Konig HRE 500cc triple

[Mark75H]

Here are pictures of the first Konig HRE triple I ever saw (about 20 years ago). It was at a junk dealer who just brought in a haul of racing stuff from a racer. He didn't know what it was or how old it was, and at that point neither did I, but I was interested enough to take pictures. The next time I saw the Konig stuff it was in a different building where the roof had leaked and it was all wet The next time I went it was gone. A few years later I learned where it went and have been trying to buy it ever since.

It appears as though the gear drive magneto has been removed and points added under the starter sheave.

The first year is probably 1956 and last 1958. It was replaced with a 407cc twin and then a 445cc twin

[Mark Suter]

Sam, the most interesting thing I saw in the photos of the junkyard motor was that it had individual cylinder heads whereas mine has a single piece head to cover all three cylinders (some of the magazine pics at the bottom of your message also appear to have a one-piece head like mine). Any idea when they used the separate heads (my serial number indicates it is a 1956 model)? I would think the single piece design would offer a significant structural advantage.

[Glenn Coates]

I'm thinking ( and you all know what sort of trouble that will get me in) could the junkyard motor be a homebuilt version of the 3 cylinder engine built using the readily available 2 cyl B parts, cutting 2 heads up and bolting them on each cylinder. On the C,the cylinder head and magneto are about the only parts that are not commom with the B.

[Mark75H]

I think Glenn is probably mostly correct. There were 2 cylinder Konigs with individual cylinder heads and single cylinder Konigs, I would not be surprised if the junkyard motor was assembled from parts that did not belong together. Along with it were several 2 cylinder motors and many loose parts. Enough parts that I could see how to assemble a single, twin or triple.

There were crankshaft tops, middles and bottoms; likewise crankcase tops, middles and bottoms everything seemed to have the same bolt pattern like Tinkertoy parts. I'm sure if you had enough parts you could assemble a 4 or even a 6 ... visions of Frankenstein

[Glenn Coates]

Sam,
Thanks for posting these pictures. I was wondering what you meant by "mostly correct", so I went back and looked at the photo's. The junkyard motor looks to have the correct lower middle crankcase section with the cast bracket to mount the scintella magneto.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This weekend I organized some of my old magazines by publication and date. I came across these three articles. The first set is from BOAT SPORT September 1955, the second group--September October 1956, and the final pic from February 1958.