Velosolex Build

[Cannonball3]

Years back when I was in high school I spent the summer of 67 in Germany. I was intrigued by the tons of kids riding little black
motorbikes. I learned that they were on summer holiday and were allowed to ride these things traveling around the country on their own. I made a mental note to get one someday. Fast forward about 45+ years and I finally got my Velosolex. The remains of 2or 3 in a big box.
I did a bit of initial work on them, and they have been in the box for the last 12 years. Time to get one going. The one in the build will be a “Restomod” as they say. I dont have all the parts and wouldnt use some of them if I did, particularly the insane front brakes.
These are early enough to be the million part bolt together model. Apparently no one at the Velo factory could weld. Have to wonder
why one would bust butt to build a 20mph strange French contrivance, fact is they are just too cool and work very well.

This will be a slow build I have a million parts to process and time to figure out the strange French engineering.
Here a pic of about 75% of the front fork, yes there is still much more to it.

 

[darwin]

Cool, had to look it up. Should be able to go from Berlin to Munich on 1 tank of gas. I've never seen brake handles mounted like that, assuming it's a brake.

 

[Cannonball3]

I was just getting ready to post a similar pic. Thats the model of my bike. Those inverted brake handles wont be reused
on the build, mainly because they are hard to find/expensive and the cables route thru the bars. I guess the may have been safer in a crash with the open ends facing forward? Still the pointed handles look dangerous.

Some of the kids I saw had aux frame frame carried fuel tanks. It amazed me how much stuff they carried on the rack and tied all over!

 

[Cannonball3]

I just got into nickel plating and will be plating the Velo specific hardware. Other hardware will be stainless.
Heres the fork crown nut and race. We will see how they plate.

Whoops!

Here

 

[DAMIEN1307]

Heres the fork crown nut and race

Where???...lol.

 

[Chainlube]

I was just getting ready to post a similar pic. Thats the model of my bike. Those inverted brake handles wont be reused
on the build, mainly because they are hard to find/expensive and the cables route thru the bars. I guess the may have been safer in a crash with the open ends facing forward? Still the pointed handles look dangerous.

Some of the kids I saw had aux frame frame carried fuel tanks. It amazed me how much stuff they carried on the rack and tied all over!

Those look like finger throttles for snowmobiles.

 

[GW's Motorized]

I wouldn't trust those pressed sheet metal forks going anywhere above 15 to 20 mph.

 

[Cannonball3]

Here are the cleaned and plated parts. They were severely pitted so its about as good as one could expect. The advantage is the plating protects against rust and wont come off like painted parts. On good metal also buffs to a high luster. Very simple and safe to do, and you are in business for about 10 bucks. I should have spread out the rusty before shot.

 

[GW's Motorized]

Here are the cleaned and plated parts. They were severely pitted so its about as good as one could expect. The advantage is the plating protects against rust and wont come off like painted parts. On good metal also buffs to a high luster. Very simple and safe to do, and you are in business for about 10 bucks. I should have spread out the rusty before shot.

Could you give a list of things needed for the plating process? I have looked into it a little, but not alot. The parts look good btw

 

[Cannonball3]

I wouldn't trust those pressed sheet metal forks going anywhere above 15 to 20 mph.

21 is about top speed. The Velo came out in/around 1946? So the forks are pretty well known to hold up. There is a later welded front end, but the forks are still pressed as I remember. Heck the whole frame is pressed parts!