Solex мопедінің тарихы мен дамуы

Moped manufactured by Solex

VéloSoleX is a moped, or motorised bicycle, usually just referred to as 'Solex', which was originally produced by the French manufacturer Solex, based in Courbevoie near Paris, France. The company manufactured centrifugal radiators, carburetors, and micrometers, before branching into assist motors and bicycles. The moped originally created during World War II and mass produced between 1946 and 1988 came in various iterations, whilst keeping the same concept of a motor with roller resting on the front wheel of a bicycle. Referred to the company's advertisement as the 'bicycle which drives itself' (« la bicyclette qui roule toute seule »), it became extremely popular with school children, students or plant workers because it was light and extremely economical.

Owned successively by Dassault, Renault, Motobécane/MBK, VéloSoleX sold more than 7 million units worldwide before ceasing production in France in 1988. Production of the VéloSoleX restarted in both China and Hungary after 1988, but production ceased in Hungary in 2002. VéloSoleX is now manufactured in France.

The Solex motorized bicycle was conceived during World War II and marketed in 1946, with 8 million being sold between 1946 and 1988 in France and internationally, having been marketed in some 70 countries. The French design ceased production in 1988. It lived on for almost two decades as a licensed design produced in China and Hungary. Production returned to France in 2005, and as of 2011 the S4800 model was being marketed by VeloSolex America in North Bergen, New Jersey.

In the 1958 French comedy Mon Oncle, the main character Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) is a day dreaming and impractical uncle who, while perplexed by the cutting edge lifestyle of his sister and brother in law, still maintains a VéloSoleX motorized bicycle as his main transportation. Primo Levi, in one of the autobiographic short stories in his collection The Periodic Table, mentions that he would be able switch from a bicycle to a VéloSoleX if he managed to conclude a business deal with a cosmetics manufacturer. In the 1978 film The Boys from Brazil a German postman (played by Richard Marner) is seen riding a Velosolex. In the 1983 film So Long, Stooge main character Bensoussan (played by Richard Anconina) rides a Velosolex around Paris. In the 2007 film Mr. Bean's Holiday, the titular character attempts to hitchhike on an elderly man's VéloSoleX to get to Cannes, only to weigh the back of it down, and when the latter gets off to fix the problem, Mr Bean uses this as an opportunity to hijack the bike, but fails. In the 1975 Sydney Pollack thriller Three Days of the Condor, Robert Redford rides a Solex to work in New York which sets his character as an unassuming intellectual. He thwarts two youths who try to steal it.