Hercules Classic Motorcycles
Hercules History
Hercules' main focus in its
early years were small motorcycle/scooter
designs with small capacity engines. They
began to increase to larger machines in the
thirties and even saw some competition and
long distance endurance success.
World War II resulted in heavy
damage to the Hercules factory and production
did not resume until 1950. The company developed
a number of new models and stuck with those
models for many years which helped them survive
a downturn in the German economy shortly after
their release. Hercules became one of the
largest motorcycle producing companies in
Germany. In 1966 the company merged with the
Zweirad Union which also included DKW, Express
and Victoria. In 1974 Hercules released the
Wankel powered W2000 and were the first company
to produce a motorcycle with a Wankel rotary
engine.
The Hercules was only built
from October 1974 to November 1975. 1784 were
built and the leftovers were sold each successive
year as that year’s model, right up
until 1979. The early ones had a gas and oil
mix, the later ones used oil injection. The
Hercules was one of only a few rotary engine
motorcycles to make it to market, the Suzuki
RE5 being another as well as the very limited
Norton John Player Specials.
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