Now THIS is interesting …

[oldcamper]

The Chinese are building a lot of “European” motorcycle engines these days. BMW, KTM, and Benelli come to mind, but I have often wondered if they would ever build a modern copy of the venerable BMW Airhead.

Is the wait over?:

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One might suppose it will have fuel injection and a decent charging system. Can we hope for robust clutch splines and a monolever too? A modern R90S/GS motorcycle at Chinese prices might do pretty well worldwide, especially if they were mostly parts compatible with the originals.

 

[skibum69]

Very interesting!

 

[m_stock10506]

You sure that wasn’t an April 1st press release?

 

[collingsbob]

Ironic…after WWII the russians took some tooling from germany and proceeded to make copies of late ‘30’s BMW’s - the Dnepr. They then sold some information to the Chinese who made the Chang Jiang, so the idea that the chinese could copy a newer airhead is not out of the question..

 

[PGlaves]

Ironic…after WWII the russians took some tooling from germany and proceeded to make copies of late ‘30’s BMW’s - the Dnepr. They then sold some information to the Chinese who made the Chang Jiang, so the idea that the chinese could copy a newer airhead is not out of the question..

I would postulate that the Chinese can copy anything and get it almost right.

 

[kbasa]

I bet it's just a motor judging by my limited German.

 

[lee]

Translation

At the Beijing International Motorcycle Exhibition 2025, the new Chinese manufacturer Crystalburn (CBNMotor) presented an air-cooled 900-arm two-cylinder boxer that is amazingly similar to the classic BMW boxer engine. The engine has external features such as bumpers, cylinder covers and cardan connection, which are strongly reminiscent of the BMW R 90 S.

A first teaser image points to an upcoming retro-counter-wash bike to use this engine. It remains to be seen whether this model is also intended for the European market. More about this - Link in Bio.

 

[kbasa]

Interesting. I'm sure BMW, who guards their logo like it's Fort Knox, are just gonna stand by and not do anything.

And here I am, leaving the litigation support industry in June.

 

[oldcamper]

Interesting. I'm sure BMW, who guards their logo like it's Fort Knox, are just gonna stand by and not do anything.

And here I am, leaving the litigation support industry in June.

Well, the design IS 50 years old, and hasn’t been produced by BMW for nearly 30.
Besides, Loncin already copies several current Honda engines and CFMoto the Kawasaki 650 twin. US based S&S makes enough Harley parts to build an entire EVO engine, and I see a Chinese company named X-Wedge is building Harley clones, so why not? If I’m not mistaken, the “design” rights for automotive taillights and grills and such are only good for 7 years in the US, and you can buy all sorts of aftermarket replacement parts for just about any brand engine already. I don’t think BMW can do much about this. Hopefully it will be better quality than the Marusho of 50 years ago.