The Flandria Comet is one of the mopeds of A. Claeys-Flandria, the Belgian firm at Zedelgem that made bicycles before the Second World War and mopeds from 1951 until 1981. By the middle of the 1970s Flandria was producing more than 100,000 mopeds a year, part of them in factories in the Netherlands, France, Morocco and Portugal, before the works closed its moped line in 1981.
Flandria Comet at a glance
| Maker | A. Claeys-Flandria, Zedelgem, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Type | moped (bromfiets) |
| Moped production | 1951–1981 |
| First engine | 40 cc Rex, replaced by Flandria’s own 49 cc unit in 1952 |
| Output in the mid-1970s | more than 100,000 mopeds a year |
| Besides mopeds | aluminium products, lawn mowers and heating equipment |
| Factories | Zedelgem and Zwevezele (Belgium), Netherlands (Avaros), France, Morocco, Portugal |
| Engines under licence | Figueres, Spain |
| French model | Sportif, built only at Waasten |
| End of production | 1981 |
There is no Wikipedia article on the Comet itself, and no free photograph of the model was found; the only source is the Dutch Wikipedia article on the Flandria brand, which covers the works rather than the individual model. The page is therefore based on one source and has no photographs of its own.
History of the Flandria Comet
A bicycle works in West Flanders
Flandria began as a smithy in De Leeuw, a hamlet of Zedelgem, which came into the hands of the Claeys family in the nineteenth century. At the start of the twentieth century Leon Claeys set up a separate company for agricultural machinery, while the family firm had sold 150 bicycles by 1910; the brothers Alidor, Jerome, Remi and Aimé Claeys then turned the old smithy into a bicycle factory, which produced its 250,000th bicycle in 1927. Aimé built four 500 cc JAP-engined motorcycle prototypes in 1933, but they were never put into production.
Mopeds instead of motorcycles
After the Second World War the company built a new factory at Zedelgem for mopeds, and the first Claeys-Flandria machine, with a 40 cc Rex engine, appeared in 1951. A Flandria engine of 49 cc followed in 1952, two gears and a tank frame in 1953. Light motorcycles with JLO engines, a 175 cc scooter and a 250 cc motorcycle were added in 1953–1954, but when motorcycle sales declined at the end of the 1950s Flandria dropped them and concentrated on mopeds: fast sports mopeds, utility mopeds and ladies’ models.
The Comet’s years: growth and the end
In 1956 the brothers split the business. Aimé kept the Flandria bicycles under the name A. Claeys-Flandria, while Remi took part of the Zedelgem plant and the Lichtervelde tube works and produced mopeds under the Superia name with Sachs engines. Flandria itself, under Pol Claeys, became a cycling sponsor at the end of the 1950s and ran its own racing team, which won major races in the 1960s. In the mid-1970s the works was turning out more than 100,000 mopeds a year alongside aluminium products, lawn mowers and heating equipment, and in 1976 it built a single prototype of the Gila-M enduro motorcycle that never reached production.
The mopeds of those years were not all made in Belgium. Flandria had factories in Zedelgem and Zwevezele, in the Netherlands (Avaros), in France, Morocco and Portugal, and its engines were built under licence at Figueres in Spain. Almost every one of those countries had its own models; the French Sportif, for instance, was built only at Waasten and used smaller wheel sizes than the Belgian machines. Moped production ended in 1981.
Design and features
- Belgian moped engineering: a 49 cc two-stroke of Flandria’s own design, in production from 1952.
- Large-scale output: more than 100,000 mopeds a year in the mid-1970s.
- Separate national models: machines assembled in the Netherlands, France, Morocco and Portugal differed from the Belgian ones.
- Licensed engines: Flandria engines were also made at Figueres in Spain.
- A racing connection: the company sponsored a cycling team from the late 1950s that won major races in the 1960s.
Flandria Comet versions
- Flandria Comet: the moped described on this page, one of the models of the Zedelgem works.
- Sports mopeds: the fast models of the range.
- Utility mopeds and ladies’ models: the everyday machines sold next to them.
- French Sportif: built only at Waasten, with smaller wheel sizes.
- Foreign-assembled mopeds: separate models from the Dutch, French, Moroccan and Portuguese factories.
Another moped of the same works is the Flandria Rekord, and the story of the range as a whole is in Flandria moped. More vehicles of the marque are in the Flandria collection.
Video: decouverte flandria comet 4
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Flandria, Dutch Wikipedia: company history, production figures, factories, 1976 prototype, 1981
