Just as the BMW S1000RR superbike has done a huge amount of work to change the image of the German company since it was launched in 2009, the R90S did exactly the same back in the 1970s.
Before the S1000RR superbike smashed its way into the superbike sales charts to become a class leader, BMW was seen to be a builder of huge touring bikes and the GS adventure model, all aimed at the more mature rider. Save for some wacky ideas like the C1 scooter with a roof, there was little else to the brand. The radical S1000RR shook that image up.
Back in the early 1970s, before the R90S was launched, BMW was also considered an extremely conservative and slightly dull motorcycle company that produced worthy and steady designs that got the job done, but they were far from exciting or great to look at.
An American called Bob Lutz, who was a senior figure at BMW in the early 1970s, made the case for BMW producing a motorcycle that could take on the likes of the Honda CB750 and the Kawasaki Z1, the new generation superbikes that were creating such a buzz at the time.
BMW hired designer Han Muth to create something new. If you have heard of Muth before, that’s not a massive surprise as his design creativity has been responsible for some of the most iconic motorcycles ever created. His list of successes includes the BMW R80 G/S which is the bike that gave birth to the now massive adventure bike class as well as the now legendary Suzuki Katana of the early Eighties.
BMW opted to go for a full-on 900cc sportsbike to take on the likes of the Kawasaki Z1 and the design Muth came up with included his idea for the now signature fading paint scheme that ‘misted’ silver into black and also orange into black. This Daytona Orange paintscheme is the one most closely associated with the bike today.
The first models launched in 1973 featured stick on stripes and there were lots of issues with these peeling off. Owners were not happy and as a result BMW changed back to hand-painted pinstriping which didn’t fall off!
The bike was launched in 1973 and immediately became a success. The most important element of the R90S was that the performance matched the ‘fast’ styling that Muth created. The fairing, fuel tank and humped seat unit made for an extremely sporty looking motorcycle of the time.
The performance styling of the bike wasn’t just show; there was plenty of go to back that up too. Of course the R90S retained the defining BMW boxer twin so that the two cylinder heads poked out each side of the engine, but the 898cc motor created a healthy 67bhp.
This ‘airhead’ air-cooled boxer motor was an overhead cam pushrod design with two-valves per cylinder and shared a lot of the basics with the BMW R75/5 model. The R90S had a larger bore measurement to increase the overall engine cubic capacity.
Road testers of the time managed to eke out over 120mph from the bike in a straight line which was impressive for the mid-1970s, and for what was still quite a heavy road bike.
What the boxer engine also had plenty of was torque. This made riding the bike a bit easier than some of the more revvy Japanese rivals like the Z1 which needed to be worked harder to access the performance from the four-cylinder motor.
The biggest issue the BMW faced was its high price, which was 50% more than most rivals. Plenty of people decided the price was worth paying and, by the end of the production run, more than 17,000 R90S models were sold around the world.
BMW’s back-up for spares has been consistently good despite the model not being on sale since 1976 and a large percentage of those models sold are still running today.
A few years ago, BMW Classic demonstrated how well it could provide spares for these old bikes by building a complete bikes entirely from new parts.
The R90S lasted all the way through to the R100S model which was launched in 1976. During the time the R90S was on sale it went through a series of three upgrades and improvements before it was replaced with the R100S.
By the time the R100S came along the work done by the R90S was complete. The image of BMW being able to produce a sporty bike that could take on the new wave of Japanese superbikes of the time was sealed.
One of the most famous moments in the history of the BWM R90S was in the final year of production in 1976 when two R90S bikes took first and second places in the inaugural AMA Superbike championship race at the famous Daytona International Raceway in Florida. The bikes were reasonably heavily tuned and upgraded but still looked very similar to the road bike equivalent with racer Steve McLaughlin winning ahead of Reg Pridmore in second.
Pridmore went on to win the overall championship and take the first AMA Superbike title for with the R90S. The AMA series set the blueprint for what would become superbike racing as we know it. The fact that the BMW was the world’s first superbike champion makes it a worthy addition to our ‘Iconic Bikes’ series.
