Kreidler 50

Kreidler 50 1975

In 1970 Aalt Toersen left the Van Veen team to join the Dutch Jamathi team, and the resulting vacancy on the Van Veen team was filled by Jan De Vries and Rudolph Kunz. The two new drivers not only had the same problem that Toersen did—namely, defeating Spanish driver Angel Nieto with his fast, streamlined official Derbi—but they also had to compete with Toersen.
Kunz's 1970 third-place finish was the best the Kreidler-Van Veen team could do. The following year De Vries rose from his 1970 fifth place to win the championship, with a substantial margin over Nieto.

A heated rivalry developed between the Dutchman and the Spaniard, both on and off the track. In
1972 Nieto won the championship, with De Vries right behind him. In
1973 the championship went back to De Vries, but that year Derbi did not compete. And in 1974 De Vries retired from racing. During that same year the first six motorcycles in the world championship classification were all Kreidler 50s, with the Dutch racer Van Kessel in first place. Van Veen then contacted Nieto and gave him the best Kreidler available. Nieto won the world championship in 1975, but the following season he returned to Spain and took the title away from Kreidler, bringing its three-year winning streak to an end.

Motorcycle: Kreidler 50
Manufacturer: Kreidler Werke GmbH,
Kornwestheim Type: Racing Year: 1975
Engine: Kreidler-Van Veen single-cylinder, horizontal, two-stroke, with rotat-ing-disk distribution. Displacement 49.8 cc. (40 mm. x 39.7 mm.)
Transmission: Six-speed block
Cooling: Water
Power: About 17 h.p. at 14,000 r.p.m.
Maximum speed: Over 110 m.p.h.
Chassis: Tubular cradle above with engine suspended. Front and rear, telescopic suspension
Brakes: Front wheel, central drum with four cam-operated shoes; rear wheel, central drum

Kreidler 50 Van Veen 1969

The military airport at Elvington, England, is an officially recognized ground for world land speed records. On October 5, 1968, Van Veen, the Dutch importer of Kreidler vehicles, took a team to Elvington in search of glory. The Dutchman had prepared a special 50-cc. racer that he had adapted from a Kreidler sports model. The new motorcycle was driven by Aalt Toersen.
Van Veen's enterprise was the first attempt since Kreidler withdrew from racing to return the 50-cc. motorcycle to the world of sport. (It was in 1961 that a Kreidler Florett had won the world championship.)

Toersen set three world records on the course at Elvington with the Kreidler. As a reward Van Veen entered Toersen and his Kreidler in the 1969 world championship.

The results of the first three races of the season were sensational as Toersen rode the Kreidler to three victories. Toersen, the private entrant, outraced the Spanish racer Angel Nieto with his official Derbi. But subsequently Nieto was able to improve the performance of the Spanish motorcycle, and Toersen ended up losing the championship by a single point. From that moment on, the Van Veen plant became a veritable Kreidler racing team. The Kreidler company had overcome its fear of the Japanese and went back into racing.

Motorcycle: Kreidler-Van Veen 50 Manufacturer: Kreidler Werke GmbH,
Kornwestheim Type: Racing Year: 1969
Engine: Kreidler-Van Veen single-cylinder, horizontal, two-stroke, with ro-tating-disk distribution. Displacement 49.6 cc. (40 mm. x 39.5 mm.)
Cooling: Air
Transmission: Five-speed block Power: 15.5 h.p. at 14,500 r.p.m. Maximum speed: About 105 m.p.h. Chassis: Raised double cradle, tubular
elements with engine suspended.
Front and rear, telescopic suspension Brakes: Front wheel, central drum with
four shoes; rear, central drum