Motorcycle back on street after 83 years
Paragon Villiers collected dust in storage after breaking down
The motorcycle stored in the basement of a Vancouver goldsmith shop was coated with dust from more than eight decades of storage.
The 1926 Paragon Villiers singlecylinder motorcycle had stopped running in 1931 — at the beginning of the Great Depression. The problem was most likely an ignition condenser failure — a 20-cent part in those days. The owner may not have known how to fix it and may not have had the funds.
A fellow club member had purchased some old motorcycle parts from the goldsmith and mentioned at a meeting there was an old “flat tanker” in the man’s basement. In the 1920s, before motorcycles were equipped with saddle tanks straddling the frame, flat gas tanks were hung below the frame.
Despite misgivings that the old bike would be taken apart or not salvageable, Terry Frounfelker went for a look. He saw “Paragon Villiers” painted on the gas tank — a manufacturer he wasn’t familiar with. But a decal on the front post caught his attention: “The Paragon — Assembled in Vancouver, B.C.”
The motorcycle was a time capsule from another era; it was complete and in amazing condition. He bought it on the spot. He oiled the engine and gearbox and, when he got the engine turning, discovered there was no spark from the magneto. The parts purchased from England, including a new condenser, some magneto parts, a new spark plug and ignition wire, cost less than $100. With some gas and oil, along with lubrication of all moving parts, the old motorcycle was kick-started back to life. Replacements were sourced for the original tires that had rotted off and the motorcycle was back on the road for the first time since 1931.
Paragon Villiers motorcycles were assembled by Fred Deeley Motorcycles in Vancouver. Fred Deeley had used his experience as a British bicycle mechanic to open his business in 1917. .
Paragon Motorcycles had gone out of business in Britain in 1921. The Villiers was basically a Sun motorcycle frame with components from other manufacturers.
Deeley had these components shipped from Britain in crates and his mechanics would assemble them in Vancouver. Sun Motorcycles cost 27 pounds in Britain — the equivalent of approximately $50. This provided inexpensive and reliable transportation.
The Villiers has a two-stroke engine running on a mixture of gasoline and oil. It is amazing to see this 89-year-old motorcycle start on the first kick and get on the road in a cloud of blue smoke.
“I’ve gotten it up to 50 kilometres an hour, but it doesn’t do well with hills,” Frounfelker reports.
Starting the engine requires a series of steps beginning with turning the gas petcock on, depressing the float to allow gas to flood the carburetor, setting the throttle lever to allow gas into the cylinders, making sure the two-speed transmission is in neutral and then kickstarting the engine. It starts right away and runs smoothly.
Stopping the engine involves activating a compression release valve inside the cylinder.
“People I have let take it for a ride get to experience what people had to do to ride a motorcycle over the rutted dirt roads that were common back then,” the proud owner says. “I feel like I won the lottery finding this thing.”
There are no front brakes and a crude rear braking system.
“The brake on this machine is more of a suggestion than fact,” Frounfelker says.
Motorcycle historian Terry Rae marvels at the condition of the motorcycle “basement find.”
“If you go way back, there were three or four hundred manufacturers building motorcycles and half of them used Villiers engines,” he notes.