German Police Bikes

[exeric]

I need to have something to think about when I'm mowing the lawn or I would pass out from boredom. Today I was wondering what the German police used in the 1930' thru 1960's for police motorcycles? I imagine the BMW was probably the bike of choice but I never thought of earlier BMWs as road burners. Considering the speeds on the Autoban and some of the awesome German sports cars available in the 50's and 60's, it would have been quite a strain on the same vintage BMW. This leads to the question of whether the German police used motorcycles for pursuit or just light urban duty ?

[darrylri]

I can't answer all of your questions, but in the late 50s and 60s, the German police were using R60s. While not speedy by today's standards, they would get up to 90, which I suppose was sufficient for the majority of the cars in their day, just as the R100s they used in the 80s, with about a 120 mph top end was sufficient then.

There's a pretty well known photo of Konrad Adenauer's escort group from 1951 or so made up of R24s (250cc singles). I suppose his Mercedes limo could have outrun them all...

I have seen photos of BMW 750cc bikes (R11, R12) and then the 500cc R51 as police bikes in the 30s. The R51, at 80 mph, was probably as fast as nearly all of the cars on the road at that time.

And if you consider the Harleys that are currently popular as police bikes here, they don't have the performance of many current cars, but are still sufficient for the job.

[exeric]

Good point Darryl. Even as spectacular as the 1936 EL was in it's debut, it was no match for a supercharged Duesenburg or even some of the hot rodded V8 flathead Fords. From what I have read of motorcycle mounted police, they were a pretty tough lot and didn't give too much latitude to law breakers. A car can become a deadly weapon to a motorcyclist, (as we all know) and that's probably when the gun would come out. Not many cars can outrun a bullet so a super fast motorcycle is probably not essential.I was just wondering if NSU or Zundapp got equal use to BMW.

[Guest]

Re: German Police Bikes

The police motorcycle and the police bicycle can go many places where the police sedan or SUV cannot go. The typical, high performance police motor is normally used for traffic enforcement. On the other hand, the police bike offers a cost-effective method of patrol, especially with $4 gasoline now a reality. Up until now, there has been no real middle ground between the police bike and police motor.

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Bobwilliams
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[HarleyCreation]

Interesting question! I should be working on my story, but I can't help but butt in.

Maybe the Germans were more respectful of the police and just the sight of a officer of the law on any motorcycle no matter how fast or slow would make them pull over. Unlike us Americans who think they can make a game of outrunning the cops on that new dream baby 36EL "61 OHV" knucklehead that exeric mentioned!

Plus figure in over-populated Germany it wouldn't be easy to get away anyhow. They could merely telephone ahead and it would be easy to spot a guy in a fast German car, which were probably kind of rare and unsual, and set up a roadblock to catch him. Wouldn't need to outspeed him.

I had a R50/2 BMW. That was a really fun bike and a GREAT trail bike believe it or not. But on the highway it was rather s--l--o--w. That's where I blew the motor. Wish I had a replacement cuz I still got the basket. R.I.P.

[George Greer]

"Wish I had a replacement cuz I still got the basket. R.I.P."

If you are looking to rebuild the engine....

I can find contacts for you for parts here in Germany via the Veterama Swap meet that is coming up in Oct. It is the largest swap meet in Europe for oldtimers.

Plenty of BMW contacts there.

email or PM here.

George

[darrylri]

The German mentality is rather different than here. There, the police are just working Joes doing their job. They don't tend to pull people over for speeding; there are speed cameras for that. If they do run a radar trap, usually it's in town, and then they radio the car description to another officer on the edge of town and he waves them in with a sort of a big lollipop device called a pallete. And they collect the fine on the spot.

If you're just looking to repair the R50 motor, the parts are readily available from BMW themselves. Visit Mark Huggett's web site, http://www.bmwbike.com/, he's an authorized dealer in Switzerland and supplies many parts to BMW Classic (nee Mobile Tradition). Or, visit Craig Vechorick, http://members.aol.com/VechBMW/index.html, and buy the same parts from him in Mississippi. Actually, you can order the parts from any dealer (including car dealers, they all use the same system and part numbers) if you have the correct part numbers, but most won't do it because they don't see them in their electronic parts fiche system.

The only really difficult thing is getting the crank/conrod repaired. Until 1970, BMW used built up cranks and one piece conrods, so it has to come apart for repair. There are very places that can disassemble them and reassemble them correctly, and it tends to be pretty expensive.

[PRG]

Howdy Chaps,

Somehow Herbert, can't picture a /2 in that Harley dominated household but an R50 is the sweetest running one of the lot, had two of those including this tasty number with a Steib LS200 attached, still have my trusty 68 R69S as my only modern machine on it's second rebore at 65k and through fastidious maintenance - it's first sllinger cleaning at 62.5K.

And Eric, I'll gladly supply some drivel to relieve your boredom. As to their use as a pursuit unit, can't answer to that but they saw prolific use in Switzerland and France as a worthy alternative to 4 wheelers because of their manueverability on crowded secondary roads. There's also a rather famous photo of two leading a parade of owners taking European delivery of their new /2's in the BMW Restoration Guide as well as two nattily dressed Miami police on their white R60's.

I bought a green ex-Swiss police unit with the alternative 12volt setup done in typical German overly thorough fashion, including side by side 6 volt batteries in series on special battery platform and alloy kicker arm cast with a kink in it to clear the lot. As to the mechanical, it's a paradox here. For all the simplicity, many special tools are required (think you can still purchase the All-in-One from Ek Korn) to wrench on the motor and only one way to get the crank/rod assembly out. Ironically, have seen several crank assemblies at swap meets with the rods torched off by frustrated owners who couldn't squeeze this assembly out of the case.

If they've got one shortcoming, it's the fact that they use slingers on the side of each flywheel face to centrifuge the chafe out of the oil before it goes to the rod bearings, there is no way to verify these are clean without completely disassembling the motor. Aaaaand, in the mid 60's they had a little problem with main bearings not having suitable interference fit to the crank resulting in for/aft shuffling and ruination of the bearing land - at least with that scenario you could verify ill health by measuring end float at the flywheel without tearing the motor down completely. And no tank slapper is as viciuos as that heavy earles fork assembly once it's gone on a tear.

Lastly, for those who might contemplate getting one or resusciting that one that's been languishing in the back of their shop, here's a superb site on all aspects of maintenance/repair done by Duane Ausherman, a former BMW dealer in SFO.

[HarleyCreation]

I must confess that I like ALL motorcycles. That R50/2 was a very cool bike and was real change for me after riding a 1950 Panhead for years. It was novel. Slow but EXCELLENT off road and would go thru the woods almost anywhere. I liked that Earles fork too...

Alas, while I have the basket I don't know if I'll ever get to it. I have so many projects that don't get done. Years ago I did get a good used crankshaft for the R50/2, but it turned out to be a R60/2 crankshaft which I believe has a longer stroke. The cylinder and piston also broke after the top part of a rod snapped off. It was a sad tale. That bike would make a good winter motorcycle with a home-built 3rd wheel.