The BMW rider who stopped alongside looked aghast.
Then, he was openly frowning at my bike, as we sat alongside one another at a red light.
Enjoy more Classic MotorCycle reading in the monthly magazine.
Click here to subscribe & save.
I had already noted his doubtful looks, and when I pulled into stop for petrol the Beemer rider followed me into the garage, flipped up his visor and shook his grey-haired head in disbelief.
“Nah, that’s a fake. Zündapp never made one of those. So what is it?”
But inspection confirmed his first idea – that it was a Yamaha RD engine shoehorned into one of the late KS175 frames – was wrong.
It is in fact a rare prototype of a machine which could have made a significant difference to the German motorcycle industry – and if it had been produced that fellow at the lights may have been riding a Zündapp, rather than a BMW, when he stopped alongside me.
The typical German instrument layout combined with the almost Italian-esque frame (the coupling that had my riding companion momentarily stymied) makes the prototype two-stroke twin a decent handler with plenty of ‘go.’
It’s just a shame nobody could ever buy one.
The two 28mm Mikuni carbs needed little choke to get the engine ticking over nicely, despite the fact it was still a piston-port arrangement.
Just as pleasing was the clutch, which worked well and with virtually no drag, making changing up or down on the six-speed gearbox a pleasure.
The draw-key gearbox on Zündapp’s smaller models was known to have problems, including false neutrals and disconcertingly long travel for changes.
Read more in the June edition of TCM
Advert
Enjoy more The Classic MotorCycle reading in the monthly magazine. Click here to subscribe.
