Here’s an interesting old ’un that went up for auction in England. It’s not an original DKW, but a replica of the pre-1930 racers, assembled from period parts and rebuilt four years ago.
It might be a mongrel, but its pedigree is pretty good: DKW were the early masters of two-stroke technology. According to the Bonhams auction notes, “Ear-splittingly noisy, the supercharged split-single ‘Deeks’ eventually overcame reliability problems to become the dominant force in 250cc racing in the late 1930s.”
This DKW was discovered in East Germany, and has a 175cc motor, probably built around 1929. The rest of the bike was put together later, “at a time when they were using bits of broken Messerschmitts to fix motorcycles”, I’m told. But the little Deek is in good condition “and is said to be surprisingly fast.” The sale price? A mere £6,670. Someone got themselves a bargain.
