BMW R 10

The BMW R 10 was a motor scooter project that BMW pursued from 1950 to 1955 and never put into production. The company archive holds an early design drawing dated 10 December 1950 and a product cost calculation dated 1 January 1950, and the project was abandoned in 1955. The name had earlier been given to a two stroke motorcycle of 1947 that was dropped at the prototype stage, which is why the scooter drawings carry the suffix b. The first design of 1951 followed a motorcycle like concept, with a longitudinally mounted, air cooled single cylinder four stroke engine of 200 cubic centimetres with side valves, a foot operated three speed gearbox, shaft drive on the right of the sprung rear wheel and large 16 inch wire wheels. The second design of 1953 had smooth, closed bodywork in line with scooters of Heinkel, Glas and Maico, an engine with overhead valves of 175 cubic centimetres and 12 horsepower, a hand operated gearbox with shaft drive on the left, and small 10 inch disc wheels on single sided swinging arms. The engine was moved back so that riders could step through freely.