Vintage Thing No.137 - Miss Bacfire
Continuing the theme of Shelsley specials after the trip to Wisombe, here's Miss Bacfire. Or maybe that should Miss BACfire.
That 2.4 litre vee twin originally lived in a 1920's motorcycle used for bicycle pacing. I'd never heard of this sport but it's basically going as fast as you can on a push bike whilst slipstreaming behind a motorcycle or car. It used to be incredibly popular because of the speeds involved and velodromes sprang up all over France to sate the demand. It was even worth Louis Bac building motorcycles especially designed for this very purpose. These had big engines with a direct belt drive off the crankshaft and would build up speed slowly and inexorably dragging the hapless cyclist along behind them in their wake.
You can see the sort of device on Silodrome.
The A Meier BAC, to give the machine its full title, was built around 1928 and featured rollers on the back to avoid any mishaps if the pursuing push bike put its front tyre to close, although it seems that falls and get-offs were common.
It strikes me that this was a very specialised form of motorcycle and although survivors crop up from time to time quite what would you do with one nowadays apart from stuff and mount it in a museum is anybody's guess.
Miss Bacfire has a 1900cc BAC engine mounted in a GN frame but mounted into an Austin 7 gearbox driving an Austin 7 back axle doubling as a countershaft. The drive thence ran back to the rear axle proper by chains.
What we liked especially about Miss Bacfire was the patina. It was so welly done you'd be forgiven for thinking it wasn't new. The clumsy attempts among the VW crowd to make their VW Jettas look like they've been driven across sun-bleached states in a surfing wonderland contrast harshly with the detailing on Miss Bacfire. It looked right, sounded right and after a few hiccups began to go well, too.
I didn't hear Miss Bacfire backfire once.
its amazing I like cyclecars more and more but with a Harley engine.
ReplyDelete