RUMCars Forum
General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: Bob Purton on February 17, 2012, 01:40:05 PM
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Such a shame that more cycle cars have not survived. They are more akin to microcars I think. Check this Scripps one out on ebay. Could it have originated from Berny Scripps of Heartbeat fame? Look at that belt drive, totaly unguarded! Imagine wearing a long scarf with the end hanging over the side, adds a new meaning to the phrase using the choke!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1913-Scripps-Booth-Cyclecar-Factory-Photo-/370494069389?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56432ada8d
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Nice!
I too like cycle cars, particularly Morgans and the ridiculous Bedelia. There is a lovely Salmson (?) almost co-starring in the old French comedy film Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. Yes, shame they are not a regular sight anymore. I suppose modern Trials/Hill Climb cars are really Cycle Cars in all but name.
There are similarities between Cycle Cars and Micros, and even Light Cars. (C.F. Caunter wrote a good book about The Light Car). Sometimes you can classify them by the type of wheels and intended use: CCs have motorcycle type wheels and are designed to be fun and perhaps a bit sporty, micros and bubbles tend to be more like scooters with cabins.
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Ah Mr Hulots Holiday, I remember it well, the Shadows number "Foot tapper" was written for it but never taken up according to Hank.
Talking of Morgans, I see that with the new threewheeler the sorry Harley Davidson engine has been dropped in favour of a very expensive but superior unit from S&S engines Wisconsin. Good sense prevailed!! Mind you at almost 2 litre hardly in the spirit of the old ones.
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Yes, the switch from Hardly-Able-son can only be for the better! If I won the lottery I would be very tempted! Interesting to hear about the Shadows' close call with that film, mind you I do like the cheesy music in it, and especially the gorgeous rowdy hot Dixieland Mr. Hulot listens to on the radio (or Gramophone?) while every one else in the hotel is virtually silent and bored stiff, I think it is Nat Gonella and His Georgians.
An Aunt and Uncle of mine Honeymooned in the Hotel de la Plage about 2 or 3 years after it was used in the film, the dining room door creaked just as it does in the film, and almost nothing about the hotel or its contents was different!
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No cyclecar beats the GN J.A.P. prototype cyclecar...
I love the steam punk feeling about it!
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/426737_289988771067009_100001676659410_822268_155956960_n.jpg)
That will definitally be one of the enxt tin models I'll make...
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Gorgeous!
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A shame no Bleriot Whippets survived.
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Oooooo, I had forgotten about Bleriot Whippets! Wonderful stuff, I LIKE this thread!
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Maybe RUMCAR NEWS should diversify with an article about 'Cyclecars' and their akinship to Microcars by one of you knowlegable forumists! Jean
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That's a great idea Jean, I would "like" to have a go myself, but my knowledge of them is not great, I just like photos of them!
I see them as close cousins to Micros, but also "Rare" and "Unusual" and relatively small, so therefore of potential interest. If anyone is up to the task I look forward to the article!
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Were currently restoring an unkown veteran cyclecar for someone.
It seems to be home made, since the front axle is the front half cut off of a veteran car, and weird body. It has a Velox engine. Seems to be about 500cc.
The engine ceased production in 1904.
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Dear friends
It is too late for the spring edition of RCN, but I will ask one of our experts if they could do an article for you for later in the year.
Chris Thomas
Rumcar News
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Look forward to it!
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And do cyclecars still exists today. Discussing the Norjska it is more Cycle car than Microcar. Velorex trike?
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do cyclecars still exists today.
Triking with it's Moto Guzi.
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^ Yup, there are several kit cars which, like Trials and Hill Climb cars, are comparable to old cycle cars. The design, technology and name have moved on, but they are still close relatives.
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If this is so are Cyclecars an enduring category of eccentric vehicle, where as, Microcars are a subdivision, or offshoot, of a category doomed to for ever failure in economic production after one successful upsurge in the '50's. I hope not.
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I think that so far the legacy of cyclecars has endured slightly better than that of micros, which had their brief moment. There are a few modern micros, including Smart, and the new Toyota and Renault Smart look-alikes. These are all far more sophisticated than the 50s/60s ones, but they have to be to find modern buyers. QPods (in my opinion) are more like Cabin Mopeds, and the French Sans Permit vehicles also fit this general category. However all of these apart from the Smart are rarely seen.
