Vauxhall: Motorcycles: Difference between revisions
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'''Vauxhall''' produced a motorcycle between 1921 and 1922. | '''Vauxhall''' produced a motorcycle between 1921 and 1922. | ||
The company was searching to build something after the end of the First World War. They looked to Major Halford of [[Ricardo and Co]] for a prestige design that would better other designs of the era. He did just that and a pilot batch of six was laid down. Only two, however, were completed. | The company was searching to build something after the end of the First World War. They looked to Major [[Frank Bernard Halford|Halford]] of [[Ricardo and Co]] for a prestige design that would better other designs of the era. He did just that and a pilot batch of six was laid down. Only two, however, were completed. | ||
The design was very advanced for its day. It had a four-cylinder air-cooled engine set along the frame and drove a car-type three-speed gearbox with shaft final-drive to a worm rear-axle. The 945cc engine had an equal bore and stroke, fully enclosed ohv, timing gear to camshaft, ignition at the front, and wet-sump lubrication. | The design was very advanced for its day. It had a four-cylinder air-cooled engine set along the frame and drove a car-type three-speed gearbox with shaft final-drive to a worm rear-axle. The 945cc engine had an equal bore and stroke, fully enclosed ohv, timing gear to camshaft, ignition at the front, and wet-sump lubrication. | ||
Latest revision as of 19:25, 8 November 2023
Note: This is a sub-section of Vauxhall
Vauxhall produced a motorcycle between 1921 and 1922.
The company was searching to build something after the end of the First World War. They looked to Major Halford of Ricardo and Co for a prestige design that would better other designs of the era. He did just that and a pilot batch of six was laid down. Only two, however, were completed.
The design was very advanced for its day. It had a four-cylinder air-cooled engine set along the frame and drove a car-type three-speed gearbox with shaft final-drive to a worm rear-axle. The 945cc engine had an equal bore and stroke, fully enclosed ohv, timing gear to camshaft, ignition at the front, and wet-sump lubrication.
The engine unit fitted into a duplex cradle frame with leading link forks in the American style. There were cast-alloy foot-boards on either side; the silencer on the left and on the right a toolbox. A saddle tank, with Vauxhall flutes, was fitted and had the gear lever working in a gate at its rear, behind a housing for the speedometer and electric switch. The design was really something special as the machine was smooth, quiet, flexible and very nippy. The post-war years were hard and the motorcycle would have been expensive to construct, so it never went into production. One machine has survived.