No motorcycle manufacturer is more closely associated with one type of engine than BMW: the air-cooled boxer twin or 'airhead'. It was included in BMW's very first motorcycle in 1923 and virtually every machine the company made, of every type, from radical road bike to TT winner, to land speed record holder, to 1970s style icon and even to the creation of an all-new adventure bike class with the R 80 G/S, right up to the mid-1990s.BMW Airhead Twins, with over 290 photographs, includes a history of the company pre- and post-War, and the personalities behind the development of the bikes. Profiles of each of the 'R' bikes in turn includie detailed specification guides and production numbers. An epilogue that looks to the future of the airhead twins completes the book.


Phil West is one of the UK’s longest-established and most authoritative motorcycling journalists and authors. A former editor of Bike magazine, What Bike? and executive editor of Motorcycle News, he also launched his own independent publishing company, which launched Biking Times magazine. His work has been published by Northern Biker, the Evening Standard, Stuff magazine and many more. He’s ridden and written about virtually every motorcycle of the last thirty years. He’s also written acclaimed histories of the Yamaha RD350LC and Honda GoldWing, and most recently wrote BMW GS - The Complete Story.