The Simson KR51 or widely known as the “Schwalbe” was an iconic scooter of East Germany during the communist era. It was produced between 1964 and 1986. Now, Govecs, a company that manufactures electric bikes, has decided to revive the bike with 100% electric propulsion. A prototype was already showed at last year’s EICMA and according to Govecs, the electric scooter goes into production in the second half of 2015.
The new Govecs Schwalbe
There’s a hell lot of nostalgia around East-German bikes like MZ or Simson. From time to time, there are companies that try to revive them. In 2011, a company already announced the rebirth of the Schwalbe as an electric scooter but they failed miserably. Despite this, another German company, Govecs decided to revive the Simson KR51/1 or widely known as the “Schwalbe”.
Cute design
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The Schwalbe was a simple scooter with a weak engine and not-too-excellent build quality. The 50cc two-stroke engine developed a peak performance of 2.1 hp which sounds hilarious nowadays. Despite the complete lack of power, the East Germans coupled a three-, and later a four-speed transmission to the tiny engine. Since the two-stroke “powerhouse” wasn’t delivering much power at all, you had to use the transmission pretty often. Officially, top speed was about 65 km/h but if you were a big guy like my father, 65 km/h was not more than a fading promise far-far away down the road. Anyway, since we are talking about the Eastern block, the land of Trabants, Volgas and MZ’s, Simson sold over a million units of this miracle.
The original Simson KR51
The electric scooter that Govecs designed looks pretty much the same as the original Schwalbe. It’s a cute little scooter with large wheels and a whole lot of character. Behind the fairing, there’s an electric motor. Govecs decided to build two versions of the scooter – one with a 4 kW motor and a more powerful version with a 6 kW motor. The weaker one can enroll as a moped, the latter one belongs to the realm of A1. The version with the larger motor can reach a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). The Germans used a lithium-ion battery pack but there’s no word on capacity or range. There’s some unofficial rumor that suggest the bike has a decent range of 100-110 miles (170 km).
According to Govecs, the new Schwalbe will be available in the second half of 2015. The bike comes with two color options: beige and orange. German sources suggest the scooter will carry a price tag of €4,699 for the moped version and €5,799 for the motorcycle version.
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