The R32 became the foundation for all future boxer powered BMW motorcycles. BMW oriented the boxer engine with the cylinder heads sticking out on each side for cooling as per the earlier British ABC. Other motorcycle manufacturers aligned the cylinders with the frame, one cylinder facing towards the front wheel and the other towards the back wheel. For example, Harley Davidson introduced the model W, a flat twin oriented fore and aft design, in 1919 and built them through 1923.

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The R32 also incorporated a shaft drive. BMW continued to use shaft drives in all their motorcycles until the introduction of the F650 in 1994. The F650 series was the only BMW model that did not use shaft drive until their 2006 model lineup, when their side-by-side twin F800ST appeared with a belt-drive system. (see later) In 1935, BMW introduced the first production motorcycle to use telescopic forks. By this time the benefits of overhead cams were known; higher revs could be obtained before the onset of valve float. However, the basic boxer design did not lend itself to overhead cams. To obtain the benefits of overhead cams without overly increasing the engine width, BMW incorporated a system that was so advanced for its racing bikes that it resurrected it many decades later in the R1100RS oilhead. The system was two cams in the head operating short push rods via rocker arms.

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