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Mystery of the Day


Kathy R

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Paul Mihalka

Well, the speedometer says BMW, so at one time it was on a BMW. It says mph, so it was built for a mile usage country England/Australia/USA etc. The headlight with the universal ignition/headlight switch was on many brand bikes. .......

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Owner tells me that this bike was manufactured with some BMW parts, the speedo being one of them.

 

Clue:

 

#2 Originally sold through a catalog

 

i-sPrjhVr-L.jpg

 

 

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Paul Mihalka

I think it is a Puch two-stroke, I think Sears/Allstate was selling them. Give-away is the two "gas caps", one for oil and one for gas, to prepare the gas/oil mixture needed. I think Puch was the first two-stroke where you did not have to pre-mix gas and oil. I definitely do not believe that the BMW speedometer was on the bike when new.

See the gas tank and the tail light:

 

images-4.jpg

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DING DING DING

We have a winner.

How'd I know it would be YOU! :D:wave:

 

1954 PUCH

Sold by SEARS under the model name TWINGLE (What's that all about?)

He got it 7 years ago from the 2nd owner. The bike sat in a barn since the late 70s.

 

i-cZ22R8G-L.jpgi-G87Rn69-L.jpg

i-j8PXL85-L.jpg

i-FhjMFSs-L.jpgi-SvrmjZz-L.jpg

 

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No " " there? Hmmm. So this wasn't just some cute name dreamed up by a SEARS employee.

 

The owner said he's never going to restore it. It started right up, idled smoothly and he went off sweetly. I was real happy to see he had ATGATT too :grin: With that bike you run the risk of being run over in this day and age.

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If I remember correctly, when I was a kid I had a 250 Sears Allstate that was a two stroke with two cylinders ,one head with a single spark

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Pretty cool, thanks for posting this. The fact that it's still rideable in that condition says a lot. You can definitely see the BMW in the influence of the build.

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Guest Kakugo

How could I have missed this? I love these games.

Anyway here's one I spotted a local antique and collectible bike fair a while ago:

 

Guess_13.jpg

 

Tip. There's a (tenuous) BMW and Volkswagen connection. ;)

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Paul Mihalka

Hard to guess because I think it is very customized from stock. Looks like a water cooled two-stroke.

The Puch was easy. It is beat up but stock.

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TWINGLE: That was not a official model name, but more like a nick-name (like airhead or oilhead). Stands for twin-single. Puch had a special design with two pistons working in one cylinder with one spark plug. I think other two-stroke builders used it too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-single

 

Flat track racers running HD XR750 bikes used to set them up for the dirt tracks by changing the firing order. While the 2 cylinders obviously didn't fire together, they would be quite close. They were called twingles too.

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Red? Ducati something?

 

I was thinking more CZ but probably not that. The cylinder reminds me of an old RD 350 Yamaha but it's not that either. Tough one. :S

 

Pat

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Guest Kakugo

On another site we have a small contest about obscure bikes each winter. Very nice, I enjoy it quite a lot.

 

And I can assure you this is an easy one.

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I had a puch, twindle when I was a kid, bought it from my neighbor, heavy motorbike, only rode it on the farm, oddly enough it usally started 1 or 2 kicks

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Bill_Walker
On another site we have a small contest about obscure bikes each winter. Very nice, I enjoy it quite a lot.

 

And I can assure you this is an easy one.

 

I'm thinking this might be an easy one for a European, but not for an American. Was this bike imported to the USA in significant numbers?

 

I'll throw a wild guess out and say MZ (aka MuZ).

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Guest Kakugo

To be honest I have no idea if that specific model was ever sold outside of Continental Europe. But the brand is very well known.

However... most of the hardest challenges came from a chap from Canada who had a knowledge of obscure models worldwide to rival mine. Which says quite a lot.

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To be honest I have no idea if that specific model was ever sold outside of Continental Europe. But the brand is very well known.

However... most of the hardest challenges came from a chap from Canada who had a knowledge of obscure models worldwide to rival mine. Which says quite a lot.

Ok that helps. Two stroke street bikes have not been sold in the US for about 20 years.

The identity of Kakugo's motorcycle is in here..

http://www.bikez.com/

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Bob, I've never seen a Zundapp street bike in this country, but there were quite a few 125-175cc motocrossers here when I was racing in the early 70s.

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Tip. There's a (tenuous) BMW and Volkswagen connection.

 

Good clue, Kakugo. VWs, BMWs and early Zundapps have/had Flat, horizontally opposed "Boxer" engines.

 

i-WwdVr7C-M.jpg

 

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Guest Kakugo
Tip. There's a (tenuous) BMW and Volkswagen connection.

 

Good clue, Kakugo. VWs, BMWs and early Zundapps have/had Flat, horizontally opposed "Boxer" engines.

 

i-WwdVr7C-M.jpg

 

Actually it was a more pedantic clue...

Ferdinand Porsche worked with Zundapp to build the first Volkswagen prototypes (one of which was fitted with a five cylinder air cooled radial) and in 1956 Zundapp moved their headquarters from Nuremberg to Munich, not very far from were the present day BMW headquarters are.

OK, I'll just show myself out. :grin:

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OK, I'll just show myself out. :grin:

 

Don't go too far. It's another day. We need another Mystery Bike. :lurk:

 

Bueller?

 

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Guest Kakugo

OK, I'll just show myself out. :grin:

 

Don't go too far. It's another day. We need another Mystery Bike. :lurk:

 

Bueller?

 

Another one snapped by yours truly:

 

guess_07.jpg

 

Tip: logo on the tank comes from TWO very well known brands, not usually associated with one another.

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I came into this late, but one of my riding friends has an Allstate twingle. He's a Brit-bike afficionado and has a garage full of BSAs, Triumphs, and the occasional Norton. The Allstate, I believe, is the only non-Brit bike he owns.

 

On Sundays we meet up at the local diner, and sometimes there's a BMW /2 there. You park that Allstate next to a /2, and it looks just like kissing cousins. They're cheap and they're ALOT of fun. Really a cool bike!

 

-MKL

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OK Kakugo, yah got us stumped!

 

Off the wall observation: MV Agusta has long had a thing for 5-point star shaped cast wheel spokes.

 

Anything? Bueller?

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Guest Kakugo

No, it's not a KR750. Displacement is much smaller.

As a free tip let's just say both the frame and engine manufacturer are still in business today.

As a free extra tip the frame manufacturer still uses the same colors (white red and black) to this day.

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OK, I think I've got it.

 

Is it a Suzuki powered Bimota?

 

Edit:

 

It's a Harley-Davidson RR250 powered Bimota.

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Guest Kakugo
OK, I think I've got it.

 

Is it a Suzuki powered Bimota?

 

Bimota frame, yes.

Suzuki engine, no.

This is a Suzuki-Bimota:

 

Suzuki_Bimota.jpg

 

Let's just say the engine manufacturer is not usually associated with two strokes. Or high performances for what that matters. ;)

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