Raleigh RM1 moped brochure

Keeping up the theme of variety (or continued alienation of any one particular group of blog readers, take your pick) here's the 1958 Raleigh Moped brochure from 1958.

For more info on Raleigh mopeds see Andrew Pattle's excellent Moped Archive.

 

Ambassador Moped 1961

Ambassador was perhaps the most interesting of the crop of lightweight motorcycle brands that sprung up post WWII. This was largely in part due to the proprietor, Kaye but also because the products were a cut above the average in quality and design.

Irish born and of Polish heritage (his name was Donsky before shortened and anglicised to Don), Kaye Don was the archetypal gentleman racer of the inter-war period. He had served in the Royal Flying Corp in WW1 and post war he raced motorcycles, cars and speedboats and was even involved in land speed record attempts.

To find out more about Kaye Don see:

The Kaye Don Wikipedia page

The Vintagent article on Kaye Don

The Ambassador moped was a brave attempt at a quality British moped to take on the likes of the NSU Quickly and other continental success stories. It was something of a swansong for Don as he retired the year after the Moped was introduced and (perhaps quite astutely) sold the business to DMW just before the real decline in the British Motor Cycle industry fully kicked in.

There is a great write up on the Ambassador Moped on Andrew Pattle's Moped Archive: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0372.htm

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25/01/2023:

I've received this information from Ambassador guru Michael Easton:

There is quite a story behind Ambassador's Moped, but suffice to say that the Ambassador Machine Register currently (Jan 2023) records just seven surviving Ambassador Mopeds. Essentially just re-badged and repainted Solifer Type 47 mopeds from Finland, but with the perfectly good Solifer engine removed and fitted with the not-so-good Villiers 3K engine.

Thank you Michael.

________________________

Exuberent French Illuminator

 A mystery item here. All I know is that it is French, stylish in a quirky manner and slightly crazy. Is it from a bicycle or a moped / autocycle? It appears to mount on the handlebar stem. I'm guessing the age is thirties, forties or perhaps early fifties. I do not really have anything suitable to fit this light to but it is the kind of item that makes me feel the urge to build up a two wheeler around it! 

Can anyone out there assist with further information?

The Ariel Pixie

 Another British motorcycle industry might have been, the Ariel Pixie.

The Pixie was Val Page's last design and envisaged to be a 75cc ohc machine, a direct competitor to the Honda 90 that had scared the captains of the British motorcycle industry so much. BSA top brass are nowadays derided for watering down Page's design to a 50cc ohv engine and that is held as the reason that the Pixie was a sales failure but the real reason is far wider than that. Honda succeeded because they had new state of the art machinery capable of pushing out C90s manufactured to very fine tolerances in their thousands. Not only this but Honda had a huge market in Asia right on their doorstep. BSA on the other hand were producing bikes on outdated machinery and selling to a limited market of the former Empire and the States. It didn't matter at all what fantastical world-beating design came off the drawing board the sad reality is that when it came off the BSA production line it was always going to be more expensive and less reliable than a Honda Cub. If Honda themselves had licensed BSA to produce the Cub on the BSA production line it would have probably leaked oil and had reliability issues.....

Disregarding the above the Pixie is a cute little machine and for my eyes the styling is right. They are now something of a rarity and the production run was short - 1963 to 1965. This particular brochure is dated 1962, presumably printed in time for the Earls Court Motorcycle Show held in November.

Dot Vivi 1957

Several of the small British manufacturers tried to cash in on the 1950's scooter and moped boom by importing European models and rebranding them under their own flag. Dot was one of these with their Dot Vivi range.

Vivi mopeds were made in Italy by Officine Viberti (a manufacturer of coach bodies and trailers) in collaboration with the German company Victoria (Victoria engines were used). Viberti Victoria - Vivi.

The Vivi machines were quite competent lightweights having conventional Italian cycle parts and a tried and tested German motor. Dot imported them from 1957 to 1962.

The Dot Vivi showed good sporting potential and 50cc racing was taking off in the late fifties so Dot intitiated their own small scale racing programme - there's a nice article about it on the Classic 50 Racing Club website.

Striking cover design from Dot for
for their Dot-Vivi range.

Here's the base model Dot-Vivi Moped.

The Dot-Vivi Racer is really a racer
in name only. Nice sporty looks but
same front end and motor as the Moped.

And finally the Dot-Vivi Scooterette.
This model is the same as the Moped
with the addition of legshields and an
extra valance on the rear mudguard.

Tiddlers at the Vine

First Wednesday of the month gentlefolk with more than a passing interest in old and low powered two wheelers meet at The Vine Inn near Wimborne. Balmy summer months are a good excuse for a powered amble along lesser used roads of the local area before the usual natter. Pictures and elaborations below...

First on scene, my BSA D1 Bantam.

Followed by two further wonderfully unrestored machines,
Lambretta LD150 and Raleigh RM4 Automatic. There was
also an immaculate Honda SS50 but I was remiss and
neglected to take a picture...

Closer on the LD150. On the run a good match for the Bantam.

The Raleigh was a flyer occasionally seeing 45mph. I've not
seen the swing engine in action before - it is pivoted from the
cylinder head and belt tension is maintained on the variomatic
gearing by means of the motor rocking backwards and forwards
as revs decrease or increase. More on Raleigh mopeds at the
Moped Archive:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0638.htm

As we approached Tarrant Rushton Airfield we were joined
by a WW2 Jeep.

On the 75th Anniversary of D-Day it was
appropriate to stop. Tarrant Rushton was
the take off point for many of the gliders that
took part in the operation.

Two large hangars are still standing at Tarrant Rushton.

There is a short length of runway left.

