KMZ M72

KMZ M72

Oh are these bikes complicated. There is a story in the war BMW worked with KMZ and gave them all the plans to build the German R71. And theres another story, a R71 was captured and sent to Russia and reverse engineered – the more you research the more you take it all as a pinch of salt. It doesn’t really matter with the pea nut shaped tank, frame, seat etc it looks like a Germany R71 and is ideal for vintage ride outs. Without that – ‘I’m scared to leave it’ as the German versions are worth £18-30’000! So it’s a cheap mans Army bike.

This came to us from a Polish importer. I had bought an IZH 350 from him and in conversation I said I was looking for a war KMZ. He came back and said ‘I have this one which is very rare and an early one at 1958’ He also wanted a war one and had found one which was expensive so he sold me this to fund his other buy.

It had been restored to a reasonable standard for a Polish build. I wanted a solo M72 to make it more practical as I already had a similar looking Dnepr with a driven sidecar. This model has no driven side car wheel so I just removed it and changed the V5 – now it’s a solo.

The side car is mint and for sale.

This model is a bit rarer as it has upward fork links instead of telescopic forks.

This one adds to our collection of 4 Soviet motorbikes in the collection – all are big and heavy!