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The name Welbike comes from the area of its development, an hour north of London in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. The idea — cooked up by the British Army’s clandestine force, Special Operations Executive (SOE) — was that paratroopers needed a way to quickly move about the countryside after parachuting into a location during the WW2.
The finished bike needed to fit inside a standard parachute airdrop container 51 inches long, 15 inches high and 12 inches wide. To fit comfortably inside the small container, the Welbike had no suspension, lighting system and just a rear brake.
Excelsior Ltd. built the finalized versions, which were all fitted with 98cc Villiers two-stroke single cylinder engines. In all, Excelsior built three version of the Welbike. The original 1,200 were known as the Mark 1, and the next 2,400 were called Mark 2 Series 1. The major difference between the two is that the Mark 1s had no rear mudguard. The final 1,340 Mark 2 Series 2 bikes had a revised saddle fuel tank with a better fuel filler that didn’t require the removal of the pressurization system.
bringatrailer.com
vespa-army.blogspot.com.ar
The finished bike needed to fit inside a standard parachute airdrop container 51 inches long, 15 inches high and 12 inches wide. To fit comfortably inside the small container, the Welbike had no suspension, lighting system and just a rear brake.
Excelsior Ltd. built the finalized versions, which were all fitted with 98cc Villiers two-stroke single cylinder engines. In all, Excelsior built three version of the Welbike. The original 1,200 were known as the Mark 1, and the next 2,400 were called Mark 2 Series 1. The major difference between the two is that the Mark 1s had no rear mudguard. The final 1,340 Mark 2 Series 2 bikes had a revised saddle fuel tank with a better fuel filler that didn’t require the removal of the pressurization system.
bringatrailer.com
vespa-army.blogspot.com.ar
