In 1970s Europe, every teenager had a favorite set of wheels. In England, it was ‘sixteener specials,’ highly tuned mopeds like the Yamaha FS1-E. In France, Mobylettes were everywhere. And in Germany, three makers dominated: Zündapp, Hercules and Kreidler.
For young Danny Schramm and friends, the weapon of choice was a two-stroke Kreidler Florett. “You wore a denim vest, fitted large mirrors, and reamed out the exhaust,” he recalls. “With some ‘tuning’ you could be faster than the villain from the neighboring village, if he was causing trouble with your Dorfschönheiten [village beauties].”
Those days are long past. Danny is now a highly respected custom builder on the German scene, and has his own company, SchrammWerk GmbH. But at a custom show in Abu Dhabi, chatting to some fellow builders during the after party, he found himself reminiscing about the past. He decided to resurrect his old 50cc freedom machine.
The Kreidstler Project was born. It soon captured the attention of Danny’s friends and German industry heavyweights, who weighed in with advice and parts.
Danny started chopping, and the next three months felt like “Christmas every day” as the parts arrived. Uwe Ehinger sourced a 1932 BSA girder fork, and TTS Motorcycles sent through a set of 23-inch ‘Big Spoke’ rims.
Not surprisingly, these did not fit the forks or swingarm, so the modifications continued.
Danny believes in having the ‘go’ to match the show, so he hooked up with Sven Naber of NHPower for an engine overhaul and a new carburetor. One thing led to another and Naber soon got a request for an uprated clutch to handle the resulting tsunami of torque.
The sinuous exhaust system—with six tiny outlets—was built by Mario at Chopper Kulture, who also supplied a tiny headlight with a beautiful teak wood veneer. The bars and pegs came from a Kuwait specialist, with other parts arriving from equally far-flung shores—including New Zealand.
All that was left was to install a new tank, and tie the electrics together. Ingo Kruse is a legend in Germany for his show bike paintwork, and handled the spraying duties. Then Müller Motorcycle stepped in with a custom ECU to keep the new wiring loom humming.
At the recent Hamburg Harley Days, the Kreidstler scored an incredible coup: it won the ‘Best In Show’ award. Yes, despite being surrounded by big-bore, big budget Milwaukee customs, the little moped stole the day.
Who says Germans don’t have a sense of humor?
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