1949 Berini Motorized Bicycle
The Berini cycle motor takes it name from the three engineers responsible for its design: the German Bernhard Neumann (an ex-DKW designer) and Dutchmen Rinus Bruynzeel and Nico Groenerdijke, the first two letters of each man’s first name making up Be-Ri-Ni. An ingenious design that originated after WW2 in Holland, the Berini M13 consisted of a single-cylinder two-stroke engine complete with fuel tank, mounted above the bicycle’s front wheel which it drove via a friction roller, thus providing a cheap means of powered transport in the austere 1950s. Neumann had arrived in Holland with DKW blueprints for a different type of cycle motor, and it was these that passed, as part of Germany’s war reparations, to the UK where the resulting Cyclemaster engine was manufactured by EMI. Unlike the Berini, the Cyclemaster engine was spoked into a heavy-duty rim, which replaced the bicycle’s rear wheel. Originally displacing 25.7cc, the Berini was enlarged to 32cc in 1951, gaining a small but useful power increase in the process, while later Berini developments included a 49cc moped. This European-built cycle motor is attached to an original German bicycle. An excellent restoration by Jeffrey Slobodian, completed earlier this year, the machine is offered with bill of sale.
