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A First Cyclemotor

Ivan Fisher

I thought I would write to you to tell you about my Trojan Mini Motor.  Being only seventeen years of age it is obvious that I cannot recall first hand these little machines in their heyday.  My first look at a Mini Motor was on an old sheet of newspaper that I found lining the bottom of an old chest of drawers.  This meant that when I attended Weeting Steam rally in 1995 I immediately recognised a rather rough looking Mini Motor (Reg No ECF 757) on an auto jumble stall.  I knew as soon as I saw it, it was something I just had to have.  When asked about the machine the stall-holder told me that he had only had the machine a short while and hadn't yet looked over it properly, although he believed it to be seized.  He was asking the remarkably low price of £15.00.  I couldn't believe it, but being from Norfolk farming stock, I instinctively had to try and get him to come down in price.  He did.  "I'll settle for £12.00 seeing as it's seized" he said.  I couldn't believe my luck.  I soon struck the bargain and had the machine in my possession.  For me, I didn't really want to bother looking round the old tractors and steam engines any more.  I was dying to get home so I could try to get the Mini Motor functioning.  Once we arrive home, I was straight out into the workshop.  The spark plug was taken out and some WD40 tipped into the hole.  Once this had been allowed to soak in, with my father's help, I put it in the vice and we made an attempt to free the piston.  Using an oil filter wrench around the magneto the piston easily freed off.  Good news so far.  It was then decided we should try to start it.  A makeshift throttle cable was made from a bicycle brake cable and the engine (still in the vice) was turned over using an electric drill on the magneto securing nut.  After turning and turning, we couldn't seem to get any life out of the old thing.  Then after looking at the points we had a brain wave.  The points were opening and closing at the completely wrong time.  We must be turning it the wrong way.  We were.

After turning the engine round in the vice and attaching the drill to the roller fixing nut the engine burst into life.  There was a cloud of white smoke and a workbench that now shook furiously.  After this initial success we quickly stopped the engine for safety.  We didn't think it would be long before all the tools shook themselves onto the floor or the engine dropped out of the vice.  By now the idea of Mini Motoring had got hold of me firmly.  I couldn't resist fitting it to a bicycle.  I now have it fitted to a Brown Brothers GPO cycle and am awaiting an age related number.  I would be very grateful if anyone in my area (Norwich, Norfolk) could suggest to me a cyclemotor-friendly garage that is happy to carry out MoTs on such machines.  I am also having trouble finding an insurer who doesn't want the earth to insure me (I want to be able to get it on the road so third party would be sufficient) so if any one has any suggestions about this as well I would be grateful.


First published, June 1998

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