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What's This?

Yup VW.

1972-Mindbender-BMW-0.jpg


I first thought maybe a Subaru.

subaru1.jpg


Looks like fun!

Mike
 
Say what you will, but that looks like one heavy duty motorcycle. Definitely an industrial strength sidecar tug.

I believe that the VW engine had much more hot rod potential than the airhead due to many aftermarket "hop up" parts being available and reasonably priced. The VW was something like 1200 to 1300 cc's vs 600 for the boxer indicating to me at least greater power could be found.
 
Most of the later VW engines were 40 hp (from about '65 or so). I saw a few of these conversions in the late 60's.
 
I like it! :thumb ...and as someone already said, hey, he's out there riding it. A lot!

Then again, to some "purists", I'm not riding a REAL BMW either :lol
 
Heck, for that matter my wife's BMW came from the factory with an engine built by another maker in it.
 
I had a 69 Karman Ghia with a modified VW motor. It diplaced 1776cc and had twin Delorto Carbs. That combination had more power than my 62 Porsche Super 90 and averaged about 28mpg. Putting that combo in an airhead frame with a side car should satisfy just about anyones need for power and torque. Ride Safe :usa :usa
 
If that is a VW engine wouldn't he have to have a cooling fan. Showing my ignorance here.

The only ignorant question is the one that's never asked.
VW engines use the fan and shrouding to circulate cooling air around an engine that's stuck beneath and behind all that automotive body work. The shroud also works as a plenum to gather that warm air and used it for the so called "heater" and "defroster" (both of these functions work best in summer, and are useless in winter).
In a bike, the engine would get plenty of airflow around it without that help, just like an airhead, or any other air-cooled bike engine (except Buells).
 
My uncle built one of those back in the early 70s. It was a pretty popular conversion at the time. The engine was almost a drop-in for the frame. Very little mod work had to be done to get it to fit...Only problem is that they had a tendency to backfire thru the carbs...made for a lot of fun at stoplights...
 
Roger Willis of California manufactured the "Willis conversion" kit for /2's. The kit included among other things an engine adapter, exhaust manifolds, and most important, a modified /2 gearbox. A stock /2 gearbox has an overall ratio of 1.54:1 in top gear - the modified /2 gearbox had a ratio of 1:1 (IIRC). The stock gearbox limited the top speed since a stock VW engine operates at a lower rpm than the BMW boxer.

The gearbox modification was quite involved. The countershaft (between input and output shafts) was relocated slightly to the right to permit use of a larger gear on the input shaft. The process involved welding up and reboring the countershaft bearing holes.

There were a couple other conversion versions, one I believe was a Webler. Former BMW dealer Duane Ausherman built a Needler conversion 1 of 3. Pics and comments on his website here:

http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/BMW-VW/index.htm

A pic of Duane's bike:
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Duane comments:
It has so much torque that one can feather the clutch in fourth gear, at an idle, and walk away. The top speed is limited by the rpm, as it still has BMW gearing and the low rpm of the Volkswagen motor. I doubt that my bike ever went over 95-100 mph

With the modified gearbox the bikes would easily exceed 100 mph. Scary!

There is a Yahoo group dedicated to VW conversion bikes called vwmotorcycles

FYI
 
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Just two comments.

Old VW hand here.

A quick ID for Porsche engines is that they used a three piece case, two halves and a 'nose' cover (when installed in the automobile it was of course backwards and the nose piece became a tail cover). Another ID aid is that the exhaust header studs were located vertically over each other. On the Vdub the studs are staggered.

While VW parts availability is of course nice, I think a big advantage is the difference in prices, Vdub being cheaper. And then there are so many modern modified parts for Vdubs that you can really "build" one to do quite well, if that is a criteria for you.
 
In my book the builders get an A+ for creativity. The true mark of someone who has taken technology to the level of pure Art.
 
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