Victoria was a

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

manufacturer in

Nürnberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

that made

motorcycles 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 ...

from about 1901 until 1966. It should not be confused with a lesser-known, unrelated Victoria Motorcycle Company in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

that made motorcycles between 1902 and 1928. In its early decades Victoria in Nürnberg fitted proprietary

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...

purchased from various manufacturers including Fafnir, FN,

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

and Zédel.

1920–1932

In 1920 Victoria launched the model KR 1, which has a 494 cc BMW twin-

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 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 engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as ...

flat twin A flat-twin engine is a two-cylinder internal combustion engine with the cylinders on opposite sides of the crankshaft. The most common type of flat-twin engine is the boxer-twin engine, where both pistons move inwards and outwards at the same ti ...

(boxer engine) mounted longitudinally in the motorcycle frame. The engine produced and transmission was via a two-speed

gearbox 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 ...

. When BMW started making its own motorcycles, Victoria turned to making its own engines. In 1923 Victoria launched its KR 2, an

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) flat twin producing . In 1924 Victoria followed this with the KR 3, which produces and has a 3-speed gearbox. In 1925 Victoria built Germany's first

forced induction In an internal combustion engine, forced induction is where turbocharging or supercharging is used to increase the density of the intake air. Engines without forced induction are classified as naturally aspirated. Operating principle Overvi ...

engine, and in 1926 a 496 cc Victoria achieved a motorcycle

Land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...

of 165 km/h (102.5 MPH). In 1927 Victoria launched the 596 cc KR VI or KR 6. Based on this model the factory offered a high-speed sports model with twin

carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

s that produced , later named the KR 7. At the same time Victoria also offered the 200 cc side-valve KR 20 and 350 cc overhead valve KR 35 models. In 1930/31 it added to its range the KR 50 (side-valve) and KR 50 S (overhead valve) models, which have engines imported from

Sturmey-Archer Sturmey-Archer was a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. It primarily produced bicycle hub gears, brakes and a great many other sundry bicycle components, most prominently during their heyday as a subsidiary of the Ralei ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1932 Victoria won the

sidecar A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...

class of the European Hill Climb Championship with a 600 cc machine and thereafter offered a model with and a four-speed gearbox as the KR 6 Bergmeister. At the same time it offered the KR 15 and KR 20 Z models with 150 cc and 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 ...

s supplied 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 ...

1933–1945

In 1933 Victoria introduced a 500 cc

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 ...

, the KR 8. This had a side-valve engine with its cylinder block inclined forwards almost horizontally. This placed the valves under the cylinder head, where the exhaust valves suffered from overheating. In 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, which ended Victoria's use of Sturmey-Archer engines. In 1935 Victoria revised the KR 8 engine to the unusual exhaust over inlet (EOI) valve layout, and called the resulting model the KR 9 Fahrmeister. Using EOI on a nearly horizontal engine placed the exhaust valves in cooler air at the front and solved the overheating. Unfortunately it also increased the complexity and cost of manufacture and maintenance. Victoria discontinued the KR 9 after 1935. Also in 1935 Victoria introduced the 350 cc KR 35 B and KR 35 G models with Lackler-patented cylinder heads. In 1937 the first KR 35 Sport was built with a

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 ...

engine. In the same year Victoria introduced new KR 20 LN Lux and KR 25 S Aero

two-stroke 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 ...

models, whose engines with flat-topped pistons were developed by Richard and Xaver Küchen. In 1938 Victoria offered the Columbus-engined KR 35 SN (18 bhp) and KR 35 SS (20 bhp) models. At the same time Victoria expanded its range of two-strokes with the lightweight V 99 Fix, V 109 Fix (which was a ladies' version of the V 99 Fix),V 99 Fix & V 109 Fix specifications
/ref> KR 12-N and KR 15-N. In 1939 the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

almost completely halted production of the KR 35 Pionier, although limited production continued until at least 1942. In 1945 the Victoria

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 ...

's production hall was severely damaged.

1946–1966

In 1946 Victoria resumed production with the 38 cc FM 38 bicycle engine. In 1949 the company resumed production of the pre-war KR 25 Aero model. In 1950 Victoria introduced the 99 cc V 99 BL-Fix and modernised the KR 25 Aero with a telescopic front fork. At the same time the company built the models Vicky I and Vicky II using the FM 38 bicycle engine. By the end of the year KR 25 Aero production was 14,000 per year, and from 1951 the model was equipped with Jurisch plunger rear suspension. In 1953 Victoria developed its popular model further as the KR 26 Aero, and expanded its range with the new Küchen-designed V 35 Bergmeister. The V 35 is a 350 cc OHV four-stroke

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 longi ...

producing . The V 35's

powertrain A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...

combines chain primary drive to the gearbox with

shaft drive A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

to the rear wheel. The Bergmeister was highly over engineered and very expensive to buy. Only around 1000 motorcycles could be produced before the model was scrapped due to poor sales. The Bergmeister is one of the rarest motorcycles in the world today with only a few known survivors In 1955 Victoria introduced the Peggy motor scooter, which has a 200 cc fan-cooled two-stroke engine and an

electric starter A starter (also self-starter, cranking motor, or starter motor) is a device used to rotate (crank) an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power. Starters can be electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic. ...

. In the same year the company also offered the technologically advanced - but consequently expensive - KR 21 Swing motorcycle. In 1957 Victoria launched a new model with a 175 cc OHV four-stroke engine imported from Parilla in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

: the KR 17 Parilla. In 1958 Victoria merged with

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 ...

and Express Werke AG, forming Zweirad Union, which continued the Victoria name for mopeds such as the Vicky and motor scooters. In 1966

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

took over Zweirad Union and terminated Victoria production.

Vicky

In 1954 Victoria introduced the Vicky moped. It was designated ‘model III. Vicky had a 2-stroke 48cc engine. The Vicky III was imported into Great Britain from January 1956. In Sweden it was marketed as the MS50. Saund Zweirad Union India Ltd. manufactured Vicky mopeds in the city of

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in the early 1970s

References

External links