Automoto 1929 AL9 Grand Tourisme Luxe 348 cc side valve single frame # 51896 engine # 30122 Automoto is one of the pioneer French makes: at the end of the 19th century a group of bicycle parts manufacturers in St. Etienne merges into one company that gets the name Automoto. Soon production of complete cycles, motorised tricycles and automobiles is taken up, next to various other products such as washing machines, hunting weapons and sundry agricultural machinery. During the 1914-1918 war the com ...
Indian 1919 “N-19 PowerPlus” 998 cc side valve V- twin combination frame & engine # 71M868 For model year 1919 only minor changes are made in The PowerPlus specifications: the gearbox gets larger bearings and an oil groove in the enlarged mainshaft improves lubrication. The valve chambers are larger and the engine main and big end bearings are made to closer tolerances for better wear resistance. The conspicuous black band striping edged with thin gold lines that was introduced for the 1917 mode ...
BMW 1940 R51 Sport 494 cc OHV horizontally opposed twin frame # 514025 engine # 506030 In the late thirties BMWs are sold in considerable numbers, in spite of their high prices. The make has built up an excellent reputation for quality and luxury: from 1938 on all BMWs have both front and rear springing, a feature which is at the time very uncommon for most other makes. From 1938 till the war stops production of civilian bikes all BMW twins share a common frame and cycle parts. All engines are i ...
Moto Guzzi 1972 V7 GT 850 844cc 90 degree transverse V-twin frame # VP 11371 engine # VP 51984 The first motorcycle to use Guzzi’s v-twin appeared in the late 1960s in the form of the 703cc V7, and this remarkable engine would prove exceptionally versatile, being enlarged beyond 1,000cc and powering machines of all kinds ranging from the super-sports Le Mans to the automatic transmission Convert tourer. The V7 was developed into the 748cc V7 Sport and in 1972 a heavier touring version of the V7 ...
BMW 1982 R100RT 980 cc OHV opposed twin frame & engine # 6234522 In the autumn of 1976, after three years, the /6 series is replaced by the /7 series for the 1977 range. The 898 cc capacity of the top /6 models is now upped to 980 cc by enlarging the bore from 90 to 94 mm. There are three models in the 980cc class, the “basic” R100/7, is a pleasant tourer, the more sporty and powerful R100S and the top model, the R100RS. In 1978 a R100 with full touring fairing , taller windshield and higher han ...
Ariel 1929 Model E “ Two Port Standard” 499cc OHV single frame # H5807 engine # H4032 The new line of Ariels, introduced at the end of 1925 and designed by engineering genius Val Page, had been an instant success. Not so much because of its technical innovations, but mostly for its very attractive styling: lower saddle position, shortened wheel base and high saddle tank. Victor Mole was the new man in charge of sales at the Ariel works and he designed the new eye-catching emblem of the Ariel hor ...
AJS 1928 “K5” 349cc side valve single frame # K 124388 engine # 124388 The four Stevens brothers had been in motorcycle manufacturing since the final years of the 19th century, but only in 1911 their first complete “AJS” motorcycle, a 298cc two speeder, was marketed. For the 1912 season their first V- twin, the model D, was brought out. In the 1914 Junior TT a magnificent first and second place was scored. The 350 cc AJS OHV machines from the twenties got their nickname “bigport” from the enormo ...
Douglas 1920 4 HP 595 cc side valve flat twin frame# 12877 engine # 11559 This Bristol-based firm develops the horizontally opposed fore-aft unit in about 1907 and continues utilising this engine layout well into the thirties. The earliest Douglas models have direct belt drive, but in 1910 a two-speed gearbox is added, with the control on top of the petrol tank. Douglas machines become very popular because of their lightness, ease of starting and speed: in the 1912 Junior TT races Douglas takes ...
Harley Davidson 1928 1217 cc Special Two-Cam engine # 28JDH11137 The twin-cam arrangement had first been seen in 1916 on the works-only eight-valve racers that were developed by William Ottaway and was adopted on the factory’s F-Head racers and hill-climbers after World War 1. Twin-cam engines were used all through the twenties only to the factory team and some favoured dealers. But in November 1927, too late to be included in the 1928 catalogue, road going two cammers were made available to the ...
BAT 1914 4½ HP 654 cc side valve V-twin frame # 789 engine # 32478 The company was started in 1902 by S.R. Batson in Kingswood Road, Penge, a district of South East London. The first BATs were fitted with sturdy De Dion Bouton engines which were positioned vertically in the frame. This showed foresight at a time when many manufacturers still clipped their engines to the frame tubes. By 1904 the business was sold to Theodore and Sidney Tessier, who went on to promote the make by taking part in sp ...
