Manfred Rau
Manfred Rau from Germany either ripped off the Egli backbone design or made a good design even better, depending on your point of view (i.e. whether you own a Rau or an Egli). I have both so may I consider myself neutral ;-). He built his first chassis (for the CB 500 motor) in 1972, several years after Egli. On the other hand, many framebuilders of that era used a similar design, and Egli had adopted the backbone design from Vincent. As a side note, Rau had also built two or three framework frames with Laverda engines.
The production of Rau frames changed hands from Manfred Rau himself in Grossbettlingen (near Stuttgart in the South West of Germany) to PS-Schuppen (PSS), run by Rainer Weidlich. PS-Schuppen had acted a Rau dealership before, and when Manfred Rau sold his operations in 1985 to PSS took over. My Rau Honda was built by PS-Schuppen in 1981. Manfred Rau himself died unexpectedly in 1991, age 48.
Rau Honda
Unlike the Egli frame, the Rau could also accomodate Honda front forks, and Honda stock wheels. Mine came with a F2 front end together with stock F2 Comstar wheels
I didn't like the Comstar wheels from the first day I had the bike, so plans were to replace them by a pair of PVM aluminum wheels, in 2.5x18 and 4.00x18. And, while I was at it, I wanted to upgrade the front brakes with new calipers as well. Now, as so often, one thing leads to another, and now the Rau has a completely new front end. A Marzocchi fork from the early belt drive Ducati 750SS with 40mm fork legs in Yamaha Vmax triple trees, a pair of Grimeca calipers on drilled and thinned K series disks, stainless steel brake lines and a Brembo master cylinder. Add a new cockpit and clip-ons instead of the old drag bar.
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Here's another Rau Honda, built by Ralph-Peter Nagel of Germany:
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The present
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