BMW unveils beautiful Supercharged R5 concept
Rennie Scaysbrook | May 24, 2016
The R5 Hommage is certainly a departure from modern BMW design.
BMW Motorrad has taken the wraps off this beautiful tribute to the legendary R5, titled the R5 Hommage.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the R5’s debut, a machine that went on to achieve enormous sales and racing success before the outbreak of the Second World War.
For the rolling tribute, BMW Motorrad commissioned Swedish custom bike building brothers Ronny and Benny Noren to construct the main frame, fuel tank and rear fender in time-honored style, while an original donated R5 engine, damaged from a race accident, was supercharged to considerably ramp up the power from the 26hp of the original engine.
For a few modern touches, the R5 Hommage runs a disc front brake (but one that’s actuated by a lever from the end of the handlebar), modern rear suspension (this isn’t a rigid frame) and exhaust system.
The R5 Hommage debuted at the exclusive Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy at the weekend, with Edgar Heinrich, Head of Design at BMW Motorrad saying, “At its debut, the R 5 was not only a masterpiece of engineering, the clarity of its lines and the elegance of its proportions also made it stand out clearly from the masses. To this day, the R 5 remains one of the most aesthetically appealing motorcycles in BMW history in my view.”
