The German motorcycle manufacturers Zundapp was originally founded in 1917 by Fritz Neumeyer, with the help of Friedrich Krupp AG and the machine tools manufacturing company of Thiel.  The original companies name was Zünder und Apparatebau G.m.b.H and it is from an abbreviation if this that we arrive at the name of Zündapp.

However the company did not make motorcycles until 1921, before then they made detonators for explosives but after World War I with the break down of the German military, the demand for arms and munitions became practically non existent.  The company did not want to close, so it built motorcycles instead.

From 1940 up until the end of WWII , Zündapp made 18,695 KS-750 motorcycles exclusively for the German army ( Wehrmacht ) before this,  civilian motorcycles had been adopted for military service but it was found that they were not up to the rigors of combat and all terrain conditions that the bikes would be put through.

The heavy duty KS-750 was designed purposely for use in the Wehrmacht and was constructed of many parts that could be found on the BMW R75 motorcycle, this was so that production costs were kept to a minimum and also spares could be obtained much easier than if the bike was only built using unique Zündapp parts.

This fact has also helped today's restorers of these bikes and parts for a 1940's Zündapp can still be sought in adequate quantities, nearly 70 years later !

 The KS-750's engine was well designed and  could deliver lots of power and torque, so much so that the bike was equipped with a towing hook and it could consequently tow heavy loads behind it...up to 1850 lbs, the bike could even carry 7 persons and their equipment quite easily as seen in the WWII picture below.

 The bike had a 2 cylinder, flat - horizontally opposed 745cc engine that gave a top speed of 59 mph, with a economical fuel consumption of around 34 mpg.  The gear box was equipped with 4 main forward gears with an additional special off road very high torque gear and also a reverse gear.

The Zündapp was the first bike of its kind to have hydraulically operated brakes on the rear wheel and sidecar wheel.  The sidecar wheel was also powered for extra traction, this was via a drive shaft coming from the main drive off the engine, the sidecar's differential could also be locked to evenly distribute all the power to the two drive wheels at the same time when going over rough ground. 

The Zündapp KS-750 utilized the renowned  parallelogram front forks system that could be adjusted for rebound and pre-load, these were expensive to manufacture, difficult to maintain and had a complicated structure but they delivered fantastic handling in all conditions and were favored over the BMW R75 by all who rode it.

The KS-750 was capable of negotiating inclines of up to 45 degrees with its powerful engine and with two soldiers and all their equipment, it could easily traverse very rough and hilly ground, this was  due to its relatively high ground clearance.

All this performance from a heavy duty military motorcycle combination that on its own weighed over 925lbs and with two soldiers onboard plus the MG34 machine gun, ammunition, 2 MP40 sub machine guns, a compliment of grenades and other equipment the bike then weighed over half a ton !

She was a very powerful bike indeed, it was a well thought out and engineered design that was both reliable and dependable.

The factory, that was based in Nuremberg was making these motorcycles to equip the German Army all throughout World War II until it got demolished in a bombing raid by the Allies in 1945.  The company however restarted production of motorcycles after the war making bikes for who ever wanted them.  Sadly, Zündapp finally folded in 1984.