In France and Italy, anything with only 50cc doesn´t have to have number plates. This includes such vehicles as the Piaggio Ape (bee) - shown here in "ten tenths" pose!
Ooooooo cool bananas I bet riding that is a wee bit on the thrilling side. Being so low to the ground though I'd be worried about not being seen in traffic and getting run over Great action picture of that Piaggio Ape James The 'Veloto' minicar I mentioned, which was built in the 1970s, has both bicycle type pedals and a 50cc two stroke engine. I'm not sure what other French made 50cc cars use a similar system. I loved that picture of the 'traction avant' bicycle motorised attachment. I have wondered about trying out such a system on one of my bicycles, only I've been a little worried about the pendulum effect of having a motor attached to the front forks.
This Chater Lea is in a hot rodder's shed not far from where I live. Body was done by David Hembrow, now in the Netherlands. I believe it was built up from a "basket case". http://hembrow.eu/history.html
Wow! I remember reading about that Chater-Lea some years ago now; - I'd completely forgotten about it until I saw that picture.
That little motor was so light and so small, it was still behind the line of the front spindle. The fuel tank was behind the stem, presumably as some sort of counterweight. If you wanted to do one of these, then try and get hold of a Peugeot 103 moped engine which also has a friction clutch. These are the most uncomplicated lightweight motors ever, have been in production since the 1950s more or less unchanged and - best of all - have a huge amount of tuning parts available very cheaply. You can build a complete one from new spares and pick it up in one hand.
On frontwheel motors; In France, Belgium and Holland the "Solex" and "Berini" types were and still are very popular, they use a frictiondrive directly on the front tyre, simple, no chains, no reduction gearbox, no clutch. Berini's would bolt on to a normal bicycle, Solex's were specially adapted "mopeds" Search Solex or Berini on Google; Solex: Berini: Berini were lovingly known as "Eitje" or Egg because of the shape of the fueltank Edit: Can't find the book on Morgans, its long out of print, but maybe second hand on Amazon, sorry Edit: found eight secondhand on Amazon !
I can hardly make out any sort of braking system. Maybe he stops it by rubbing his elbow on that tiny rear drum? Is this why English sporting jackets of that era had leather elbow pads?? H.M.Walter in his 'Jappic' of 1925, good for 68.79 mph in 350 ccs form.
More on the above Jappic: And I couldn't resist these, though they're rather bigger than cyclecar territory:
found this, a Berini: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdILLBvHms and this, a Solex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMjcW3vZTos&feature=fvw and Solexraces are realy popular events in Holland and France, enter "Solexrace" on Youtube and drop your jaw!!
Nice example of getting the weight "Up High" and "as Far Forward as Possible". A BAD Attitude that really should be avoided.
From the vintage photo thread.... my new screen saver! Isn't this a hoot? I think I'm gonna need a trailer just like this one, only perhaps double the size. Later, Gary
Aged cyclemotors turn up for sale from time to time here in NZ with the 'Solex' being about the most common of a somewhat rarely seen species in this climate. Trouble is when they do turn up they're often in appalling shape and their owners want very large sums of money (relatively speaking) for them. There's one on offer at the moment that I know off, but it's lacking its wheels and a lot of other small parts and when I asked about the engine I was told it was siezed. None of this seemed to affect the price tag all that much though. At one time I owned an NSU Quickly and I very much regret selling it because it really was a delightful wee bike. (The one in the picture is not mine btw. My one was a lot more shabby looking and much used) The problem with the roller-on-the-wheel type cyclemotors is that they tend to wear out the driven wheel's tyre amazingly quickly and in the wet the drive roller loses most if not all of its grip. In the absence of 'classic' European motors and clip-on attachments for me to use to power a bicycle many of the lightweight small engines made for weedeaters and the like could be a good choice to build a cyclemotor around. I shall have to have a dig about to see what I can find On another note, that silver 'cigar' on wheels is pretty cool looking and would definitely be a head turner wherever it went.
AV Monocar: related to the Carden, I believe; at least very similar in concept to the early centre-pivot-steered Carden. Edit: from Wikipedia: "The AV was a British cyclecar manufactured by Ward and Avey in Somerset Road, Teddington Middlesex between 1919 and 1924. It was one of the more successful cyclecars and was based on a design bought from Carden and built in the factory that they had previously used. At the peak they had 80 employees. The first model was a single seater, the Monocar, only 30 inches (760 mm) wide with bodies built by the Thames Valley Pattern Works[1] out of wood, plywood or even compressed paper. The complete car only weighed about 550 pounds (250 kg)[1]. Engines were rear mounted, air cooled and rated from 5 to 8hp. There was a choice of JAP (most commonly), Blackburne or rarely MAG units[1]. Gearboxes were either a two speed epicyclic unit with foot operated change or three speed Sturmey-Archer [1] with chain drive to the rear axle. Steering was by a wire and bobbin system with the entire front axle being pivoted on early cars. Several hundred were made." (italics mine) A 1919 model:
Ooooooo I like AV cyclecars almost as much as I like Carden cyclecars Thanks for the pictures and short history Ned. I do wonder what driving a cyclecar with centre pivot steering would be like and whether this method of steering is as unbelieveably dangerous as everybody says it is.
I ´m thinking thats a big fat "yes!" Does that thing have any kind of ability to twist the suspension, or is it just up and down movement as it appears? How long do you have until the front axle breaks off?
From what I can see in the old photos and etc the suspension only has up and down movement without any allowance for twist. The cyclecars with centre pivot steering that were considered to be successful tended to have a narrow track of no more than 30 inches which I would imagine would keep the twisting to a minimum. The cars themselves being light and the axles being well braced would also help to keep disaster away as well. Just out of interest though I did find this picture of an unidentified cyclecar with centre pivot steering and it seems to have a ball joint arrangement as the pivot. That would certainly permit the axle to twist.
I've given some cursory thought to that, and it's struck me that it might be possible to devise some sort of arrangement, perhaps involving parallelogram linkages, that would allow the steering to precess like a bicycle's. That would enable a long, narrow cyclecar in the AV/early Carden/Bedelia vein to lean into curves ...
Certainly an interesting approach Ned. Leaning arrangements for cyclecars, trikes and sidecar outfits certainly aren't a new idea and they've always fascinated me, only the thought of all those links and getting them laid out correctly makes my head hurt
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