Rare ONES It is possible that the emergence of various scooter designs at the beginning of their development in the late 1940s to the early 1950s can be connected indirectly to the many aircraft designers and engineers who suddenly lost their jobs shortly after the 2nd World War ended. This is understandable because at that time many manufacturing industries were closed because many factories were destroyed during the war which then caused economic decline in a number of countries in Europe and even throughout the world.
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| The German's Riedel Till scooter prototype while on role in the 1950 German's movie titled "Schwarzwald mädel" (The Bride of the Black Forest). (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3o8uq20) |
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| The German's Riedel Till scooter prototype while on role in the 1950 German's movie titled "Schwarzwald mädel" (The Bride of the Black Forest). (Picture from: https://bit.ly/3o8uq20) |
When the war ended, reportedly that the American military was eager to get the jet engine starter motor then they supplied Norbert Riedel a number of production machineries to make it. And by using these machineries that allowed him to produce motorcycles later. At that time motorbikes were very easy to build because of the availability of material after the war was very large and cheap.
As quoted of Cybermotorcycle, the first motorcycle made by Norbert Riedel used a unique egg-shaped engine with a capacity of 98cc which was able to burst of power up to 4.5hp which was the result of his creation as well. Uniquely, the cylinder and head are one part plus the transmission system is also not equipped with neutral gear. In short, at Christmas 1947, The first Riedel's motorcycle was ready for road tests.
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| The German's Riedel Till 100 scooter in its first poses alongwith a model and Norbert Riedel (Steffen Riedel archives). (Picture from: http://bit.ly/3cEYkJ4) |
In 1948, Riedel founded a production facility named Riedel Motoren AG. in Immenstadt where he produced motorbikes under the his-owned brand 'Imme,' (a German word for 'bee') which was also reflected in the logo. Then in 1949, the Riedel Imme motorcycles began to build with only 80 units of Imme R100 motorcycles in the first year of production. Furthermore, production continued to increase during 1950 ranging from 400 units to 1,000 units per month.
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| 1949 Riedel Imme R100 uses an egg-shaped single cylinder 98cc engine capable burst power up to 4,5hp. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/3j5Yj2i) |
Although the sales of the R100 motorbikes were quite good, the financial problems arose then followed by warranty issues which caused the production process should be stopped.😕 During those difficult times, Riedel designed a new 150cc 2-cylinders engine with a shape similar to his previous single-cylinder engine. He also plans to revive his business by launched an enhanced version of Imme motorbike along with the new scooter model.
Regarding the scooter model, it is closely related to Norbert Riedel's interest in the success achieved by many other scooter companies, especially the big brands from Italy (Vespa and Lambretta), and several other brands from Germany. Then in the late of 1949, he tried to design a scooter by making major changes to his minimalist Imme concept by using 8-inches sized wheels.
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| The 150cc 2-cylinder engined Riedel Imme motorcycle sat on display alongside the Riedel Till scooter at the 1952 Paris Motor Show (Salon de Paris). (Picture from: http://bit.ly/3j5Yj2i) |
As quoted of Moto-Collection, there's a strange scooter was born in 1950 and named Riedel Till whose its prototype was said to use a 100cc single-cylinder engine and even had starred in a German movie entitled 'Schwarzwald mädel' (The bride of the Black Forest) in the same year.
The Riedel Till scooter model was launched for the first time in 1950 was driven either by an air-cooled single-cylinder 100cc or the new double cylinder 150cc engine (bore x stroke: 48 x 51 mm) fitted with a cooling turbine and the clutch is operated by hand or by foot pedal.
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| The 2nd version of the Riedel Till scooter uses a turbine-cooled 2-cylinder 150cc engine with redesigned bodywork and drawn by Daniel Rebour. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/3cEYkJ4) |
Unfortunately, the financial difficulties again became a major problem for the German company and had to end production again in 1951 after produced almost 10,000 motorcycles.😑 If the brand had no financial problems at that time, almost certain the Riedel Till scooter will be faced another complicated problem while in competition with the Italian duo scooters (Vespa and Lambretta) which are admittedly a little more attractive.
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| Detailed picture of the 2-cylinder 150cc engine with the turbine cooler and the removable front of the rear shell. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/3cEYkJ4) |
Besides his-owned brand, there are several brands associated with Riedel such as the Golbi, it was a re-badged Imme R100 which appeared at the 1949 Brussels Motor Show then disappeared without a trace. Then there was the Zircon, the R100-engined moped which appeared at the 1950 Brussels Motor Show but it was never produced at all. The last was the Stella 150 prototype scooter built by the Nantes-based company with the same name that famous for its bike products.
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