1938-1939 Hercules Saxonette 60cc Cycle-Attachment,

Hercules Werke AG, Nurnberg, Germany

Although cycle-attachment engines had been manufactured pre-war, the Saxonette ‘help-motor’ was a very refined version. As it was put on the market in 1938 it was essentially the first of what we could describe as the post-war style of cyclemotor. The rear-mounted engine was built around the Sachs Torpedo hub, similar to the BSA Winged Wheel.Brennabor Saxonette. After many announcements and a lot of advertisement the first bicycles with the new auxiliary engine were sold in July 1938, one year after they had been presented at the Berlin Motor Show. The complete rear wheel with attached engine was produced by the German company Sachs and supplied to the bicycle manufacturers. The 2-stroke engine had a bore of 45 mm and an unusually small stroke of 38 mm. The compression ratio was 1:6 and the displacement 60 cc. The engine had an output of 1.2 hp at 3,500 rpm, sufficient for a top speed of 25 - 30 km/h. This revolutionary new design was presented to the public at the Berlin Motor Show in 1937. The factory supplied the engine already fitted to the wheel to various bicycle manufacturers, and the first machines went on sale in July 1938. Companies that sold the unit in their bicycles were:

Hercules Werke AG, Nurnberg, Germany

Anker-Werke, Assmann, Bauer & Co., Bismarck AG, Brennabor-Werke, Brüsselbach, Dürkopp-Werke, Exelsior-Werke, Göricke, Gritzner-Kayser, Hainsberger Metallwerke, Hercules, Meister, Miele & Cie, Panther, Patria-WKC, Presto, Rixe & Co., Torpedo, Urania-Fahrradwerke, Victoria, Walther & Co., Wanderer-Werke AG.

The bicycle factories supplied their own petrol tanks; but it was also possible to buy the engine/wheel direct from Saxonette and fit it to your own bicycle with a 26″ wheel.

Some companies provided a wide range of colours for their bicycles fitted with the Saxonette.

However, despite Fichtel & Sachs excellent reputation – they were renowned for extensive and continuous testing of their products – the new 60cc engine had many problems and not many were sold. A circular was issued to customers in August 1938 to explain some of the issues.The engine had been tested by the factory under full load. However the engine was less likely to be ridden by purchasers under full load, so the plug was likely to oil up. Bosch developed a new spark plug for it, the W95T1.

Hercules Werke AG, Nurnberg, Germany

As it was fitted to a variety of frames, the factory could not test the engine with them all; the ignition cable could rub against some frames, become porous and short-circuit. A protective tube was issued.Carburettor seals, nozzles, petrol pipes and filters were inefficient.The carburettor required cleaning and basic maintenance. People had problems with the twist grips. It had a pressure point to avoid the speed exceeding 25 kph (the speed that the factory deemed safe on a bicycle).Customers were generally not sufficiently technically-minded to deal with these issues themselves, and this caused real problems for dealers selling the Saxonette.If war had not interrupted its manufacture, it’s possible that Sachs would have redeveloped their engines and might have dominated the cycle-attachment market in the same way as they did with lightweight motorcycle engines.

Hercules Werke AG, Nurnberg, Germany

But, as it was, production stopped in 1939, the DKW engineers copied and refined the Saxonette engine to produce the ‘Radmeister,’ those plans were confiscated by the postwar Interpro Bureau, awarded to EMI of Britain as Cyclemaster Ltd and, as they say, the rest is (Cyclemaster) history…