10.000km reise mit MIFA klapprad!

Thanks, good suggestion.

Pretty sure it's not that children's bike though - they have "spoon" brakes and a different rear luggage carrier, and mine has a front caliper brake and twin luggage carriers exactly like a MIFA 904: http://ddr-fahrradwiki.de/index.php?title=Mifa_Modell_904

The frame geometry is also identical.

snow in London, rare event...

Indeed! Common event in Finland though (where I'll be starting on March 20)

No more ideas about the provenance of my mysterious MIFA? If someone has converted it from a klappi, they've done a very good job - no evidence of bad welding.

I can't understand why you exclude the option that it could be that frame from the children's bike.

Might be that somebody took the frame only, and then equipped it in the style of a Mifa 904. Why not?
You could identify it by measurement of the frames height. 36 cm would be the childrens frame, 40 cm original Klappi.

Furthermore, there were diffent 20" children's bikes from "Blitz". It's not much known about them, but there're described different frames and equpments with different brakes... produced in the 80ths like the Mifa 904 as well. http://ddr-fahrradwiki.de/Metallwaren_%22Blitz%22


another, easier idea: Just tell us the frame number

Good idea!

Frame number is 2799645

http://ddr-fahrradwiki.de/Datierung_Mifa_Fahrr%C3%A4der

So - it looks as if mine is (was) a very VERY late MIFA klappi, probably 1990!

It has this badge on it:

frame number and setting of this Klappi are matching... so ok, its a Mifa Klappi, indeed.

I would not exclude that there were produced Klappis without folding-hinge in 1990. Because: In West-Germany, Klappis were a trendy thing in the 1960ths and 70ths, but 1990... completely out. Maybe, Mifa figured out that it could be an idea to produce Klappi without the hinge to be more attractive for the new market. A few months later, production was stopped like nearly all other products from GDR. Thats why its nearly unknown in this version! --- Its only my guess... there's no proof. Anyway, your Klappi seems to be in an original condition, because of the matching frame number.
Maybe there is another exemplar of it. I'll observe the market!


PS: You can identify the year of construction by checking out some imprintings. Probably, on the hub of the back wheel. For sure, on the dynamo (look from bottom up), and if you remove the back-light, you should find there a year number on the surface salient on the mudguard. Like this "I/90" for the first quarter of 1990. --> would be a new finding for the Wiki as well!

OK, thanks and congratulations mulchhüpfer - we have a definite answer now! I think your guess was correct.





A MIFA 20-zoll non-klappi, manufactured II/90. One for the wiki!

If anyone is interested in following my 10,400km ride on this rare machine, I'll be sending tweets on @mrtimmoore . I depart from Kirkenes in Norway on March 20!

Faszinierend... So, its still from GDR Hard to find such a young Klappi. I'll add these information to the wiki. Thank you very much! I do not use twitter but will read your entries. Be thrifty with luggage, and avoid using a rucksack, thats horrible after some hours of riding...