BMW R 50

The BMW R 50 was a boxer-twin motorcycle that BMW made in the second half of the 1950s and the basic model of a series of largely identical touring and sporting machines with differently powerful engines. It replaced the R 51/3, which had telescopic forks and straight-line rear suspension, with a full swinging-arm chassis that has a leading-link front fork and a rear swinging arm with enclosed springs, and a slightly raised output of 19 kilowatts. The welded tubular double frame has ball heads for a sidecar, the mudguards and tank are steel, and the rims and full-hub brakes are aluminium. The engine block, gearbox and rear drive housing are cast aluminium, and the cylinders are grey cast iron with aluminium heads. The R 50/5 followed it.