Excelsior, Villiers 125 educational purpose

[Paulo Fonseca]

Hi,

Today I came across a motorbike like the one I am restoring, but this one has the engine cut to show its operation.

It was from a driving school.

Is it an Excelsior 125 Univesal, 1947/1949?

Was the engine cut by the owner or were they supplied from the factory for this purpose?
(I don't think so, but I wanted to be sure)

[R]

Thats rather neat. Thanks for showing.

The painting looks like it was done sometime later.
We'd have to find the history of this to know if the cutting was factory. ?
And the factory records are likely long gone ??

The local TAFE here (Technical college) cut up several such engines for display,
so always a possibility.  Not much to see inside a 2 stroke engine, is there !!

[33d6]

Yes, spot on Paulo. An immediate postwar up to 1949 Excelsior Universal. Correct even down to the original engine number prefix, 580. It's easy enough to find another 9D engine which will drop straight in regardless of what make of bike it came out of. It even appears to have the complete exhaust system.

I don't know whether the factory supplied instructional sectioned bikes. I wouldn't think so. At that time the world was crying out for transport and Britain was struggling to make and sell as many bikes as it could. I can't see them cutting up a new motorcycle for instructional [purposes. That sort of thing was done years later when the machine was near wornout and obsolete. If you look at the brake pedal it shows a lot of wear.

Do you own it?

Cheers,

[Paulo Fonseca]

I don't own it, but the own it, my neighbor bought it thinking that was a "normal" bike. I bellive he will sell it.

I allready have one exacly like that. You hel pme identify it a couple of years ago
http://classicmotorcycleforum.com/index.php?topic=4897.msg19814

I would change the engine and ride it. Very nice bike.

I will try to find more info and share with you.

[Rex]

Sectional engines always seem to sell well, so you'd likely sell it for more than a useable engine would cost.
Given that Excelsior post-war were just about surviving financially I doubt they would spend time and money sectioning an engine that they had to buy in from Villiers.

[iansoady]

Manufacturers used to do this sort of thing for the Earls Copurt show and I'm sure I remember seeing similar in various dealers. But as to whether it was done by the manufacturer, who knows? It could have been an apprentice training exercise.