# 1916 Excelsior L18 - French Motobecane is 1927 Version



## Wing Your Heel (Nov 13, 2013)

You probably noticed I have this motorcycle on ebay at the moment.

A 1916 Excelsior Lightweight is pretty impossible to find. It was built under license from Triumph in England.

This French Motobecane 'Motoconfort 308' is the 1927 Version, the last of them, built under the same license in France. 
The Triumph and Excelsior's flat tank design was now updated to a saddle tank (known as 'entretube' in France), a style that had just come in at that time. The saddle tank style was used until 1930 when frames were redesigned to fit the tank above the top tube, as they are today.

Interesting though that they retained the belt-drive, which was already outdated by that time (introduced in 1900!)

Two-speed hand-change with the gear stick on the side.

The front fork's horizontal coil spring was the model's novel feature.

Presumably because he had the license to build the Excelsior motorcycle, Schwinn used the same feature on two top American bicycle models.

Below, in a nutshell, is the history of the horizontal coil spring...













*CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THIS FRONT FORK WITH HORIZONTAL COIL SPRING
*
1913-1926 Triumph Junior







1916-1920 Excelsior (Schwinn) Lightweight L18 (built under license from Triumph)







1926/1927 Motobecane 308 (Now with saddle tank; built under license from Triumph)







Schwinn Autocycle






Schwinn Krate






http://www.oldbike.eu/wordpress/?page_id=6634


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## chitown (Nov 13, 2013)

*From Chicago History Museum collection (Series 17 catalog)*


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## thehugheseum (Nov 13, 2013)

nice ex pics/ads!  the english budget bikes still used old school stuff way late,hard to imagine trying to sell a beltdrive that late in its day.......i have a couple teen era ex projects but they are the american versions (looking for parts!)......sold my 1920 ex awhile ago now to try and focus on a thor twin.....interesting bike,best of luck on the sale


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## chitown (Nov 13, 2013)

thehugheseum said:


> nice ex pics/ads!




My favorite from that catalog:


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## thehugheseum (Nov 14, 2013)

nice........but it actually made me feel bad........i passed up a original short coupled 1915 race ex just like that a few yrs back

  do you have a link to your auction? i couldnt find it


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