Weird Wednesday: use your training wheels! (Update: more!)

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Normally training wheels are the least painful way for a kid to learn how to ride a bicycle. However, we seriously doubt that self-taught engineer James Scripps-Booth had kids in mind when he constructed his Bi-Autogo in 1913. Basically it’s a motorbike, but equipped with two small wheels that can be retracted by hand when the Bi-Autogo reaches a speed of twenty miles. Powered by a 45hp V8, it could go to a top speed of 75 mph. We hate to think what happens in an emergency when you have to stop quickly, but first have to lower the training wheels in order not to fall over. Perhaps that consideration, plus the fact that this prototype cost 25.000 to build, made James Scripps-Booth think again, and the Bi-Autogo never went into production. Instead he built a more civilised version. The cycle car/motorbike prototype now rests in the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine. (with thanks to Karl Darby for the photos)

UPDATE II by Hugh Nutting: "For many years it was displayed in the Detroit Historical Museum building in Detroit. My father and I viewed it in 1952 or 1953 along with Wm Stout's last Scarab. DHS still owns it and they loaned it to Owlhead."
UPDATE I: more on the same 'bike' by Kit Foster and be sure to check Kit's Wednesday fresh feature!

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