Motorcycle specifications Charron 500 - The motorcycle in wood 1929 The xylo-motorcycle

We are at the Angoulême prefecture, towards the end of the 1920s. Did he know it or not…
But the employee who signed the traffic receipt that morning had no idea that he had just authorized an almost unimaginable motorcycle to ride. A unique machine, made of a little metal and mostly wood. The work of Jean-Paul Charron!

This is not a metaphor. This motorcycle is really built of wood. Walnut to be precise. Not only is it a mixture of curiosity and exception; but it is also proof that in the absence of means, ingenuity can allow beautiful and/or surprising creations.

Being a carpenter, JP Charron designed HIS motorcycle with the material he knew best. From the mudguards to the frame, the majority of the frame is made of this natural element. Even the fork is carved out of it, embellished with a few metal parts for functions that wood could not accomplish.

However, the Charron could not entrust its entire existence to the muscles of a tree. The tank, the headlight, the wheels and the propulsion part are made of metal. It traveled the roads with a 500 cm3 Voisin single-cylinder, associated with a Picard gearbox. Everything was done so that it could run. And it did, for more than thirty years.

In addition to maintenance, a small peculiarity had to be added. Like almost all of its era, the Charron set off on the road with its can of oil; except that its good health also provided for... a can of liquid wax. Wood needs nourishment!

Born with heart and wood, the Charron is now spending its retirement in the Top Mountain Museum, not far from Innsbruck, near the Austrian-Italian border.

According to information and permission from the Top Mountain Museum