Dnepr Motorcycles

Dnepr motorcycles have been built in Kyiv, Ukraine since the Kyiv Motorcycle Factory (KMZ) began production in 1946, initially of a small two-stroke design taken as war reparations from the German firm Wanderer. In 1949 the plant switched to building the M-72, a licensed copy of the pre-war BMW R71 flat-twin, using tooling transferred from a sister factory in the Soviet Union. The Dnepr name itself was introduced in 1967 with the K-650, KMZ's first overhead-valve model, marking the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Dnepr became known internationally for rugged, simple sidecar rigs used for both military and civilian off-road duty. After the Soviet Union's collapse, KMZ's export markets disappeared and output fell steadily through the 1990s and 2000s, with the factory largely idle by 2008 and its tooling reportedly sold off. Motorcycles still sold under the Dnepr name today are generally assembled from remaining parts stock rather than produced on an active manufacturing line.