Comments on: MI tests the new Motorette (Jul, 1947)

By: B. Proctor

B. Proctor — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:32:49 +0000

We had a red Motorette in North Miami Beach in the 1950′s. My mother, sisters and I drove it all over Miami. You only needed a restricted license to drive one. I got my license at 14, the restriction was that I couldn’t drive at night(we did have headlights). We had to lift up the back and pull a rope to start the engine. It cost about $1. to fill it up and we drove a couple of weeks on one tank. My father was a mechanic, I don’t ever remember the Motorette breaking down. My father drove our station wagon to work and we used the Motorette for everything else. Beach, shopping, school, doctor and dentist trips. There wasn’t anywhere we couldn’t go in the Motorette.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:25:22 +0000

Ignore the e-guy, Leroy – that was an interesting story.

I had a teacher in the 1960s who retired to Arizona, and was quite excited to be able to put her “Tuk-tuk” on the road there. It was an “auto rickshaw” they’d picked up in Thailand – her husband had been connected to the American embassy there. She couldn’t license it in California but didn’t need a license there. I guess they treated it like a “community car” for use on low-speed city streets only.

(Considering we had neighbors will all sorts of underpowered Izettas and such, it was probably a lack of turn signals or something that kept it off the roads of Marin.)

By: ecstacy

ecstacy — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:59:41 +0000

Leroy, I assume Arizona didn’t require kids to go to school when you were a kid. Or you just didn’t listen to your teachers.

By: Leroy Gamble

Leroy Gamble — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:23:33 +0000

Greatings from high on the snow covered mountains of Northern Nevada.

Yes I do remember these little things well. My step mother had one for quite a few years starting in the mid 40s.

She never had a drivers license but back then but apperantly Arizona didn’t require one for this little 3 wheeler as my my step mother never got a ticket with it.

My dad and I ran a service ststion and 3 stall garage back then and we had signs as large as there was room for on each side and my step mother used the Motterette 6 days a week for several years to chase parts for the shop and she also used it for shopping, in fact she used it almost everyday including going to church on sunday.

The article says that the top speed was 39 MPH which I sort of doubt but do know that she used it from our shop on north 16th st. even to downtown Phoenix but I believe that it would only go about 30 to 32 MPH or at least that’s all she ever drove it.

Can’t remember what engine it had in it but it sure was a tough one as she probably got at least 25 to 30 miles a day and I know used it for at least 6 years with nothing more that what one would call minimum service and repairs.

Hers had a windshield that was OEM I am sure, light weight clear plexi glass, no turn signals but really didn’t need them as the seat had a pretty short backrest and she just signeled with EITHER hand depending on which way she was going to turn and we did put a BIG stop light on it as what came on it was quite small and sort of hard to see.

The fact that it was driven by only the left rear wheel made it pretty hard on the front tire as it was always trying to slide a bit sideways and we had to reverse it pretty often (about every 6 to 8 ) months but the steering was built so that you didn’t feel much if any sideways pull but you could see by tire wear that there was quite a bit of side pull.

Yes I would like to have it now and really don’t have any idea what ever happened to it but dad probably sold it when my step mother finally got her drivers license and started using a Model A ford as a parts truck.

Have a GR8 day themtnman@toast.net

By: docca

docca — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:25:30 +0000

History of the Motorette:

http://www.wppl.org/wphistory/.....orette.htm

By: Michael Patrick

Michael Patrick — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:18:25 +0000

Isn’t this what Captian Pike was confined to in one of the original Star Trek episodes?

http://www.spscriptorium.com/S.....inPike.jpg

By: stellaluna

stellaluna — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:11:23 +0000

I want one! wonder if there are still any around?

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:40:30 +0000

The centrifugal clutches I’ve used on mini-bike and go-cart projects just use weighted shoes held together on the armature inside the drum. The drum has a sprocket for power out when the clutch grabs. At a certain RPM, centrifugal force overcomes the strength of the springs and the weighted shoes press against the inside of the drum. Friction causes the drum to turn with the shoes and the sprocket (on the outside of the drum) turns. Different spring rates, decide at what RPM the clutch will engage.

Chainsaws I’ve worked on use the same method. While I understand how the hydraulic method described in the article works, I’ve never seen it (working on hundreds of projects dating from the ’60′s).

Using a heavy liquid metal to apply hydraulic pressure through a tube into a cylinder to push a piston attached to friction shoes into the drum (probably like drum brakes) sounds more complicated than it needs to be and may have never been popular with other manufacturers.

By: George Trudeau

George Trudeau — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:32:19 +0000

Does anyone get how the mercury clutch differs from other centrifugal clutches? It’s only slightly denser than lead and certainly more expensive. Of course these days every accident would carry a multi-million dollar environmental clean-up bill.