32 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
that there were possibly three others in the UK, two
in America – one of which is a twin-carb Sport model
in the Barber museum – and another in Argentina.”
Universal AG was founded in 1928 near Lucerne
using proprietary engines but initially their bikes
were marketed under the name of Helvetia and it
was sometime later that the first Universal appeared.
These were powered by a mixture of JAP, Python and
Anzani motors and during the war years – in conjunc-
tion with Condor – they made an inline 1000cc vee
twin, many with a sidecar attached. Post war the first
‘Karden Boxer’ appeared, most of these went to
home market but I understand that some went to the
Netherlands, South America and to Germany where –
with a modified frame – they were rebadged as a
Rabeneick. The Rabeneick Company had been
founded by August Rabeneick in 1925 and initially
concentrated in building high quality bicycles which
were highly successful in racing and it wasn’t until the
late 1940s that their first small motorcycle appeared.The man who was mainly responsible for the success
of the motorcycles was Erich Engelhardt who was
described as a very friendly, charming, polite and
intelligent person who according to a period report by
Ernst Hiller (6 times German 500cc championship
winner) used his dog to test the motorcycles exhaust.
If Hiller is to be believed the dog would be fine with
an exhaust note that was OK but would start chasing
the bike if it was too loud and noisy. All of these
machines were small capacity but Engelhardt was
keen to build a bigger machine and working in
conjunction with Hiller the prototype 500cc boxer
twin Universal appeared at the 1951 IFMA show. Due
to high costs the Rabeneick-framed Universal twin
was only produced in small numbers but the standard
B50 – which was available in both side valve and
overhead valve operation with either rigid or plunger
rear suspension – was well regarded and throughout
the 1950s was often used by the Swiss police. Up to
when production ceased in 1962/’63 it would appearUNIVERSAL B50 METEOR
ABOVE Test bike has plunger rear
suspension but swinging arm
models were also produced.