If you are riding at night on this 1912 Yale... "moped"
I think thats a kerosene burning "headlight".
Check out those handlebars... and the 'glovebox' on the top frame rail.
If you are riding at night on this 1912 Yale... "moped"
I think thats a kerosene burning "headlight".
Check out those handlebars... and the 'glovebox' on the top frame rail.
and the links on that smooth beltdrive, you could probably cut up the belt (you use to hold up pants) for extra links if ya had to.
Those headlights were actually run on acetylene. The lamp is attached to a carbide generator. The top section holds water, and the bottom calcium carbide granules. If you know what a Big Bang cannon is you know the stuff.
You open the water valve that sets a metered drip onto the carbide below, producing acetylene gas. Open the lamps' door, open the gas valve, and light the jet with a match. They are actually quite bright. Old time miners had this type of lamp on their helmets.
Later on the carbide generator was replaced with a Prest-O-Lite tank, which was a pressurized acetylene cylinder. No muss, no fuss, not nasty carbide crud to have to clean from the generator.
Jim
what a crazy bike! awesome!
I was wondering if that was a carbide lantern.Don't forget coon hunting and camping Jim C! I've coon -hunted all night with those things on about 2 fill-ups of carbide nuggets.
you keep referring to these bikes as mopeds, they are fine pictures, I have most of them too, but no means to show them here, BUT they are actually the finest motorcycles (motocycles) that money could buy in their day, there was no means to start an engine unless the bike was moving therefore they required pedals,, oil was kept in a separate tank and hand pumped in when the engine got too noisy then cycled through the motor and expelled ,, this was called a total loss system you had to fill up with oil when you got gas (roughly .08 per gallon at the time),,Rog
When the Davidson brothers set out tinkering, they were attempting to motorize a bicycle, which were the rage at the time. William Harley was their pattern maker and draftsman.
Somehow that wiley draftsman got top billing when they opened their manufacturing company: The Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
So in essence these bikes truly are moped variants, although they will do more than 30MPH, no doubt!
Jim
OMG don you coon hunt? We down here in georgia do alot of coon hunting too. I have a blue tick hound and my friend has severaly blood hounds and a walkmerinaer or two that he coon hunts with.
WE have car bumper stickers that say coon hunters do it all night.
Yeah,Duck,I USED to coon hunt.When they were worth something for fur and the farmers were losing all kinds of corn and chicken eggs to them.But I'm mopeding now,and no time for staying out all night chasing the `banditos'.They are getting thick again in Ohio though.Hey Jim C.! Were those the `Hardly Davidsons' you're talking about?
Don... How long ago was it that you used to use the water/carbide/acetylene lanterns for coon hunting ?
Do you think you can still buy the carbide pellets for them ?
That's right, Don.
Almost 100 years ago they were trying to put a gasoline engine on a bicycle. They used to manufacture bicycles originally.
But they may not have been the first. Hendee Manufacturing Company was doing the same thing, and produced the Indian Motocycle (that's how it was spelled) before the Davison's and Harley got one together.
Jim
Man,I don't know about now,Fred.One can lasts so long if you keep it dry......I haven't coon hunted for a lot of years.But I would guess that the lanterns and carbide is still available thru a Farm supplier or old-timey kind of Hardware store.I could call BOBST Hardware at Beaver.Or Jackson Implement should have them.Do you want me to pick up something for you?`Ol Duck oughta' know since he still has coon dogs.I think he's young though.Maybe TOO young! (;>)
Real interesting,Jim! I'm a `ped guy,not much into MC's,but I like the usefulness and the looks of them.Those old ones had class,like some `peds.They had a serious look about them.Sadly,MCs are dangerous as can be now on the open road due to bad or unattentive drivers.I'll stick with my `peds.
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