Description
Elvish Fontan, Rocher Ducati Cucciolo 48cc
Super rare Elvish Fontan, the ‘Bentley of Autocycles’, an Elvish Fontan Rocher Ducati Cucciolo with the very rare Mark VI Rocher engine. Motor is running and the bicycle fully restored from bare metal. Comes with Rocher manual, dating certificate and a signed postcard of the great French cyclist Victor Fontan himself.
Victor Fontan (born Pau, France, 18 June 1892, died Saint-Vincent 2 January 1982) was a French cyclist who led the 1929 Tour de France but dropped out when his bike was broken beyond repair in a bad crash. In with a real chance of winning the event and having worn the Yellow Jersey, Victor spent the night knocking at doors in nearby homes to ask for another bicycle to ride. Sadly, he couldn’t locate one and his plight led to a permanent change of Tour De France rules to prevent it happening again. He was also one of three riders who all wore the yellow jersey of leadership on the same day, the only time it has happened in history.
It is believed that the Elvish company started out in England, with the company closing in WW1 and resuming in France after the war under different ownership.
The Elvish Bicycle company joined champion cyclist Victor Fontan to create the team ‘Elvish Fontan’ and they took part as an official team in the Tour de France in 1928 and 1929 where Victor’s retirement led to the rule change. Later the team became Elvish-Fontan-Wolber, with racing successes in 1948, 1949 and 1950.
Victor continued his association with the Elvish company from the late ‘20s well into the 1950s. Elvish branched out into autocycles & cyclemotors, and to celebrate the career of the great cyclist, they produced a limited run of Elvish Fontan autocycles running a Ducati Cucciolo engine and flamboyant art deco style designed components. This was in contrast to the (relatively) cheaper Elvish autocycles that ran a variety of small French engines, particularly those of Le Poulain.
With an enviable reputation for reliability, manufacturers in various countries bought in Italian Cucciolo engines to power their mopeds. As the engine was a top-of-the-range 4-stroke unit, it was reserved for upmarket machines, and many French cycle shops created special frames to house the Cucciolo engine. The Elvish Fontan Rocher Cucciolo was the most glamorous of all of them.
Rocher didn’t just buy in Ducati Cucciolo engines, they added their own touches like Rocher engine numbers, a series of Rocher marked flywheels, of which this sports the extremely rare Mark VI version, and only a handful are know to exist, plus, Rocher re-created some parts like the head in high quality aluminium instead of the high silicon content alloy of the original Cucciolo, meaning that in the event of a maintenance, welding is possible, where it isn’t on the Ducati Cucciolo head
This Elvish Fontan is the perfect example of a ‘rich person’s moped’ and rightly deserves comparisons as ‘the Bentley of Autocycles’. Not only is the engine top-of-the-range, but little expense has been spared in the design and manufacture of the machine. The handlebars in particular are a work of art.
Personally, I have only ever seen pictures of one other Elvish Fontan in gold and never seen another in the flesh, so this is an opportunity to own an extremely rare and very beautiful machine with stunning art deco style features including the signed postcard of the great man, Victor Fontan himself. It's a running machine so can be happily registered and used on the road or enjoyed as a collectors display piece. Ultra rare French framed Ducati Cucciolo
Comes with Dating certificates to allow registration, currently not registered in the UK
