Until a few years ago, Kiev housed the Kmz, a glorious factory of wheelchairs that are excellent for off-road use
Alessandro Pastore
06 March
The sidecar market has been a very small niche of enthusiasts for years. Nowadays, even the most competent motorcyclists can mention the Russian Ural, which has survived to the present day. Yet in the past – we are talking about the times of the former Soviet Union – Ukraine hosted a very important motorcycle factory, the Kmz. Its headquarters were in Kiev, where it was founded in 1946, and produced vehicles with boxer engines inspired by the BMWs of the pre-war period.
sidecar
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His specialty soon became sidecars. Yes, because Kmz, using the name Dnepr, for years produced renowned wheelchairs for Russia and the socialist republics united by the red flag. Its production was mainly intended for military commissions and the residual part for private transport. And in the 70s it reached record orders, reaching 140 thousand a year. On his side, the Dnieper had simple engines that were easy to maintain and fix. But above all, they were in great demand on the fields of military operations for their resistance and the ability to deal with barren and uneven terrain. In short, what we will call light offroad today.
performance
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But Dnepr was not only synonymous with solidity: between the 70s and 80s racing sidecars also arrived, capable of reaching 200 km / h. And later, with the blaze of rotary engines, there were also experiments never continued with conviction with Wankel thrusters.
in sleep
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But things precipitated with the end of the USSR: the production of Kmz and the prodigious Dnieper saw an end in 2011, and the production site was closed. Despite this, the company is still formally active today and supplies spare parts and accessories for the large fleet of vehicles still present in the former Union.
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