Today in motorcycle history, May 13, 1962

 

  The French motorcycle Grand Prix is held at Charade Circuit (also known as Circuit Louis Rosier and Circuit Clermont-Ferrand) in the Auvergne mountains in France near Clermont-Ferrand, which, by the way, just happens to be the home of Michelin.  Ooh, la-ti-da.

  Dutchman Jan Huberts wins the French Grand Prix 50cc Class aboard his Kreidler beating Japan's Kunimitsu Takahashi.

 

  Kreidler built small displacement motorcycles and mopeds, based in Kornwestheim, Germany.  The company was founded in 1903 as "Kreidlers Metall- und Drahtwerke" (Kreidlers metal and wire factory) by Anton Kreidler.  They didn't start producing motorcycles until 1951 and by 1959 one third of all German motorcycles were Kreidler!

  Eventually moving to racing Kreidler found great success with riders like Huberts, Jan de Vries, Henk van Kessel, Angel Nieto, Eugenio Lazzarini and Stefan Dorflinger claiming eight World Champion titles for the factory.

  But, alas, the company went out of business in 1982.  The rights to the trademark were sold to Rudolf Scheidt who had Italian manufacturer Garelli Motorcycles make mopeds under the Kreidler name until 1988.