What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[David Stepney]

For some years I possessed a 1948 James Autocycle. This was basically a heavy framed 'butchers bicycle fitted with a single speed 98cc Villiers Junior engine giving 1 3/4 hp. I found it in a shed at the cottage I bought at Sellattyn near Oswestry in 1986 and restored it. The engine was seized, and, judging from the state of the bore, it had seized whilst running. Wrexham Motorcycles (as they were then) provided me with a new barrel head and piston. It went enthusiastically at about 20 mph on the flat, but, given the many hills in the Welsh hinterland, the way to get it up such hills was to walk by the side of it as it would happily pull its own weight up, but not with my 9 stone attached!

I have photos of it somewhere, but, after the grand (and disastrous) computer crash of last month, I am still ploughing through all the recovered data and can't find the photos. I sold it in 2008 to an Irish collector.