Motorcycle exhibition
Radolfzell – the hometown of the racing and touring motorcycle manufacturer Champion.
The company existed between 1926 and 1933 and probably built 50 of these racing and touring machines in the workshop of the Radolfzell tractor builder Julius Maier in Löwengasse.

The only example of the Champion racing motorcycle brand that still exists today belongs to Manfred Schiller from Radolfzell and is located in the Meßkirch Oldtimer Museum, where 30 motorcycles are exhibited in their original condition.

The racing motorcycle, built in 1926, has a British Villiers “TT-Super-Sports” engine with 172 cubic centimeters, was never registered for road traffic and showed its skills, among other things, at the Schienerberg races, which still existed in the past.

Historical background
“Speed ​​rush” defined the zeitgeist in the 1920s.

Motorization meant technical progress and modernization. However, taking weekend trips into the countryside in your own car or motorcycle was a status that only a few achieved, despite the increased production of inexpensive small cars. Like the automobile, the motorcycle conveyed the belief in technical progress and modernization that was widespread in the Weimar Republic. While the motorcycle was still a luxury item before the First World War, sales figures rose sharply in the 1920s.

Between 1921 and 1924, the number of motorcycles in Germany increased from almost 26,700 to around 98,000 machines. Almost 800,000 motorcycles were registered in the German Reich by mid-1931. Motorcycles were used in everyday life by Germans as a fast, cheap and reliable means of transportation. Neckarsulmer Fahrzeugwerke AG (NSU) was the first German company to use the assembly line for the purpose of rationalization and type standardization in motorcycle construction. The "NSU 251 R", built in 1927, was equipped with a 250 cc engine ex works. It was later replaced with a 200 cc engine - produced from 1928 onwards: machines up to this displacement size did not require a driver's license. After the Second World War it was necessary to motorize a people again.

This was implemented not only through the 250cc mobiles, which you could drive with the old class 4 driving license, but also through the successful sale of two-wheelers. In order to attract as wide a circle of buyers as possible, a new displacement class was introduced on January 1st, 1953: 50ccm!

However, this did not satisfy the definition, because the legislator had a concrete idea of ​​how the 50ccm was to be used. This was offered either in a bicycle with an auxiliary motor, which was officially called a moped from 1954 onwards (max. 30 kg weight plus 10% tolerance, minimum wheel diameter 580mm, cranks with a length of 125mm) or in a motorized bicycle (heavier than 33 kg , pedals, no maximum speed, driving license class 4). From now on Alfred Kreidler comes into play, whose two-wheelers did not fit into this scheme.

Because they weighed more than 33 kg, they were neither mopeds nor motorbikes with footrests and kick starters. In doing so, Kreidler created the class of mopeds, which was subsequently reflected in the Lex Kreidler when the legislature changed the STVZO again on August 24, 1953. As a result, mopeds flooded the German market, with foreign manufacturers, some of them sold through mail order companies, trying to spoil the German top dogs until the market for mopeds collapsed completely in the mid-1980s due to the newly introduced light mopeds.
Our exhibited motorcycles
Cecatto
Ceccato was an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1947 by former pharmacist Pietro Ceccato. 
In its 14-year motorcycle company history, a large model range of two-stroke engines was offered.

Machines with a displacement of 50 to 175 cc were produced. The 75cc and 100cc single-cylinder block engine versions were particularly well known, which were finally supplemented by a 125cc version.

For the Giro d'Italia and other motorcycle races, Ceccato built the first engine designed by Fabio Taglioni, a 75 cc OHC single engine developed with the help of Taglioni's students at the Technical Institute.

The company operated in the motorcycle sector until the 1960s, but continued to successfully produce superchargers and grew over the years.
Today Ceccato is a major player in the global compressed air market.
Guazzoni
Moto Guazzoni was founded in Milan in 1935 by Aldo Guazzoni, an experienced mechanic, engineer and motorcycle dealer, and operated as a manufacturer of mopeds and motorcycles until the late 1970s
The company initially started with the production of mopeds, but then concentrated on the production of practical tricycles.

In the mid-1950s, Guazzoni introduced a 200 cc four-stroke overhead cam engine.

However, Guazzoni turned back to oil burners and developed a variety of powerful racing engines with small displacement, including a particularly fast tenth of a liter two-stroke racing engine that completely dominated the competition at Monza in '55 and '56 and reportedly set between 20 and 30 world records set up. In 1960, the crisis in the motorcycle market overwhelmed many Italian companies such as Bianchi, Parilla and Rumi.

However, the Guazzoni company remained unaffected. The small Milan-based company saved itself by drastically reducing motorcycle production and turning instead to the market for go-karts and outboard motors. Production stalled in 1976 when Aldo Guazzoni was struck by a serious illness that would lead to his death two years later.
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