World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Zündapp company was found in 1917 by Fritz Neumeyer, Friedrich Krupp AG, and Thiel, but in 1919 Neumeyer became the sole owner. It produced its first motorcycle, Z22, in 1921. The first of the K-series motorcycles entered production in 1933. In 1938, the KS600 series went into production to fulfill a 1937 German military requirement for a motorcycle that could carry a payload of 500 kilograms (ie. about three fully equipped soldiers), cruise between 3 and 80 kilometers per hour, had a clearance of 15 centimeters, among other criteria, but Zündapp was already embarking on improving the design. In 1939, the first two KS750 motorcycles were completed and entered military testing. The KS750 design was approved by the German Wehrmacht in Apr 1940, which kicked off the full production, and in the following year it superceded the KS600 design. Zündapp had approached BMW to build KS750 under license, but ultimately BMW declined, opting to build its own R75 design instead, which was also sold to the German Wehrmacht. To improve the overall efficiency, however, Zündapp and BMW did settle on using many standard parts between the KS750 and R75 designs. KS750 motorcycles were the first production motorcycles to be equipped with hydraulic brakes on all three wheels. Production ceased in 1948; 18,695 examples were built between 1940 and 1948.

SPECIFICATIONS

KS750

Machinery	One 751cc air-cooled opposite 2-cyl 4-stroke overhead valve engine rated at 26hp
Crew	3
Weight	0.4 t
Speed	95 km/h

Photographs