To Restore or not to Restore.

[LeeBuff]

John,
Now that's a nice restoration! Most people don't realize the time, work and money that go's into restoring one of these. Thanks for showing us photos of your progress step by step. You can be proud of this one. [8D]

Lee

[marsattacks]

That is flipping awesome!   Great job.  JC FTW!

Mars Attacks!
68 Planetary/Lunar Lander (very sadly, sold with Gamma death-ray to the Italians)
78 400 MC5 also sadly sold
79 space rock shox bike

[JCHubbard]

Thank you Lee & John.  

Best regards,
John

[slvrbrdfxr]

Looks great JC ! I brought my dads's 71 DKW enduro back to OK with me after VMD last month. I'm currently in the process of installing the 72 model wheel hubs on his bike which use the 6203 ball bearings instead of the old style cup and cone style wheel bearings. Been wanting to do this modification for several years and finally have all the needed parts in hand to accomplish that. The old cup and cone bearings for the early DKW and Sachs bikes are non existent these days and so time for an upgrade.
Dave McCullough

[JCHubbard]

Thanks Dave.

Good to hear you're resurrecting your Dad's DKW. Very interesting and great upgrade with the wheel hubs.  Definitely tough to find some parts for these bikes.  

There certainly were a few parts that were kind of difficult to find. Perhaps the toughest items for me to find were the front suspension swingarm bearings, and believe it or not -- brake shoes.  

Thank God for Leo Keller - he was able to direct me to some DKW/Herc/Sachs sources in Germany.  Though I'll probably never need it, I bought an extra set of front swingarm bearings and brake shoes.

Look forward to seeing your 71 DKW when it's done too.

[JCHubbard]

Finally did a shake down run of the DKW this past weekend. Fun little scooter, to be sure. Admittedly at 5'11, 219, I'm a little too big for it.  Still, it was fun and an enlightening ride. 

It had ample power to haul me up some fairly rocky hills, but the 52-year-old stock suspension really limited its full potential.  Needless to say, the  NEW front and rear suspension have been ordered and will be installed accordingly - Hagon for the rear and repop Boge replica shocks I found on eBay for the front.

For this ride, I opted to go with the stock (rebuilt) Bing 27mm carb setup. The choke mechanism, after replacing the disintegrated wax with my own MacGyver repair, worked well. The bike started and ran fine.  Still, I'm convinced that my Mikuni VM28 setup allows for easier starting and performs better at off-idle and in the low to midrange, so I'm going to reinstall it during my bike's servicing.

The only true glitch I had was with downshifting back into lower gears after hard acceleration through 6th gear.  As this was my first 125 Sachs-powered bike (I have 2 Rokon 340s), I believe the issue was due to user error. I am going to change the oil, buy & install a longer gear shift lever, and heed the advice of Doug Wilford's tech tip "Sachs and Your Left Foot 101."

Other than that, it was all "cool runnings" and a great fall day for a trail ride!

[JCHubbard]

Sunday October 26, 2025: DKW pics

[JCHubbard]

[JCHubbard]

[Don Roth]

John,
Love the cleanup/chase crew! Bike sounds nice and crisp!
-don

[JCHubbard]

Thank you, Don! Big thanks to Gary Ellis for the motor rebuild!

My good friend (salt of the earth, humble man) and his family have allowed me to ride on his 40-acre farm for 10+ years. It probably has about 2-3 miles of trails -- but at this stage of my life, that's enough for me!  The week before last, my fiancée (she rides a Kaw KLX 140 with farkles) and I camped out and did some riding here for 3 days. These past 2 weekends of weather reminded me of when I was a kid riding in the fall. I couldn't ask for more than that