In cooperation with Dr. Derek Foxton, World Wide VMCC Registar for the Marques Minerva and Werner. Please e-mail your engine and frame number so we are able to date more accurately your and other Minerva Motocyclettes. Following construction years and numbers are based on information provided by the owners or deducted from period advertisements and articles / literature. No factory register has been found yet. Therefore, following register cannot be cited as an authority for the dating of a machine. This register is based on the idea that the engines were consecutively numbered.  MINERVA MOTOCYCLETTES REGISTER (clicking above link will download the Minerva Motocyclettes register in PDF-format) (3rd Ed.) Edited
by William Elliott
Hume BA. ALA. Dip Ed (Machine
Registrar) When the maker of the cycle is
unknown the marque listed is that of the motor. Dating is then done from the motor not the frame. This is the aspect of the Register most
likely to cause confusion. When in some
doubt, I have entered the machine under the name given it by the owner.The Minerva motor for instance was used by many forgotten factories.
It was used by many private individuals as an attachment for their push bikes. Thus Minerva can be found everywhere in the
Register. Bikes are registered under
Minerva, one is registered under B.S.A., some under Chater-Lea and so on. The solution to this problem evades me, for
listing Minervas (and other early motors) under the name of the motor would
disrupt the sequence of many important marques. Over the years it seems to have caused no problems. As it turns out, the B.S.A.-Minerva cited is
now believed to have been constructed in the B.S.A. factory proper. The traditional prime division of motor cycles by their owners and users
has always been by swept volume for the old Horse Power rating (not always
consistent of course) soon became a symbol of the approximate swept volume of
the motor. So the models are arranged in
order of size and power, the swept volume being reduced to round figures of 25,
50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 and so on by 50cc
increases. Exceptions are made when in
case of certain models an increase in size say from 6 to 8 hp made no
significant change in a machine. (Such
models are listed as for example 6/8 hp machines). Thus in all models the smallest machine comes
first and the biggest last, normally independent of age. The normal equivalents of horse-powers are 1
1/4 hp 150cc; 2 1/4 - 250; 2 1/2 - 300; 3 350; 3 1/2 500; 4 1/2 - 600; 6 700/750; 8
and 9 hp 1000cc.
OTHER
ABBREVIATIONS: - sv: side valve type motor (mechanically operated). - aiv: automatic inlet valve. - ioe: inlet over exhaust valve
mechanism. - AF: As Frame; made by the same
manufacturer that made the cycle parts. - ss: single speed transmission. - b: belt
drive. MARQUE SPECIALISTS: - Minerva: D. Foxton THE REGISTER OF MACHINES OF THE VMCC(clicking above link will open the VMCC register) |
