Hank Young, eat your heart out. This machine made Time Magazine's all-time 50 worst cars list. Here's what they said about this 1913 Scripps-Booth "Bi-Autogo" (the "training wheels are retractable once you're underway): "A 3,200 lb. motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still, the Scripps-Booth Autogo was the daft experiment of James Scripps-Booth, an heir of the Scripps publishing fortune and a self-taught - or untaught - auto engineer. The Bi-Autogo was essentially a two-wheeled vehicle, carrying it's considerable heft on 37-in. wooden wheels. At slow speeds, the driver could lower small wheels on outriggers to stabilize the vehicle so it wouldn't plop over. This is not a case of the advantage of hindsight; this was obviously a crazy idea, even in 1913. The Bi-Autogo does enjoy the historical distinction of being the first V8-powered vehicle ever built in Detroit, so you could argue it is the beginning of an even greater folly."Saturday, January 17, 2009
Now THAT"S "Old School"!!!
Hank Young, eat your heart out. This machine made Time Magazine's all-time 50 worst cars list. Here's what they said about this 1913 Scripps-Booth "Bi-Autogo" (the "training wheels are retractable once you're underway): "A 3,200 lb. motorcycle with training wheels, a V8 engine and enough copper tubing to provide every hillbilly in the Ozarks with a still, the Scripps-Booth Autogo was the daft experiment of James Scripps-Booth, an heir of the Scripps publishing fortune and a self-taught - or untaught - auto engineer. The Bi-Autogo was essentially a two-wheeled vehicle, carrying it's considerable heft on 37-in. wooden wheels. At slow speeds, the driver could lower small wheels on outriggers to stabilize the vehicle so it wouldn't plop over. This is not a case of the advantage of hindsight; this was obviously a crazy idea, even in 1913. The Bi-Autogo does enjoy the historical distinction of being the first V8-powered vehicle ever built in Detroit, so you could argue it is the beginning of an even greater folly."
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I have one of these, which I rode to the local petrolaeum station a fortnight ago. I told the attendant to re-vulcanize my tires, posthaste! Twenty three skiddoo!
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