Author Topic: What is this bike please?  (Read 7554 times)

Offline VintageBike

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What is this bike please?
« on: March 25, 2008, 02:59:54 AM »
Can anyone help Rob Hodder identify the bike in this picture of his grandfather?  It was taken either during or after WWI, but the bike looks a little earlier than that.


Offline geoffus

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2008, 09:46:43 PM »
 :)  just maybe a 1911 12 minerva  pre ww1 i think looking at the forks tank but matchless looked very much the same ? but going for minerva  just like to see more of it .     regard geoff

Offline cardan

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2008, 06:41:44 AM »
Another strange one! The frame is built from a Chater Lea lug set, which means it could have been assembled by any bicycle shop or motorcycle manufacturer - anyone with the ability to braze tubes into lugs. The Chater Lea spring fork fitted was listed in their 1907 catalogue and the "low" frame (with the top tube attached low to the steering head, which is braced at the top) was adopted out here in Australia for 1908. The rear stand is a commonly-used type of the period, while the back carrier and toolbox might be best forgotten.
But aren't the matching torpedo-style tanks lovely! That said, the location of the oil tank and hand pump wouldn't be the best in a spill...
The motor has me beat. The inlet valve is over the exhaust, and is either atmospheric or operated by a push rod and rocker (can't quite see). Unusual for a British machine of this period, but not uncommon on the continent or in the USA.  (Not Minerva, however, as they went to side valves very early.) The engine looks fairly "modern" - it could be contemporary with the cycle parts or even later. The front engine plates look a bit amateurish, as if the motor could have come from elsewhere, and the chain-driven magneto at the front and the carby would be part of on-going modernisation.
If Rob's grandfather was a mechanical-type-guy, I'd say this is his constantly-evolving-dream-machine.
If Rob has a strong light and a magnifying glass, he might be able to read the name on the tank, which I fancy I can see written in upward-slanting script directly below the oil pump.
Leon

Offline geoffus

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2008, 05:50:28 PM »
not  convinced this man is an engineer if he was he may have taken the time and trouble to sort out his front mudguard not sure about springing on the front forks if there is any it must mean that the handlebars when up and down but would be interesting to see where the springing is  the collier brothers had almost identical frame and rocket shaped tank but not sure whether they fitted single cylinder motors at that time the shadow going up the side of the tank the best I can see with a magnifying glass is possibly the shadow of a cable but I get a lot of breakup in pixels

Offline cardan

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2008, 05:06:58 AM »
Chater Lea had a number of different spring forks over the years: this is one of the early ones.
Leon

Offline rpbhod

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2008, 03:11:54 AM »
 Thanks very much for the help so far!

 It is clearly a Chater Lea Frame then. I have the original photo, but it's only 3x2 inches, so I will need to find a good magnifying glass to see if I can read the logo on the tank.

 Cheers Rob.

Offline VintageBike

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2008, 11:58:55 PM »
Had an email from a contact (Howard) in Oz, who believes this to be a Chater Lea chassis with a 1906-09 Peugeot engine.

Offline cardan

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Re: What is this bike please?
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2008, 03:31:08 PM »
Interesting that Howard thinks the engine is Peugeot. I've not seen many, and I'm only familiar with the ones that have the exhaust pipe coming straight out of the exhaust port, like this one
http://membres.lycos.fr/mtclion/images/peug1906.jpg

What model Peugeot has the curved, finless exhaust port?

Leon