Home Page

Links

Downloads Page

MB200 Restoration Diary

Adler Junior

Adler Junior

Adler Favorit

Adler MB250

Adler Sprinter

Other Bikes

Adler MB200 Page

I originally saw my bike in late June 2003 for sale on the Ebay auction site, with the photo's below providing me with my first ever sight of an Adler motorcycle. I was looking for something unusual, as my Honda 500/4 had just been returned to the road after a rebuild with a brand new MOT.

After texting my mate Mike with "what do you know about Adlers ?", the return text (after consultation with his brother in law) was "one came 5th in the TT in the early fifties, very rare". So I decided I would make inquiries to view it, knowing full well that if it was anywhere near as good as it was described and looked in the photo's I would end up buying it.

Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size image.
Use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.

After a brief test ride and a very slow once over, I decided that it would make an interesting restoration. We agreed a price of the auction reserve (which hadn't been met) and I left a £200 deposit whilst I sold some shares to pay for it. After texting Mike, that I had agreed to buy it, he started selling advance admission tickets to various members of his family who all wanted to have a look at one.

Q ~ Why had I decided to buy this unusual bike with little or no knowledge of it ?.

A ~ It was complete and the engine seemed fine, it's as simple as that. Anything else could be sorted out at a later date.

During this time I took my 1975 Honda 500/4 up to the 12th Lancashire Classic Car & Bike Show and asked some of the autojumble dealers if they "had anything for Adlers ?".
The blank expressions and looks of dismay told me I had made the right choice. One guy selling gasket sets for classic bikes reckoned he had seen one "ONCE !!" and said that he looked forward to seeing mine in the future.

I decided to put the Honda in for judging before I left (I hadn't entered and had just paid on the gate) and was delighted to ride away with the best 70's machine trophy.

The share sale took longer than I anticipated, becoming a desperate rush to buy it before I went to work in Paris for a month. Luckily the guy I was buying it off was very patient and understanding and he never hassled me once.
During this time I surfed the net to find out as much as I could about Adlers and gathered together as much technical info as I could from the half dozen or so sites available.

Thanks to all those who helped me, sent me documents or just returned my e mails.

I ended up returning in late July with the balance and a borrowed car & trailor. A 200 mile journey and a few rainstorms later, the cobwebs had been blown away and "FAS832" had cleaned up quite well.

Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size image.
Use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.

I only had one day to play with the bike, before I was off to Paris, working for a month. During this time I decided to register the www.adlermotorcycles.co.uk domain name and see if I could provide a repository of technical and useful information for new owners.