Norman Lido

It's not so often you come across photos from back in the day of mopeds. Perhaps folks just weren't as proud of them or as enthusiastic about them as they were of their motorbikes. So, for me, it was nice to find this snap of a chap with his Norman Lido.

Norman Lido from circa 1960.

Berini Super Sport 3 or sale

Classic Moped Spares posted a comment on the Berini Super Sport ad that I posted last year. They've got a very tidy one in stock and the price seems to me to be very fair. What a weird and wonderful machine, can't imagine you would see another one on the road in the UK!

I would be tempted myself but for a combination of too little free cash and a full garage....

Here's the direct link. http://www.classicmopedspares.com/bikes-for-sale/bikes-for-sale/super-rare-1964-berini-super-sport-3-with-v5c-documents-please-see-description.html

Honda SS50 1975

Just so much 70s awesome-ness going on with this Honda brochure. Obviously aiming for coolness by association by placing the bike in front of a load of gig posters but the housewife and child between bike and posters can't have been a big pull to the sixteener market that the SS50 was aimed squarely at. A strange year for music too, lots of old names from old bands, prog rock and folk revival, just a short time before punk came on to the scene and cut through the dross....

Honda SS50 brochure front side.

Honda SS50 brochure rear side.

Dunelt Moped 1956

Single page flyer from 1956 for the Dunelt moped. Pre-war the Dunelt brand had been known for an innovative range of supercharged two strokes. In 1935 Dunelt quit motorcycle production and in 1937 they sold out their bicycle brand to Raynal. Raynal were in turn bought out by Tube Investments in 1950. TI were, of course, also the owners of the Raleigh bicycle brand. Dunelt branded bicycles were available through until the sixties when TI dropped the name.

Through the fifties several prototype mopeds with the Dunelt brand were made by TI, the last of which is the below. The 1956 Dunelt used a German Rex two speed engine and apparently never made it in to full production.

Of course by this point all Dunelt was to TI was one brand in their large portfolio of names in British cycling and motorcycling. The Dunelt moped was not dropped altogether as if you look carefully there is a clear link to the Phillips Gadabout. The earlier Gadabouts were rigid framed devices but there was a springer frame prototype fitted with a three speed Rex unit that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Dunelt. More about the Phillips Gadabout on the Iceni CAM site. 

1956 Dunelt moped flyer

Bristol Classic Bike Show 2017 pt1

The Bristol Classic Bike Show has now been and gone. A chilly and rainy weekend but, hey, what can we expect - it is early February. Thankfully most of the show is indoors even if the halls at the Bath and West Showground are slightly drafty and with a faint whiff of cattle piss about them.

The autojumble is for the most part trade stands and tool stalls with very little in the way of old bike bits being offered. Stand price and the very excellent (and reasonably priced) VMCC Somerset jumble happening in the same venue just a month later probably contribute to this. The bikes on display were however this year really top notch. Some fantastic and unusual machines and nice to see that a good number were even ridden along to the show. It's heartening that folks are prepared to bring along such exotica as an ex-Lawrence Brough and show it to the public. The Vincent Owners club had a great line up of pre-war HRDs including two immaculate twins. There were plenty of noteworthy stands but the London Douglas Club had some cracking machinery - this year was the year of the pre-war ohv Duggie as there were several in different trims and conditions. It's unusual to see one let alone several. On the subject of speedway machinery there was an immaculate vintage Norton track iron on the Norton Owners Club stand.

I wish I could have taken pictures of more but the nature of a show is such that light and angle is not always favourable for photography but here are a few humble offerings from across the weekend....

I managed to sneak in a few snaps on Friday, the setting up
day, when there were a few less people around and more space.
Here's a lovely little Baker Villiers.

Unusual to see so many Yamaha TDRs together.

TDR line up once more. I've never tried one but I've heard
they are fantastic bikes.

This Lambretta Li125 had been brush painted. The owner
carefully stripped it back to original. Great to see the scoot
in this condition.

Nicely accessorised Norton Commando.

Not my cup of tea but a lot of work had gone in to this
Trident.

The only angle to shoot a Hurricane from.

A brace of Greeves road twins.

Aermacchi Ala Verde.

Douglas 350T, The first post war model and with an engine
derived from Douglas' wartime generator units. A really
interesting design with a lot of cast alloy used. Torsion bar
rear suspension, leading link front and these early post war
models had the 'waffle box' silencer under the engine.

Excelsior Autocycle on the NACC stand.

Francis Barnett Powerbike - note the rocking
fork front suspension.

Very stylish RAP Imperial.

More of the RAP moped.

And another angle on the RAP.

This Panther is so proper it is almost staged. The bloke who
rides this surely wears waxed cotton and smokes roll ups. He
has probably rebuilt the engine at the side of the road with a
new piston he turned up himself whilst on the way up to the
Scottish Highlands to pick up a spare con rod he saw advertised
in Exchange and Mart. He wrote the vendor a letter but got no
reply so thought he would just ride up and see if it was still
available. Excellent bike. I want this. You can't call yourself a
true classic motorcyclist unless you have a bike like this.

The Panther Owners Club stand was indeed a source of many
wonders. Here, a home made Panther-based v-twin in a
Featherbed frame.

The Panther guys don't seem to take themselves
too seriously nor do they treat their machines
as sacred cows. There were plenty of modified
bikes on the stand and several chops.

Kreidler R50 Scooter

Sales brochure for the Kriedler R 50 scooter made from 1954 to 1957.

Kriedler R 50 brochure front cover.

Kriedler R 50 brochure page 1.

Kriedler R 50 brochure page 2.

Kriedler R 50 brochure rear cover.