Heinkel Scooter Project: New addition - 1954 DKW RT250-H motorcycle

Thursday, March 10, 2022

New addition - 1954 DKW RT250-H motorcycle

Just recently I published a post about getting my 1957 DKW Hummel moped running again. Before I started down this 'DKW journey' I was interested in getting myself on a DKW motorcycle, but every time I found one it slipped through my fingers. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/02/my-1956-dkw-hummel.html

Although my wife has constantly warned me "no more bikes or cars!", periodically I would check the market to see if anything had popped up, but I was constantly disappointed. Last year my wife and I visited the Bunbury-Geograph Motor Museum on our way back from a trip through the South West of Western Australia. The BGMM is a fine volunteer run local museum (photos here: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2021/07/bunbury-geographe-motor-museum.html) which has a particularly fine collection of Jawa motorcycles. As we admired the machines, Shelly said, "would you not want a motorcycle that looks more...like a motorcycle?" I admitted I did and we both picked a motorcycle we liked. Both turned out to be 1950s Jawas. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2022/07/1950-jawa-350-motorcycle.html

A week or so ago someone was selling a couple of Jawa motorcycles on Facebook marketplace. One was a basketcase, one was 1970s scrambler, but the third was one of the models that Shelly and I had selected from the BMM display. The bike was running, with spares, but not registered. It was in Victoria. I was busy working at the time so saved the posted so I could go back and check it out in detail later. I didn't get to look at it again until Sunday night and to my disappointment, it had gone. But in its place Facebook had popped up another advert 'You may like.... - 1954 DKW Motorcycle.' It was here in Western Australia and a reasonable price. I did not delay this time and messaged the seller on Monday morning.

I inspected the bike later that afternoon and the deal was done. The seller had owned the bike for about 10 years. He'd done some minor restoration work to keep it running - new silencer, some new cables, new tyres, new brakes, but the bike was otherwise left 'as is.' The bike had been used in the wheat belt and was in a farmer's shed when he found it. He had been visiting the farmer to buy another bike when the farmer asked him if he wanted to have a look at another old bike he had. The bike was covered by a sheet in a corner of the shed, surrounded by junk. He took one look at it and bought it as well.