Just South of Heidelberg an outstanding collection of motorcycles built by Friedel Münch has taken roots in the Technik Museum Speyer. This is a huge museum; a 747 passenger plane, an Antonov cargo plane and a Russian space shuttle all await your visit. Among a number of curiosities there are the 20-some motorcycles of the Münch exhibit. They were the purpose for my trip to Speyer.

Friedel Münch (1927-2014) pioneered extravagantly personalized motorcycles, mostly built around modified four cylinder NSU automotive engines. Not awkward contraptions at all, but sophisticated and elegant in all their excess. You say perhaps, who needs a turbo-charger on an 1340 cc engine? Well, we need the concept, if not the bike.

My first thought on seeing the Münch Mammut 2000 was simply “Mom! It followed me home, can I keep it?”

The people at the Technik Museum Speyer are very photo-friendly, so I could enjoy myself taking these pictures. I included a few other machines as well that fit with the Münch story. You can plan your own trip to the Technik Museum Speyer at http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en. There’s a comfortable hotel on the grounds and it’s all only a few minutes’ walk from the historic area of Speyer itself.