Monet Goyon - William

1948 Monet & Goyon Motorox 34cc on William bicycle. Compare: Monet-Goyon

Monet Goyon manufactured various motorcycles up to the 2nd World War including, from 1931 onwards, a series of 98cc Villiers-powered BMA’s (‘Bicyclette Moteur Auxiliaire’ – the equivalent of our pedal-assisted autocycles). They had always been interested in the ‘lower end’ of the market, ie making cheap machines to get poorer folks on the road. When the Lohmann appeared on the market in 1949, Monet & Goyon imported the engines to fit to their own stengthened frames. (...)

But the company had a lot of problems with this 34cc Motorox cycle-attachment. It was not sufficiently tested to iron out various running issues before it was launched, as a result of which it developed a bad reputation. It was underpowered and fragile and, despite several companies making the engines, the Motorox nearly bankrupted Monet & Goyon. Nevertheless, it was the first proper postwar cycle attachment engine (‘moteur auxiliaire’) in France, so it is of great historic interest.

Unfortunately, for Monet & Goyon, the Motorox has significance for another event in history. French designer Marcel Morel proposed a 49cc cyclemotor design to the company. They refused his ideas and went with the Motorox instead. As a result, Morel moved to Motobecane and his design promptly became one of the most successful cyclemotors of all time – the Mobylette!" (from oldbike.wordpress.com)