Von Dutch worked on, and painted, so many motorcycles and cars, it's no wonder I've never seen or heard of this one before. 1969 Münch 1200 TTS

Having learned his trade in the Horex race shop in the 1950s, Friedl Münch went his own way when the plant closed in 1959, later developing a racing front brake that would set him on the road to becoming a motorcycle manufacturer. In 1965 Münch was approached by wealthy French ex-sidecar racer Jean Murit with a simple brief: build a no-expense-spared ‘superbike’, though the latter term had yet to be coined. Münch found his ideal engine in the form of the air-cooled overhead-camshaft four powering the recently introduced NSU Prinz car. For Murit’s machine he used the 1,000cc TT sports version of this engine which, tuned for 60bhp, proved capable of propelling the bulky Mammoth to a top speed of 120mph. Nothing too remarkable there you might think, but while several contemporary production motorcycles could achieve a similar maximum, it was the Mammoth’s ability to accelerate powerfully from 20mph in top gear and cruise all day at 110mph that set it apart from the herd.

The production Mammoth first appeared at the Cologne Show in September 1966, by which time the capacity had risen to 1,085cc, power to 70bhp and the top speed top close on 140mph.

In early 1969 the European market 4TT became the 4TTS, and not long after it gained larger 41.3mm Rickman front forks and a new handmade aluminum gas tank (replacing fiberglass) that could be sized to customer requirement. By 1970 Clymer’s health was failing, and he sold his interest in Munch to millionaire Arthur Bell, who was looking for a suitable business opportunity for his son George. Bell commissioned a new factory in Altenstadt, near Frankfurt, and acquired URS, Helmuth Fath’s world-championship winning sidecar racing team. Rider Horst Owesle went on to win the 1971 sidecar world championship with a Münch-powered URS outfit.

Münch continued development, producing the 115 horsepower Sport-Münch and the 125 horsepower “Daytona Bomb,” which was aimed at beating Mike Hailwood’s 1965 one-hour speed record of 145mph, set on an MV Agusta. At Daytona, the Münch was averaging 178mph, but no rear tire would last more than four laps!

However, when George Bell suddenly pulled out and returned to the U.S. in 1971, Münch was forced into bankruptcy. He found a new business partner in the packaging manufacturer Hassia, yet just when things seemed to be going well again Hassia pulled out at the end of 1973, leaving Münch to declare bankruptcy yet again.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13243/lot/304/
https://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-german-motorcycles/clymer-munch-mammoth-zm0z14mazbea