Introduction

Iceni CAM Magazine

This is the home of the Iceni CAM Magazine—a free e-magazine about Cyclemotors, Autocycles, Mopeds … and more.  It was launched on 15th April 2007 and the most recent ten issues can be downloaded here.  All the articles from all the previous magazines are on this website.  For non-computerised folks, printed copies are available at £1.50 per edition; we can accommodate mail order too at £3.02 for single edition or £12.20 for a year’s subscription.

So what’s it about?

It’s an e-magazine all about cyclemotors, autocycles and mopeds that carries road test & feature articles, rally reports, free adverts and other assorted information.  Although we are an independent production, we have strong ties to the EACC and also to the New Zealand Cyclaid Register.

We are based in East Anglia, but are by no means limited to that area.  Much that appears in the magazine is of universal appeal.  We welcome contributions, wherever they are from, and are also happy to help to publicise any events for cyclemotors, autocycles and mopeds.

When’s it published?

We publish four times a year at the beginning of January, April, July, and October.  Iceni CAM is purely an enthusiast production, and all produced on a tiny budget.  The free downloadable version will be posted on this website on the same day as the printed version goes on sale.

All the issues of CAM Magazine that we’ve produced have been very well received.  Thank you all for your comments; they are much appreciated.  Several of you have also made donations, which has helped enormously in keeping Iceni CAM going.

What’s in it?

The January 2025 edition is available now on our Downloads Page.

Main feature: A Minor Cyclemotor

Museum exhibit: the surviving ABJ autocycle

Despite having been officially listed as a production manufacturer of 99cc Villiers 1F light moto rcycles, 2F Autocycles, and the Auto-Minor cyclemotor, it’s really difficult to find examples of any of these models.  The only conclusion is that they must have been made in only very limited numbers.  We’ve never seen any of the motor cycles, and only known of one ABJ Autocycle, which we were chasing for an article, but it ended up as a museum exhibit.

When Derek Langdon acquired the incomplete cyclemotor engine, it wasn’t even known what it was, though quickly identified by the team, and reconstruction began based on the limited information available at the time.

There are absolutely no parts available from anywhere for an Auto-Minor, so everything has to be made, improvised, or adapted, so this isn’t a project for everyone.  Since Derek didn’t have an ABJ bicycle to build the engine on to, there seemed little necessity to try to create a perfect replica, so while many parts were sympathetically remade close to the originals, some ‘liberties’ were taken for practicality and functionality.

The article began with a drive to Nottingham for the road test and photo-shoot on Monday 10^th June, which involved rain showers and wet roads, though not enough to compromise a 25mph maximum speed test.  Few cyclemotors are fast, though what they lack in speed they often make up for in intrigue, and the ABJ is certainly an enigma!

There are only limited period references available on the ABJ company, and no further information appears to have surfaced since the Auto-Minor dropped from trade listings around the end of 1953, at which the business reportedly reverted back to bicycle manufacture—though there seems to be no dated evidence to even support this claim.

It seems unlikely that ABJ actually made the motor itself since a bicycle manufacturer wouldn’t be expected to have the necessary equipment to do that, so it would be presumed the engine was subcontract made—but there are no clues as to who might have done that.

Who designed the engine?  Surely not Alfred B Jackson, because he had no such engine background, and was it just by chance that there were similarities to aspects of the Tailwind motor?

Why was the Auto-Minor so ineffectually and only briefly sold?

Many puzzles with no solutions we may ever know.  It’s a mystery…

Sponsored by Andrew Williams, Malvern, Worcs.  While looking through the donations list, we thought Andrew might appreciate this article since we’d noted he had a Raynal.

First Support feature: (Still) Absolutely Fabulous

The Ambassador is a particularly obscure and extremely rare British moped, which was barely produced at all.  So few complete and working examples survive that it’s common for many people to not even be aware that it existed.

We’d normally have expected the Ambassador to be the main feature, but this was an extraordinary edition of IceniCAM in which everything featured was extraordinary!

