OSYB friends: Intrepid global moto knowledge base, Kiwi-turned-Jakarta’s favorite transplanted son, and master builder/restorer of Nortons, BSAs and Matchless, Tim Saywell enlightens our day once again and visually enriches our feeble brains with one of his favorite personal treasures: the 1956 Simson AWO 425 Touring model. As usual… sit back, relax, refill the coffee [and make a second pot… this story’s a good one!] – more specs, priceless anecdotes and moto history from the Kaaahrazy Kiwi… in his own words: “This is my Simson AWO 425 Touring model. Ive had her for about 20 years now and have ridden her almost everywhere in Europe, through all conditions. A fantastic bike, still going strong and still completely factory original - an interesting note is that in one of the photos there is the sidecar for the ES250/0 (the pic with the Porsche in it also). AWOs were generally coupled with Stoye sidecars; mine is a Stoye II, but there is a pic here with a Stoye I (My friend Stupzs Bike) One of the most exciting rides I did on this AWO was around New Year from the north of Holland to some small village in Belgium, and then across to Leipzig through the Black Forest, and back to Holland again. The weather was atrocious, it snowed the whole way - sometimes I couldnt even see the front guard! In some parts it got as cold as 40 below with wind chill! Did the trip in 4 days! Its a single cylinder, 249ccm, four stroke motor based on the BMW R 25/1. The bike is fitted with a Stoye II sidecar made in Leipzig and first exhibited at the Leipziger Messe (International Trade Fair) in 1954. Many people also fit their combis with Stoye I sidecars, they are smaller, and have less leg room, and no opening trunk (is that what you call in USA? - in New Zealand we call it a boot) at the back. The BMW R75 was remodeled into the Aral (a solo machine), the Molotov (a single wheel geared sidecar machine) and the Cossack (a two wheel drive sidecar machine with reverse gearing) My AWO has 3 different driveshaft’s - one for racing, one for solo cruising, and one for sidecar touring, all with different ratios. Im sorry, I cant remember the ratios exactly... ... the solo cruising one has an S2 and the sidecar one has a B1 and the racer hasnt got anything stamped on it. S stands for solo, B stands for Beiwagen. It only takes about 10 minutes to exchange the drive shaft - it rides at about 100 to 110 km/h solo and can get up to about 90km/h with the sidecar. When I rallied on the isle with it (it was the first ever AWO on the Island) I raced in the under 350cc post war class (VMCC) and was only beaten by a Triumph Tiger Cub (350) - not too bad for a 250cc machine .... … a bit of history… What happened was that BMW made their motorcycles in a place called Eisenach, close to the then border of East and West Germany (on the eastern side) but BMW didnt see that they could really survive under Russian occupation and certainly felt that Russian technology was leagues behind British and American engineering tech... ... so they applied to the East German government and in turn to the Russians for release from East Germany. The Russians came back with the deal that BMW forfeit their current designs for motorcycles, being the R25, R35, and R75; give over their factory to the East German Government and pay a shit load of money to the East Germans. BMW agreed and shot through to Bayern where they have stayed ever since. The AWO factory was bought out by aeroplane and bicycle manufacturers Simson in 1956 - before that, the Russians oversaw the development of the motorcycle industry in East Germany - the R35 was eventually changed to the EMW R35 with a similar emblem to the BMW, except in a nice communist red instead of the blue of the BMW propeller. The AWO remained the living icon of the DDR - almost every boy in the DDR dreamed of having one, and they still do… … wherever I ride my AWO in the Eastern part of Germany people stand on the sidewalk, as if their cap in hand as a sign of respect, as they are seeing a relic of days gone by. I especially like riding snow races, which I have done at Augustusberg near Chemnitz, during mid-winter meets there. They have now banned the practice, so I dont enjoy the meetings so much anymore. Yeah, the coming of the Euro brought a bunch of rules which never existed before!” A lot of guys there replace the electrics with electronic ignition, and others even bore them out to 300ccm. Me, Im too much of a purist, and everything is still original on the thing, down to the bike style pump for those little emergencies one might have underway! Hehhe, no probs Man, shell be right. Damn, I gotta stop raving! ... HA! My best to all of OSYB Nation! ~ Tim Be sure to visit Tim’s Cafe Biker: Oldtimer Restorations FB page [facebook/timsaywell64] and show him some love - features imagery of a host of builds from his shop in Bandung, 2½ hours outta Jakarta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Culture. Lifestyle. Indonesia. OSYB | ☮ ☯ ♤ Photos by and courtesy of Tim Saywell - © Tim Saywell Old Soul Young Blood, LLC | oldsoulyb OSYB Store [ oldsoulyb/store/
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 14:51:42 +0000
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