Elvis block

I have been searching for a long time to find the motorcycle on the Elvis block shown here.

After my request in the former newsletter I didn't have to wait long for help, and brand and model were furnished to me by BMW-guru André Sierink.
It concerns a model of 1928 from the Russian brand IZh. The IZh works are located in Izhevsk (Udmurtia) along the Izh river. The car and motorcycle factory is part of the Kalashnikov concern, the same from the AK47 machine gun.

In the western world the IZh motorcycles were first sold under the name Cossack and later, imported amongst others by the Maassluis (Netherlands) based Motim, as Jupiter (350 cc 2-cylinder) and Planeta (350 cc 1-cylinder).

Franking strip from Motim with image of a Planeta

The depicted model is the IL that got afterwards, when one year later the IL2 had appeared, a 1 behind the letters. It is a 1200 cc 4-stroke V-twin with shaft driving. A 300 kg weighing motorcycle with 21 hp. The stolen image was originally in black and white and the designer of Stamperija has left out some items and coloured others, which gave the machine a bit less recognizable appearance. The image is from a sidecar ambulance version of the Russian army, and therefore (?) yellow. Here the original picture:

And what the designer made of it:

Behind the sidecar the bags for dressings.
The model has a large open space behind the cylinders, after the American Militar, and a nice detail: the exhausts are integrated in the pressed frame.

Remains the question whether Elvis already knew about this Russian machine? Although Elvis had a large collection of motorcycles, most Harley's but also English, German and even a single Japanese, I nowhere found an IZh. Probably they have a rich imagination there in Brussels.

Recently a newly developed hybrid motorcycle appeared under the name IZh, but it is not clear whether the IZh works has anything to do with this or whether the designer, Igor Chak, "borrowed" the name. The thing can be compared with the most modern hightech motorcycles, can be controlled with an iPhone and is the first with 2 airbags. By coincidence this motorcycle has recently been depicted on the blockk of Sierra Leone, about which Paul has written an article in Newsletter 117.

Curious? Have a look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97qyaSv3Pug#t=219
This shows again: together we stand strong.

Hans de Kloet

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