Motorcycles you may never have seen before.

2007 BMW G450. At the time, BMW was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Europe and felt the need to show upstart KTM a thing or two. The 450 was designed with the help of Joel Smets, and a number of factory riders were entered in the Erzbergrodeo. The bike looked promising at the time. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster. There were too many unorthodox designs, like the crankshaft mounted clutch. The next year, BMW hired the two best off-road riders in the world to race the bike: David Knight and Juha Salminen. Neither had much success on the bike. It was eventually sold as a dual-sport bike in the U.S. and it proved very unreliable. Later, the motor was turned over to Husqvarna for their use. It didn’t work well there, either.

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