The crazy Dolmette, the outrageous motorcycle born from a comic book

The brief story of an incredible German experiment: here’s what the Dolmette is, the motorcycle born from a comic book and chainsaws.

Human ingenuity knows no bounds, and the motorcycle world hasn’t lacked its share of bizarre, eccentric, even absurd experiments. One of these was called Dolmette, a very curious project by the German chainsaw manufacturer Dolmar. The fact that it ran on 24 chainsaws (no, it’s not a joke) already says a lot about the distinctly unusual soul of the project... And it all started from a comic! Today this motorcycle, still functional, is part of the private Feldmann collection—aka the cartoonist with the crazy idea and the brother who helped make it a reality—and is carefully kept at their headquarters/workshop in Germany. Here’s its story.

You might think that, for a motorcycle, the offbeat idea sprang from an engineer’s mind, as in the case of the two-wheeled Ferrari (we talked about it here). Instead, we must look to the world of comics and to Germany: Brösel, born Rötger Feldmann, is the father of Werner, a beer-loving, workshop-haunting plumber-biker who also cooks up unthinkable mechanical experiments. But in 2004 a wild idea crossed the cartoonist’s mind, and he decided to pitch the incredible proposal to one of the oldest and most famous chainsaw manufacturers in the world. Why not build a racing motorcycle using only chainsaw engines? Well, the German company saw a marketing opportunity to seize immediately and accepted. That’s when real mechanics and Andi Feldmann, the cartoonist’s brother, came into play: within a few months that crazy idea became reality.

The legendary Dolmette measured a total of 4 meters and weighed over 300 kg. The engine of this decidedly unusual two-wheeler is the combination of 24 single-cylinder two-stroke engines from as many Dolmar PS-7900 chainsaws, each 79cc, arranged in two parallel rows of twelve, resulting in a total displacement of nearly 1900cc and 170 horsepower. The 24 crankshafts had to be linked to produce a single movement: a system made up of 12 toothed belts was therefore designed and built. The starting procedure is clearly unusual too, since it echoed that of chainsaws—pull-start with the classic cord. Imagine the team of mechanics gathered around the machine, yanking 24 cords to fire it up! That’s exactly what happened, as there was no electronic or other type of starter.

In fact, it was September of that same year, 2004, when the extravagant Dolmette made its debut on a circuit. There it was at the Lausitzring: in the saddle was Andi Feldmann, the aforementioned brother of the cartoonist, ready to take on a promotional challenge against a race car, an Audi AS400 with 450 horsepower, driven by professional racer Christina Surer. One of the many car-vs-motorcycle duels we’ve seen time and again over the years, always for promotional purposes. The machine wasn’t easy—there were some issues with the belts that had to synchronize the chainsaws and allow this singular motorcycle to start. In the end the car won, but only by a hair.

It has been called “useless engineering,” in the sense that nothing followed from it, but it is still a working motorcycle and, as mentioned at the start, is part of the Feldmann brothers’ private collection—though it hasn’t entirely disappeared from public view. Specifically: the chances to see this one-off are at vintage motorcycle rallies, customizer festivals, or events related to the Werner comic that started it all. Not only that: at some special events the wacky Dolmette has even been fired up by a team of mechanics, cords and all, leaving the enthusiasts in attendance speechless.

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