I'm the great grand nephew of Joseph Merkel, and for as long as I can remember the Flying Merkel brand has been a source of pride in our family. For us it is more than just an amazing piece of Americana - it is a part of our family history. We've taken that pride a step further, have fought for the rights to own this brand and shepherd it into the future. We are extremely proud to finally call ourselves Flying Merkel !
'Flying Merkel' the historical brand, and all it stands for - groundbreaking design, pioneering spirit, classic detailing - is in our blood. When my great-great uncle Joseph started Flying Merkel Motorcycles he was at the cutting edge of the motorcycle world (literally taking motors and strapping them onto bicycles) and we are looking to take this spirit into the company's next phase. We are small, so are starting out small, but we are dreamers and are hoping to do great things.
Maldwyn Jones and Cleo Pineau, two prolific pioneer American motorcycle racers for Flying Merkel.
Photo courtesy of Archive Moto
Our Story
At our heart we are designers. Trained as architects, my wife and I like to think we can design anything that comes our way. We have been focusing on architectural projects, but we are looking forward to expanding our design horizons through the Flying Merkel Inc. brand. The confluence of our passions; architecture, motorcycles, history, beautiful objects, etc - will all be on display here, and we look forward to sharing them with you.
The history of this great American brand means the world to us. We plan on sharing this history with you all and would love for you to learn more. But we plan to keep this history intact, so we have NO INTENTION of making reproductions, and we urge everyone else to respect the history as well. Our goal is to revitalize the brand, pick it up where it was left off, and push it into the future. Ultimately we hope to produce bikes again. This is a daunting challenge, but we can't wait to see what the Flying Merkel's of the future look like.
We regularly post on social media about ourselves and the Flying Merkel history, so we encourage you to follow us, but we also encourage you to share your knowledge with us! Our friends at www.theflyingmerkel.com have done an amazing job of collecting and documenting this history, so we recommend you take a look there as well.
You can also read up on Great Uncle Joseph Merkel and his enduring legacy on his AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame page.
-Greg, Catalina, and Luigi Merkel.
P.S. - Check out our sister company Ponchos Rojas!
Greg Merkel - founder of Flying Merkel Inc, next to the ‘Merkster’ custom HD Sporster.