Early Bundeswehr Kradmelders

[Asbjoern]

As not much is written on this special branch until now I´ll think a little thread on the Kradmelder of the early BW would be of interest.

I´ll start with some pictures on the special clothing for the bikers. The list is short. Issued as special items where a Kradmantel - a rubberised greatcoat - a helmet, goggles and a pair of gloves. A waistbelt to warm the kidneys was invented also, maybe a bit later as the other 4 items, and not pictured as I didn`t manage to get one jet.

Lets start with the coat. Its more or less identical with the Kradmantel of the Wehrmacht, only the colour changed from grey to olivgreen:







The coat was produced by several companies, some where of a good quality and are soft and wearable until today, some lost thier softeners during the last 40ie years and are hardened and boken today
This is a good one:


This is the BW Krad helmet of the 50ies, produced by Römer, well known for motorcyle helmets in germany that days. Its more or less identical with the civil model ... again the colour makes the difference! The goggles on the first helmet is a standart item also worn by tankers up until today .








These are the special gloves for the Kradmelders:




They where produced from the late 50ies up until the end of the 80ies.

At least an older version of the goggles...

[Asbjoern]

The first three Bikes

At the time of founding the BW the Wirtschaftswunder was on its way. There wasn`t much capacity in the industry to develop and produce a specialized motorcycle in a short time. So it was decided to buy more or less comercial bikes from companies which where ablel to deliver the needed number in a short time. Thes where militarized by by the RAL6014 gelbolive colour and the adding of a carrier for 2 leather boxes of the well known Wehrmacht-stile (attention! These boxes are often sold as Wehrmacht !)
Two types where chossen: The DKW RT 175 - here shown in the VS version with front- and back suspension of a "Schwingen-" type. Something up to 4500 bikes of this type where puchased in 1955/56



Second type of the first years was the Triumph BDG 250 SL from the german Triumph in Nuremberg. Around 1500 bikes where purchased in 1955/56



Then - from 1959 onwards - a third type was invented. First "specialized" construction bought after a first trial, the Maico M 250 / B. Even this bike has very much in common with a civil type produced at this time...
Up to 1965 something around 10.000 bikes where purchased



The Maico was in use until 1982, but starting in 1970 a fourth type was invented. This time a 125 ccm Hercules...

Regards,

Jens

[Bernhard]

Hallo Jens ,

Toller und informativer Beitrag !
Danke fürs zeigen!!

Grüße

Bernhard

[Gordon Craig]

Jens,

Some how I missed this thread earlier. Wonderful pictures and very informative info. I know you have owned lots bikes. Which of the military ones have you owned in the past or own now?

Regards,

Gordon

[Asbjoern]

Gordon, at the moment I own one of each type ... but mostely unrestored. While the Triumph is in a very good state the DKW RT 175 and the HErcules have to be restored completely ... some work for more then one winter...

Jens

[Hugh Zillmann old]

Hello Jens,

Another great thread! Many thanks.

A question out of 'left field':

Did the BW use sidecars with any of these motorcycles? Did the BW have sidecars at all? If it did, do you have any images of the sidecars?

Really three questions, I suppose, but all on the same topic!

Cheers,

Hugh

[Asbjoern]

Hugh, there is only one answer to these three question and this comes very short: no, the Bundeswehr never used sidecars. The only bigger motorcycles - which could have been used with sidecar - where some BMW usesd as escort vehicles by the MP.
Postwar use of sidecars was limited to police and custom, and even there in just a small scale compared with WWII.

Jens

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

I found this old thread today while searching for images of my kradmelder coat in use. Amazing how many things I can forget in a short space of time! Anyway, I decided to add my coat to this thread just because I like it and it doesn't make sense to start another thread when Jens has covered things so well here.
One thing I noticed in my coat and it raised a question. On the both sides of the interiror is a strap with a button arrangement on the end that looks as though it might have attached to a pair of pants that went with this coat. Was that the purpose of this strap? If not, what was it used for?
Do you have a spare helmet and pair of gloves Jens?

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

These second two fotos show the inside of the coat. You can see the straps with the buttons that I mentioned above in both of the fotos. There is no label in this coat. I suspect that it was removed, although there are no signs of a label being removed, to pass this coat off as a Third Reich one. They are virtually identical except for the colour of the cloth on the collar. In the TR coats the cloth on the collar is dark green where as in the BW coat it is brown.

[Nachrichten]

Take a look at the 'bundles' in front of the Grenzers.

http://www.beim-alten-bgs.de/Zu_den_...m_gelande.html

Look familiar?

Makes sense. After all, as they said in their advertising, the BGS was "fully motorized".

N