Sketchbook Travel Motorcycles,seen through the sketchbooks of Martin Squires

As frequent readers will know, I always stop by the NACC stand at the Stafford show as I have a soft spot for the underdog. One of my first introductions to cyclemotors was sketching a Trojan Mini Motor at Mallory Park around seven years ago.

Originally designed by Vincent Piatti, in 1946 the 50cc engine – originally designed to power portable lathes – was adapted to power a bicycle and called the ‘Mini Motore’. One of the inspirations for this conversion was the fact that Italy was suffering from the effects of the war and so fuel was scarce and expensive. Cheap transport was much needed due to this and so the Mini Motore