The Flandria Rekord is one of the mopeds built by A. Claeys-Flandria, the Belgian works at Zedelgem in West Flanders that grew out of a village smithy and made bicycles, mopeds and light motorcycles until 1981. Flandria developed its own 49 cc two-stroke engine in 1952, one year after the first moped left the new factory, and by the mid-1970s the company was building more than 100,000 mopeds a year.
Flandria Rekord at a glance
| Maker | A. Claeys-Flandria, Zedelgem, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Type | moped (bromfiets) |
| First Flandria moped | 1951, with a 40 cc Rex engine |
| Own engine | 49 cc two-stroke from 1952 |
| Gearbox | two gears from 1953 |
| Frame | tank frame from 1953 |
| Moped range | fast sports mopeds, utility mopeds and ladies’ models |
| Peak output | more than 100,000 mopeds a year in the mid-1970s |
| Other factories | Netherlands (Avaros), France, Morocco, Portugal |
| Engines built under licence | Figueres, Spain |
| End of moped production | 1981 |
There is no Wikipedia article on the Rekord itself: the only source is the Dutch Wikipedia article on the Flandria brand, which describes the works and its mopeds but not the individual model. The article is therefore based on one source and says nothing about the Rekord that the source does not cover.
History of the Flandria Rekord
From a village smithy to a moped factory
The Flandria works began as a smithy in De Leeuw, a hamlet of Zedelgem in West Flanders, which passed to the Claeys family in the nineteenth century and grew into a company with hundreds of employees. At the start of the twentieth century Leon Claeys founded a separate business making agricultural machinery, while the family firm had already sold 150 bicycles by 1910. The brothers Alidor, Jerome, Remi and Aimé Claeys then took over the old smithy and turned it into a bicycle factory; in 1927 it produced its 250,000th bicycle.
Aimé Claeys built his first four motorcycle prototypes in 1933, a 500 cc design with an overhead-valve JAP engine, but the motorcycle never went into production. Alidor had left the business in 1929 to start an iron foundry of his own. It was only after the Second World War that the company decided to make mopeds, in a factory built for the purpose at Zedelgem.
The 1950s: Flandria’s own engine
The first Claeys-Flandria moped, a bicycle fitted with a 40 cc Rex engine, was built in 1951. In 1952 that engine was replaced by Flandria’s own 49 cc unit; in 1953 the machine received two gears and a tank frame. In the same year the company began building 125 cc and 175 cc light motorcycles with JLO two-stroke engines, followed in 1954 by a 175 cc scooter and a 250 cc motorcycle, both with JLO engines. Mopeds were improved and modernised alongside them, and in 1955 Flandria showed a prototype microcar at the Brussels salon that never went further than that single example.
The Rekord in the Flandria range
In 1956 the brothers separated: Jerome withdrew and the Zedelgem factory was divided between Aimé and Remi. Aimé kept the Flandria bicycles under the name A. Claeys-Flandria, while Remi took the left-hand part of the plant and the Lichtervelde tube works and made mopeds under the Superia name with Sachs engines. As motorcycle sales fell at the end of the 1950s, Flandria stopped making them and concentrated on mopeds — fast sports mopeds, utility mopeds and ladies’ models. That range, of which the Rekord is one example, carried the company through the 1960s and 1970s until moped production ended in 1981.
The mopeds were also built outside Belgium. Besides Zedelgem and Zwevezele, Flandria had factories in the Netherlands (Avaros), France, Morocco and Portugal, and its engines were made under licence at Figueres in Spain. Most of those countries built their own separate models, and the French Sportif was made only at Waasten, where smaller wheel sizes were also used.
Design and features
- Flandria’s own engine: the 49 cc two-stroke that replaced the Rex unit in 1952 and powered the mopeds of the 1950s.
- Two gears and a tank frame: the specification of 1953, when the moped was modernised for the first time.
- Three kinds of moped: fast sports models, plain utility machines and ladies’ models were all part of the range.
- Made in several countries: besides Belgium, the mopeds came from factories in the Netherlands, France, Morocco and Portugal.
Flandria Rekord versions
- Flandria Rekord: the moped described on this page, one of the models of the Zedelgem works.
- Sports mopeds: the fast models that Flandria listed next to its utility machines.
- Utility and ladies’ mopeds: everyday versions of the same engine and frame layout.
- Foreign-built models: separate types assembled in the Netherlands, France, Morocco and Portugal.
- French Sportif: a model built only at Waasten, with smaller wheel sizes than the Belgian machines.
The same works built other mopeds, such as the Flandria Comet; the general story of the range is in Flandria moped. More vehicles of the marque are in the Flandria collection.
Video: Flandria record
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Flandria, Dutch Wikipedia: company history, engines, moped range, factories, 1981
