Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

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Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

14th pictures

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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King with BMW gearbox and cardan.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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CZ 125 from the 50s.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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The magnificent CZ 125 from the 50s is one of Krischke’s older objects, the Yamaha TZ 750 one of the largest.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Why don’t you affix the start number correctly??…

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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…Wolfhart Krischke laughs: Because Barry Sheene couldn’t do better.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Bakker-RG 500.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Truth-finding: Is this Bakker-RG 500 rightly the name of the great private driver?

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Anyone who owns so many rare Grand Prix racers can also treat themselves to a trophy from the Hockenheim GP 1977.

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
Fred Siemer

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Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Sports & scene

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke

Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke
History of road racing

Content of

The racing fan Wolfhart Krischke actually only collects machines that have started at a Grand Prix. Every now and then one slips through him. From the formula 750.

Fred Siemer

05/06/2016

Some temples impress the community with force and size, others with diversity and imagination. In any case, the spit stays away for a short time after joining, and that is exactly what happens when Wolfhart Krischke admits devout friends of motorcycling into his collection. You can’t think of anything that ranks in order to stay in the picture, somewhere near a pilgrimage church, full of devotion and passion and colorful details, just not so shiny. After a restrained entrance – the restaurant of a former tavern was mainly decorated by the owner with old trophies – the adjoining ancillary rooms open up a deep side view into the history of road racing.

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History of road racing

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The machines stand close together, so close that they hide more than they reveal. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Aprilia, Bimota, the visitor can still follow, but now Wolfhart Krischke is really turning it up. Points here to a 125cc dohc CZ, there to the 350cc counterpart, both from the 50s, draws attention to a 250cc Garelli V2, then to a Konig with a BMW gearbox and cardan. He was still chatting about a Suzuki TR 500 engine in a Segoni frame, shortly afterwards he presented an RG 500 with a Bakker chassis, as if the reference to a 350cc RTM with a Square Four engine was incidental.

Who knows RTM here??

Slowly, please, because who knows RTM here? Krischke sees that with a shrug, shifts down two gears and explains that the exciting things in road racing don’t always take place in the mainstream. Previously. So until the 90s, and that things were of course very lively in these experimental niches. In any case, the Signori Ringhini and Torrani wanted to push a completely Italian motorcycle to the start at the end of the 1970s and developed a four-cylinder two-stroke with which they – among Italian riders, of course – scored some championship points. An episode in Grand Prix history, torn from oblivion by people like Wolfhart Krischke.

Why? In order to preserve the entirety of this historical legacy, because Krischke leaves no doubt that real racing motorcycles count for this. Nevertheless, he does not collect from a missionary drive. “That is not how it works. You have to collect what you enjoy, ”he says and smiles happily. No wonder: there are around 100 jokers parked in and around the inn.


Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke


Fred Siemer

Anyone who owns so many rare Grand Prix racers can also treat themselves to a trophy from the Hockenheim GP 1977.

Wolfhart Krischke is a racing fan. Thoroughly, and that’s why he knows that the GP circus is not just about winners, that the stories behind an RTM can be just as exciting as those behind Kork Ballingtons and Toni Mangs Kawasakis, to which the Italians were so unrestrainedly inferior at the time. That interested him. The other way, with a lot less money in the wallet, but somehow even more courageous. In any case, committed to striving for the best, both at RTM and at Kawa. The best materials, the best construction.

No commercial calculations, no production-related compromises, all those things that often bothered him on production motorcycles. That is why Krischke switched many years ago, sold his sizeable collection of youngtimers and started the hunt for racing equipment. The focus was not on the best investment properties – “That is boring!” – and not on certain brands. But technically interesting solutions or a moving story. Like the Yamaha TR2 built privately behind Phil Reads with the engine tuned by Helmut Fath.

Two, three, four will be added

The 51-year-old occasionally rides the 1971 World Championship bike. Also this year the Yamaha is on his list and is supposed to start at “Ursenbach quakes” in memory of Fath. Two, three, four will be added, for the Hockenheim Classics or the Sachsenring. You are spoiled for choice, because keeping everyone in running order, how is that supposed to work? Exactly how does it work? Who knows about an RTM??

