Short version :
Solex is a french firm which is mostly known for having manufactured the
Velosolex, a
moped with the
power transmission on the front
wheel.
Long version :
Solex was founded in the beginning of the 20th century (1909) by two
french engineers, Maurice Goudard and Marcel Mennesson. The firm was at first called Goudard and Mennesson. They first developped
radiators for buses, then
carburetors and changed the name for a simpler one: Solex. They also designed a mesuring device (pneumatic
micrometer) which had a great precision for that date. They designed carburetors for
cars,
trucks,
tractors and
aircrafts and their products can still be found in a lot of not-so-old
european cars.
But Solex is mostly known (at least in Europe) for one of its products: the
Velosolex. This is roughly a
bicycle with a small engine on its front wheel. The engine is a 2 stroke 50cm^3
internal combustion engine developping approxmately 1,5
HP. The
top speed is limited by design at 35 km/h. The engine does not burn a lot of fuel : with a full tank (1,5
litres) you can make up to 100
km. The
power transmission does not use a
chain like the other
mopeds: on the
crankshaft, there is a small wheel, turning at 3800 or 5000
RPM (depending on the model), touching the front
tyre, which makes the front wheel turn and thus moves the
moped forward. As all the
power is transmitted through the
friction between the small turning wheel and the
tyre, it's not very efficent on a
wet or
snowy floor...
The first
prototype was built in 1941 and it has been manufactured until the 7th of november 1988, for a total of more than 5 millions machines produced. The machines used for its production have recently been bought by a hungarian firm, and new "
Velosolexes" can now be bought under the name of "Cyclone".
The
Velosolex is also part of the
cliché that a lot of people (
French included) have on
France.
To sum up, the
Velosolex is
slow,
weird, mechanically
simple,
robust, sometimes
inefficent and that why i just
love it !