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Archive indexA snippet of information on Levis and the HEC Power Cycle:
By an odd coincidence, my morning mail recently included a nostalgic inquiry from an old Levis fan, plus a letter from W S Banner, one of the brains behind the pre-war Levis marque. Banner tells me that at the moment the Levis concern does not see its way to the costly re-tooling implied in a return to the full motor cycle market. Levis is, however, exporting a fair number of 80cc two-stroke engines to Continental assemblers. Under the trade name of the HEC Power Cycle that unit enjoyed a nice vogue under the slogan of the "Farthing Per Mile" autocycle. The firm is also marketing air compressors, and a small two-stroke unit for agricultural purposes, but regard their association with complete motor cycles as a thing of the past.
From Ixion's Occasional Comments in the Motor Cycle, 5 April 1951.
Reprinted - August 1997