There's a very good reason why this old motor-bicycle made me sit up and take notice. Firstly the engine in all its noisiness, heat, oiliness, petrolyness and tangly driving bitsness is at the back of the bike out of the way. In addition to that the engine is mounted low which helps the centre of gravity a lot. I own a FWD high mounted friction driver bicycle already and while the general steering geometry and handling is none too bad the high centre of gravity is annoying at times.
The second thing is that I dress in an old fashioned way with long skirts so the vintage 28 inch wheeled ladies bicycles I ride are entirely practical for me. And being nice old elderly bicycles I don't want to do anything to them which cannot be undone by undoing a few nuts and bolts. Frame cutting or welding is completely out of the question.
I have been doing some work on motorwheel type attachments and I will keep on with that, BUT as soon as I get my order into IronMaiden for the necessary steel I will be constructing an engine attachment just like the one in the old photo to fit one of my elderly bicycles. It goes without saying that Villiers engines will be playing a large part in this.
I messed around with my faux-Rudge power-bicycle based on a Mixte frame for quite a while, but I could never get the engine placement and the drive laid out in such a way that it wasn't a confounded nuisance to somebody wearing an ankle length skirt who wasn't quite as agile as she used to be. Eventually all the bits from that project will get transferred over to another frame once I can find something suitable.
With the engine I will be using as well as the diameter of the wheels on my elderly bicycles I don't see any problems with any part of the engine being likely to strike the ground unless I want to start riding across boulder strewn fields. So there you go it's a plan and I'm doing it.