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1952 Victoria Vicky FM 38 Hilfsmotor
I bought this particular FM 38 Vicky because it’s not easy to find one fitted to an original Victoria frame.
As you can see further down the page, most were sold as an independent cycle-attachment engine.
I’ve not had time to do anything with this Victoria, as I’ve been so busy restoring others all winter.
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More information about this fascinating ‘hilfsmotor’ (it literally translates as “help-engine”) and a potted history of the German Victoria motorcycle company can be found at The Cyclemaster Museum:
PLEASE CLICK HERE http://Cyclemaster.co.uk
The 38cc Victoria FM 38 cycle-attachment engine was made between 1946 and 1954.
Although the vast majority of FM 38’s were sold as a kit to mount onto the purchaser’s own bicycle, some were also sold as a complete unit already mounted onto a Victoria cycle frame.
My Victoria is one of those latter versions, an engine mounted onto a Victoria Ladies bicycle (similar to the one in the Victoria poster above)
The FM 38 was a very popular unit, with a total production run of 40,000.
It was one of the first postwar cycle-attachments to be made in
Europe:
although Velosolex had also started production in 1946 in France, Great Britain was several years behind.
Most German factories had, of course, been destroyed in the War.
Motorcycles over 350cc were now prohibited by the Allies, and the
manufacture of only 10,000 machines with engines between 60cc - 350cc
were allowed.
There was obviously a major motivation to start tooling up for cyclemotors and getting them out of the factories.
Albert Roder was the chief designer at Victoria (he later achieved
worldwide renown for his work at NSU).
The FM 38 (Fahrrad-Motor 38cc) was the first cycle-attachment to arrive on the market, did very well in road tests, and was a reliable machine.
The famous picture above is of George Dotterweich’s world record, racing the Victoria FM 38 on the Ingolstadt-Munich highway to achieve 79 kmh.
