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Czech Motorcycles

MAT and MB Motorcycles

MAT

Built in the years 1929 to 1932, the MAT was a shaft-drive four-cylinder sidevalve machine built by Bugatti racer Milos Bondy.

Designed by Františka Votroubek (previously with Walter) and Jaroslav Šlechtu, this had a very compact inline four cylinder engine of 485 cc.

The MAT received approval in 1931, and some 20 to 25 were built before production ceased in 1932.

Source: Tragatsch p202, François-Marie Dumas

Dumas has written an excellent article on the machine with several clear illustrations. He goes to some length explaining why the engine has the appearance of a square four, but is in fact a far from conventional inline four.


MB

Built in the Avia factory of Milos Bondy. The 498cc engine, designed by Jaroslav Šlechtu, had a rotary valve head similar to the Soyer face-cam design. It did not achieve production and was replaced by another Bondy marque, the MAT.

Avia manufactured aeroplanes under license from Hispano-Suiza prior to WWII, and in the 1970s Bondy built Saviem trucks under license.

Sources: Tragatsch p205; Graham Clayton


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