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This is kind of a an incomplete post, I'd like it to have a more detailed conclusion, but it would require some investment and I'm cheap. But it's an interesting bike topic and I wanted to share. I work at a bike shop, we have a customer who recently did 10k miles on a stock 50cc scooter, one of the more impressive feats of bike riding I've ever heard of, so this sort of thing felt very relevant to me. Some time ago I came across an old post on reddit about a woman on a moped trip around the world with her husband: https://www.reddit.com/r/moped/comments/2mefku/gerda_waigand_and_puch_ms50_take_a_brief_break_at/  The story was impressive. I work on mopeds a bit and own several. Most of them, unless they're particularly nice ones, struggle to do 30mph. And I did the Cannonball coast to coast on a 1923 bike which topped out at about 31, so I know what it's like to go a long way at those speeds. It's actually a really nice experience, if you can get a good route off the main roads, I recommend it.  Somewhere online you can find references to this woman in a google books copy of a magazine from 1999 or so reprinting a magazine from 1959. I found a copy of the 1959 magazine on ebay and bought it.    Apologies for the crappy photos, I really should scan the thing properly. I got the hard copy because there are some really fascinating points in this article: - 50cc bike from the mid 50s, which has a theoretical top speed of 35mph. I know from experience on old rear end small bikes that if the manufacturer or wikipedia said it would do 35, it will probably only do it downhill. - Riding 2 up on a bike that was only designed for 1, which means it would be moving much slower than its top speed. - Riding with lots of luggage too, so even slower than that. - Claimed average 30mph speed. Given the above points, this is almost totally implausible. Even wide open speed would likely not be this high, much less the average speed. - Claimed average of 250 miles per day. On the Cannonball the longest day I did was less than that, starting at about 7am, and only stopping for gas and a relatively brief lunch. - Claimed 150 mpg. I don't think any modern bike claims this level of efficiency, even with normal loading. This bike was heavily overloaded, claiming 150lb of gear. - Claimed 33,000 miles with only one top end replacement. I have never seen any 50cc bike with mileage like this on a single top end. The highest I'm aware of would be a modern scooter with around 10k, and those are usually needing engine work. - Claimed 24 tires over 33,000 miles, a tire replaced every 1400 or so, which actually is kinda plausible. - Alex met Gerda on the other side of the world already on the trip, and she married him only 3 weeks later and hopped on the bike for the rest of the trip. - Alex actually did a lot of this kind of riding before he met Gerda, on multiple bikes. Some of these points are charming, some are surprising, some are plausible but extreme, and some sound like total bullshit to me. I did a lot of googling on the couple, and discovered that the guy's name is actually Stefan. He was known to Puch Mopeds corporate because they did a promotional ad with him in it.  He is also known to vintage central European small bike authors, because he's mentioned in a couple modern books and at least one magazine from the era.  The Motorcyclist article describes Stefan ("Alex") as an author, but I think the only writing he ever did was related to his bike trip while he was on the bike trip for magazines, because I can find no evidence of anything he ever wrote on the internet. I can find no further info on the lives of Stefan or Gerda, whether they're alive or dead, but the photo evidence in the articles I have seen so far seems to confirm that he/they really did do the mileage advertised. They really did circle the globe and then some. This strikes me as something that might be record breaking in some manner and I'm surprised it's not more well known. I have to think, though, based on my riding and mechanical experience, that some of the details presented are fabrications. I would like to know more, and found a few sources that could be explored, but they're all rare out-of-print non-English publications, and I don't quite wanna spend that time and money to delve further.  Anyway that's all I got, thanks for reading. P.S. I chose the Small Pastry tag because Stefan was from Vienna and good pastries come from Vienna.
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Aug 14, 2021 02:38
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| # ? May 2, 2024 00:50 |
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Is it possible that the numbers are all correct but it’s not really a 50cc? Like maybe he swapped a 100 or 150cc motor in? Do those pics look like a stock puch 50? That’s the only way I can imagine going above walking speed with a 50cc puch loaded with two adults and luggage. Speaking from experience having owned a 50cc puch scooter, they are extremely dumpy No matter what’s happening that gas mileage claim on a loaded bike two-up is for sure BS
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Aug 14, 2021 02:57
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I own a few steyr rifles and I forgot how great their logo is compared to every other gun mfg cool scooter too 
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Aug 14, 2021 03:43
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Their Puch was a multi speed shifter, if I'm not mistaken, so it would do better than the 70s Puchs we normally think of in TYOOL 2021 I suppose. No idea what mods might have been available back in the day but all of the texts I found about the Waigands specifically said 50cc. I've seen other Puchs that were >50cc from the era of course, but none of them looked anything like the one in the photos. I suppose it's possible they had a big bore on it and were not telling anyone about it. Even a 70/80cc would struggle to do the speeds they're claiming with their loading though, I think...
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Aug 14, 2021 03:44
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Paging SEKCobra if theyve got any austrian sources
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Aug 14, 2021 04:38
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Cool story reminds me of the c90adventures guy. A bit disappointing that he seems to have worked for the company and that other parts of it might not be 100% true, I wonder if the couple stayed together.quote:And I did the Cannonball coast to coast on a 1923 bike which topped out at about 31 I wanna hear more about this, do you have more pictures?
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Aug 14, 2021 16:26
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ADINSX posted:I wanna hear more about this, do you have more pictures? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nBn-wYpJA
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Aug 14, 2021 18:22
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:I was moving so slow that the main video guy couldn't set his cruise control low enough to film me lol I'll check it out, sounds like a cool event
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Aug 14, 2021 18:28
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:My photos are not the best and it's a long story so I dunno if I have the energy for a real post at the moment. But here's an official documentary of the event, it's a decent watch. I'm not sure if I'm in it at all, though. I was moving so slow that the main video guy couldn't set his cruise control low enough to film me, and I was so far behind everyone else that he was rarely near me anyway. Didn't you have a thread about it? Or maybe you just posted pictures and updates in other threads.
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Aug 18, 2021 21:08
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Hey you are in it briefly, that's a cool scooter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nBn-wYpJA&t=3254s
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Aug 19, 2021 05:16
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The Ner-A-Car is so cool. It’s a white whale for me. I’ve wanted one forever. Also hope to do the cannonball some day.
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Aug 19, 2021 11:32
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http://www.overlandtoegypt.co.uk/peggy_iris_thomas.html She didn’t go around the world but 14000 miles in the early 50’s on a Bantam with a 60 lb dog on the back means she probably didn’t see 30 mph all that often. She had a lot of rear end issues like broken axles and spokes due to the overload. Gasoline Gypsy is an interesting read about life in a different era. Her dislike of Mexican food is very strange from a modern perspective.
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Aug 19, 2021 18:05
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 This is a great read too, although a little grim at times with her bad luck
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Aug 19, 2021 21:29
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Shelvocke posted:This is a great read too, although a little grim at times with her bad luck Just finished this and yeah, it's pretty good. The only thing that irked me alot was her complete and utter disinterest in food.
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Aug 20, 2021 19:07
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Shelvocke posted:This is a great read too, although a little grim at times with her bad luck
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Aug 21, 2021 03:34
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| # ? May 2, 2024 00:50 |
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Haven't read that but was it worse than Ted Simon's months spent in a fascist Brazilian prison? Probably not, but she had some pretty bad health problems, crashes, and men were horrible to her
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Aug 21, 2021 21:35
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