User talk:Peter4711DK

Recent edits to History of BMW motorcycles
Hello, and thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. I noticed that you recently added commentary to the History of BMW motorcycles article. While Wikipedia welcomes editors' opinions on an article and how it could be changed, these comments are more appropriate for the article's accompanying talk page. If you post your comments there, other editors working on the same article will notice and respond to them, and your comments will not disrupt the flow of the article. Thank you! Novusuna talk 20:40, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Factual errors
The chapter about the R75 being a copy of the Zündapp KS750 and Harley-Davidson producing copies is entirely wrong. The BMW R75 was a complete new construction, forced to BMW as the German Wehrmacht didn't want the R71 and threatened BMW with using the facilities wasted on the unwanted R71 to produce Zundapps which were more needed. Then BMW went back to their drawing-board and presented the R75. The R75 was mostly used in North Africa, but also in Siberia. Harley-Davidson produced 20.000 M72 on license from the Soviet Union under the lend-lease agreement, these were called Harley-Davidson XA (Experimental Army). After the war production stopped, and H-D reverted to V-twins. Rumours go that HD never grasped how a vibration-free smooth-running flat twin works, and went back to shaking rough-running V-twins.


 * Where is your verification for all of this? Sincerely, SamBlob (talk) 02:40, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

For starters I can point to this Wikipedia article about the origins of the R75, and the erroneous statement that it was a copy of the Zündapp KS750: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_R75 or here: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waffen/Bilderseiten/Unterbilder/BMWR75.htm The latter page is in German, but the link goes directly to the vehicle picture pages. On that page is also shown the Zündapp KS750 and just a quick glance will show that it is two entirely different designs. The frames and suspensions have absolutely nothing in common, a quick check is that the Zündapp has a cast-iron steering head, and the BMW a entirely tubular frame. It is very likely (I need the sparepart catalogues and the like) that bearings, bushes and engine-parts became interchangeable later, but the BMW and the Zündapp were and continued to be two different products. My old russian K750 1965 will swap many parts with my 1960 Chinese Chang Jang, and subsequently the BMW R71, they are very different in many other things. In this respect the article about the XA below is wrong. I have hands-on knowledge of these bikes.

This wikipedia article about the H-D XA is more correct, and it states clearly that the base was the BMW R71 and not the BMW R75. The US officially was at war with the Nazi regime from december 1941, same year as the first H_D XA's were produced at an unknown date, but it is very unlikely that they got the drawings e.t.c. from Germany, but much more likely they got it from their Russian allies. This article is wrong about the origins of the Harley-Davidson XA. As soon as I find the documentation about the 20.000 sent to the Soviet Union, I will provide it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.145.104.246 (talk) 16:44, 1 January 2014 (UTC)


 * While you look for documentation about the 20,000 XAs sent to the Soviet Union, be aware that documentation already exists for the 1000 sent to the US Army for evaluation and for the US Army stating that they didn't want any more. That part of the article is cited.


 * Regarding interchageability between the Chinese, Russian and German bikes, the article says, in an unreferenced section, that the parts should not be considered interchangeable. One would assume this to mean that some parts might be and some might not.  As the statement is not verified, it may be challenged or deleted, but it would be best if it were first discredited by a reliable and published source.


 * As for the rumours that "HD never grasped how a vibration-free smooth-running flat twin works, and went back to shaking rough-running V-twins," please note that Harley-Davidson ended production of their first boxer twin motorcycle in the same year that BMW started production of theirs (not including their carry-over production of BFw's Helios). H-D could build them but American bikers didn't want them.


 * Finally, please sign your posts by placing four tildes (~) in a row with no spaces between them. These will be converted into your signature and a time stamp, as mine has been below.


 * Sincerely, SamBlob (talk) 18:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)