I’ve always been drawn to the extreme low ends of the automotive world, the cheapskates’ cars, the peoples’ cars, all that sort of thing. Somehow, I just respect them more, and find them more interesting, I think because I have a sort of weird fetish for restrictions. That’s why cars like the Bugatti Veyron never appealed to me; if you have no restrictions, of course you can do whatever you want, and that’s boring. Doing interesting and useful things while everything is stacked against you, that’s when things get exciting. Which is what I like about cyclecars, some of the most restriction-laden categories of cars ever.
You know about cyclecars, right? They’re really the first category of affordable car, pretty much ever. The earliest period of automobiles, from 1769 to about the 1890s, cars were really pretty experimental. Private ownership did occur, rarely, but you had to be rich and of a unique mindset. By the late 1800s, more “normal” people could buy a car, but you still needed to be rich. Cyclecars changed that, and in the short span of time that they existed – from about 1910 to the early 1920s – they were the way that non-wealthy people could have a car.
Well, barely a car, if we’re honest. Cyclecars were crude, crude, crude things, halfway between motorcycle and car, and often just simply deathtraps. They had small motorcyle-type engines, single-cylinders or maybe V-twins, and used chains and pulleys for getting the limited power to the wheels, or, often, wheel. Instead of differentials, they just relied on the slipping of belts, and frames were often just wood, with simple sheet-metal bodies, sometimes wicker, sometimes plywood. These were dirt-simple machines. Here’s a common sort of design of these:
You could probably build one of these in an afternoon with parts from Home Depot today, I bet. And that would be a fun way to spend a weekend, too. The design you see up there was typical of a lot of cyclecar builders, like Grafton or GN, and that torpedo-shaped fuel tank at the nose and general narrow proportions defined the interesting look of many of these:
Here’s a good video of a Grafton cyclecar in action so you can see what I mean:
It’s crude, but there’s an elegance in the crudeness isn’t there? I think so. In fact, I think sometimes the sort of classic cyclecar proportions made for some strangely elegant-and sleek-looking vehicles. Look at these:
That La Vigne is pretty cool looking! The long hood, the big wheels, it all just kind of works. It’s a dramatic look, but it was just about keeping things cheap; in modern money, most of these cyclecars would be selling for around $10,000 to $12,000 or so, somewhere in there. So they were cheap.
And how about this delivery cyclecar, the Imp Light Delivery Car:
That has a hot rod feel to it, right? And holy crap, look at the size of that chain!
I’d love to actually drive one of these one day; I’ve driven some similar things, but I’m especially curious about the Gigantic Chain Experience.
Oh, I learned something new and hilariously terrifying about cyclecars: they were so simple, they were often the target of mechanical “pranks.” Like this one:
“Another favorite was to rewind the wire-and-bobbin steering. To explain how this worked, the steering column extended as far forward in most of these cars as the tie rod. To steer, steel cable was wound several times around a bobbin at the bottom of the shaft. When the driver moved the steering wheel, the cable moved the tie rod. Pranksters, though, would unhook the cable, rewind it backward, and attach the ends again to the tie rod. So when the driver hopped in and started off down the road, he soon found that in steering to the right, the car would veer left, and vice versa. Ha, ha.”
A prank where you reverse how someone’s steering in their car works? Good one! I’m sure you’ll almost forget about the risk of brutal and bloody death because of all the laughing!
I wonder how often that really happened? Man, some people.
These are cool. The simplicity makes me think of the new Rail Carting hobby that is beginning to pop up. People are building go carts from scratch and then running up and down abandon railroad tracks. Looks so fun.
https://youtu.be/-QDM-bmNziw?si=E2WQRDNmmEVvK2EG
These are cool. The simplicity makes me think of the new Rail Carting hobby that is beginning to pop up. People are building go carts from scratch and then running up and down abandon railroad tracks. Looks so fun.
https://youtu.be/-QDM-bmNziw?si=E2WQRDNmmEVvK2EG
I bet you can get a plate for THIS in Maine.
I bet you can get a plate for THIS in Maine.
And remember, whatever you’re driving into, you’re leading with the fuel tank.
And remember, whatever you’re driving into, you’re leading with the fuel tank.
We need more Cyclecars.
We need more Cyclecars.
I’ve long wanted to build one of these myself. Finding plans to follow wouldn’t even be an issue, just come up with it myself. Salvage a couple of motorcycles for wheels and engine etc. but I don’t know where I’d come up with axles or suspension.
Judging from the first couple pics, a pair of half leaf springs with pillow block bearings would locate a simple round steel bar drive axle. A riding lawn mower front axle could adapted easily for steering.
Oh, the lawnmower idea – I like it!
