Welbike

[REME 245]

A friend has a Welbike with the civilian version of the engine fitted, or at least with a flywheel made of the wrong metal. As far as I am aware apart from this it is complete and running.

 

I have no further details and he is asking for a ball park value on the machine.

 

Any suggestions?

[Ron]

A Welbike engine is a 'Villiers Junior Deluxe' and the number is prefixed XXE. The same engine was fitted to hundreds of Autocycles of the period and was usually prefixed XXA. The difference in value between and Autocycle engine and a Welbike is probably at least 10 fold. So for instance, if an Autocycle engine is worth £150 a Welbike engine will be worth £1500.

 

A complete and fairly original Welbike these days is probably worth about 10 grand. I'm blowed if I could give an estimate for a Welbike with the wrong engine, but I'm sure ebay would get the best price. Ron

[monty2]

Can you please send me some pictures, that is needed to make a valuation of it. Value is between 2000 - 9000 euro depending on condition

[Chris Hall]

Ron, eBay price for a 1940 junior engine is a bit more I think. I sold one last year for nearly £500 to a guy in the states. It then cost near £100 to ship it to New York but he wanted it desperately for his weblike project. I added in lots of other spares as the cost of shipping was upto a certain weight. It just shows how much someone will pay when they are desperate for something.

[Ron]

Yes Chris it's supply and demand. When I restored my Welbike, you could buy an Autocycle engine for about £50. Then all of a sudden they were £100 and at that same time I knew a guy with a spare genuine Welbike engine which he had been offered £1000 for.

 

As it so happens I have today just bought a shabby but complete and running 1939 James Autocycle with V5 for £700

 

................Don't ask me why! I just suddenly wanted one, and of course it had to fit into my WW2 theme.

 

Strange that you needed to ship one to US? There's probably more Welbikes there than anywhere!

 

Ron

[Chris Hall]

I think he was building a repro.

 

I had 2 1940 excelsior autobyks that were 34 frames apart. I used the parts from one to repair/rebuild the other and sold the remains on. They are fun bikes but Jesus I would not want to pedal it to far.

[Ron]

Ha Ha! I've got that to look forward to Chris. I tried pedalling my one through compression today and with my buggered right leg I found it very difficult! Ron