaos]

HD's, and even Guzzi's & Ducks, could also be considered slices out of a radial engine pie.  Only so many ways to arrange cylinders around a crank, you know. The HD is probably more accurate, since radials are usually 7 or 9 cylinders and you would not have a 180 or 90 degree pair.

[TaosBrick]

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/photos/5297/#item=122995

[lhead]

There's a fundamental difference between a radial and an opposed twin or an opposed anything. The (single row) radial engine has all connecting rods tied to a single crankshaft throw. All pistons/cylinders on a radial are in the same front to back plane. An opposed twin, flat four, etc. will have some offset between the left and right cylinder banks i.e. one bank will be farther back than the other. Multiple row radials do feature multiple crank throws but again the relationship of each bank of cylinders is still the same.

Pratt and Whitney made a four row radial (R4360) that featured four rows of seven cylinders each for a total of 28 cylinders. Each row was offset from the row in front of it to allow for cooling air and featured extensive and complicated ducting to keep the engine cool. The R4360 powered among other aircraft the C-124 Globmaster cargo plane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_engine

[WoahGold]

You can just pretend that boxers are a two row radials that have one cylinder per row. They're just offset to stay cool.  :hehehe

[CRASH]

I was at the bank drive thru one time and BMW car was next to me and I said to her, " I didn't know BMW made cars." :lol:

"... until I passed one."  :loopy:

[Chaos]

The (single row) radial engine has all connecting rods tied to a single crankshaft throw. All pistons/cylinders on a radial are in the same front to back plane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_engine

I think the HD knife & fork connecting rods keeps both the cylinders on the same plane.  Though it's nothing like the master/slave arrangement on radials.  That would make a paint shaker out of a boxer!