Tricky Motorsports has good ideas. For a rear axle, you can rob a go kart, ATV , golf cart or the very same ride-on mower you got the front suspension from and just relocate the sprocket/brake mounting tabs to wherever is convenient.
Other good front suspension donors are golf carts and air-cooled VW’s. The VW one is nice because it’s independent and has brakes, the golf cart one is a bit wider and beefier than the ride-on mower, which is nice depending on the kind of cycle car you want to build.
If you hate chains and really want a reverse gear and H-pattern shifter, old Harley and Royal Enfield engines have divorced engine/transmission and can be mated to a car gearbox. This would also enable you to use a car’s rear axle and save some work on the rear suspension as they come with brakes so you’d only have to mount the links/springs to the frame. It’ll definitely be heavier than a chain drive system, but it’ll be less work assuming you find a production driveshaft that works.
I’ve long wanted to build one of these myself. Finding plans to follow wouldn’t even be an issue, just come up with it myself. Salvage a couple of motorcycles for wheels and engine etc. but I don’t know where I’d come up with axles or suspension.
Judging from the first couple pics, a pair of half leaf springs with pillow block bearings would locate a simple round steel bar drive axle. A riding lawn mower front axle could adapted easily for steering.
Oh, the lawnmower idea – I like it!
Tricky Motorsports has good ideas. For a rear axle, you can rob a go kart, ATV , golf cart or the very same ride-on mower you got the front suspension from and just relocate the sprocket/brake mounting tabs to wherever is convenient.
Other good front suspension donors are golf carts and air-cooled VW’s. The VW one is nice because it’s independent and has brakes, the golf cart one is a bit wider and beefier than the ride-on mower, which is nice depending on the kind of cycle car you want to build.
If you hate chains and really want a reverse gear and H-pattern shifter, old Harley and Royal Enfield engines have divorced engine/transmission and can be mated to a car gearbox. This would also enable you to use a car’s rear axle and save some work on the rear suspension as they come with brakes so you’d only have to mount the links/springs to the frame. It’ll definitely be heavier than a chain drive system, but it’ll be less work assuming you find a production driveshaft that works.
i like how the Le Vigne ad directly addresses two issues you raised. Unfortunately, no “giant chain experience” as they tout a shaft drive/worm gear, but as a positive, their steering mechanism is “nonreversible”.
Also, “I think because I have a sort of weird fetish for restrictions.” has a name that needn’t shame you sir, as there is probably room in this big world of ours for a BDSM/taillight fetish pastiche.
In this context “irreversible” steering doesn’t refer to the bobbin problem but instead means that any tendency for the wheels to be deflected by the road surface does not get transmitted “backwards” up the steering mechanism where it would become a force that would make the steering wheel harder to control. Mostly it’s a matter of making sure that the steering leverage overwhelmingly favors the driver’s input.
ah, thanks for the context.
i like how the Le Vigne ad directly addresses two issues you raised. Unfortunately, no “giant chain experience” as they tout a shaft drive/worm gear, but as a positive, their steering mechanism is “nonreversible”.
Also, “I think because I have a sort of weird fetish for restrictions.” has a name that needn’t shame you sir, as there is probably room in this big world of ours for a BDSM/taillight fetish pastiche.
In this context “irreversible” steering doesn’t refer to the bobbin problem but instead means that any tendency for the wheels to be deflected by the road surface does not get transmitted “backwards” up the steering mechanism where it would become a force that would make the steering wheel harder to control. Mostly it’s a matter of making sure that the steering leverage overwhelmingly favors the driver’s input.
ah, thanks for the context.
The Grafton cyclecar in that video (which unfortunately did not have any captioning, at least at this time, so I just watched it at 2x speed) was mighty charming. Funny, despite it being so open that Grafton cyclecar is perhaps not the best choice if you have claustrophobia, as the driver didn’t just get in it, he practically put it on like a pair of pants, à la Wallace and Gromit’s Wrong Trousers.
Yeah, the simplicity of those cyclecars is mighty appealing, especially when it’s so elegant. And there’s also something quite appealing when cyclecars are souped up, like in this short video with this 1908 GN cyclecar fitted with a circa 1914 airplane engine that someone apparently frequently takes on road trips: https://youtu.be/8ks2e_pjasQ?si=hYl9cTkMDxeUpOgH
Another short video of a GN cyclecar, possibly the same one as in the above video, has the camera mounted just behind the left front wheel which shows the wheel, with its astonishingly skinny tire, just wiggling like mad through curves and underscores the utter simplicity of such vehicles: https://youtu.be/TbmBHLHxB70?si=glSjp3CeWU5XNs-J