Let's Talk Cyclecars

Here is a Auto Red Bug with a Dodge Brothers starter generator for power. A friend has one and there is one in AACA museum.

 

That is not original! Sorry

 

Google is your friend. Made by the Automotive Electrical Service Corp. in North Bergen, N.J. Made from 1916 to 1929 with most of the electric ones made in the later years. The big battery box housed 2 six volt batteries wired in series.

 

True but we were talking about a Brigs and Stratton! Gary

 

Reminds me of this old battery box I have had kicking around in my workshop for years

 

I was referring to the reply that someone made an electric buckboard suing an old starter/generator for the motor. I doubt that back then they would have thought about regenerative braking.

 

It started out as the Smith Flyer, made by A.O. Smith, but they sold out to Briggs and Stratton just after WWI. Briggs built the gas version for five years and sold out to Automotive Standards (sometimes listed as Auto Electric Service), who made the Smith/Briggs buck board for a few years, but also designed an electric version around the Northeast starter/generator made for Dodge. They called their buckboards (gas and electric) the Red Bug, sometimes listed as the Auto Red Bug. The electric version lasted until 1930.
As the ad portrays, it was fairly successful as a toy for the wealthy. They also sold to resorts as a novelty.



Ettore Bugatti driving his son's Red Bug. The uncomfortable gentleman with the pipe is the king of Belgium!

 

...obviously that we are talking about both of variants:
~ gasoline-engined powered "fifth wheel" (Smith Flyer and later BS Flyer),
~ and electric-motor powered "Red Bug",
~ there were a few companies that made similar buckboard automobiles from the start of the XX century through a few decades...
--- ---
Could big electric-motor (ex-engine starter) be used for regenerative braking (braking and charging batteries at the same time) - probably YES, as many experts say for amateur-built bicycles (two, three or four wheels) with electric-motor assistance (factory produced, too).
It seems that brush-type electric-motor would have regenerative braking automatically when you "throttle-back" without cutting electric circle. Then, motor work as a generator producing electric energy charging batteries and use mechanical energy for that - braking vehicle. Not too much of either, but useful.
Brushless-type electric-motors need a special controller for that?
--- ---
Is shown red-yellow Auto Red Bug original or replica?
Who knows. Such cyclecars (in both variants) are the easiest inspirational vehicles for replications.
In America, there were a few small companies that produced replicas during the fifties and many amateurs made their own.

Ciao,
Zoran​

 

I talked to my friend that has an electric powered one. He said after Dodge Brothers quit using the starter generator in 1925 is when Auto Red Bug bought the excess and built these cars. His is a '25. They removed the third brush which turned them into a motor. An old advertisement he has claims 17 sustained mph, but does not give a distance. Obviously terrain and speed would effect distance. His actually has three different sprockets to give three speeds. Curious little car. I would not want to drive one on the road which was possible as they had headlights and brake light. Only the right rear wheel was driven. Did anyone recognize the Model T brake drum on the left side?

 

Don't know if this info is on this thread or not as I havnt read every single post but on youtube search 'festival of slow' for some great videos of cycle car meets in Europe

 

We've discussed the Festival of Slowth a couple of times. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

C6 @ Brooklands

 

What a great car!!

 

Those spare wheels spoil the look of an amazing car. Should have made the pockets larger to bring the tire down more.

 

I didn't notice them at first. To me, the windscreen is too vertical. That's what stuck out to me. But now that you point them out, they are all wrong. They are larger than the wheels on the car. I'm pretty sure that they're photoshopped in. Looking behind the closer spare, there's no wheel in the reflection, just the line of the neighboring car. Anyone know what that car is? I'd like to see more of it.

 

1926 model Amilcar according to the internet, although that UK registration dates from 1929. Searching on the UU997 UK registration brings up more recent photos on the web, but I can't seem to link to them on here.

 

I was asking about the car to the Amilcar's right. The car we've been discussing is actually an Amilcar Italiana. Here are 2014 pics of it:

It looks like it has been modified since the earlier pic, but they didn't fix the awkward side mounts.

 

Rytecraft in Australia along with Diamond T bus!

 

I'll consider myself suitably reprimanded -there's not a lot to go from that photo, but with the Perrot shaft brakes and that radiator stoneguard it could be a Wolseley Hornet Special -most of these were supplied "chassis only" to coachbuilders, so the body shape/style wouldn't be a clue in that case.

 

I was thinking Morris Special, but Wolseley Hornet makes more sense.

 

This is said to be a 1957 FMR (aka Messerschmitt) GS. The person who posted a poorly colorized version claimed ir was supposed to have replaced the KR200, but was not pursued. They claim their source was "Von Thyssen’s Lexicon" which I could not find anywhere online.

 

The source is maybe this book
http://www.paul-pietsch-verlage.de/...d=brviaielsggusz&navid=2&saktion1=autor#infos

 

That book looks interesting. On the publisher's page (in German of course) that you linked is a link to the author's site: www.autolexikon-thyssen.de, which is probably the source for the pic in question. Unfortunately, that site is long gone. I looked it up on Archive.org's Wayback Machine and it disappeared in 2018. The Wayback Machine only archived the front page of the site, so I wasn't able to get any details on the Messerschmitt.

 

Three wheeler with a Panhead engine from Yacht Club des Avions de la route

 

I wonder how long that engine lasted.

 

In 1974 I had a Panhead,and the Engine was fantastic.

 

Yes but you didn't have a flywheel , pressure plate and axial thrust applied to it. Most cases of using a Harley engine like this in a car resulted in many broken cranks.