The Russian M-72 is a motorcycle that was actually designed in Germany by BMW, the Wehrmacht rejected the model as the planned replacement for the R12 but the Russians loved the design and due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, BMW were able to sell the design and tooling to the Russians as a replacement for both the TIZ-AM-600 and PMZ-A-750 motorcycles.
Known as the Dnepr M-72 the motorcycle would eventually be adopted by the Chinese as well, it’s actually still in production today under the Ural banner – perhaps giving it the longest production run of any motorcycle in history.
I’m not an engineer, and as a result there’s not much I can do with blueprints other than look at them wistfully but if you happen to be an engineer who reads Russian and is looking for a weekend project – you might have just found it.
Via CV Kustoms.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
