New BMW off road 450

[gasgasman]

Here's some engineering drawings from the patent application.
The swing arm pivot bolt runs through the countershaft sprocket.Imagine that.

[Dave]

Their clutch may have something novel allowing for a patent, but primary clutches aren't new. My friend had a 1972(?) Puch 175 with a primary clutch - it was about the size of a tuna can.

[GMP]

Yes, also the Montessa 250 VR of the late '70s used a crank mounted clutch. Pretty slick, we'lll see though. I thought about the oil thing too, maybe they have another pump for it. Cannondale had a transmission/clutch oil pump as well.

[hudson_hollow]

I thought crankshaft mounted clutches went out with the sixties. Too many problems to name here. Maybe BMW has fixed all of them? Not likely.

[gasgasman]

Yep.........vibration is one of them.

[jeffd]

Published today on cycle news : press release about bike running in it's first World Enduro Championship round....

http://www.cyclenews.com/ShowStory.asp?HeadlineID=10752

jeff

[sammyj18]

now that the bike in out.....anyone have any reports?

[gg3]

ummmm.... David Knight had no problem winning WEC's on a KTM?

[Dave]

Salminen looks to have his sorted out.
http://www.juhasalminen.net/uutiset.html?137

Knight had early successes at home, but some machine failures and bad luck have kept him off the WEC podium.

Dirt Rider magazine pretty well trashed the bike in a recent enduro shoot out article.

[SpeedyManiac]

I must say as a mechanical engineer, the BMW fascinates me. Would I buy one to race? Pretty doubtful. It's got a long ways to go to compete with the major players in enduro.