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?

Motobecane Poney

It's not often that pictures of bygone French machinery appear on the blog but here for a change is a Motobecane BMA (Bicyclette à Moteur Auxiliare - thanks Laurent!). The model is a Poney and I believe dates from the late forties /early fifties.

Looking chic on her Poney.

New Hudson Autocycle 1956

Brochure for the New Hudson autocycle. 1956 was the year the New Hudson Autocycle was revamped and given cleaner, more enclosed bodywork. Production continued until 1958 when Villiers dropped the 2F engine that was fitted to the New Hudson from their range. New Hudson was actually part of the bicycle division of BSA. It could also be that BSA discontinued the Autocycle and did not seek a replacement motor for the Villiers as during the end of it's production run the Autocycle was competing with BSA's own branded Dandy.

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.

The tale of an Autocycle tyre

Nearly 10 years ago I was with my '55 Bullet in Nairobi, Kenya.The bike had taken a real battering riding the infamous 'Moyale' road down from Ethiopia. The rear subframe had snapped and I needed a new front tyre.

Finding parts and engineers in an unfamiliar city brings adventures of its own. To fix the subframe I detached it from the bike, took the two now separate parts of the frame to a machinist in the industrial bazaar area to get an internal sleeve made to hold the two pieces of tube together. That done I re-assembled the bike and asked around to find a friendly bike shop with a welder. I rode gently to the shop with deference to my interference fit subframe. I pulled up to find the proprietor who was an elderly Indian gentleman unexpectedly waiting for me. He was welling up and emotional as he told me that he had heard the bike coming from up the street and it had reminded him of his years road racing around Nairobi in the fifties so he had come out to watch the bike pass by when I rode in to his shop. As his welder fixed the subframe he regaled me with stories of riding British racing singles in Kenya.

Shopping for a tyre led me to a wonderful tyre emporium in downtown Nairobi. Though a well stocked and brisk modern business the shop itself was a throw back to the nineteen thirties. On asking for a nineteen inch tyre I was taken to the stock room at the back and shown a selection, of which I selected a sturdy block pattern 3.25 x 19. The stock room was dusty and there was obviously some stuff that hadn't moved in a very long time. I was allowed to have a peek around and spotted a 26 x 2.25 Dunlop Motorette Balloon tyre. For some reason I felt the urge to purchase it as a souvenir, the price was very moderate. Why I bought it I am not quite sure as I did not have the space to carry it on the bike so had to post it home which cost more than the tyre in the first place. Something just tickled me that a War Grade autocycle tyre should still be sitting there after sixty odd years. Maybe I should have left it to stay there a while longer but I didn't.

When I returned from the pan-African travels the Motorette tyre was there waiting for me. Slightly a lame duck souvenir; very interesting it may be but it is not something easy to display or particularly welcomed by my better half as an ornament, understanding as she generally is. So the tyre languished under the bench in the workshop. That is until I heard from local military vehicle enthusiast Ron, who is restoring a 1939 James and was on the look out for tyres. It seemed like more than a good idea to pass the tyre on to someone who would use and display it on a machine rather than it sit under the bench for several more years. Thus it is how a tyre made in Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, England made its way to Nairobi and back to England again to finally be used as originally intended. 

New old stock Dunlop Motorette Balloon tyre.

Genuine War Grade!

Villiers Mark 2F Autocycle engine

Eye-catching simple graphics on this Villiers brochure for their 2F autocycle engine. The 2F was introduced in 1949.

Villiers 2F brochure front cover.

Villiers 2F brochure page 2.

Villiers 2F brochure page 3.

Villiers 2F brochure rear cover.