Motosacoche goes camping

A charming picture featuring a Motosacoche from the veteran era.

Motosacoche were a Swiss firm that started off in 1899 making bicycle attachments. The name literally means 'motor in a case' as the engine units were packaged within an enclosed triangular subframe that would bolt into a bicycle's main triangle. 

The machine pictured here is a Model A that was made from 1901 up to 1910. Motosacoche went on to produce a large range of conventional motorcycles and MAG proprietory engines. Interestingly Motosacoche were paired up with Royal Enfield in the early days - they provided an IOE v-twin engine to Royal Enfield when they recommenced motorcycle production in 1910. Royal Enfield produced the cycle parts and sold it in the UK under the RE brand, Motosacoche produced a machine in turn that was near identical to the Royal Enfield and sold under their own brand name through Europe.

It's quite hard to come up with a back story to the photo. It is certainly very posed. The bell tent seems quite incongruous with the backdrop of what appears to be a windowless high sided wooden building with a corrugated iron roof.

Motosacoche - the motor in a case.

The Grom Motorcycle Museum, Vransko, Slovenia part III

The final tranche of photos from the Grom collection in Vransko, Slovenia.

Cracking unrestored german Imme R100.
Very unusual and striking design. A lot of features
ahead of its time. Imme is German for Bee.

A late vintage swiss Motosacoche in the background
and a german Standard Rex Sport model from 1938
to the fore.

A trio of Indians. A 4, a Scout and a Prince.

Tomos 50cc racer.

ABC Scootermota.

Military corner. A Kettenkrad in the background,
a Welbike hiding away up on a shelf and a Moto
Guzzi Nuovo Falcone in the foreground.

Closer up on that Kettenkrad and a Zundapp KS750 Wehrmacht
combo from 1940 in front of it.

Late thirties DKW SB200 two stroke.

Lovely Jawa 500cc ohc twin. A beautifully
styled bike. The headlamp nacelle was allegedly
copied by Turner for Triumph and the engine
is fairly obviously inspiration for Kawasaki's
W650 despite claims that it is a Triumph clone.

Difficult to find an angle to take a photo of this
machine but I wanted to include it as it is a
bit unusual. On the face of it it looks like a fifties
NSU but look at the tank and it says NSU Pretis.
More below..

When NSU discontinued the 175 OSB Maxi model in 1963
production of it was taken up by the Pretis factory in Sarajevo,
former Yugoslavia. Pretis stands for Preduzeće Tito Sarajevo,
they also took on production of the Prima scooter and Prinz car.
Production continued until 1967 when the factory closed. 

Veteran Motosacoche riding a long distance trial

I know nothing about this pair of pictures and would love to know more. Looks like a long distance trial from the veteran era possibly a MCC one or it could be the Scottish Six Days. My only guess as to the machine would be that it is a Motosacoche. Seems like he's adding slightly more than light pedal assistance to aid his machine up the hill.

There's an interesting article about Motosacoche on Andrew Pattle's moped archive.

Veteran era Motosacoche riding a long distance trial.

Heavy pedal assistance!