Hi Albervin, My Hercules, bought in Bermuda in 1971, put out 7.12 sae hp. I was asked by the dealer to thrash the fastest moped on the islands with it. This was a tuned Mobylette running a 25mm Carb! It had a prewar higher gear ratio and was good for over 60mph. The speed limit in the islands outside of town is 20mph!!
I did thrash the Moby., and that night my Herc. was stolen and dissasembled. When I got it back I rebuilt it as a replica G.P. racer, having reduced the weight to 122 lbs, runing it on 2" x 19" moped tyres. It was tuned over a period of years by me, up until I took it off the road in 1979. During that year I was stopped by one of the boys in blue, on his 650 Triumph. He was quite rude, so much so that I said I was going home without a ticket, or else I would report him for using foul language, but then asked him what he had clocked me at. 78mph you little sod, he said. So I said that this was not bad for a fifty to which he replied that he would have me the next time he saw me. Nah, I said, you won't, because I shall be on my Shadow, and with that I rode off home. My late wife Yvonne used to ride this thing and once asked me what 140kph was in mph, so I said, around 85mph, why? She had seen a reading of this on the speedo on a long straight. She weighed 7 stone dripping wet. The bike ran up to 14,400 rpm's, and even with my lard Arse on, I could whack any 125 on the road at that time. The 1968 Suzuki T.T. machines put out 12bhp, so all in all, I was quite confident that P.E.I had got it right. I am rebuilding it now and will bring it to rallies, hopefully behind the forthcoming trike. Cheers, ET43
