Strange but ingenious...

[Steve kay]

To the Chairman of the Eligibilty Committee

My proposed Trials Special will be built on an Austin Seven chassis for which I have full history and a current V5. The provenance of both the Megola engines in the rear wheels indicates they are genuine 1925. The car will not have a four speed gearbox of the incorrect date, so
I hope it will be acceptable.

[andrew34ruby]

But surely as the motorbike left him behind, it would activate the safety device and cut the engine.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Talking of "interesting": have you seen the Micron Monocar on the Car and Classic site?

[Charles P]

So, you've started the engine whilst the front wheel is off the ground; how do you lift the stand and get under way? They don't show that bit!

Having covered his hands with grease, oil and fuel getting the engine going, the hopeful rider would straddle the bike and with, presumably, no clutch and a lever-action hand throttle, lung forwards to push the bike off the spring-retracted front stand. With the tickover set on the fast side to ensure that the engine does not stall (as strictly advised against in the copiously-detailed bedienungsanleitung) the front wheel now grips and the bike lunges forwards. The rider (a loose term at this point) is thrown backwards; his hand slip off the handlebars, his right hand makes a futile grab for it, misses and yanks the throttle lever to the full-on position. Now prostrate on the dusty road, our hero watches with some alarm as the bike, nicely stabilised in the vertical position by 50 kg of engine rotating at 2000 r.p.m., accelerates off down the road towards a group of kinder picking flowers on the grass verge....

A very real scenario. 
A friend of mine did that bump starting his Model 9 Sunbeam. Not wanting to let go when thrown partially off the bike he foolishly held on (instinct), and the dragging made him apply more throttle. A sturdy oak arrested the runaway and partial rider. Neither rider nor bike came off well. The tree was unperturbed. 

Charles

["Slack Alice" Simon]

I'm sure many of us have done the A7 equivalent:


Somewhere in a book it says that putting the handbrake on after a run can make the drums oval.


So: having stopped to fill up, put it into first, get out, fill up, pay, start on the handle because the battery is kaput, ...


chase off down the forecourt trying to turn the switch or knock it out of gear ...

before climbing in, hoping no-one has noticed.



Happy days.   Now I'm slightly more affluent I have a half decent battery and haven't done that for a while.

[Jamie]

A very real scenario. 
A friend of mine did that bump starting his Model 9 Sunbeam. Not wanting to let go when thrown partially off the bike he foolishly held on (instinct), and the dragging made him apply more throttle. A sturdy oak arrested the runaway and partial rider. Neither rider nor bike came off well. The tree was unperturbed. 

Charles

Much the same fate befell my brand new Benelli when someone bump started it down the high street, let it go and watched it make friends with a local shop wall. My bike never even got to be a week old before being written off.

Jamie.

[Steve kay]

Handle starting a 2CV with centrifugal clutch could be character forming.

[David Stepney]

Handle starting a 2CV with centrifugal clutch could be character forming.

I had a similar experience with my Daimler Conquest with its Wilson box. Left it in gear by mistake and the side lights on. The following morning it wouldn't start, so I cranked it! I was more nimble in those days, so was able to dive in as it passed me and stop it before any damage was done. Didn't make that mistake twice though!

[Robin Boyce]

Driving home to the Midlands from the Isle of Skye with an inoperable clutch was good exercise. Fortunately you could push the Special along, jamb it in gear, leap in and clutch not required for driving.  I was more athletic 40 years ago!

[Steve kay]

I raise my hat to David, leaping out of the way of a Daimler Conquest makes a slowly mobile 2CV seem like being threatened by a biscuit tin! Mind you, there was a very distant member of the family who was launching a small boat, steering his auto slush box pick up by walking alongside it whilst reversing down the launch ramp. He ended up in A&E having run over his foot, the pickup stopped running over him or down the slip when it had fully entered the water. The boat floated perfectly well, however there was nobody aboard to steer it......