1925 Böhmerland
Country: Czechoslovakia
Engine: Air-cooled, single cylinder four stroke
Ignition: Bosch magneto
Power rating: 20hp @3,500rpm
Bore x Stroke: 78 x120mm
Displacement: 598cc
Valves: Overhead, pushrod activated
Fuel System: Bing carburetor
Transmission: Three speed, hand shaft
Suspension: Front leading link fork, rigid rear
Brakes: Drum brakes on all three wheels.
Weight: Approx. 700lbs.
Top Speed: 60mph
The Böhmerland is one of the most unusual machines in the history of motorcycles. Designed to seat three people in tandem, some versions were almost ten feet long. They were available in bright colors, yellow and red, yellow and black, or yellow and green, and cast aluminum wheels were another innovation.
Approximately 1,000 machines were built between 1924 and 1939, and onyl a handful remain. This machine is the oldest Böhmerland known to exist.
Excerpt from an English newspaper article entitled "Sidecar nurse's trans-European journey in two-wheeled 'monster'" presented alongside the Böhmerland's specs:
A Ripley woman who was involved in a bizarre journey which brought one of the world's rarest - and oddest - motorcycles to England from behind the Iron Curtin will get a chance to see the machine again when it come to Harrogate in June for a vintage motorcycle rally. Cathie Sharp, a nurse of Sunnnyside, Ripely, was sidecar passenger on the bike, a 1923 Böhmerland, as it was driven across Europe from its native Czechoslovakia in November.
She had gone to fetch the Böhmerland - described as one of the oddest machines ever to reach commercial production - with a friend, vintage motorcycle enthusiast Peter Ward of Malvern, who had just completed a deal to buy it after three and a half years of negotiating.
The Böhmerland was in production from about 1923 to the outbreak of war in 1939. It has a very long stroke overhead-valve engine which drives through a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gearbox. But the really unusual features are the interchangeable light-alloy wheels, front suspension and frame.