There were once dozens of motorcycle manufacturers in the Netherlands. Well, they were more assemblers of purchased components, but they had a 'brand'. There have been hundreds of motorcycle manufacturers in Germany. They often had their own constructions based on German ingenuity. Imme is one of them.
The Netherlands no longer has engine manufacturers
And the Germans at least still have BMW as a standard-bearer in the two-wheeler area. After the Second World War there was a kind of trademark union. The whole world had to get going again. And that required affordable, motorized transport: motorcycles. Light, simple motorcycles. Special motorcycles. And because the damage was greatest in Japan and Germany, things were picked up most sharply there. Just think of Honda.
Imme from Immenstad
Imme was a light motorcycle from Norbert Riedel from Immenstadt. The bike was special in every way. Riedel's idea was brilliant, but not well developed technically. The story ended under strange circumstances. Just like the story of Johannes Wardenier and his fuel-free engine. The project disappeared because the big brands prevented Riedel from getting any more bank loans. That that early neo-liberal approach was the end of Riedel's dream and that many of the people who believed in him also put in quite a bit of money? Well… Small fish are food for large fish.
But the problems at Imme had already crept in at an earlier stage
The Imme R100 was a bit of a difficult case. The single-sided crankshaft bearing had its problems. The kickstarter mechanism was prone to failure, the exhaust that ran through the rear fork was closed. Hassle repair costs for all these inconveniences during the warranty period were not covered. All the more because the Imme margin technically had little meat on the bone: the machines were actually too tightly calculated.
Ingeniously designed
In all genius, the entire engine was designed to cost as little as possible by designing the design from the drawing boards as cheap as possible. The fact that the Imme looked quite revolutionary as a result was not the biggest plus from a marketing point of view. The supporting frame part was a curved tube to which the headset was attached. The suspension was single-sided. The front fork was a parallelogram fork with a coil spring. At the bottom of the central tube was a central, roller-bearing tube, which was supported by a coil spring against the central tube.
Everything on the swing
The engine was sprung with it. The block was attached to the front part of that tube, which at the same time functioned as an exhaust pipe. The rear wheel was mounted on the other side. The ingenious thing was that the central frame tube, the swingarm and the front fork all consisted of the same type of steel pipe. Front and rear wheel were identical and interchangeable.
Despite the fact that the machine was not yet 'ready' and the public had some difficulty with the design, Riedel started with the construction of a two-cylinder Imme. That twin was even used in competitions. But the 150 twin was never made in series. 10.000-12.000 of the single cylinders are made.
We came to the Imme story when the widow of a collector discovered to her surprise that her late husband had considerably more motorcycles than she knew about. The copy in the photo is now in good hands. With someone who already has an Imme. Plus a Schüttoff. And a Phoenix. And a Miele and a Wanderer…. We said it a: There were many motorcycle brands in Germany.
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Hello!
Die Imme ist eine sehr Elegante Erscheinung.
Hatte sie Luftoder Wasserkühlung?
Meine Eltern hatten eine RT 125. Damit fuhr mich meine Mutter zur Schule, wenn ich mal wieder Verschlafen hatte.