What ever became of the BB Motorised Bicycle - Ballina

Fr Tod Umptious · 04-11-2021 10:29am #1

Saw this this morning on the RTE Archives Website

A petrol motor attached to a standard bicycle.

Goes 300 mpg

Was a great idea in 1981 when fuel prices went sky high, maybe not so much today with this climate nonsense.

Anyway with a lot of these things I see on the RTE Archives I often wonder what became of the idea and the people behind them

Anyone know what became of David Burns and his motorised bicycle ?

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2021/1027/1256114-motorised-bicycle/

And while we are at it, the sausage turf cutter, I remember these myself when they came on the scene, this story is from Ballintubber, not the real Ballintubber, the fake Ballintubber in Roscommon.

Another that would not get much traction in this COPT26 day and age, but were they a hit at the time ?

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2021/1026/1255996-turf-cutting-machine/

Blackjack · 04-11-2021 10:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058216393/what-ever-became-of-the-bb-motorised-bicycle-ballina

I think the price then was rather a lot of money in 1981 and the 1980's in particular the earlier parts were fairly bleak economically in this country. If you had 250 quid to spend, you were one of the few not the many, and it was unlikely the price of petrol would have put you off your car enough to consider using your money for an engine on your bike.

as for the turf cutting machines - I think there were various iterations of that some having greater success than others - I think the initial ones had problems with regards the size of the sods once all were dried out (too small) and others damaging the surfaces rendering those areas unusable again for some time.

FishOnABike · 04-11-2021 11:30am

The requirement for a licence, tax and insurance would have been an obstacle to the motorised push bike.

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/warning-that-motorised-push-bikes-need-tax-and-licence-35995660.html

Licence and tax would probably be the same as a moped, insurance probably being the biggest problem. What insurance company would want to insure a self built franken-machine?

When commercially designed and built versions were available since the 1950s why even bother trying to reinvent the wheel?

https://www.bikesure.co.uk/bikesureblog/2016/09/a-brief-history-of-mopeds.html