The original Ab-Fab article was published in February 2002 in another magazine and, 22 years on, with the opportunity to re-test the same machine following a recent refurbishment, it was readily decided that it was well due for an update.  Considering we were quite satisfied with the published article at the time, it was felt best to basically update and expand on the original feature, hence the just slightly revised title, old pictures, and new pictures.

Our Ambassador Moped in (Left) 2024 and (Right) 2002

For 60-year-old obscure bikes like the Ambassador, there is negligible further UK information coming to light, and the few snippets we may discover are usually only by reviewing more closely our original sources and looking in other places that we may have missed.  Assistance from Michael Easton with his Ambassador Register allowed further analysis, but couldn’t provide definitive answers about how many mopeds were built due to the difficulties involving Ambassador’s use of sequential production numbers acroos its entire range.

So we looked towards Finnish sources, which contributed a few more snippets, but when it the Solifer–Ambassador contract figures of 1,000 frames for the 1961 post-season is compared to just seven surviving examples, and our analysis suggesting fewer than 100 frames—it doesn’t add up … but the Ambassador is Still Absolutely Fabulous.

Sponsored by Neil Plunkett, Christchurch, New Zealand (who came over to see us in 2024).

Second Support feature: Before and after Wisp

This came about as a result of finding old photographs of the R16 Poweride and a negative titled ‘Wisp Mk2 mock-up’ in the Raleigh Archives during the all day research visit to Nottingham Inspire on Tuesday 11^th June.  These files were found at an early stage of the search, and while obviously not what we were specifically looking for in our hunt for the Ghost, they looked interesting, so we ordered scans for assessment.

The R16 was obviously a low-cost prototype of the RM7 project that evolved along with the Wisp, but never progressed to production.  The hitherto unknown Poweride was clearly going to make an interesting feature, but how to present it when the bike didn’t survive?

We decided on an analytical approach as the only real option, and we’re pretty sure that there are going to people interested in this undiscovered and unknown Raleigh Test & Development model.

It seemed natural to include the Wisp Mk2 mock-up in the same package since it was a progression of the same project, and an interesting conclusion to the presentation.

With this article planned in from the last October 2024 edition, we pulled out all the stops to secure the necessary copyright permissions on all the archive pictures ahead of publication.

Sponsored by Les Gobbett, Lough, Lincolnshire EACC since he’s a keen Raleigh enthusiast—and Les, there’s more surprises to come in the next edition.

What’s Next?

The next magazine is scheduled for publication at the beginning of April 2025.

Next Main Feature: The title of the next main feature is ‘9+1 does not = 10’.  Well the first part might be pretty obvious, but somehow we doubt you’ll figure out what the other half is about.

Next First Support: Another old British moped, built only for one season! It’s actually quite special, but you probably wouldn’t recognise it as a keystone in this manufacturer’s production plan.

Next Second Support: Another discovery from the Nottingham Inspire Raleigh Archives: we found a German Farmer!  Can you figure what this is about?  Otherwise you’ll have to wait till the April edition…

What else?

Well, there’s this Website … we’ve put a lot of useful information here, and we’re alwas adding to it.  We have a directory of useful people to know.  Information on local events and, after each run, we put photos of the event on this website.  There’s also a market place where you can buy and sell mopeds, autocycles, cyclemotors and other related items

As each edition of the magazine is published, we add to our collection of articles.  From Edition 3 of the magazine, we introduced another evolution.  Previously, features in the articles section had reflected what appeared in the magazine, but you may now discover a bit of extra content has crept into some items as they’ve transferred to the website—you might call it ‘The Directors Cut’.  The problem with printed magazines is editing everything to fit page sizes and space, and there can sometimes be bits you’d like to include, but they have to be left out to fit the available space.  The web articles don’t need to be constrained by the same limitations so, although the text will remain the same, the ‘Directors Cut’ graphic in the header indicates the item carries extra pictures and bits that didn’t make it to the magazine.

We also have an Information Service—if you want to know more about your moped, we can help.

