Long time since I have posted in this thread. This weekend we have the small meeting of our Dutch friends with their Wartime machines. Due to un-forseen circumstances this year we have only 2 x Zundapp KS750, 1 X BMW R75 and an ex military Chang Jiang CJ750. Temperature today is around -7c. David
Hello David, thanks for the pictures, these are very cool machines. I'm curious about how the Zundapp and BMW machines ride on rough terrain or bad roads. Do they have a suspension on the sidecar or rear wheel? I have a newer Harley outfit with a rigid sidecar wheel and definitely feel a lot of input from that on a bad road. Thanks, Dave
The rear end of the bike is rigid, The sidercar has a split torsion tube running in the rear sidecar frame tube. This provides 3-4 inches of travel on the sidecar wheel. The boat itself is suspended on a pair of half-leaf springs, the ride is OK on rougher roads and a bit bouncy in the rough stuff! David
ZundappUK I've been reading your posts about the Ardennes tours with great interest. I live in London and I've got a Ural Gear Up 2wd that myself and a mate took to Germany and Belgium basically touring Bastogne and many other of the war sites. In fact we laid a Cross of Remembrance at the Malmedy crossroads site. We went this time last year with snow on the ground and freezing cold. I loved the area and would definately go back at some point. I've got some phots somewhere - I'll try to dig them out. Cheers Rob
Very nice ride . I had read the the hole topic very interesting. The bike with read wheels looks like a early m-72 but the frame no.The first seire m-72 was very similar to bmw r 71 the frame was identical. I have a friend how has a m-72 from 1943 original. Contrar to the popular beleve the r 71 was not a military bike it was neved made for the army in order to replace the bmw r12. The bmw r 71 and r 61 were civilian luxury bike modern for the time and expensive, in today money it will cost something like 35000 usd. The army request was from the beginind for a bike with the caracteristic of bmw r75 and zundapp ks 750. BMW and Zundapp develop in parallel the 2 bikes. Zundapp ks 750 being considerate better suited all so from the better front forks wich handles much better off-road the the bmw r 75 front fork.In time engine from bmw r75 was more easy to mentain then the engine from zundapp ( you can adapdt diferent parts for bmw r75 engine more easly then for the zundapp ks 750 ) . I have a question did somebody has for sale a zundapp ks 600 or 750 or a abmw r 12 frame even in bad shape ? Many thanks.
Is this bike from the Czech Republic? That lion looks a lot like the coat of arms of CZ but it doesn't seem to have two tails or a crown.
Hi, No its from Holland, the owner is in the Amsterdam area. I think it actually is a Dutch symbol. David
Don't think so, the "Je maintiendrai" lion does have sword in it's right paw and arrows in it's left paw "Je maintiendrai" translate to something as "I will maintain "
Googling "red lion in coat of arms" brings up this: But with a crown it could be this one from Luxembourg: Well......................actually............. There are loads of them, with two tails would be Czech republic CLICK
I was in Maastrict on the German - Dutch Border yesterday and I think I have the amswer! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Limburg_(Netherlands)_Flag.png David
Hey Don...that was an old Russian Rig I found over outside San Diego a couple years ago. The owner thought it was a BMW, he acquired it when he bought some property. I have the guys phone # somewhere. I think he was pretty "proud" of the hulk...said he turned down a $2000.00 offer a couple years earlier. With that in mind I never persued the matter any further. Everything there was pretty rough. Not sure of the actual value. Definately more than I was willing to "bite off". Update: Don, I deleted the guys phone number but I dug through my old e-mails and found the guys E address....he was adament that the whole pile went together, wouldn't sell just the hack frame. I had asked him about selling the frame seperately a couple years ago. PM me if you wish, and I'll send you over the guys e-mail address. He may have had a change of heart in the past couple years. more photos: The "Hack" wheel was there too:
If you go after that I would be interested in motor parts. The heads and crank especially. Maybe front end, tank, and final drive, too. Hell I could use all of it for spares.
Those heads look pretty beat up. Looks like some "chunks" missing. What is that thing?...WW2 era you think? I was thinking maybe the 50's.... but it has the "reversed" handle bar levers. The Serial # stampings were real large & crude looking. But weren't in Chinese anyway.
It's an early 50s or maybe even 40s Soviet M72. They were derived from the BMW R71 before WW2, under license from the Germans. There's another story that the Soviets stole a few bikes and reverse engineered them. They made them up until the early 60s, I think. Here's mine, an IMZ M72M, 1956: Mine is a collection of parts from different years, and also between IMZ and KMZ, the two manufacturers that made M72s after the war. That specimen in the barn is looks to be much more original. The over-fender rigid sidecar wheel setup is really early, as are the fenders. Shame it's been left out to rust. If you could get it cheap enough and wanted a project, you can scrounge parts in Europe and off Ebay. They are still mostly available, although getting scarcer. The M72s have become collectible because they're still inexpensive enough that the average guy can build a cool "classic" bike without being a zillionaire. Wish I wasn't on the right coast!
Whacker, send me what ever contact info you have left and I'll see what I can pull off. Don in Nipomo
I would love to see someone buy that whole lot and restore the bike. It looks complete. Too bad it's all been exposed for so long, but these things are all sloppy tolerances and rough castings. It's amazing what can be brought back to serviceable state just by cleaning and rust removal. They are more like farm equipment than motorcycles. Looks like the only thing missing is the tub. Was that there? Otherwise, I suppose "some must die so that others might live"
