First day with my Velosolex

Follow the story of Francine, the new passion in my life, which will spark into life one day!
By the way she is a 3800,  1970 vintage.

Some of us have dreampt about what French life is all about, nipping down to the local boulangerie in our 2CV to collect our early morning baguette. However, there is a form of transport in France that is so much more quintessential to a French way of life and that is the Velosolex.

So my integration into French life has made a giant leap forward this week, after our French neighbour gave me my very own Velosolex in exchange for taking some of her rubbish down to the local dump, not a bad swop and she even threw in a bottle of champagne!

So here she is poised and ready for her first trip to the boulangerie, well not quite as she has not been ridden for a quite few years and is in need of some TLC. To start I blew up  the tyres, and added some fresh petrol mix. Well, after a few laps of pedalling around the field I collapsed into a heap trying to get her started. She must be a she as she already seems a little temperamental. I have named her Francine after our lovely neighbour, who I have to say is not at all temperamental.

The first thing was to check the plug and at this stage I have to add that I am no mechanic, but have a basic knowledge of how motors work and there is always the Internet to fall back on, talking of which I have found some interesting web sites around the globe about the Velosolex. I do feel I have just opened an interesting can of worms for myself, although Mrs TK has other thoughts on the subject as Francine has not got four legs and hooves.

I think she will just be cheaper to run! If only I could get her started.

So still no life in the old girl even with a clean plug and I was about to have  a heart attack riding around the garden trying to give her the 'kiss of life.'

Time for a bit of ingenuity, and I had a flashback to a few days ago when I was trying to get a coil for my strimmer, the mechanic there was testing lawn mower engines by using a drill to turn the motors over, so I wondered whether it was feasible with my Solex.

I took off the side cover to the flywheel and found a socket which fitted the nut, I then put a bolt through the hole in the socket and fixed the end to my drill. Below is a short video of the result, and with the aid of a new spark plug the engine eventually started, but not quite as sweet as I would like her.

So that was my first day with Francine and I did eventually get her to fire up, althought she is not a happy bunny and stalled after a few minutes.
Watch this space for futher episodes of life with Francine.


First test ride on Francine around the garden