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Very old Opel Blitz bike

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Very old Opel Blitz bike

Old 01-10-06, 10:20 AM
  #1  
jaqb
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Very old Opel Blitz bike

Some pics of very old Opel Blitz bike. I've no idea how old is that bike but I suppose it remembers an ancient second World War times...
I wish that bike can told his story...
Attached Images
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opel01.jpg (79.1 KB, 93 views)
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opel02.jpg (86.0 KB, 103 views)
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opel03.jpg (90.5 KB, 91 views)
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opel04.jpg (66.6 KB, 97 views)
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opel05.jpg (95.5 KB, 88 views)
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opel06.jpg (85.4 KB, 91 views)
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Old 01-10-06, 07:27 PM
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Nice to see that you have snow there. Makes me feel a little better...I think that that particular seatpost arrangement had fallen from favor in this country by the early 30's. I am no expert at ancient bicycles, though, and Polish fashion may have been considerably different than American fashion. Blitz means "fast"?
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Old 01-11-06, 06:53 AM
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Opel Blitz is a name of whole company built a vehicles during second world war and now this brand is known as General Motors company I think.

Yes we have a lot of snow in Poland and huge frost!! I can't wait summer!!!!
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Old 01-11-06, 08:29 PM
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In the automotive world Opels were (are?) GM owned cars built/sold in Europe. They had one model sort of a Corvette lookalike but smaller that got some US distribution and has some following. I remember seeing 1 or 2 when I was in high school (early 80s but I think the cars were a few years old when I saw them).

No idea at all if that has anything to do with your bike.


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Old 01-12-06, 12:58 AM
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There's some information about the history of the Opel brand here:
https://www.automedia-online.com/coll...quell/opel.htm

According to the site, Opel built bicycles until 1937.
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Old 01-12-06, 03:56 PM
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Walter,

That would have been an Opel GT, great car, poor design if you asked
me. My roomate had one, helluva lot of fun but he had to pull the engine
to change the timing belt. . .

Still, I'd take one.

marty
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Old 01-12-06, 07:58 PM
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Marty,

GT it is. I did some surfing and saw pics of the only other Opel I can remember seeing, the Manta. Also a cool ride IMO.

I remember hearing that the GT had "issues" when it came to service but I'd take one too.

I still don't know if this has anything to do with the OP's bike.


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Old 01-14-06, 02:45 PM
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i heard, in GERMAN is a opel service and the name off owner is mr. BLITZ....
i dont know how old the story is

Walter in Poland people own GT opel too its a great car and they drive only sommer on his car

"ccording to the site, Opel built bicycles until 1937." but we see our OPEL BLITZ is old

https://www.automedia-online.com/col.../quell/opel.htm
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Old 01-14-06, 04:50 PM
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Originally Posted by jaqb
"ccording to the site, Opel built bicycles until 1937." but we see our OPEL BLITZ is old

https://www.automedia-online.com/col.../quell/opel.htm
Checking the headbadge in your pics with the sketches of the insignias in the Automedia site, the time frame of the Blitz can be narrowed to some time between 1910 (probably later) and 1935.
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Old 01-18-06, 03:28 AM
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So it seems to be very old bike. Almost 100 yrs old!!!!!!!
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Old 01-18-06, 03:58 AM
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how cool is that!

offtopic: your whitebalance went nuts on the snow. Or choose a 'snow' program or adjust the white balance in the white balance menu, succes!
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Old 01-18-06, 06:39 AM
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ah, babelfish. In German, blitz means "Lightning". Er, I suppose an analogy for "really fast", although really fast doesn't seem to be quite the right moniker for this type of bicycle...
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Old 01-19-06, 11:57 AM
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yeah! thanks for photo adjust tips my "nieghbouthood" friend...
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Old 09-17-19, 11:50 AM
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Wow, amazing!!

I have something similar, will post pictures when I reach 10 posts.

I am wondering if it's ok to restore it

Best regards,

Rok
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Old 09-19-19, 01:00 PM
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-----

thanks very much for posting!

chainset appears to be Thun

head tube dent can be rolled out with a mandrel


-----
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Old 09-19-19, 01:07 PM
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NO IDEA that Opel made bikes. Cool. Of course, seen enough photos of the old Opel Blitz trucks. I always thought it would be cool to El-Camino-ize an early 70's Opel 1900cc "Ascona" 2-door station wagon into a "Blitz" pick-up truck. Might make a great bike carrier.

Alternatively, if it's Opel it should be powered by solid-fuel rockets (look it up, start with "RAK1")
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Old 09-19-19, 01:32 PM
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Opel bicycles were considered fine bicycles at their time and they have a huge followership here in Germany. Pictures of the 5 Opel brothers on a quintuplem are quite well known



https://alt-opel.eu/index.php?sn=typengruppe47

You can play a lot of money for an originl ZR3 racer... and i mean a *lot*. Even bikes like the one above in good condition can have asking prices in the 4 digits. https://www.ebay.de/i/183499710674

For dating yours, this Sn# table may help https://www.tilman-wagenknecht.de/nummern/opel.pdf
"Blitz" was the brand name of the light truck models produced from 1930 until the 70ies. I wasn't aware there were "Blitz" (lightning) *bicycles* too, but i'm no Opel insider at all.

Although Opel was sold to GM some time between the wars, it is still considered by many as a german brand and because Opel always specialised in robust, affordable cars, many are around. Many models were designed in Rüsselsheim (near Frankfurt) for the EU market (sold in the UK as Vauxhall), some dcesigns like the Mini-Corvette "Opel GT" (The designers claim convincingly to not have known about the 'Vette which was designed around the same time) even made it across the pond, and there's religion-like rivalry toward the very similar Ford/Germany products from Cologne. Many models were produced for decades and always had Ford counterparts (Opel Kadett/Astra - Ford Escort, and so on).

One Opel grandson started a bike company recently.... https://opelit-bikes.de/opelit/

Last edited by martl; 09-19-19 at 01:47 PM.
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Old 09-19-19, 05:53 PM
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Originally Posted by RokLenart
Wow, amazing!!

I have something similar, will post pictures when I reach 10 posts.

I am wondering if it's ok to restore it

Best regards,

Rok
Good luck!

Glad to see you found an Opel head badge!

Looking forward to seeing your bike!
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