Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

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Mike Lebsack-Iowa
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Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by Mike Lebsack-Iowa » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:16 pm

Does anyone know, or have the contact information, for the fellow who had the old BMW motorcycle that had the auxiliary rear axle setup that powered the sidecar? If so please share here. Thanks, Mike Lebsack

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Craig Leach
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by Craig Leach » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:40 pm

I was not there but that sounds like a Ural.
Craig


Kerry
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by Kerry » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:51 pm

1938 R75 BMW had the sidecar with a driving wheel, later, I think it was the Zundapp that copied the R75 and was about 70% the same parts.
The Ural was a copy of the 1940 R71 BMW.

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vech
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by vech » Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:17 pm

The R75 BMW was the only BMW made with a true differential that had a lock out feature. If the bike became stuck in the mud, you could lock the final drive turning the rear wheel and side car wheel into a live rear axle. When the lockout feature is used, it will no longer steer. It simply will move forward in a straight line no matter what you do with the handlebars. This is my 1942 R75. The machine has a high/low shift on the input shaft along with a a 4 speed trans with reverse. Gives you 8 speeds forward and two speeds in reverse!
2C5A4036-68BE-4716-966A-5B6A57B03C11.jpeg
"If a fly can, a flywheel" :shock:


OilyBill
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by OilyBill » Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:49 pm

Craig, did you get this bike from a guy in Phoenix?

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Craig Leach
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by Craig Leach » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:14 am

Hi Bill,
No I do not have one, Iv'e just seen a lot of Ural's passed off as BMW's or at least mistaken for BMW's.
I found the cure to antique motorcycles. It's antique cars. The grandkids seem to like the cars better.
It's a win win.
Craig.


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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by OilyBill » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:09 pm

Hey Craig!
The reason I asked is that at a military equipment show in Phoenix several years ago, there was a guy there who had found and rebuilt an original WWII BMW bike and sidecar for his dad.
His father was in the SS, as a motorcycle messenger. He was driving along one day, and an artillery shell landed about 300 feet from him while he was on the road.
He assumed there were Tiger Tanks in the area, and the Allies were hunting them.
Then the next shell hit, about 100 feet behind him. He didn't want to be in the firing engagement, so he sped up.
The next shell landed 50 feet behind him, and he finally realized that the artillery was NOT hunting for German tanks. It was hunting for HIM!
He gave the bike all the throttle he had, but it made no difference. The next shot landed about 20 feet behind him, and blew him and his motorcycle into the ditch.
He was completely stunned and concussed. he was lying on his back in the ditch, trying to get up, but couldn't. Before he could even figure out what happened, a U.S. Army jeep pulled up, and he was captured. They collected him and his documents, and off he went to a hospital and then a POW camp. He said by the time this happened to him, he knew Germany had lost the war, because the Luftwaffe was completely overwhelmed, and so was the Army. It had gotten to the point that bored artillerymen were hunting motorcycle messengers because they had nothing else to shoot at.
His son built the bike as a tribute bike for him, and it carried his unit markings and was an exact restoration to the smallest detail, of the bike he was riding when he got "Artilleried". The son said his father knew his bike inside and out, and was able to tell him what was correct in each area of the restoration as he went through the motorcycle.
At that time, the father was in his late 80's.
The reason I got so much detail was that I had a German-speaking friend with me, and he asked questions of the elderly father, and then translated for me. (My friend had war stories of his own. He was only 6 when the war ended, he had a birth certificate with the Swastika stamp certifying his racial purity, and he used to watch the Tiger tanks roll down the road in front of his family farm, headed to the eastern front to fight the Russians. (Probably one of the few people left alive who ever actually saw a REAL Tiger tank in operation) His father, a farmer, was drafted in the last ditch effort to stop the Russians in Silesia, in January 1945, and he never saw him again. His father died in a Russian POW camp right after the war ended, and this guy and his mother were forced out of Silesia by the Russians, and after walking for 2 months, they finally ended up in Czechoslavakia, and then wound up in West Germany as refugees. He had a tremendously hard and difficult childhood. On Saturday nights, he sat with his mother and listened to radio programs that gave news about the prisoners in Russsia, as far as who had died, etc. on the Red Cross radio program.
I am sure the SS rider is dead by now, and wondered if the bike in the picture was his tribute bike.
That's why my question and interest in it.

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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by vech » Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:17 pm

0F57E18B-BCCC-45D0-BE77-55E3B66EE4DD.jpeg
OilyBill wrote:
Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:49 pm
Craig, did you get this bike from a guy in Phoenix?
Bill,
No I bought it in Fort Worth Tx in LOTS of boxes.. it was very worn out and in terrible condition. The front end was badly bent. Lots of parts were missing. The side car tub looked like it has been attacked with a sledge hammer. During the restoration, I found a photo in the BMW archives of an R75 with two soldiers standing next to it. While it was a black and white photo, one could tell that it was definitely not a desert tan paint scheme. And, the nose art was plainly visible on the side car, and the front fender license plate was plainly visible, so I copied the scheme, and painted it RAL 7021. That is panzergrau, Tank Gray.
"If a fly can, a flywheel" :shock:


OilyBill
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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by OilyBill » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:15 pm

Thank you very much! Glad a few of them survived, and the one made as a tribute to the SS messenger is still out there somewhere.


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Re: Vintage BMW motorcycle at Chickasha

Post by jburns79se » Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:52 pm

For info on the vintage BMW motorcycle that was at Chickasha, contact Peter Banfield at 719-577-0003. J Burns

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