Description
Terrot ca. 1908 2 ¾ HP 350 cc side valve single frame # 913 engine # 10231
The foreman of a French-owned textile machine factory based at Cannstatt, Germany, Charles Terrot left to go into partnership with merchant Wilhelm Stücklen in 1862, founding ‘Stücklen & Terrot’.
The firm made machinery for the textile industry and in 1887 opened a plant at Dijon in France.
When this venture proved unsuccessful, Charles turned the factory over to making bicycles, which at that time were an increasingly popular novelty.
Like many of his cycle industry contemporaries, Terrot turned to powered transport towards the end of the 19th century and by the early 1900s the Dijon factory was making not only bicycles but also motorcycles, quadricycles and voiturettes.
The name ‘motocyclette’ had already been registered by the Werner brothers, so Terrot called his first motorcycles ‘motorettes’.
Proprietary engines supplied by Givaudan, Dufaux and Zédel were used for Terrot’s early motorettes before the firm went on to develop its own.
This early Terrot is a most imposing Edwardian motorcycle, it features magneto ignition, original Terrot control levers, nickel-plated fittings, Brooks leather saddle and a Riemann headlamp.