Stuart's latest purchase.....

[Stuart Cyphus]

 I've been adding to the conveyance collection again!    This time, to join the Model 70, Harding Consort & BEC Scoota which have already passed though my hands, and the Argson Electric still here, comes a 1963 Wrigley Electric Chair, located in Cheltenham and due to arrive here sometime on Monday.....

       

 Even though I'd always said "No more Electrics", I've always fanced one of these and this is the only complete one out of only two that I know of.  Read all about it in Conveyancer issue three, due out 1st March 2009.

[Jean]

Stuart, is there any connection with your Wrigley Electric Chair and our three-wheeled farm truck  r made by Wessex Industries (Poolle) Ltd of West Street, Poole, Dorset in 1960?  That of course has a Villiers 125cc engine.  Jean

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Yes, it's the exact same company, with my chair also being made at Poole. In later years the company moved to Wantage, Oxfordshire, & Dad has a 1974 version of your truck, built at Wantage. We've also recently came across a chap (have his detauils if anyones interested) who's started a Wrigley Register, primerily for their trucks & rotavators. I don't think he's ever heard of the Wrigley Electrc Chair. Yet.      Do you want this on the RUM Register Jean or is it enough that I've got it?

[P50]

Oddly enough if you said to the layman you had just discovered a rare '63 classic with alloy wheels and a private plate I don't think they'd have that contraption in mind.

Congratulations Captain Cyphus. You have officially been awarded the RUM golden Schmitt gear selector retaining nut (under the oil filler which everyone removes and suffers horrific repercussions). This is in respect of being utterly away with the fairies and awarded for being eccentric of the year!

Good show!

[Bob Purton]

Ditto.. but equally if you said to the man in the street that you had acquired an "electric chair" they would also conjure up an image of something quite different! Shocking!!

[Jawmedead]

Well done foer saving it Stuart. A Peel without its skin! and much rarer. 

[Jean]

I think that it is sufficient for you to have it on your Register which, after all, is far more comprehensive than mine as far as "Conveyances" are concerned.  Of course you may put it on the Register if you wish, if it is road going, it ticks all the boxes which more than I can say for my Wrigley Truck which was never intended for the road.

[Stuart Cyphus]

Congratulations Captain Cyphus. You have officially been awarded the RUM golden Schmitt gear selector retaining nut (under the oil filler which everyone removes and suffers horrific repercussions). This is in respect of being utterly away with the fairies and awarded for being eccentric of the year!

     I accept the award with humble thanks.    My life is now compete apart from one day hopefully bagging the Grot award at a future National.

 Just spent today with the Trojan Owners Club touring the countryside around Oxford in a 1924 Trojan Utility. Solid beam axles, band brakes, two-stroke engine, 23mph flat out along the A420....  I think I've just fallen in love again!    

[AndrewG]

That looks an intriguing conveyance.  But isn't it a piece of crap design, or is there some hidden trick to using it?  It looks like it needs a particularly athletic driver to clamber over the (apparently fixed) handlebar and manoeuvre his legs into position.  It'll be 'his' legs as it can't be combined with the skirt that any self-respecting lady would want to be able to wear at the time it was made, particularly when meeting the vicar.  And isn't athleticism something of a long shot for a user of such a conveyance?

It looks a lovely device to have, but I can guess why only two got made....

Andrew

[Stuart Cyphus]

 The chair has landed safely about 10 O'clock this morning & is actuklly in better condition than I was expecting! Naturally all the paint has gone (stove enamel aluminium apparently) & everything is bone-dry but nothing a few days in the shed can't cure. Could do with a new set of rear mudguards if one is totally fussy, but all-in-all, not bad at all concidering its been unused since 1969 ! Look out for the odd extra photo going up as & when.....   

 To answer the questions so-far asked, the handlebars lift out at seatbase level to aid getting in & out but I must say the bar's a little close for comfort when you're actully seated in it, partriculery when fishing for the brake handlle!    - 'Mornin' Vicar....

[Stuart Cyphus]

 A couple of new photos to keep you all going.....   

[P50]

No numberplate light. That's illegal!

I think you should replace the electric motor with an Honda OHC 49cc and use it a daily driver. (are they Scootacar mk2 back lights?)

[AndrewG]

.....the handlebars lift out at seatbase level to aid getting in & out......

Aahh!  That explains it. 

I do hope there is some way of locking them back in - it would be horrid to go over a bump and find one had a pair of loose handlebars in one's hands, like something out a Keystone Cops film.

And are those angled tubes behind the footrests a sort of anti-tip-over protection along the lines of the Acoma front baby wheels?

Andrew

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Alas Andrew, those handlebars do just sit loose in their holder, so a Keystone impersonation is perfectly possible. Health & Safety? What was that in 1963?   I'm also starting to think that what I thought was a brake lever on the bars might actully be the main stop/go lever. When you pull the lever, it pushes out a sort of contact at the base of the main tube which rubs on something or other in the gloom of that hole.

 Those angled tubes are indeed stablisers. The left-hand one is broken & a bit twisted (I think someone picked it up from there). As can be seen fron the attatched picture, some of the smaller (as in narrower) Wrigley trucks also followed the same styling. 



 Scootacar Mk 2 rear lights? Oh dear. If they are, that means I've got yet another vehicle where the sum of the parts are worth more than the whole.  & I'll have to put an armed guard on it when I show it.....

 When I get the Chair running, it should be capible of 3 mph & have a range of 7 miles. Hmm, sounds good to me......   

[Bob Purton]

Dont worry Stu pot, Mk2 rear lights can be bought new, not a rare item like mk1's are!