Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

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My grandson swears that I'm making this up but a long long while ago I had a bike with a engine over the front wheel.It wasn't a home brewed affair but a proper made thing.
To gain a bit of speed with the engine it was dropped so that it rested on the front tyre.It had a wheel covered with what looked like sandpaper that was supposed to grip the tyre and propel the rider to a dizzying speed.
In the rain it slipped like hell and if you stopped and forgeot to lift the engine it could wear through the tyre which then went off with a resounding bang.
I think the whole contraption was called a mighty atom.
cCn anyone remember these?.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

Mytocon · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:25 pm Post subject:

I can confirm you're not making it up, indeed I had a similar device that I sold to some one (perhaps on this forum) called a "MiniMotor", which was dropped onto the back wheel and used a blunt cog to do the same thing.

Aar0sc · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 98 Location: Surrey

French, a mate's got one - Velepeed or something? Look mentally unstable!
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Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22835 Location: UK

There was also the Power Pak, but I think that was over the rear wheel not the front.

Aar0sc - the French thing with the motor over the front wheel is the Velosolex, they made them for decades.

RJ
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baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

Someone e-mailed me saying that Vincent of HRD fame made one.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

Penman · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4880 Location: Swindon, Wilts.

Hi
I don't know why but it always struck me that the front wheel drive ones might not be as controlable as the rear wheel ones.
13 Didn't they have a centrifugal clutch so that they stopped driving when the throttle was closed?
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DM · Joined: 21 Dec 2008 Posts: 214 Location: North Cornwall

Vincent made the Firefly, designed by Miller.

There were quite a few front wheel drive cyclemotors made.

I used to have a couple of Cymota's and still have a Berini which I must put back on the road seeing as it was last used by me in 1978 Rolling Eyes

Mog · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 663 Location: Sydney

We lived in Hastings in the early 50's. I can remember seeing this Frenchman with an engine on the front and back wheel. He also had mass of camping gear strapped all over it.

I think the engine was in the middle of the back wheel.

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22835 Location: UK

alan 869 · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 388 Location: Linköping Sweden

There was a german one which went between the forks, behind the pedal axel. Rubber roller on the back wheel. Slightly larger than your hand. Loman it was called and there is a following for them here. Diesel Shocked

I´ve had on of the variations on this theme for many years. The bike was made in Helsingborg and the motor in another town (Eskilstuna). Petrol with chain drive. It´s untouched from the time it was part-exchanged for a new push bike in the beginning of the 60s. The make is Örnen (Eagle) and not many made. It´s from 1952 The motor factory burnt down after a few years so the motors are quite rare. It runs nicely. Comes out for a few miles every year.

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baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

Wasn't there one called the "Winged wheel"
Odd isn't it that in a world of computers and technology that my grandson and his mates now show more interest in 1950's oddities than the latest mobile phone.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22835 Location: UK

traction39 · Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 399 Location: South Wales

baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

With the deluxe version you got a string of onions.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

gresham flyer · Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Posts: 1435

You have got to remember these machines were designed in a different era to today`s world of parent taxi service.

A young teenager living in rural France or in the very quiet suburbs could at the age of fourteen legally ride a velosolex to the next village in the evening
to meet the girl he met at school or young teenagers could ride them to school...how cool that was in the 1960`s or early 1970`s.

I remember at the age of thirteen going over to Paris where my father was working and seeing kids nearly my age flying around on these machines..back home in the UK the law was different and we thought it super cool to have ape hanger handle bars on our pushbikes,with fur on the cross bar or if you were lucky an older brother who would make your bike into a fixed wheel trickster.

We then got round the law in the UK for sixteen year olds to ride a moped as long as it had pedals fitted,along came the Raleigh Runabout.

As a young lad I remember our babysitter arriving at our house on a Raleigh Runabout and would plead with her to let me have a go on it.
Even at that young age I thought it very sexy for a female to ride a motorised machine.
If you think about it your world was your oyster when you got your first motor driven machine..dad would not cart you about in the evening if a John Wayne western was on the telly,the Morris Oxford was not welcome to get out on a very fosty night, and mother certainly did not drive.

How times have changed.

Gresham Flyer