At the end of 2009 the Iceni CAM Research Team travelled to New Zealand in search of a moped that doesn't officially exist. The story of that moped appeared in World's End ... and other pictures from the trip are published here. Well, we've been back. Not to research anything in particular this time ... just "because it's there".
Napier is renowned
for its wealth of Art Deco buildings ... but as well as those, we
were there to visit Geoffrey and Brenda Clark. On arrival
at our hotel we found that Geoffrey had got there first and left
a welcoming gift.
[Photo: Jane Pattle]
Most of the under-50cc machines
you see 'on the streets' are scooters these days ... but in
Napier, the parking spots are particularly decorative.
The first thing Geoffrey had
planned for us was a ride on some of his more modern
cyclemotors.
[Photo: Brenda Clark]
Geoffrey's collection
will be housed in this new building. At the time of our
visit the building was complete but empty, awaiting the final
'signing off' by the local council. Although newly built,
its design reflects Napier's Art Deco heritage.
[Photo: Brenda Clark]
Left to Right:
Geoffrey Clark, Jane Pattle & Andrew Pattle outside the
entrance to the new building.
[Photo: Brenda Clark]
Until the new building is ready, most of
Geoffrey's bikes are stored in a warehouse ... so let's go and
see what's there, starting with this Vincent Firefly. It's
on a Raleigh cycle that is fitted with Telelink forks.
[Note: You may notice in these photos that
this, and several others of Geoffrey's restored machines, don't
have a saddle. No, there isn't a mysterious shortage of
saddles in New Zealand; it's simply that Geoffrey uses a saddle
he's comfortable with and moves it from bike to bike.]
A
Cyclaid ... one of many ...
A
Power Pak on a Raleigh cycle
Cyclemasters ... there are at least three of
them in this picture.
Looking at the Cyclemasters from the other
side, we see that this one is in a Royal Enfield cycle.
A group of mopeds,
including a Mobylette and an NSU
Quickly.
On the right, that's one of those
40cc Morini cyclemotors; it's in a spring-frame cycle. The
lump on the left is VéloSoleX.
The
next Cyclaid we see is on a Humber bike with its distinctive
duplex forks.
Behind the Cyclaid is another Power Pak - this
is a Synchromatic model.
Cyclaid fans will immediately recognise the
brackets attached to this cycle. The blue bike in the
background isn't a cyclemotor, just a pedal cycle, but we're
going to look at it anyway...
...because it's a Malvern Star, made in
Australia by Bruce Small. The star-shaped cutouts in the
ligs are a distinctive feature of Malvern Star bikes.
Malvern Star also made autocycles and Bruce Small was the agent
for Berini in Australia.
Speaking of Berini ... there's one here.
Over to the left, the cyclemotor with the blue petrol tank under
its rack is a Victoria. Next to that is something with a UK
number plate ... we'll come back to that.
On a shelf
above us we find a GYS Motamite.
And on the next
shelf, a Mini-Motor and a Power Pak.
Here's
an ABG VAP-4 next to a ...
... Peugeot Bima.
This is the Peugeot Bima again, seen from the
front.
Going back to the shelves, this is an
unusual suspension fork.
This
is another Victoria cyclemotor in 'as found' condition but
absolutely complete.
A
Lohmann
A pair of VéloSoleXes
The spring forks are
Victoria, so the bike behind it is the one we sais we'd come back
to, the one with the UK number plate. It's a Phillips
Motorised Bicycle.
A view of some of Geoffrey's
collection.
A view of some of Geoffrey's
collection.
We were also able to try out some of
Geoffrey's machines on some of Napier's many cycleways. This
pair of Cyclaids were the bikes we used. The front one is
on a Humber cycle and the rear one is on a BSA. The front one is an early version of
the Cyclaid, as you can tell from its...
...Bosch magneto (So that's why Cyclaids have
that cutout in the fuel tank).
That's the end of our visit to Geoffrey Clark's collection but,
before we left Napier, we spotted another interesting bike on the
street...
October 2010
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