World's First Superbike

[bmwrench]

Originally Posted by funhouse

Ron Pierce won in '77 at Laconia on the bike I bought from him in '79.....and I can't imagine Cook ever rode a BMW.......I'll ask Schilling when he gets back from Ducati Weekend tomorrow.......? (and I can't imagine any of the three Butler&Smith bikes would last a Six Hour enduro.....)

I ran into a guy at Loudon who had, IIRC, the Geitl and Schuster bike on a trailer, purchased at the end of the season from them. I asked him if he was going to run it in the endurance race. "No," he said, "It won't run that long"

[_cy_]

what a wonderful story .. makes me appreciate my 74 R90S even more.

[RGregor]

Additional images of both Gietl bikes can be found here in Bruce Armstrong's picture galery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/funhouse750/BMWWSBParty
and
https://picasaweb.google.com/funhous...MWMuseumMunich

I shot those photos here in Munich at BMW where both bikes are now.

Sad to say that Bruce (funhouse) passed away last year.

[chasbmw]

I always liked the look of that Funky anti dive braking system. Does anyone know if it worked?

[supershaft]

It works but it didn't help the riders as much as they were hoping since they grew up riding with dive unless they rode bikes with earl type front ends. No other teams to this day thought that it was big enough advantage to copy. In hindsight, they should have made the dive adjustable. Like I would do if I were racing a Telelever bike. I still think that if the moon and stars were aligned differently, most all road bikes would have Telelevers.

It is simply a floating brake. People don't even want that on the back brake anymore.

[_cy_]

The 1956 BMW Rennsport RS54 is a great example of what the Germans can achieve when they get their heads together and decide to go racing against the Brits and the Italians.

With 19 World Sidecar Titles and significant Grand Prix success in the 1950s, the BMW Rennsport is a technical tour-de-force, and the ultimate expression of a BMW one could actually purchase from the factory. While roadster BMWs through the late 1960s could be fast and reliable sport-touring machines, devotees of the German marque with more heat in their veins have always lusted after the RS54 as the only flat-twins able to hold their own against the very best of its British and Italian rivals.

The bike itself is an engineering marvel, the frame is entirely lug less and is made from welded oval-section tubing. The swingarm housed the driveshaft behind its 5-speed gearbox, the front forks were a remarkable design patented in 1953 by the Englishman Ernie Earles, whose design was exceedingly light and much stronger then traditional telescopic forks.

This unique BMW Rennsport RS54 has a distinctive Bartl-style ‘duckbill’ fairing, the duckbill was thought to split airflow around the fairing and improve the “slipperiness” of the bike as a whole. The DOHC engine was advanced for the day and is directly traceable as one of the forefathers of the modern, BMW boxer engines.

This Rennsport is to be placed for sale at the upcoming Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction with Bonhams on the 10th of January 2013, it’s estimated that it’ll sell for between $145,000 – 165,000 USD, which seems pretty reasonable considering how much history this bike contains between its wheels. Check out the official lot listing here.

[supershaft]

I love RS54's. I have never seen one but I am going to see one up close real soon! I do kinda ignore the front end. Lots of factories were still using leading link forks in the fifties but not many an Earls setup. The Earls has the much larger link radius but man all that weight off center. Have you guys ever seen the monster steering dampers they would use on those sometimes? Their tank slappers should have been called death slappers from what I have read. That's pretty much true with Earls in general but on a race bike??

Lugless frame?

Most critiques agree that the Earls front end was it's undoing. I was down on power compared to MV and Girella (sp?) but BMW knew how to make a light weight race bike and they made good power. I have read that taking off the factory supplied carbs and using another type was a big gain in hp right off the bat.

John Surtees rode one for a season if I remember right. I think it was him that ended up second in the points one year? '58?


It's been decades since I boned up on them much but most of the solo bikes had the made for hacks hydraulic rear brake put on them. Supposedly the original mechanical setup is rare.

[Big Bamboo]

A Kompressor Rennsport sold for $480,000 in Vegas recently. "Top draw for the 2013 Las Vegas auction scene will be this 1939/51 BMW RS255 Supercharged Rennsport, built by Walter Zeller at the BMW factory, from authentic spares" , being sold by Bonhams http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2013/01/vegas-2013-buyers-are-back.html