Ruhrtal motorcycle works
The Ruhrtal-Motorradwerke (RMW) were a German company based in Neheim that manufactured motorcycles . Originally founded at the time as the Carl Haardt Metallwaren Fabrik in Neheim / Westphalia, Carl Haardt and his business partner Daniel Blecher built bicycles under the brand name BLEHA (BLEcher & HAardt), among other products, from 1919 onwards.
In 1921 Daniel Blecher and Carl Haardt then founded the BLEHA motor and bicycle works. In addition to bicycles, special bicycle frames were produced that were designed for the installation of small built-in motors , which u. a. by NAMAPO (Bernhard Nagel / Stettin) and from 1923 also by DKW in Zschopau. These light motorbikes were sold through a sales office in Düsseldorf. In addition to the purchased engines, from 1924 BLEHA also manufactured its own two and four-stroke engines, which were used in a further developed, improved chassis.
Due to a sudden severe illness, the co-owner Daniel Blecher left the company in 1925 and so the company was renamed Ruhrtal-Motorradwerke in 1926 . The company changed its name again as early as 1927, when the Ravensberger family from nearby Unna entered the company as silent partners. The Ruhrtal-Motorradwerke became the RMW-Motorradwerke (Ravensberger) GmbH. At times, over 200 employees produced up to 50 motorcycles a week. In 1932 RMW introduced the 10,000. Motorcycle ready. It was an RMW record, RMW's successful model from 1931.
In addition to the two-stroke engines manufactured in -house , RMW obtained the four-stroke engines until 1934 from well-known manufacturers such as JAP and Sturmey-Archer from England and MAG and Moser from Switzerland. From 1934, only German-made engines could be used. So Bark and kitchen motors were installed. According to Werner Saure's data, the workforce consisted of a maximum of 70 people, 10 of whom worked in the commercial area in the office. At the end of the 1920s, five to six machines were built per day, at peak times up to ten. Some of the motorcycles were sold on exchange . The buyer only paid part of the amount and issued a bill of exchange for the remainder. The payment was processed by the Sauerland bank association in Neheim. The most famous motorcycle model from RMW today is the Phönix , which appeared on the market in 1933. The final assembly of the Phönix took place temporarily in Wenholthausen in order to circumvent price regulations of the trade association. In addition to the motorcycles, its own 200 cm³ and from 1934 500 cm³ engines and sidecars were manufactured under license. The most powerful model was the 600 cc two-cylinder machine that appeared in 1928. Their engine was the side-controlled engine from Mabeco (Berlin), from whose bankruptcy assets RMW was able to buy some engines and chassis at the end of 1927.
During the Second World War , RMW was no longer allowed to produce motorcycles, but instead manufactured parachutes for the army, carried out repairs on motorcycles and worked as a supplier for other industrial companies. From 1946 onwards, RMW built a 250cc Phönix two-stroke machine which, apart from a few components, resembled the pre-war model. For the company's thirtieth anniversary in 1951, a completely new design with 250 cc followed, which for the last time had its own Phönix two-stroke engine and made 9 hp. In 1957, RMW ceased operations after the last Phönix models, now equipped with ILO engines from 50 to 250 ccm, no longer achieved the sales they had hoped for.
literature
- Peter M. Kleine: BLEHA, Phönix, RMW motorcycles from Neheim . Heimatbundes Neheim-Hüsten eV, Arnsberg 1999, ( An Möhne, Röhr and Ruhr. Journal of the Heimatbund Neheim-Hüsten eV , ISSN 1860-0018 , issue 15, 1999)
- Werner Saure: RMV Neheim . In: Heimatbundes des Heimatbund Neheim-Hüsten eV 1993, no. 4, pp. 5-7