BMW R 24

The BMW R 24 was the first post-war model of BMW's single-cylinder motorcycle series, an almost unchanged successor to the pre-war R 23 that appeared in 1948. With no drawings of the R 23 left in Munich, BMW took one apart and measured it down to the last screw, finishing the drawings by summer 1947. The company showed the R 24 at the Geneva motorcycle show on 11 March 1948 but could not yet deliver because of reparations obligations; the first machine was made on 14 December 1948 and the thousandth ran off the line in May 1949. Its overhead-valve engine drove the rear wheel by shaft. BMW built 12,020 R 24 before the R 25 replaced it in May 1950.