Developed at Station IX of the British Special Operations Executive, over 3600 Welbikes were produced during 1942 and 43. They were used operationally by the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions as well as Commando units.
During World War II, Station IX was known as the Inter Services Research Bureau was located at Welwyn. Interestingly enough, everything developed by this organization gained a “wel” prefix such as the Welrod integrally suppressed pistol. They were produced by the Excelsior Motor Company, weighing in at 71 lbs, equipped with a 98cc engine.
Due to British TTPs at the time, all equipment was dropped in containers and the Welbike was no exception. Naturally, this led to some problems. It became a bare bones affair with no lights and just a rear brake. Due to the restrictions on size some simple assembly was required to get it into action. In fact, it was designed to be removed from the container (marked “motorcycle”) and be off in 11 seconds. The issue was finding the darned things on the drop zone. Wandering around on a hot drop zone could hazardous to one’s health.
The fuel tank held less than a gallon and had to be hand pressurized due to its location in relation to the carburetor. But, you could get about 90 miles at 30 mph in a single tank.