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The Axiam, Microcar and Lieger are real microcars. So to are the more sophisticated fridges but when you look at the Bel Car with added pedals then it is more cyclecar. Hard to delineate and probably pointless as while less usable you embrace the eccentricity. France has had a second upsurge of Microcars in the 70's and it is a genuine and economically unchallenging area to base a collection.
It becomes apparent that other areas of the world quietly had microcar explosions. They are clearly a product that answer a set of circumstances but so limited are these that in most cases the market evaporates in less than a decade leaving few survivors.
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Agree Al, Aixam etc are modern micros but I have not seen a single one on the road, so certainly less common than Bubbles and Bonds. I do see the odd GWhizz around town, and a Japanese electric, poss Honda, but this was much bigger than a micro. Mind you, the latest Mini Cooper (SD?) is as big as it is plugly; it is very nearly the size of the original series 1 Range Rovers, and certainly at least as big as the old British Leyland Maxi! The meaning of words is obviously irrelevant nowadays.
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Agree Al, Aixam etc are modern micros but I have not seen a single one on the road, so certainly less common than Bubbles and Bonds. I do see the odd GWhizz around town, and a Japanese electric, poss Honda, but this was much bigger than a micro. Mind you, the latest Mini Cooper (SD?) is as big as it is plugly; it is very nearly the size of the original series 1 Range Rovers, and certainly at least as big as the old British Leyland Maxi! The meaning of words is obviously irrelevant nowadays.
Pity the poor Mini, to big to be real Minicar and to fat to be fast. Used to be an icon now its a semi, as our American chums would say. Made in Britian etc but profits to Germany. All is exactly not as the old Mini was including making money from them.
Buy the Bond name, re use the name Minicar and Bug and set up making proper retro Mini and Bug cars?
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I understand the need to make the Mini bigger for US sales, and also because modern drivers expect a car to have so much more "stuff" in a car, stereo, air bags, safety cells, SIPS, turbos, servos, power steering etc, and all this takes up so much space, that to make a car with a reasonable amount of space left for humans it HAS to be a lot bigger than 50 years ago.
But why call it a MINI?!
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Fiat 500?
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But why call it a MINI?!
I agree but the Mini is perceived as some sort of success and is a well known brand name. BMW recognised this and all is history. The fact it is not Mini in anything but a recall of styling clues really just shows more about the buying public than about design and technology. They are mugs twice over! First the believed the hype about the Mini first time round, which then proceeded to prove its creator wrong by being competitively successful twisting the hype into something far more complex to a point that it disagreed with the original concept. Then BMW use it to sell a thing that was effectively a Golf competitor in the mid range car class. Do I blame them, no. Should it be called Maxi, yes. Would they have been a success, no, probably not as while the Maxi was actually conceptually a far bigger stride forward BMC botched the production entirely ensuring that it would fail to achieve any great sales even in its home market. To those who doubt me. How many modern cars are now laid out as a Mini and how many as a Maxi? The BMW Mini owes far more to the Maxi.
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No! Well to me anyway a cycle car has a longish shape, motorbike engine and spoked wheels. The cute little 500 is more micro.
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I understand the need to make the Mini bigger for US sales, and also because modern drivers expect a car to have so much more "stuff" in a car, stereo, air bags, safety cells, SIPS, turbos, servos, power steering etc, and all this takes up so much space, that to make a car with a reasonable amount of space left for humans it HAS to be a lot bigger than 50 years ago.
But why call it a MINI?!
I agree! In what possible sense of the word is it mini??!! ::) ::)
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Have you seen the Mini model I am talking about? It has much blunter and squarer styling, with a protruberance above the rad grille, it looks really grotesque. It should be called the Plugly or Fugly
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I have indeed. Its like an standard BMW mini on steriods. Ugly! Maybe its meant to look like a 4X4?
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I have indeed. Its like an standard BMW mini on steriods. Ugly! Maybe its meant to look like a 4X4?
Check out the one with the Mini badge like the Trojan Bubblecar badge. That is the monstrous one I think you are talking about. It is not a small car, indeed I am not sure it is a car class vehicle in reality.
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Hows this for a cool looking Cycle car, love the V twin engine!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300702286396?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
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Rather modern styling for 1934. Nice looking car. All for the price of a mint Scootacar, alledgedly.
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I love the Darmont. Darmont and Sandford both had tie-ups with Morgan as distributors/agents for the Morgan 3 wheelers. I cannot remember which but one of them was really cheeky and started their manufacturing with what was little more than a bootleg copy of a Morgan.