Author Topic: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)  (Read 7710 times)

Offline nickpeace

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Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« on: January 30, 2017, 10:13:51 PM »
Hello
I am new here to this forum,  I have recently bought an Alcyon as a project.
I need some help getting information about the age and type of engine/gearbox this is. to help me track down spares.
Any help with sources/links to get spares will be most welcome
I believe that it is:

Zurcher Engine AS2?
1950 ish?
Magneto-France Type 17 flywheel/magneto (this is on cover but I can only find info about Type 18)
Gurtner carb -(H14??)
Numbers on engine cases 76 / 76  - on the 2 halves at the front
Number at the base.: 221506
Can't find frame number.

Photos attached
Many thanks
Nick
« Last Edit: January 30, 2017, 10:16:32 PM by nickpeace »

Offline R

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2017, 09:01:45 AM »
Is this related ?
http://www.lva-moto.fr/forum/topic-15183-alcyon-type-23-de-1950-restauration-complete-page-1.html
Doesn't quite look the same though...
And looks later (?).

Figuring out the bore and stroke could be an important first step.
Whipping off the head and making with the vernier calipers could be quite helpful ?
Be sure to replace it, to at east keep the bugs and dust out.
And oil it...

Alcyon was quite a large manufacturer, there must be a large volume of info lurking someplace out there. Parlez-vous francais ?

Offline nickpeace

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2017, 10:09:58 AM »
Hello, thanks for the reply

I have seen this article but there are differences
Same make, but different year, the frame is different, the gearbox is slightly further back and the upright tubing is inbetween the engine/gearbox, the exhaust port is different as mine is a twin exhaust,  I would think it is later.

My french is tres poor. but will probable have to get better as time goes on.!
I can't find much info on Alcyon motorcycle to get reference for the engine numbers, but I am obviously looking in the wrong places. The hunt continues.....

This link confused me as it is very similar in looks but a 1936 Armor???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J97yJtMhN2I

Offline Rex

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2017, 11:37:31 AM »
I know it's a case of "Vive la difference" and all that, but really, what possessed you?
Probably entirely urelated, but the VMCC have now (outrageously) put up the price of a dating cert to 95 quid a time due to "the number of obscure foreign machines we now get queries on".
All the while those clever French people dump their unusable and unwanted tiddlers on us but buy up our A10's and Bonnies. They're not so daft... :-\

Online iansoady

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2017, 12:38:46 PM »
I think what's happening is people are seeing the daft prices for piles of rusty scrap that were once a Brough Superior or similar, see a rusty old motorbike and think it must be worth a small fortune.

Sadly (or not, depending on your point of view) this is rarely the case.
Ian
1952 Norton ES2
1986 Honda XBR500
1958-ish Tre-Greeves

Offline nickpeace

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2017, 01:02:34 PM »
What did possess me! well.....

It was in my price range [read cheap] (the price of a Bantam to restore at is higher)
There won't be any purist out there saying it is the wrong colour or exhaust etc...
The engine is very simple and based around alot of other makes, it has compression and the gearbox works
To teach my children what the word patina means (!) and the joy of the smell of a 2-stroke
It makes me smile when i see it in my garage
It will annoy the hell out of the cyclist round my way when they have to over-take me

I can now race my dad on his LE velocette and he'll win :)
Happy days

Offline mini-me

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2017, 07:16:52 PM »
Flawed Logic, its going to be a money pit, and for what it will cost you you'd have been better off buying a decent Bantam on the road.

You will get some spares from France, but the postage will vastly increase the cost.
Tin ware will be almost impossible to find, as will any mechanical info in English.
I have given out french spares sources on here before.

I have previously passed comment on here, and upset those who are thin skinned, on the folly of buying old french two strokes that don't run or are incomplete.

If I were you I would subscribe to La Vie de la Moto, which is the french version of Old Bike Mart and learn at least some basic mechanical french terms. The value of LVM is that it will  have lists of 'Bourse' events [autojumbles] and you have an excuse for a trip over. But very few bourse are anything like ours, mostly less than a dozen stalls of tat. The biggest is at Strasbourg.

As for the bunch of money grubbing hypocrites in the VMCC, they always hated non british bikes.
Unless of course one of the favoured few was selling one. :o

Does yours run?


Offline sprocket-in-my-socket

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2017, 08:14:13 PM »
Hello Nick,

seems to be an Alcyon type 18.
Maybe this site can show you some more info:
http://30kmh.forumactif.com/t569-alcyon-type-18-ou-as3-annee-1938-1939

http://cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/alcyon/images/Alcyon-1939-No-18.jpg

Engine seems to be a Zurcher Type AS3.

Armor was bought by Alcyon company and I assume they have offered same types (maybe with slightly different configuration) with the two brand names after that for a while.

Best regards
Helmut
« Last Edit: January 31, 2017, 08:40:13 PM by sprocket-in-my-socket »

Offline mini-me

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2017, 08:40:28 PM »
A quick look for Alcyon on ebay France under moto de collection;pieces gives 182 items....but as Zurcher also made 4 strokes and gearboxes , you have a wide choice,


search ebay france for liiterature
.http://www.ebay.fr/sch/Moto-revues-manuels/137735/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=alcyon

some of the modern mags, moto legend, motos d'hier, chroniques moto carrried articles that will help, in the 1950s RTM Revue Technique Moto carried features on repair and so on. Forget workshop manuals.

I think there should be  a sticky section  here for owners of these french disasters who are always asking the same questions.



« Last Edit: January 31, 2017, 08:47:37 PM by mini-me »

Offline nickpeace

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2017, 10:05:38 PM »
Thanks for the replies,
I may well be another sucker for the french tease, and i am aware that it will cost, I have thick skin and can hold my hand up when i am wrong, but i am hoping this should start, all seems to be ok except electric, but i haven't had a proper look at that yet. - but i bet you've all heard that before.!!

I am still just gathering info at the moment - work to start on this in summer
Many thanks
Nick

Offline mini-me

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2017, 10:37:04 PM »
As long as its got two wheels, and keeps you happy, in the end its all that matters.

Budget wise, its cheaper than booze, betting and a bit on the side.

Offline nickpeace

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Re: Help needed to identify more info on this Alcyon (c.1950?)
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2017, 08:47:04 AM »
Exactly - it is the journey that is the fun part
remember
If your not having fun, then you are not doing it properly.