Triumph 1914 4HP 550 cc type “C” Roadster 3 speed Sturmey Archer combination frame # 2240MS engine # 35942 High quality of finish and workmanship were always very strong points with Triumph; year by year details in the design were improved. Some of the “important improvements” (as the company put it) listed in the 1914 catalogue were: 85×97 engine giving 550 cc, curved frame giving very low saddle position, semi-automatic drip feed lubrication and wider tank. No less than seven models were catal ...
Vincent 1951ca. “ Series C Comet” 499cc OHV single frame # RC/1/8662 rear frame # RC/1/8662 engine # F5AB/2A/4926 crankcase mating # 14N / 14N Since his schoolboy days Philip Vincent had been a great admirer of Howard Raymond Davies, who had begun manufacturing HRD machines at Wolverhampton in 1924. While studying mechanical engineering at Cambridge Vincent built his prototype Vincent Special that already incorporated the strong triangulated and braced sprung rear fork that would remain a featur ...
Zenith 1926 Model “6-80” 678 cc JAP side valve V-twin frame # 9590 engine # GT/A/44028 Zeith machines were manufactured from 1904 till 1950, in a variety of factories in or around London. From the early days proprietary engines were used, such as Fafnir, Green-Precision, JAP, Bradshaw and Villiers. The latter engines were used in most models from the thirties. In pre WW1 days Zenith machines gained many successes; driving force was chief engineer Freddy Barnes, who was responsible for the famous ...
Martinsyde 1922 “Type B” 6 HP 678 cc exhaust-over-inlet V-twin engine # 221434 The British firm of Martinsyde was founded in 1908 when Helmuth Paul Martin and George Harris Handasyde went into partnership to build aircraft. By the end of WWI Martinsyde was Britain’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, occupying sites at Brooklands and Maybury Hill in Woking. Faced with a sharp downturn in demand for its products, the firm turned to motorcycle production after the war’s end, having acquired the ...
“Pidcock” 1942 electric motorcycle During the second world war petrol was hard to come by for civilian use in Britain, so Peterborough inhabitant Mr. J. Pidcock, from 99 Crown Street, designed and built a motorcycle that was not driven by petrol, but used electricity as driving power. He started by using a converted 1922 Douglas rolling chassis, but later designed a special frame that he coupled to a ca 1930 BSA headstock and front forks. He fitted 21“ wheels and power came from three 6 volt bat ...
Magnat-Debon 1914 4 HP 485 cc OHV V-twin frame # 8849 engine # 2531 In the year 1900 Joseph Magnat and Louis Debon found a firm in Grenoble that starts to produce bicycles. In 1902 the first motorcycle is built, equipped with a De Dion Bouton engine. From 1906 on there is a regular motorcycle production with own-brand engines. In the years before the first world war the firm prospers: the machines have many novel features such a telescopic front suspension and some models have overhead valves. B ...
Quadrant 1903 2HP ca. 225cc A.I.V. frame # 62114 engine # 577 Quadrant, founded as a bicycle factory by Walter and William Lloyd in 1883, was among the first British bicycle manufacturers to venture into motorcycle production. Their first model, the Quadrant Autocyclette was equipped with the then very popular 211 cc Minerva clip-on engine and appeared in 1901. The following year Walter took out a patent for an ‘all-in-one’ control lever to raise the exhaust valve, control the ignition switch an ...
FN 1914 “Type 700” 748 cc four cylinder T-head side valve frame # 70452 engine # 1274 At the Paris Salon at the end of 1914 a completely redesigned FN-4 is presented. Both engine and frame are totally new. The longer and sturdier frame now accommodates a 748 cc power source, with bore x stroke dimensions of 52 x 88 mm. The atmospheric intake system has been abandoned and the engine now has a full side valve layout, with valves on opposite sides of the cylinder, the so-called T-head configuration ...
Mondial 1962 “Nova” 123cc OHV frame & engine # 3926 Few marques have achieved so fine a competition record in so short a time as FB Mondial. FB Mondial was founded in the aftermath of WW2 by the Boselli family, whose first venture into powered transport had been with the FB (Fratelli Boselli) three-wheeled delivery van in the 1930s. The name ‘Mondial’ first appeared on a motorcycle in 1948, when the Boselli brothers introduced a revolutionary double-overhead-camshaft 125cc racer. Mondial’s minia ...
Zündapp 1940 KS 600 597 cc OHV transverse twin frame # 506813 engine # A1 6163 The Zündapp story begins in 1917 when the Nuremberg firm is founded by Dr. Fritz Neumeyer and Friedrich Krupp as a producer of detonators (Zünder- und Apparatebau is German for Igniter and Apparatus). After World War 1 the demand for war equipment declines and Neumeyer becomes the sole proprietor of the company. In 1921 he switches towards the construction of motorcycles. The early models are 211 and 246 cc two stroke ...