A Brief History of the Marque
The Siemm company presented their first bicycles at the Paris Salon in 1893 which were advertised as Métropole Acatene because of the lack of drive chain (chaîne d'entraînement).
In 1899 built tricycles with De Dion-Bouton engines which were also marketed as Acatene, and in 1902 advertised a cardan motorcycle built by Chapelle.
La Métropole documentation (c.1902) shows the engine is The Bord, from England, marketed in France as Manon.
The 1905 L'Acatène Métropole catalogue lists three Métropole motorcycles. These are believed to be rebadged Saroléa machines with belt transmission.
Metropole was listed in 1912 as the parent company of both Liberator and Perfecta.
The company continued, with numerous changes of ownership and location, through to the 1940s and 50s when they built mopeds and autocycles, some of which were supplied by H Errard of St Etienne. In 1955 they joined the Cocymo group.
La Métropole Mopeds and lightweights built (or marketed) from 1950 to 1959 had engines of 48cc to 125cc from Mistral, Vap, Sachs, Ydral, Lavalette, Itom and others.
Sources: Bourdache (p446), Motos dans la Loire, Kees Koster, forum.tontonvelo.com, et al.
25-Mar-25
ray.edgar at bigpond dot com
Hi,
I’m trying to solve a little family lore. I’m told my great grandfather had a French pedal-assist motorcycle that he travelled Australia with in about 1903-14. Sorry I’m not sure of the exact date.
Legend has it the brand was a name that was Metro or Metreaux. Allegedly it had an accent over the first e. I see on your website there was a Metropole bike in existence. Perhaps my grandfather shortened the name. Anyway i wanted to pick your brains as to whether you know of any other Metro bikes or if Metropole is the only contender.
There was also some rumour that it had a Villiers engine, but from the Villiers history it seems they didnt start making them until about 1914. So perhaps that bit is incorrect.
Ideally I’d like to track down a photo of it as well.
Any advice or leads on where I might follow all this up would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Great website by the way.
sincerely
Ray Edgar
