French microcars blog

[Bob Purton]

Just been looking at Donald La Bian's restoration blog again. For anyone not aware of this, its well worth a look. French microcars from the golden age, not fridges!  Some very exotic. Is the Avolette not one of the most wonderful looking microcars ever?

http://donald.over-blog.com/

Can I recommend page 26 for rare shots of the scanty Avolette frame with body off.

VIEW THE BLOG AT YOUR OWN RISK. One member reported pop up problems.

[marcus]

Good site, cheers Bob.

[Jean]

I tried to watch this blog but unfortunately the following message came up on my screen   

Access to the web page was blocked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. The web page is on the list of websites with potentially dangerous content.

Has any one else experienced this problem? Jean

[richard]

thanks Bob lovely images , agree about the Bruetsch Avolette  seen before i know but these two share just that bit of " je ne sais quoi "  ? but the Avolette wins I think 
 
as regards Jean , no I am not aware of this problem but my French is very poor 

[marcus]

I had no trouble and no message.

[richard]

I tried but cannot reproduce any of the pictures here but that is the oddest steering arrangement . Cable I presume ?

[Bob Purton]

Yes, I cant figure that steering out either. A curved steering column so it must have a flexible inner core that perhaps has a worm on the end ?  Does anyone know?

[Bob Purton]

here is a picture of the frame, A reasonable view of the steering too if you can enlarge it a little.

[DaveMiller]

Jean: the message probably came from the anti-virus software that you are using.

I noticed that, while the blog contents were themselves interesting, there were also various "adverts" on the page which would not be what they claimed to be. (One, I recall, talked about software now being ready, and gave a button to "restart your PC" - hardly what would come up on a webpage itself.)

Though I don't think I clicked anywhere on the blog, apart from to scroll the page, it was only a few minutes after viewing the blog that I received a notification saying "You have received a f**k request, at distance 2.5 miles" - plus a link I could click to get an app which, I suppose, would further that pursuit.

I suggest the link be removed.

[Full word changed to use asterisks, to protect the sensitive]

[marcus]

No problems here, but I have a Mac and they are less prone to viruses.

As the column is curved in all  axes I can only assume it has a flexible drive inside. You can get these for drills and other power tools. They tend to be made of one (small drives) or two layers of coiled square section steel with the core wound clockwise and the outer wound ant-clockwise (or vice-versa). The windings look a bit like the outer windings of a Bowden cable, but instead of one or two steel strips at a shallow angle along the length, the multiple strips give a much higher "thread" angel.

It would work for but would not be cheap and probably less good than having mechanical linkages or gears. The curves are relatively large so the friction build up will not be too bad, and on such a light vehicle, backlash /flex in the flexible drive shaft would probably not be too bad bad I would imagine a certain amount of "wander" anyway!

Either they had a good supplier of flexi drives, or (most likely) space and ergonomics ruled out mechanical or geared steering.

[Bob Purton]

In the light of Dave's post maybe I should add, view Donalds blog at your own risk.

Yes, it is a very weird steering set up but as they say, the French dont do things quite the same way as anyone else.

[richard]

i think this must have the French answer to Egon Bruetsch's steering column here seen in his Zwerg ( Dwarf )  that later became the Avolette

[richard]

and this was the set up on my Bruetsch Pfeil ( Dart/Arrow) though not sure if original

[marcus]

I just cannot see how they could have got Universal joints into the avolette's slender curved column.

[richard]

I don't suggest that for a minute , surely it was changed as you described