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to the Archive indexGary Arps is a mainstay of the Christchurch NZ cyclemotor and moped scene; he tells Buzzing that every year a 'notorious run' is held to help Syd, a local Vintage Car Club character, celebrate his birthday. Around 180 bikes usually take part and some are a tribute to New Zealanders' creative engineering skills, being only loosely associated to their original makers. Such machines as a Yamaha moped with extra Solex-power up front and an NSU Quickly with Honda C100 power have been seen on past events.
This year's prize-winner for non-originality but five-star inventiveness goes to a 'scrap-yard special' roller-drive external engine. Little of it is recognisable - the crank and rod are out in the open, the cylinder is two Honda C50 units clamped together end-to-end (giving an extremely long stroke), the cylinder-head is probably Honda but with an atmospheric inlet valve and a chain-driven exhaust valve (the exhaust is just a coiled pipe). Sparks are provided by a magneto hung on the other end of the crank. Fuel is fed from a plastic lawnmower tank clamped to the handlebars of a lady's tourer bicycle. It works well; Gary says it has incredible torque but shreds front tyres and is also deafeningly noisy. Wonderful. And it gets used on the road - I want to go and live in New Zealand. Now.
First published, April 2007