MIDUAL TYPE 1
FIRST RIDE
P80
brought several compromises in
its wake, thanks to the implicit
lengthways positioning of the
crankshaft, as anyone who has
ever experienced the rise and fall
as you work the throttle of a Boxer
twin can confirm. Ditto for a mod-
ern Moto Guzzi V-twin, which has
the same essential format – only
with upswept cylinders.
The shaft final drive that's a
spinoff requirement of such a
format also has its own dynamic
drawbacks, as well as undoubt-
ed advantages – but the whole
format is replete with compro-
mise. And that's something that
BMW's clever engineers have
been working for the past nine
decades to successfully counter,
and even turn to their advantage.
However, there's more than
one way to skin a cat and long
before BMW invented the cross-
frame Boxer twin layout, other
manufacturers had utilized the
same engine architecture, but
with the flat-twin's cylinders po-
sitioned lengthways in the frame.
The first to do this was British
