After the Modern Books, here are the Period Books. These books were written in the same period as the machines they describe. These are mainly practical guides to what was available at the time and the best ways to use and look after the machines.
150 pages, 4"×7, B&W diagrams, hard covers
Iliffe & Sons, London, 1952
This is the second edition of this book; the 1949 first edition was called Your Autocycle and how to get the best from it. Iliffe & Sons (later Iliffe Books) published a whole series of books in association with the weekly magazine The Motor Cycle and this is the volume covering cyclemotors.
120 pages (approx), 5"×7, B&W diagrams
Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1959 (First edition)
The book in Pitman's Motor-cyclists' Library that deals with the NSU Quickly - it gives a description of all the models available and is a comprehensive guide to their use and maintenance. As the NSU Quickly range evolved, new editions of the book were produced covering the changes. Later editions still retain all the information about the earlier models. Therefore, if you want a copy for its practical information, the later editions are the ones to look out for.
96 pages, 5"×7, B&W diagrams, soft covers
Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1967
The book in Pitman's Motor-cyclists' Library that deals with Raleigh mopeds - it gives a description of all the Mobylette-based models from 1960 to 1966 and is a comprehensive guide to their use and maintenance. The earlier mopeds with Sturmey-Archer engines and the Wisp are not covered by this book.
124 pages, 5"×7½", B&W diagrams, hard
covers
Temple Press, London, 1952
The Motor Cycle's rival magazine Motor Cycling also produced a series of motor cycle books and they were published by Temple Press. The Cyclemotor Manual is in two parts: the first covers the general priciples of how they work, the law, riding, maintenance and repair. Part two describes all the cyclemotors of the day, first the friction-drive ones, then the positive drive ones. Finally, under the heading of Cyclomoteurs, it describes the Mobylette and the VéloSoleX. Like the other Iliffe Books and Temple Press books of this era, there is a small section of advertisements at the back.
The smaller machines catered for include:
Honda C50, C70, C90, NC50, NA50, NS50 Melody, PA50 Camino, PC50,
PF50
Kawasaki AE50, AE80, AR50, AR80
Motobécane Mobylette
NVT Easy Rider ER1, ER2
Piaggio/Vespa Ciao, Bravo
Puch Grand Prix, M50, Maxi N, Maxi S, MS, MV, M2, M3, VF50, VS50,
VZ50
Suzuki A50P, A50, AS50, CL50, CS50, CS80
Tomos A3K, A3M, A3ML, A3MS
Yamaha DT50M, DT50MX, DT80MX, FS1-E, FS1M, RD50, RD80, SA50M.
80 pages, 5"×7½", B&W diagrams, two B&W
plates, board covers
Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1947
In addition to the Illife and Temple Press series of books, there was a third published by Isacc Pitman. This is the one covering autocycles and it is similar in content to the equivalent books in the other series. The Pitman series was later named Pitman's Motor-cyclists' Library. The Pitman books have fewer advertisements - not having the same access to the regular advertisers in The Motor Cycle or Motor Cycling. However, Pitman also produced manufacturer-specific titles so, in addition to The Book of the Cyclemotor and Modern Autocycles there are titles like The Book of the NSU Quickly, The Book of the Raleigh Mopeds and The Book of the Villiers Engine.
368 pages, 8"×5", B&W illustrations, soft
covers
Pocket Books, New York, 1977
A practical handbook from the USA. It describes all the mopeds then available, riding techniques and maintenance. There is also a section summarising the US laws on mopeds, which varied from state to state.
182 pages, 5"×7½", B&W photographs and
diagrams, hard covers
Iliffe Books, London, 1961
Another of the books published by Iliffe Books for The Motor Cycle. Sccoters and Mopeds was first published in 1958 - the cover we've pictured is from the second edition. In common with the other Iliffe Books and Temple Press books, it covers the general priciples of how the machines work, the law, riding, maintenance & repair and also has a small section of advertisements at the back.
172 pages, 5"×7½", B&W diagrams, hard
covers
Iliffe & Sons, London, 1938
Our illustration is of the 1938, seventh edition of this book. Earlier editions were titled Two-Stroke Motor Cycles and did not have a section on autocycles. Most of the book covers the general priciples of how two-stroke motor cycles work, their construction, the law, riding, maintenance & repair. Modern Autocycles - A guide to good ownership is a self-contained section of a couple of dozen pages at the end of the book.
This page was updated on 9 March 2009
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