Mike Kron, The Classic Bike Mike, has a business over in Germany restoring motorcycles for museums and private collectors in Germany, Switzerland and here in the USA. He also builds replicas of old German motorcycles and he’s done some extraordinary work, re-creating Munch Mammuts.
Friedel Münch hand built these motorcycles back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, using a 4 cylinder inline NSU auto engine. The bikes were expensive and obviously, he didn’t make a lot of them.
Mike Kron has completely recreated these motorcycles and the work is stunning. This isn’t a simple project with a little tube bending, Mike starts with metal castings and goes from there. Gorgeous work.
Link: The Classic Bike Mike
hoyt says
I’ve read that the Munch was heavy and a poor handling machine. Waste of time? The Munch may carry more historical allure in Germany than most other places. Mike’s business is located in Germany.
It must be nice to have the skill, time, & money to reproduce any machine at will with high quality.
I’d like to see him build one of my all-time favorite vintage bikes…the French Dollar V4.
Jeff says
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder . Neat !
Jeff says
About the handling . I don’t think the OCC choppers and the like are great handlers either . But people want them .
Bryce says
Even though it may not handle well, it’s definitely a looker in that most Teutonic of ways. Anytime someone replicates something like this faithfully and accurately, I’m impressed. Mostly because I am far too tempted to “improve” things.
Jim says
Met a fellow a Sturgis in the mid 90’s who owned a MM and had ridden it to the rally from western Wisconsin. A facinating machine.
aaron says
hey, hoyt…. think of it as a boss hoss type bike – only way more exclusive and useful as a motorcycle. someone will always be attracted to something with twice the # of cylinders and power.
to me, the munch has the greatest claim for power or speed ever – something I’ve never heard said about 600hp busa turbos or motogp bikes or the like – it was too powerful for the wheels to hold together – that crazy rear wheel was the best they could do at the time, and I remember reading at one point that even that wheel restricted the bike’s state of tune.
(oh, wait – one other bike had that happen that I know of – the ducati apollo had similar problems, but they never fitted a monster wheel like that to it.)
my thought is that I’ll still want a MTT turbine bike in 30 years, and I might have to settle for a reproduction to get one – and I won’t really care how it handles!
Chris says
I’m not sure why — maybe it’s the nearly square frame geometry — but that bike looks very short, almost disproportionately so, in the wheelbase, like someone cut out six inches or so of its middle.
I don’t know the first thing about the handling of these beasts, but more power to him if he wants to replicate something so rare. It’s probably not something I’d choose to ride on a daily basis, but it’s unassailably cool that he decided to do the project.
cl
Ken says
Nearly bought a new one too many years ago. Got a Laverda triple instead. What a heap of crap it was.
In period tests, later Mammoths handled not bad at all. And they WENT. I seem to recall a test where one barely lost a drag with a Z1. It turned out the Munch was running on three cylinders. Probably BS but a good one would pass a Z1. Friends, in 1973, that was bloody fast.
I wish I’d kept the face of the factory sales brochure that they sent to me. A fellow in black helmet and leathers on a TTS at speed with a very fine, stark naked blond lady strapped to his back. I was to return various body measurements to the factory so that my bike could be fitted to me. In the end, it got too expensive, although in the end end, the Laverda cost me more.