Being the Norwegian refered to above by 13B I might be able to shed some light to this topic. The Van Veen OCR 1000 was made from 1977 to 1980 in Duderstadt, Germany in a number of 39 including 6 prototypes and test bikes. The man behind the bike was the Dutchman Hendrik van Veen. Mr. van Veen had made a small fortune importing Kreidler mopeds and light-motorcycles to the Netherlands. A sale of over 100000 Kreidlers did not only finance the rotary venture, but also paid for the successfull Van Veen racing team which raced 50cc Kreidlers in the GP. Althought Mr. van Veen did not retire from the two-wheel business as a poor man, he did spend appr. 15 million Deutsche Mark (in 1980 money) on the Van Veen OCR 1000.
The first prototype appearing in 1972 was based on a Moto-Guzzi 850GT modified to take a Mazda rotary. Later prototypes and production bikes all used the Comotor 624 engine made for the Citröen GS Birotor. This engine is a development of the NSU RO80 engine. Althought most of the development took place in Holland a factory was set up in Germany to be close to the sub-suppliers. The development took almost 6 years. In the end Porsche was hired to speed up development and carry out the endurance testing of vital components like the gearbox, shaft drive and suspension system. Also the 4 plate sinter-metallic dry clutch was reworked by the Porsche company.
The Van Veen OCR 1000 was the first production bike with a hydralic clutch, CV shaft-drive joint, gas suspension front and rear, cast aluminum wheels and automatic choke. It was also the first vehicle ever to boost a digital ignition system. Its creator, German Dr. Günter Hartig later sold the manufacturing rights to Bosch. This bike is an example of innovative engineering when costs is no objective, but it is also a perfect example of a product not asked for. I can\'t help but think that Mr. van Veen built this bike more for himself than for commercial sale. At that time it was the most expensive bike made. The price was 3 times more than a Japanese 1000cc bike. What put an end to the project (at least according to the Van Veen company) was the overnight closure of the Comotor plant, but I believe Mr. van Veen realised that he would never make any money from this venture.
Now, the first picture in the thread is from the Deutsches Zweirad und NSU Musuem in Neckarsulm, Germany while the second picture is from the Dr. Felix Wankel Museum in Saal, Switzerland. The third I don\'t recoqnize. About myself I have owned 2 such bikes from new, but one has been used for about 22000 kilometers now. The other is still in as new condition. It is a one-off factory special fitted with a half fairing developed by the Dutch Department of Aviation and Space, no less :-). For this bike I have the optional DVG Solex Zenith electro-mechanical fuel injection system which were made in a number of 2. The main objective of this system was not to boost the power (which it does by 30 hp anyway), but to shift the torque of 136 nm at 2500 higher up the revs to have an even broader powerband.
Regards
Jon
PS About my connections to the Moto-Guzzi factory I was not a factory testrider, but as a long time Guzzi rider and a part time journo I did carry out some endurance tests of certain components among other places on Iceland.
