Technik Museums of Sinshiem and Speyer

The industrial towns of Sinshiem and Speyer in Germany are home to two extremely impressive auto and technical museums. The collections include numerous cars, motorbikes, scooters, trains, aircraft, ships, submarines, a space shuttle, military hardware and even a chainsaw collection. Housed in vast hangers, with giant aircraft suspended overhead, they are truly amazing. Even though Shelly was initially a little dubious, we spent a couple of hours at both museums and went absolutely mental photographing the collection.

Here are a couple of pics of the scooter collection. I will continue to update this post over the next couple of weeks. Of the two museums Sinshiem was the best in my opinion. The collection was better presented and the auto section was much larger. Both cities are about two hours drive south east of Frankfurt. For more details, check their website: https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/

The Scooter Collection

A Heinkel Perle moped

The beautiful Zundapp Bella

Another Bella with a Stieb sidecar

A Lambretta

An NSU Prima

The Heinkel collection at Speyer

In the microcar section - Bellas, Adler Junior, & a Goggomobile

Vespa fenderlight

IWL Berlin and a Vespa 125
 
Adler Junior

Cheating a bit - this is actually from Brussels Auto Museum - A Goggo

A prototype Piaggio 3-wheeler. The MP3 has come a long way



German microcar royalty - Messerschmitt and Heinkel

Fiat 600. NSU began building Fiat cars under license again after the Second World War under the name of NSU-Fiat. After a while their cars began to diverge from both Fiat and NSU, which were then building their famous NSU Prinz.

This is a Hanomag Kommissbrot from the 1920's. Hanomag went on to become one of Germany's major truck manufacturers.

The iconic BMW Isetta. The type was developed by the Italian refridgerator company, ISO. BMW bought the license from ISO and developed the type further.

A line up of 1964/65 Goggomobile Coupes

NSU Prinz Spyder

Nothing says "bubble car" like an Isetta

Except maybe a Heinkel...

A 1957 Goggomobile T-250 sedan

1955 Kleinschnittger F-125


Zundapp Janus

The ultra cool Messerschmitt

The Mercedes-Benz 130H was Mercedes' attempt to develop a rear engined "volks-wagon" during the late 1930s. It was a very experimental design and the problems with the rear engine gave it poor handling. Ferdinand Porsche and Josef Ganz were both consultants on the project.

The east and west German "volkswagens."Trabant and Beetle.

More photos from our visit to Speyer and Sinsheim
Speyer aircraft and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/speyer-technical-museum-germany.html  
Sinsheim aviation and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/sinsheim-technical-museum-germany.html
Motorcycles: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/auto-technik-museums-at-sinshiem-speyer.html
Microcars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/sinshiem-micro-car-collection.html
European cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/speyer-and-sinshiem-auto-collection.html
American cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/sinshiem-auto-collection-american-cars.html
 

Scooter update and a new purchase

On Sunday 24th July 2009 Shelly and I will be flying off to Germany for three months of random travels across Europe. Needless to say there won't be much to report here on the scooter restoration front. I do hope to visit a few scooter and motorcycle museum on the trip and I'll try and post some pics if I can. We shall see. For anyone interested, here is a link to our blog:
http://paulymx4.travellerspoint.com/

So, here's a wrap up of the Scooter situation....

The Troll is still broken down. I'm fairly confident that the rings have gone. I've found a source for pistons and rings but won't order until I have the confirmation of the damage. Ivo is going to pick up the Troll in the next week or so.

In the meantime I've been riding the Vespa - although not very often as it's been pouring with rain here in Perth. The Vespa feels very uncomfortable after riding the Troll. It really is only suitable for short rides. It doesn't have any guts, acceleration is poor and second gear is hopeless. I think a total rebuild of the engine and clutch is called for but I really don't want to spend any more money on it right now, especially as there will be a bill coming for the Troll.

The Heinkel is still parked in my shed. I haven't done anything more on it since I got the parts from the Heinkel Club and it doesn't look like much more is gonna happen this year. Partly, this is because I ended deciding the spend the 'Heinkel restoration fund' on an Ariel Leader. As I have mentioned before, I made some enquiries about the Ariel Leader earlier in the year. I wasn't especially serious at the time but things just took on a life of their own. I don't remember actually committing to buy the bike, but the seller became convinced that I was the guy he wanted to sell it to. About three weeks after I'd made my first enquiry the seller, Barry, called me out of the blue to advise that someone else had been around to visit him and was interested in the bike, but he told them firmly that he was selling it to a guy in Perth - me. I was a little surprised and told him that I didn't have the money (I didn't - I bills coming out of my a*se!) but he was okay with that. I could just pay him a bit at time, whenever I had some spare cash. Time and money were not an issue. After I had had time to think this over I decided - why not!? Opportunities like this don't come along often. So I paid him off over a couple of months. On Friday I got a call from the transport company - the bike is in Perth and ready for collection. Unfortunately I won't be around to pick it up, but my brother will kindly take care of that for me. The bike has been in storage for 10-15 years, but it was test run before it was sold. I've heard the engine running - it sounds rough, but what do you expect. It's almost road worthy, needing only new tyres, brake light and a new battery (and a tune up won't go astray!)