What we do

Iceni CAM Magazine is committed to celebrating all that’s good about the Cyclemotor, Moped and Autocycle scene; researching toward the advancement of the pool of knowledge about cyclemotors, autocycles, old mopeds, and other oddities; and the publication of original material.  We are a declared non-profit making production, though we still need to fund everything somehow to keep the show on the road.

The magazine is free on line, and the nominal price of supplying hard copies to non-computerised folks is pitched only to cover printing and postage.  All advertising is free since we believe that the few people left out there providing parts & service for these obsolete machines do so as a hobby and an interest.  This involves far more effort than reward, and they should be appreciated for the assistance they provide.  Our Information Service is there to help anyone needing manuals to help with restoration of a machine.  We make a small charge for this but, again, we have set our prices so the just cover postage and material costs.  However, we are trying to make this free too!  We are setting up an on-line library where you can download manuals at no charge.

Overheads involve operation of the website, and particularly the generation of features.  Articles like Last Flight of the Eagle can cost as little as £20 to complete, while others have cost up to £150 to generate, eg: Top Cat on the Leopard Bobby.  With these overheads, you may be wondering how we get the money to keep it all going.  So do we!  But, somehow, it works, helped by a number of generous people who have sponsored articles or made donations to keep the show on the road.

How long does it take to research, produce, and get these feature articles to press?  Well, up to two years of preparatory research in some cases, where little is known about the machine or its makers, and where nothing has been published before.  Then, collating all the information and interviews, drafting and re-drafting the text, travel and photoshoots typically account for up to 40 to 50 hours to deliver the package to editing.

There are many examples where these articles have become the definitive reference material for previously unpublished machines like:

Ambassador Moped,

Dunkley Whippet & Popular,

Elswick Hopper Lynx,

Leopard Bobby,

Mercury Mercette & Hermes,

Ostler Mini-Auto,

Raleigh Ireland Super,

Stella Minibike,

…and many others.

We’re committed to continuing to produce these articles, because we believe it needs to be done, and we’ve got a proven track record for achieving it.  Nobody else has done it in 50 odd years, so if we don’t do it—who will?

To whet your appetite for what’s ahead, here’s an updated list of machines with developing articles for future features:

Ariel Pixie;

Beretta–Mosquito;

Capriolo 75 Turismo Veloce;

Cyc-Auto (Wallington Butt) & Cyc-Auto (Villiers);

Dot ViVi;

Dunkley S65 & Whippet Super Sports;

Elswick–Hopper VAP MIRA test prototype;

Gilera RS50;

Hercules Her-cu-motor;

Honda Gyro Canopy, Model A, CD50, & SS50;

James Comet 1F;

MV Agusta Liberty;

Norman Nippy Mark 2 & Nippy Mark 3;

Powell Joybike;

Rabeneick Binetta;

Raleigh RM10 Autocrat;

Simson SR2E;

Solifer Speed;

Sun Autocycle & Motorette;

Vincent Firefly;

Yamaha FS1-E.

The working list changes all the time as articles are completed and published, and further new machines become added—so as you see, there’s certainly no shortage of material.

Readers have probably noticed a number of the articles collecting sponsorship credits, and we’re very grateful for the donations people have made toward IceniCAM, which certainly assures we’re going forward into another year.  We don’t need a lot of money since IceniCAM is a declared non-profit making organisation, and operates on a shoestring (and we’d like to keep it that way)—run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.

It’s easy to sponsor an article by either picking a machine from the forward list, and we’ll attach your credit to it, or simply making a donation.  There is no fixed amount, it’s entirely up to you, and however large or small, we’re grateful for any contribution to keep the show on the road.

If a vehicle you’re interested in seeing an article about isn’t in the list, then let us know and we’ll see about trying to add it in the programme, but we do need access to examples—perhaps you have a machine you’d like to offer for a feature?

See the Contact Page for how to: Sponsor an article–Enter a free advert–Submit an article yourself–Write a letter to us–Propose a machine for feature–Offer your machine for test feature …