although both have differing collections and interests. A multi-use, civilian and military model,
1938 BMW R12 on hangar apron.
to these were a Maserati Mistral with a seized engine, and a 1936 Oldsmobile. Today’s auto inventory includes a 1952 VW Split Window Bug with the semaphore turn signals, a 1946 civilian-converted Jeep, a Willys M38A1 military Jeep, and a nice BMW-powered ‘58 Isetta 300 sliding-win- dow coupe. But cars take up a lot of space, as collectors know, and are harder to work on; motorcycles, on the other hand, usually consume less money to acquire, and one rarely has to crawl underneath one to fix or restore it. Originally, Judie and Jack began collect-
ing in a one-car garage which he expanded, using a home-built elevator to utilize a sec- ond story. Turning to motorcycles as objects of their interest, Jack and Judie became enamored of the various BMW single-cyl- inder machines. Jack’s Arizona cousin had an R26, the second-to-last vintage Single, lying on a backyard garbage heap as Jack came to visit. Upon inquiry, Cousin said the bike was worn out junk, and was glad to take Jack’s hundred-dollar offer for the bike. Jack’s Omaha moto-friend restored the bike. Judie, who noted; “I’m usually called ‘Missus No,’ asked how many of these BMW Singles would complete the collection. “Six, I think.” Okay. But the Wells’ discov-
ered that each model has several ‘Series’ of flying production-changes within the mod- els, making for a total of 14 BMW Motorrad (Vintage) Single Cylinder bikes within the models and series of models. Missus No consented to the collecting of the 14 bikes,
and the rest became both BMW history, and Wells’ family lore. At this time, the only Single Vintage BMW motorrad as-yet not obtained is the R39 Single, produced from 1925-29. This rarity was designed as a ‘Sport’ model producing 6.5hp and uses an innovative external caliper-and-disc brake on the driveshaft. So, Judie and Jack have more work and searching to do. Why BMW Motorrad Vintage Singles?
As collector Peter Nettesheim noted in the February 2014 ON, Nettesheim’s interest has shifted from the bikes themselves, to exploring and celebrating the history of the marque. Jack noted that, despite disdain by some BMW Vintage enthusiasts, the Vin- tage Singles effectively saved the company after both World Wars, and through the late 1950s recession, when BMW AG was finan- cially on the ropes, and nearly inhaled by Mercedes-Benz, were it not for the last- instant rescue from German industrialist Herbert W. Quandt. Sales of low-cost, reli- able transportation for the working woman or man was the key to BMW’s corporate survival in ravaged Europe after the war years, and the weakened firm struggled for more than a decade after the Second War before nearly running out of assets, and then gaining new life from the Quandt fam- ily. The family still controls approximately 46% of BMW AG’s stock. It is likely that the Wells’ collection of Singles may be the larg- est in the world, BMW Zentrum possibly excepted. Now, both Jack and Peter’s inter- est in the history of BMW Motorrad joins,
the 1930 R12 is represented. It and the R17 were released as descendants of the R11. The R12 and R17 were the world’s first produc- tion motorcycles with hydraulically- damped telescopic forks. A nice example of one of the ‘Salvation Singles,’ the first post- WWII BMW motorrad was the 1948 R24, a thumper; Jack has a ’49 model. For the first post-war design, the engineers had to begin from scratch, as all the tooling and plans in Munich were destroyed, and the remaining such were in BMW’s Eisenach plant, sited in East Germany and therefore, effectively lost forever. Therefore, the R24 was essen- tially reverse-engineered from the R23, and was the only post-war BMW ‘rad without a rear suspension. Today, we think of the horizontally-
opposed pancake engine design to be exclu- sively a BMW product, but other makers have tried and sometimes copied the basic 1923-to-2015 engine design. Perhaps most interesting was the effort by the US Army during WWII to build a BMW-clone motorcycle that was seen to be so nimble, reliable and versatile in all conditions including deserts. And, perhaps the troops noted that they always seemed to start and run, and failed to decorate the rider with oil. The primary wartime Army motorcycle contracts went to Indian for several thou- sand Indian 841s, and to Harley-Davidson for tens of thousands of 45-inch WLA Vee- Twins; Harley was also given an experimen- tal contract to reverse-engineer and build 1,000 experimental ‘H-D BMWs,’ copying a BMW R71 that was captured in Norway in the early part of the war. Like the surgeon said, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.” While the H-D XA, the desig- nation for SAE-fastener BMW-clone, was deemed imminently capable in all condi- tions and reassuringly reliable, the humble Jeep beat it out for carrying capacity, better versatility and lower production costs. Thus, the
H-D XA today is considered
quite collectible, and an impressive number of the original 1,000 are said to exist. Judie and Jack acquired a valuable and unique matched set, the Harley-Davidson wartime WLA 45-inch flathead vee-twin, and the experimental pancake-design XA, the BMW R71 copy. Another of their H-D XAs was recently purchased by John Landstrom,
September 2015 BMW OWNERS NEWS 93
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