Tornax was a
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
manufacturer in
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
, Germany.
Tornax built its first motorcycle in 1926. This was the model I-26, which has a 600 cc single-
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
side-valve engine
A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the Cam-in-block, engine block, instead of in the cyli ...
imported from
JAP
''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur.
In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term very offensive, even when used as an abbreviation. Prior to t ...
in London, England producing 15
bhp
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
. For the remainder of the 1920s all Tornax models featured side-valve and
overhead valve
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...
(OHV) JAP engines of 500, 550 and 600 cc, apart from the V-28 in 1928 whose 600 cc side-valve engine was supplied by the German engine manufacturer
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
in
Bad Homburg
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's offic ...
.
In 1930 Tornax produced its first twin-cylinder model, the III-30, which had a side-valve 1000 cc
V-twin
A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longit ...
JAP engine producing . In 1931 it added a sports version, the III-31 SS, with a 1000 cc OHV JAP engine. Tornax claimed that this machine would produce , and guaranteed a top speed of 190 km/h (118 MPH). This model was very expensive, and economic conditions in the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
meant that very few were sold.
For 1932 the range remained unchanged, with all the model suffixes changed from "-32" to "-33". In 1933 Tornax added smaller single-cylinder OHV models to its range: the SF 2 and SF 35, again using OHV JAP engines. The full 1933 range featured six models ranging from 200 cc to 1000 cc, with the OHV V-twin continuing as the III-33 SS.
From 1934 the
National Socialist
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
government forbade the import of foreign components. Many German motorcycle builders had been using engines,
gearboxes
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...
,
forks
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...
or other components from English or
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
suppliers, and it was difficult to substitute sufficient supplies from German factories quickly enough to remain in business. Some German manufacturers ceased making motorcycles, but Tornax survived by reducing its range to one model, the aptly named Universal, with a 600 cc side-valve Columbus engine.
In 1935 Tornax added two OHV Columbus engines to its 600 cc range and introduced the 800 cc, Tornado model. The latter was a sports machine that used the same
overhead camshaft
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...
Columbus
parallel twin
A straight-twin engine, also known as an inline-twin, vertical-twin, or parallel-twin, is a two-cylinder piston engine whose cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
Straight-twin engines are primarily used in motorcycles; ot ...
engine as the rival
Horex
Horex is a German motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1923 by Fritz Kleemann in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe in Hesse. From 1935 to the mid-1950s, the company operated as Horex-Columbus-Werk K.G.,then as Horex-Werke KG.
The brand name Hor ...
S8. Tornax also launched a small
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
, the Rex, with a 700 cc
DKW
DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...
engine, but only 158 were built.
Neither the Tornado nor the Rex continued in production for 1936. Tornax reduced its 600 cc range to two models, and added its first lightweight model, the K 20, with a 200 cc
two-stroke engine
A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...
made by
ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and ol ...
. In 1937 the company added further ILO-engined two-stroke singles of 200 cc and 250 cc.
During the Second World War Tornax reduced its range to one model, the K 125 with a 125 cc ILO engine. All Tornax motorcycle production stopped in 1941, and the
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
was destroyed by
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
bombing
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
in March 1945.
In 1948 Tornax resumed K 125 production. It steadily expanded its range with larger single-cylinder two-stroke ILO engines, culminating in 1953 with a twin-cylinder model, the Z-250 ''Schwarze Josephine'' ("Black Josephine") which has a two-stroke ILO-engine producing .
In 1954 Tornax built its first four-stroke models since 1939: the V 250 and SV 250. These have
unit construction : ''For the vehicle design where the vehicle's skin is used as a load-bearing element, see Monocoque.''
Unit construction is the design of larger motorcycles where the engine and gearbox components share a single casing. This sometimes includes ...
250 cc engines from Opti in
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
, mounted in a frame that has
swinging-arm rear
suspension
Suspension or suspended may refer to:
Science and engineering
* Suspension (topology), in mathematics
* Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics
* Suspension of a ring, in mathematics
* Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...
and typically German
Earles front fork.
Tornax ceased motorcycle production in 1955. The company's total production in its 29-year existence was about 50,000 vehicles.
References
Bibliography
External links
Tornax Owners' Club
{{Major German motorcycle manufacturers
Motorcycle manufacturers of Germany