HARPER RUNABOUT
Like its namesake, the Harper Scootermobile, the Harper Runabout was also designed by an aircraft company. We are not sure if there is a connection, but we feel there must be. After all, the chances of two aircraft firms each producing a three-wheeler called the Harper – albeit three decades apart – seem pretty unlikely. The Harper Runabout was a tricycle designed by Robert Harper and featured a plywood body mounted on a steel frame. With a 269cc single-cylinder Villiers engine it was capable of 40mph and returned 90 miles to a single gallon, very respectable figures for 1921. It was the work of AV Roe & Co Ltd, best known for its dozens of airplanes, most notably the Lancaster and the Vulcan. However, after the end of the First World War, demand for airplanes decreased dramatically and so the company diversified into other vehicles.
To publicise the Runabout,
Harper entered two Runabouts in the Scottish Six Days Trial in 1922, although they were unable to officially compete. Neither finished but they acquitted themselves well in bad weather and on steep gradients. In fact, a Harper climbed the fearsome Test Hill at the Brooklands Circuit – complete with passenger. That must have been quite a feat of courage on the part of the passenger for the Runabout’s pillion seat faced backwards!
Built in Manchester, it believed that the police force of that city may have used several Runabouts for at least one Harper is recorded as being used to assist with crowd control at a flying event at Hough End Fields in the 1920s. It was a real amalgamation of car and motorcycle; all three of the Runabout’s wheels were detachable and had leaf spring suspension and disc-type brakes. The accelerator, clutch and brakes were operated by foot as in a car, but the steering was courtesy of motorcycle handlebars.
The Motor Cycle, ever kind in its descriptions, reported in 1921 that ‘The Harper runabout stands in a class by itself. Its designers, recognising the demand for an exceptionally light, handy vehicle giving complete weather protection, have succeeded in producing a most, attractive little three-wheeler.’ That publication was equally effusive when it came to luggage, explaining that provision had been made ‘for the carrying of such things as golf clubs, fishing rods, and tennis rackets.’ Production continued until 1926 by which time some 500 Roundabouts had been made.