Condor A350. The convection condor

In 1891, the Frenchman Edouard Scheffer decided to emigrate to Courfaivre in Switzerland to start a factory for machines and metal products. Scheffer delivered his products, including machines for making watch parts, mainly to Switzerland and in anticipation of all the ever coming EU troubles made Swiss imports from France increasingly difficult.

Clean energy

The choice for Courfaivre was the river Sorne on which the town was situated. That river had to provide clean energy for the machines in the factory. Edouard started 'Scheffer Freres' together with his brother Jules. In 1893 they made their first bicycle. From 1904, the Swiss PTT and the army became bicycle buyers and they would remain customers and driving force behind the company until the XNUMXs, now already the last century.

The factory started from the drawing board

Even the machinery was largely developed in-house. Then, of course, workers had to be found and trained. The company was largely self-supporting.
This was followed by a whole line of generations of motorcycles, with the boxer twins most appealing and speaking to the imagination.

Most Swiss motorcycle brands disappeared due to the crises in the 1940s. After XNUMX, only Universal, Motosacoche and Condor survived as they supplied to the military. But production costs are getting higher and Condor had to go shopping. In the meantime, the customer base remained small and the production of 'mopeds' is also failing. The government remained the overly important principal.

In the 50s, Condor stopped selling civil motorcycles over XNUMXcc

Only the A250 single-cylinder still finds government customers. And it is thanks to the same government that motorcycle sales were boosted in the late 1967s with the development of a new model. In 350 Condor was looking for a 250 cc engine block as a replacement for the XNUMX cc version. And Ducati had just launched the Scrambler at the time. Italy was contacted about the development of a military motorcycle based on the Ducati power unit.

Condor made additional contacts with other Italian suppliers such as Marzocchi and Grimeca. The headlight came from Bosch in Germany. Condor made the rest of the bike and the Ducati block was retuned and hung in rubber. The military got the first Condor A350s in 1973. Condor received exclusive Ducati sales rights for Switzerland and from that moment until the oil crisis, sales to the public increased. When production of the military Condors stopped in 1978, 3000 of the Condor A350 had been made.

The Italians didn't get it

The relationship with Ducati seemed good, but in the 2003s Condor had to remind the Italian company time and again of the Swiss legislation, which became increasingly restrictive, requiring the importer to adapt the machines to the rapidly changing rules and environmental laws. The alliance with Ducati, Cagiva and Aprilia ended in XNUMX when the brands decided to take care of their imports in Switzerland themselves. Cagiva is exit, but Ducati remains popular in Switzerland.

In the meantime, the 350 cc Condors have been sold

They ended up with fans of simply reliable classics, fans of army vehicles and Ducatisti with a big frame of mind. Even if only as a donor. But there were also Condors who were given a civilian costume like the one we found at Wisper Classics. Nice is not it?

Also read:
- Condor: Swiss top quality
- Project Imola Ducati, Baines
- A household name is 90 years young: Ducati
- Ex army motorcycles. Cheap classic driving
- More articles about classic motorcycles

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