GRASS ROOTS
I was fascinated by the article on the Baby Vindian (CB May 2018) with its Villiers engine. Looking at this engine I am pretty certain it came off an ATCO lawnmower! My 1956 ATCO has a 79cc Villiers two-stroke engine that looks more or less identical, even though it’s 35 years younger. The small sprocket on the flywheel side is for the kickstarter, a method ATCO used for decades.
ROBERT HARRIN, SWINDON
It was always in the interests of proprietary engine manufacturers to supply engines to industrial as well as motorcycle companies. JAP and Blackburne did the same, but whereas Blackburne cannily supplied exactly the same engines to both types of customer, JAP and Villiers engines were mostly different to the motorcycle units and remained in production for some time after the bike engines were stopped.