Friday bike

Yet again, Stuart guessed this week's Mystery bike  - the Hoffmann Governeur.

Hoffmann were based in the town of Lintorf, near Dusseldorf, Germany, and between 1949 and 1954 built a number of small motorcycles. The Governeur was their flagship bike and was produced in 250 and 300cc versions. During this period, Hoffmann also built 60,000 Vespa Scooters under licence. It would seem that Hoffmann's own bikes were only produced in small numbers and are very rare today. I saw one in a museum in France last year, the first time I'd heard of the make.

It's most unusual feature was an 'all chain' gearbox, where the shafts were linked by a series of chains.

This was a similar design to that used in Victoria and Zundapp motorcycles of the time.

Found a 'walk round' video.

Note British numberplate. There are apparently three Governeurs in Britain - the black one in the video,

this one in the Sammy Miller museum, and one on this wonderful website where I stole most of the pictures and information.