A Brief History of the Marque
Manufactured: 1922-1929
Berliner-Kleinmotoren Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin, and later under the company name Kaehlert & Ruppe AG, Motorradwerke, Rumburg.
Hugo Ruppe, founder and owner of the MAF automobile factory, created the first DKW two-stroke engines, and also founded the Bekamo factory in Berlin. These were the first two-stroke engines developed with crankcase auxiliary pump.
When production commenced in 1922 Bekamo motorcycles had an ash wood frame; in 1923 this was replaced with a conventional steel tubular chassis.
As early as 1923 Ruppe established a branch factory at Rumberg in Czechoslovakia. The first models were assembled in Berlin, and after the cessation of production in Germany in 1925 production moved to the Rumberg factory.
That year Bekamo took over production of the commercial tricycles previously built by Erwin Wesnigk. These were fitted with a 4.5 h.p. Bekamo engine and had a payload of around a quarter tonne.
Bekamo engines were used in BAF machines and many others, and were built under licence by Windhoff, MFZ, and Eichler.
It appears that Bekamo (CZ) used frames from Aeros, and they also had a relationship with TX of Berlin.
Sources: GTU Oldtimerservice, Tragatsch p84, Axel Oskar Mathieu Archive
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