BicyclesMotorised bicyclesBicycle with auxiliary engine ÖWA, 1929

Bicycle with auxiliary engine ÖWA, 1929

illustratsioonAustrian factory Österreichischen Werke Arsenal started to produce ÖWA bicycle engine sets after WWI in the early 1920s. The engine was sold together with a front wheel and fork and is placed non-traditionally  inside a front wheel hub. On one side of wheel there was cylinder and cranckshaft, on the other side electical system. Cubature of engine is 81,6 cm3  which gives approximately 1 horse power. 

Clutch is missing, the motor is operated by two levers - one is decompression and other accelerator (gas). Bicycle ride was started with the opened decompression valve.

For assembling this set to the ordinary bicycle, it was necessary to remove the front wheel and mudguard and to replace them with ÖWA engine set.

Actual ÖWA engine set with serial no 10322 is made in 1929, just before terminating the production. In these times (maybe already 1-2 years earlier) these sets appeared also to the Estonian market. ÖWA was a spread type of bicycle engine here in Estonia before WWII.