Modern Motoring

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 6

Modern Motoring

Britain in “Transports” Over Pootle Cycle

* EET Wilfred Pootle ... This is a n essential introduction for anyone j\yi \yho wishes to be in the run of things around here, wrote a staff i Vli correspondent of the Christian Science Monitof from London recently Quite frankly, the British are going in to transports over Wilfred. This is very appropriate, since Wilfred will take one seven miles for one penny or 100 miles for 1/3.

“Wilfred Pootle” is the pet name given by the cycle trade here to the new version of the ope horse-power motorised pedal cycle, which, it is confidently forecast, is going to be “the rage of the year.” ' The first name, “Wilfred,” was by dealers at the twenty-third International Bicycle and. Motorcycle Show here. The surname “Pootle” was added when a prospective customer wanted to know “whether it would go pootle-pootle-pootle or just brrrrrr?” The idea of a motor-assisted bicycle

> is not new. What‘is new is the enthusiasm with which the British manufacturers have suddenly taken ft up. A few months ago there was not one British firm producing these pushpurr bikes. At the recent Cycle Show there were nine manufacturers exhibiting their versions of the “Wilfred.” Production is geared for an expected sale of 35,000 by the summer of 1939. Although motorised pedal cycles have been popular in other countries for some time, in Britain this type of

Hints, Information and Advice for Owners and Drivers

machine has not been considered sufficiently dignified. It has beea an object of scornful amusement to the young, and, besides, it has been very heavy to pedal when anything went wrong. Lighter and Faster, In its new guise, however. Wilfred is very smart indeed. What is more, advances in design have made the whole affair much lighter and faster than before. Wilfred v costs between £l7 and £lB, does 30 miles an hour, and can go 140 miles to a gallon of gasoline. The small motor can fairly easily be detached if the owner wants to go for an occasional spin on an orthodox bicycle. '• . The man behind this “baby motorcycle” vogue is Mr. G. H. Jones, Midland engineer.

This correspondent found Mr. Jones a quiet corner of the exhibition admiring the smallest of the Wilfreds, a machine with a motor of only 80 cubic centimeters cylinder-capacity. “I designed most of these ‘Wilfreds’ myself,” Mr. Jones said, “and this, the smallest machine of thenp all, is in a

way my favourite. “You see,” he went on, “what most of us would like would be a bicycle which would go along on its own, without any motor and without any pedalling. This is the nearest approach to that ideal. Technical Advances. The reason why motorised bicycles can be made so small and so efficient nowadays is. Mr. Jones declared, because of recent technical advances. Experience gained in aircraft design has, in fact, enabled the weight of 1939-model cycles to be reduced by as much as 25 per cent., manufacturers claim. At the same time strength has been increased by 70 per cent, and propelling effort reduced by 40 per cent. One firm at the exhibition showed a three-seater pedal car made of aircraft tubing, on which “three men can comfortably do 40-45 m.p.h.” Another firm exhibited a bicycle weighing only 21 pounds. The most expensive exhibit was the Brough “Dream,” a motorcycle with a four-cylinder automobile motor, shaft drive to the rear wheel and a frame which is completely sprung. This costs £lB5.

For most of the visitors to the show this amazing 'motorcycle, for which the designer "claims that the rider can dress exactly as he would for a drive in an open car, is too costly. So they use their one-tenth horse-power to pedal a bicycle or, calling upon Wil-

fred, go pootling through the streets of Britain at 25 miles an hour and a cost of one farthing for two miles.