“Preferably those people who worked on it years ago,” explains Krischke, and then he looks for them. Former racing mechanics, therefore, specialists in racing two-stroke engines that are becoming increasingly rare. But if you think that the search for these people is a burden for you, you are wrong. “People from the GP environment usually have a strong character, they are interesting, they are fun.”


Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke


Fred Siemer

The magnificent CZ 125 from the 50s is one of Krischke’s older objects, the Yamaha TZ 750 one of the largest.

Sometimes Wolfhart Krischke already needs these people to check the originality of a motorcycle. With the Bakker-RG 500, for example. It says “Jack Findlay” on their disguise, but of course anyone can write that on it, and a lot is written or told about great racers. So Nico Bakker is contacted himself and given meaningful photos. Result? “Still open,” admits Krischke. So it is unclear whether the Suzuki falls into the historical or original category. The specialists, for example from the Amicale Spirit of Speed ​​collectors’ association, differentiate between machines that can be assigned to a very specific driver and those whose origin has only been clarified in terms of production technology.

Replicas that cannot be distinguished from the original are classified in a separate class. Founded in 2009, the Amicale has long united many of the most important European collectors and spoils fans time and again with elegant exhibits. Mostly in a subtle way, but it doesn’t matter whether standing like at Europe’s largest racing machine show in Mill / Netherlands, where the Amicale 2014 made more than 150 top-class racing machines accessible to the public, or driving at the classic racing weekend in Hockenheim – the historical legacy should be delight everyone. That’s the announcement, and that’s why Amicale member Krischke is currently planning a special exhibition on the occasion of the Sachsenring Classic from June 10th to 12th.

Wow, it doesn’t exist!

Conversations among collector friends, doing a few laps, meeting drivers, yes, and always especially happy to do so, chatting with mechanics and design engineers, answering in-depth questions from an expert audience. Collecting doesn’t just mean having. Sharing and communicating are also part of it, and anyone who, like Krischke, has worked in the communications industry for decades, may be particularly happy to meet these requirements. Speculation. Just like the assumption that the constant professional use of software must inevitably drive you to enjoy things. Krischke laughs.

He likes to do that and, as a Franconian, likes to do it heartily. Then he opens the next door and points to a two-stroke single with a distinctive front swing arm. “Greeves Silverstone. My proof that originals don’t have to be expensive. ”He really wanted to get rid of that, now and here, because he doesn’t particularly value serial machines that have been retrofitted to make a big hit. No legacy, of course, and stupid for the audience, that’s true.


Portrait of racing machine collector Wolfhart Krischke


Fred Siemer

Wolfhart Krischke’s racing machine collection.

Then it’s going to be two numbers more exclusive, because an Armstrong from England that’s really not in every garage. “Back then they were very far ahead technologically.” Krischke knocks on the frame. Carbon! When? “1983, first in the Grand Prix.” Whoa, it doesn’t exist.

Wolfhart Krischke loves such moments. And now I would like to tell you how Armstrong is connected to Cotton and everything together with CCM, and why a two-stroke V2 became a two-stroke tandem. Preferably with a red wine. He and a collector friend once took it from the original Barry Sheene winners’ cups, and this episode teaches, just before the goal, that Krischke is not only a keeper, but also, in rarer moments, an avowed nostalgic.

Amicale Spirit of Speed

The Amicale Spirit of Speed ​​has a unique selection of more than 1000 factory and production racing motorcycles, which document motorcycle racing history from the early beginnings to modern times. At the invitation of the organizers, racing motorcycles of high historical value will be exhibited in order to enable visitors to see the history of the GP up close.

The Amicale even prefers to show its treasures at presentation rounds, so the fans can see and hear the machines in full action. Wolfhart Krischke is a member of the international board of the Amicale and is available as a contact person at classicracer@gmx.net for contacting us or for questions.

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