1927 Windhoff 750 | Germany 🇩🇪
In 1927 Hans Windhoff and Josef Dauben created a motorcycle with the design looks like a modern one even today. It was the famous Windhoff 750 - a motorcycle with a 748 ccm inline four-cylinder OHV engine. This machine weighs 185 kg and easily reaches 120 kph (75 mph). In the history of Germany, the Windhoff was the first 4-cylinder motorcycle, and remained the only one in Europe from 1927 to 1930.
The 22-horsepower Windhoff was the most powerful motorcycle of the 1927 season, competing with Victoria 600 KR6 and the BMW R47. Windhoff was also different in cost, impacted by the complexity of manufacturing a revolutionary design for the time - 1,750 DM and another 400 DM for electrical equipment. By comparison, the 25-horsepower BMW R63 produced in 1928 cost 2,100 DM. Only the 1929 BMW R16 with the new stamped frame overtook the Windhoff in cost at 2,200 DM.
Introduced in 1928 and displayed in Motorworld by V. Sheyanov motorcycle museum, the second revision of the Windhoff featured an increased tank capacity of 14 liters versus the 12 in the first version and a front brake drum diameter of 220 mm versus 170 mm. The third revision differed only by the compulsory presence of an electric light.
Unfortunately, the 4-cylinder Windhoff, like many, fell victim to the 1929 crisis and was produced only for about 40 months. It is known of 1,450 motorcycles produced between 1927 and 1931, but only 20 have survived till now.
