SoleX Büggi!

Once again, the Dutch show unprecedented engineering skills, this time with a buggy, or, to judge by the pronounciation of the cameraman/builder, a "büggi".

Although the Giant Centipedes aren't thinking of joining the responsibilities of fatherhood just yet, this would make a fitting Christmas present:

Steve McQueen, 24 hours VeloSoleX-driver spills it.

"When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting." - Steve McQueen, Le Mans (1971)



With this memorable quote, the king of cool sets things straight in the cruel world of 24 hours racing. Even though the film is mostly about Porsches and Ferraris, the famous line goes beyond racing with gas pedals, seat belts and four wheels.

McQueen, a reknown motorcyclist, was riding some quality French gear during the filming of Le Mans, as seen on these pictures:

Giant Centipedes don't take lightly on an endorsement from racing icon #1, hence our banner at the top of this site.

"When you're grinding, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting." - Giant Centipedes, 2009

SoleX-crash of the month!

This month's VeloSoleX-crash is a 2006 classic from the French Rock'n Solex festival, a student festival offering a delicate, but not very novel, combo of SoleX-races and rock acts.

This video is actually an extended version, showing the crash from several angles:


"What ... what are you doing? Grinding me?!"

Pimp My SoleX, Superman!

Danish superhero 'Duksedrengen' is here seen riding his supercharged silver sparkle VéloSoleX whilst bashing Copenhagen scum:


The tv series Duksedrengen set Danish tv sets afire in the late 80’s featuring a fast SoleX and signature good guy/bad punk dichotomy whose like had not been seen since WWII.

In 2002, the series inspired a Comic book telling the tale of French moped superiority to a much younger generation:

We are yet to see Warner Bros. picking up on the idea and presenting Christian Bale with a BatSoleX 5000 in 2011.

"Duksedrengen. Bringing SoleX to the masses since 1989."

Chaos reigns!

 - I don't know what you're saying, but you're wearing a rug as a hat.
Here, the French are having a go at craziness with this deranged and utterly chaotic fête de la VéloSoleX:


Presented with this brainsick display of SoleX-madness it is hard to see how Danish director Lars von Trier could ever have challenged the French notion of what is comme il faut with this fox/renard:


"Keep grinding", the fox said.

Velo-killer #1

The arch nemesis of the VéloSoleX isn't a Kreidler. Nor is it gas prices, climate change awareness, drowsy truckers or the abhorrent Hungarian/Chinese manufacturing standards of the 21st century. No, the only real party-pooper in immense solex touring sorties is heat. Death by heat.
When the going gets too hot, the so-called "vapor lock" occurs. This means that the gasoline has gotten so hot that its low density affects the carb's ability to dispense sufficient fuel to the engine and, as a consequence, it dies with a sickening and highly demoralizing "bwwoooooo".

This has never affected Giant Centipedes' determination to reach far destinations during hot European summer days, though. A solution has so far been to rest at day and grind on when evening, night and morning bring cooler temperatures.

However, considering the continental climate of Russia, where summers can get really hot, and the prospects of only exploring the more Eastern latitudes at night, we are currently thinking of ways to relief the engines from the great heat. One solution is, ironically, to insulate different parts of the engine, making sure that there isn't too big a transmission of heat from the engine, exhaust etc. to the circulating fuel.

Another solution is to combine this with some sort of fuel radiator that can help keeping the fuel cool at day.

A more temporary solution proposed to us by Dutch velo wizard, Joan Majoor, is to add a small amount of diesel in the fuel mix. This will hinder vapor lock from occuring because the boiling point of diesel is higher than that of gasoline. However, this will of course not prevent the fuel or engines from running (too) hot.

On display is the Refrigolex 5000™:

Oh yes, there is modding to be done!

Why "Giant Centipedes"?

Here's why not:

"Here's your new Mustangs, boys. You can learn to fly'em on the way to the target. Cheers!"

The new solex has arrived! It sports a somewhat used look, but apart from that and a rotten gasket, it's a mighty fine moped. The engine sounds great and will probably sound a lot better when equipped with a high end Chinese gasket.

And it isn't even red:

Considering the shape it's in, it would be a shame to go totally scavenge on it and leave it to rust. So the orange newbie might as well be our future project. Distant future project.

Keep grinding it! Again! Again!

Keep it cool!

The Dutch are surely cookin'! Here's a prototype 40mm cylinder that Jouke Rottiné from Solexnoord has crafted.

What's new? It's a nikasil cylinder, meaning that the inner coating is super durable, whilst the rest of the cylinder - which is made of alloy - should allow for notable better cooling than the stock cast iron cylinder.

Price, availability and release date is still kept a secret - or at least kept in Dutch. However, the design sounds promising indeed, and if the prices are reasonable Giant Centipedes might even consider placing an order.

We'll keep you updated. For more pictures, here's more.

Scandinavian Tour '08: CPH - STOCKHOLM - OSLO

And now a little video of what it's all about: VéloSoleX-touring!

This is the video from our first trip that took us a little north to Stockholm in Sweden and Oslo in Norway. We didn't film much on this trip, hence the lack of location diversity:



Hopefully, we'll be cruising through some more woods next year.

Still grindin'!

The Velo isn't history!

In spite of it being a rather curious sight nowadays, and the obsolete nature of its machinery, the velo isn't dead. Neither is it history.

Here are a few pictures of our velos posing whilst history is serving as backdrop.


Here at the Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
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In front of a Russian built T-34, Gdansk, Poland

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At the main gate of Birkenau. An eerie location.

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A MIG-17 somewhere in Poland.

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In front of Kronborg, Denmark, the birth place of Hamlet. If he existed, that is.

Hopefully we'll snap some pictures of the ol' French ladies at the Red Square next year...

"We could not calculate directions between Copenhagen, Denmark and Russian Federation, Moscow"

Google Maps have difficulties concerning ex-soviet road distances. Belarus (White Russia) is depicted as one big white stain east of Poland. No road names, nor detailed satelite photos are to be found.



However, Paint had no problems suggesting a delicate route to Moscow:

Keep grinding!