Hans-Peter Kelchner

Interview with Hans-Peter Kelchner

Stein-Dinse: When did you start rebuilding motorbikes? How did it come about?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: My wife (Moni) was already "motorcycle-affinitive" at the young age of 17, because her boyfriend at the time rode a "250 Adler". Moni then "infected" me in every respect: love & motorbikes.

When we met in 1977, the first thing I had was a small Honda "SS 50". It didn't "pull the sausage off the plate", but it had a 4-stroke engine and a high-pitched exhaust whose full sound suggested a motorbike, at least in the auditory canal. So out of necessity (having little money but wanting to drive) arose my passion for "screwing" in order to be able to "drive", because I also already had an old VW Beetle. I learned to improvise and to understand. If something didn't work on my Honda (or on the Beetle), I searched (and cursed) until it worked again, because I must have done the right thing. I devoured repair manuals, handbooks and motorbike magazines on car and two-wheeler technology, maintenance and care and tried to implement everything myself.

Stein-Dinse: Is the Moto Guzzi your first bike? Do you own any other motorbikes?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: The small Honda was soon no longer an acceptable vehicle for either of us, so we finally had to get "a real" motorbike! We bought a used, but badly souped-up "Suzuki GT 250" (two-stroke). This part was so "poisonous" in its performance character that the front wheel often lost contact with the ground when starting ambitiously at traffic lights (unintentional wheeley). When I started a nice country road curve briskly, but the engine suddenly reached the optimum torque, the curve I had just entered often became much too tight (my guardian angel managed "just barely" to stay on me...). As soon as we had saved some money, we sold the Suzuki and got a 400cc Honda for my wife and a 440cc Kawasaki for me. So we often travelled with tent, sleeping bag and cooker to Alsace or Italy / Sardinia and spent wonderful times. Several times we also travelled to the South of France, the French Jura... and learned how to "ride the motorbike", as well as how to screw, maintain and service it. Now we were finally "allowed" to "duzen" our machines.

Stein-Dinse: Why this motorbike in particular?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: During a stroll in Frankfurt / Main there was a motorbike parked. A RIGHT one! Black as night, hot as hell and seductive as love...leaning on the overhanging side stand that blocked the footpath, and my heart was inflamed: An MG 850 T-5. It wouldn't let me go and haunted my dreams. So finally we decided on a Moto-Guzzi "California II", which we bought new in 1983 and from then on we travelled Italy, Switzerland, Southern France (St. Tropez, Provence, Massif de Maures...) with our camping equipment as a couple on one machine. In the meantime, maintenance and inspection had become a cost-saving hobby for me and we never had to call on a motor vehicle service!

Only then did the MG "Le-Mans" built in 1980, which is presented here, become my secret dream, after we had "experienced" it at a service station near Bologna. Because you don't just "see" such a motorbike, you experience it! It touches you and never lets you go (if you don't, then you don't deserve her!).

I dreamed her in my mind's eye, but always with a one-person hump seat, Agostini footpegs, open intake funnels and open Lafranconi-Competizione mufflers, with a widened swingarm and central shock, spoke wheels and...and...then found my dream (already rebuilt in many ways) eleven years ago at a self-employed entrepreneur and designer in Saarbrücken and bought her on the spot! In the following years I fitted a USD fork from a 900cc Ducati, a superbike handlebar with high-riser, precision steering head bearings and steering damper, new 40cc Dellorto carburettors, open intake funnels, new wiring as well as painting in "Gulf orange" with "Gulf" stripes in blue across the middle of the front mudguard, the lamp mask as well as the tank and rear. We continue to drive our faithful "Cali II", bought new in 1983, to this day (for 37 years) and can't imagine ever giving it up.

Stein-Dinse: Again to the question why these motorbikes?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: Because they still have a soul and embody "Moto-Guzzi"! You can't justify this rationally, you can only understand it emotionally. The 90 degree V-engine beats like the heartbeat of us humans and makes us hear and feel: "does good, does good, does good...". These motorbikes from Mandello de Lario, with their history since 1921, live and touch the souls of people who are open to them, but others are not, and that is a good thing. There are many, very good other motorbikes, but only a few that still have a soul! I feel, sense, see and hear what this engine does. I can understand it and speak to it inwardly. Other motorbikes, especially modern ones, often seem synthetic and like computers to me. They don't enter into a lasting relationship, but are exchanged....

Stein-Dinse: How did you come to your wrenching skills?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: When I was young, I didn't have much money and all I could do was make everything I needed myself. What I couldn't do, I had to teach myself. I drove an ancient VW Beetle, a DKW Junior, another Beetle, Citroen 2-CV, Peugeot 204...etc. etc. and repaired, tinkered, was a bulk buyer for "Prestolit" and spray paint from a can and the TÜV was my tough "opponent". It was a hard, bitter time at times, until I met my friend Ralf....

Stein-Dinse: Where did you get the ideas from?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: Just as I am Guzzi-obsessed, my only friend (for 35 years) is into BMW motorbikes. Ralf is a master car mechanic and at the beginning of our friendship we had a big double garage together and he taught me how to screw, weld and most of the other things that I didn't know yet. Ralf also has a very creative mind and is bursting with ideas, which I still benefit from today. But this "Le Mans" is my idea, except for the modifications that were already present when I bought it. I may quote the great Signore Enzo Ferrari here, who said: "To build a Ferrari, you must first have dreamed it!"

Stein-Dinse: Where do you screw? Did you have support in some areas?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: I used to have a garage with my friend as a workshop. When Ralf became self-employed and founded his company, I had "the screwdriver's paradise on earth", because I always had his entire equipment at my disposal, as well as his advice and help when I was stuck. For very special problems, I always find an open ear and help at the Speth brothers in Kriftel.

Stein-Dinse: How much time did you invest in the conversion?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: At that time, I was still working full time and could only work a little on the machine on Saturdays or in the evenings. But in the first winter break and during the holidays, the paint work, new carburettors, new USD forks, etc. were done and I could finally ride. I did most of the other work in the winter months of the next few years.

Stein-Dinse: Did you have problems getting certain parts or were there difficulties in the implementation? If so, which ones?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: In the papers there is a so-called "tunnel tail light", which has its place at the end of the 1-person hump seat. It is the tail light of a (former) Vespa scooter that was no longer available for money and good words when I was looking for a replacement. I guard it like the apple of my eye. Although there are rear lights with E-approval available, e.g. from Stein-Dinse, I would have to have the "old" one removed and the new one registered. The same with the registered tyres: The originally registered tyres are no longer produced, but the new and better successor models. Despite the same size and speed index, the TÜV does not accept the successor models! I had to request an appointment and drive up with the new, mounted tyres. The test driver swung on my Le Mans and was on the road with it for over three hours, testing the tyres and coming back with a grin on his face. The fun of the registration cost over 300,- €. And when these "sausages" are down and the next successor model comes on the market, the same procedure again!

Stein-Dinse: What are you particularly proud of with this model?

Hans-Peter Kelchner: My motorbike has a "unique selling point"! For me, this machine is "THE" motorbike that exists only once, for me. I don't want any other machine except our "California II". The rebuilt "Le Mans" has something original, something that distinguishes it from all other motorbikes in our "smooth, standardised and soft-rinsed world". This motorbike is still allowed to be the way I want it to be and not the way mass production makes it. This machine and I have grown together over the years and the price was and is blood, sweat and tears. It's that kind of "love" in the relationships I make, with people and with things and that fills me with pride. That is and was unique for me.