40 Greatest Military Motorcycles

Okay, so we have to admit that sometimes technology developed by the enemy was quite impressive. To that end, just as their Tiger tanks and Panzer tanks proved to be a menace on the battlefield, the BMW R71 was an upstart as well. It out performed many of the Ally motorbikes of the same variety. The secret was the 750 cc side-valve motor. Coupled to the drive shaft, performance was fluid. As WWII fighting spread to North Africa, the R71 was virtually indestructible in the desert. The sand and grime that wreaked havoc on Ally motor bikes were a non-issue for this Nazi invention. Allied troops were so impressed by this specific BMW design that many of the captured motorcycles were taken home, disassembled and used to make their own rip off versions. These included the Harley Davidson XA, Soviet M 72 and Chinese Jiang 750.