Help identify - Stürmer

[SpikeFC]

Got this thing today as a freebie, from an older fella who lives in a block next to my workshop. He repainted it a few years back, and some of the original parts are missing (handles, steering bar, stem, tires & seat were definitely changed).

Closeup of the front badge reveals the maker - Stürmer (definitely german, also means Bomber/Attacker in German )

This thing definitely had a rod operated spoon brake on the original steering bar.

Also the rear fender has holes that you normally see on old ladies bikes from Netherlands.

Also the sprocket on the crankset is changable and is bolted with square head bolts

Love the design of the rims. The rear hub is a Sachs Jet 1 speed coaster brake hub.

Also it came with this rack, that looks kinda original

The pedals are all-steel and appear to been that from the beginnig.

Till this day I thought that Ukraina bicycles were incredibly long, but as I saw this frame...

This thing is insanely, stupidly long. Even in comparsion to my Build-Off Ukraina with 28"x2.0 Continental Retro Ride - this thing is like up to 3" longer...

Also couldn't find many info on this on the web.

This thing is definitely from the late 70's/early 80's - the rear fork style is different, the fenders are alluminum, and also the stand is newer.

This thing is from 1954. The crankset looks the same, also the fenders. Rim style is also simmilar, but this one has a caliper brake in the front, and also the style of the frame is kinda different. Also this thing has definitely a 3 speed rear hub...

I'm 100% sure the frame is brazed, and that's actually the only thing except the producer that I'm sure of.

Anybody maybe could tell me something more, like production year? Would very mutch appreciate any help

Maybe a project for the next year Build-Off

 

[Wildcat]

Hard to say, are there any numbers on the rear hub shell?

 

[SpikeFC]

Hard to say, are there any numbers on the rear hub shell?

I only found "36" witch refers to the number of spokes - a common thing on Sachs Torpedo hubs.

 

[SpikeFC]

So, after aloooooooooot of work I took of the paint chemically (i wanted to preserve all the original paint that i could find) and made it running again.

(also bought a carbid headlight in a veeeery bad shape wich i converted to LED )

Turned out that the frame was originaly painted black, then grey,then red, then black again and finally yellow

The fenders and rack had only 3 layers of paint. Fenders were originaly black with a thick blue pinstrpie in the middle and white thin pinstripes, then black & green, and the rack was originally black, then black again and green.

On the frame I found a serial number:

And two rivet holes from an emblem that are 72mm in height.

This is where the really wierd part starts, that had me thinking and surfing the web for any information on the bike, that really gave me a headache...

Above the obvious - Headlight, rear reflector, seat, stem & steering bar that I added, and modern CST tires I found some things:

The production date of the rear hub (figured from the Sachs letter coding) is 1974-1975. The rear wheel is laced on spokes marked with Union logo. The front wheel - wich is from the same set as the front one (same rims) has a German made hub, and spokes marked with a four leaf clover.

So that makes the wheels to be from another bike and from the mid 70's.

The fenders came probably from a Sturmer bike probably from the 50's or 40's, but again their not a set from the frame. Their both from one set though, since their both painted the same way, but they were specially bent to fit in this frame, and the holes in the rear one suggest that they're from a ladies frame.

The rack is also from a totally different bicycle, probably pre WWII, and is also not bent the proper way match the frame.

The chain is a modern KMC obviously.

The crankset, has a signature, that i found after a lot of cleaning:

It reads MB3 and it means MVZ in cyrlic (Minskyi Velocypednyi Zawod - Minsk Bicycle Factory), and cause of that i had a thought. Maybe it's an old MB3 bicycle? Like the B-16 model:

or the B-114 model?

The fork matches, the frame lenght matches, the crankset matches, but then again...

The pedals are different (obviously not from the same set as the cranks), and most off all - the front of the frame is shaped differently.

Again I started looking on the internet, and found this:

An old Polish bicycle maker from Częstochowa - Otello & Herold. The frame size matches, the fork matches, the front of the frame matches. But that would be too easy right? So I asked the guy who collects those bicycles - and he said that definitely that's not it, but suggested something else.

You already having a headache?

The best match till now:

It's a Truppenfahhrad (Troops Bicycle) assembled in a lot of factories (like Adler, Wanderer, Victoria etc.) in the III Reich. Almost everything in the frame matches, and most of all:

Eyup!

The pedals match!

So after seeing how sloppy the frame was brazed, I can assume that it's a Truppenfahhrad from the late years of the WWII, like 1944-45, a kind of a "last ditch" war bicycle.