KING-JAP | 1928-31 | Germany :
The King-JAP is one of the most straightforwardly named motorcycles in the German historical record: a machine built in Germany, powered by an English engine, carrying a name that announced both facts without ambiguity. King-JAP assembled machines using 196cc, 346cc, 490cc and 545cc JAP engines, manufactured from 1928 to 1931, with most of the chassis and running gear components also made in England.
The degree to which the King-JAP relied on English components sets it apart from most of its German contemporaries, who typically combined imported engines with domestically produced frames and running gear. In that sense the King-JAP was less an assembled German motorcycle than a British machine sold in Germany under a local commercial identity, with German origin confined largely to the final assembly stage.
The JAP engines it used were products of J.A. Prestwich Industries of Tottenham, London, whose engines powered machines across Europe and beyond. Among the German factories of 1928, 23 used foreign engines in their frames. Of these, the English JAP and Blackburne and the Swiss MAG led the field, with many others using Villiers and DKW units. The King-JAP therefore operated in a well-established tradition of German assemblers drawing on JAP’s product range, though the additional detail that the running gear also came from England made the enterprise unusual in the depth of its dependence on imported components.
The range of capacities offered, from the modest 196cc through 346cc and 490cc to the 545cc unit, covered a practical spread of the market from lightweight commuter to sporting single. In the 1920s JAP were almost exclusive suppliers of large motorcycle engines, and the 490cc and 545cc JAP singles in particular were well-regarded sporting units that appeared in numerous British makes of the period, including Grindlay-Peerless, HRD and many others. A German buyer choosing a King-JAP at the upper end of the range was therefore obtaining machinery of genuine quality, backed by JAP’s reputation for reliability and performance.
The dates of the King-JAP’s production, 1928 to 1931, coincide precisely with the period in which the German motorcycle industry was being reshaped by economic crisis. The Great Depression forced most of the German motorcycle factories to close their doors, leaving approximately 80 to 90 factories of which only 66 were producing in meaningful numbers. The King-JAP arrived at the beginning of this contraction and did not survive it. Its reliance on English components would also have been commercially problematic as the economic conditions of the early 1930s made imported parts increasingly expensive, and as German manufacturers placed growing emphasis on domestic production.
