Finicky Motorcycle

[cthulhu77]

This was a love/hate relationship for me...now that it is done, I love it, but during the build up...oooh...

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/vehicles/germany/ewaldr75.htm

[Jschmus]

Looks great, but why does the description at the top of the page read, "Special Hobby 1/48 Focke-Achgelis Fa-223"?

[Captain Canada]

Great job, Greg ! You certainly can tell from the pics that it would be a chore to build.....and never mind trying to change a fouled plug !

[cthulhu77]

  Yeah, I busted Scott about the title...I don't if he changed it or not.

  You should see how many PE parts go into this thing...all of the wiring, etc. My macro lens could not catch all of the detail.

[Weaver]

That's a great job - well done. 

Some bits of background info:

All the Allies wanted to copy the R75 and set about it as soon as they got their hands on one. Harley Davidson produced a prototype of a straight copy, and Indian produced a rather more original transverse V-twin (i.e. like the BMW but with the cylinder angled upwards at 45 deg) "inspired" by it.

In Britain, Sunbeam were instructed to copy it, but decided they could do better and produced an in-line tandem twin (i.e. like half a car engine) called the S.7. Disasterously, because their industrial group didn't have the capability to make the bevel gearbox that connects the drive shaft to the back wheel, they replaced it with a bronze worm drive which has been the bane of owners ever since, because it wears out at about the same rate as the tires....

The Russians still produce old BMW copies called variously Nevals/Dneipers/Cossacks, and they're sold in the UK mostly for their nostalgia value: most of the "BMWs" you see in war films are actually re-dressed Cossacks. The popular assumption that the Russians seized the factory as war reparations is untrue: BMW actually sold them a manufacturing licence before the war, fair and square. The Chinese also produce copies of the Russian copies, but the least said about them, the better....

Interestingly, under UK law, the version with a driven sidecar wheel counts as a trike, rather than a motorbike-and-sidecar, and so is perfectly road-legal, despite the fact that the sidecar is on the right, and we drive on the left. Standard overtaking technique is to hang the sidecar over the white line and then observe the passenger's complexion: if they turn white, you know something's coming.......