Flandria

Flandria is a historic Belgian bicycle, moped and motorcycle brand. The A. Claeys-Flandria company was located in Zedelgem and was active until 1981.

In the Zedelgem hamlet of De Leeuw, the blacksmith shop had come into the hands of the Claeys family in the 19th century. The company grew into a company with hundreds of employees. At the beginning of the 20th century, Leon Claeys founded an independent company that started to make agricultural machines and would be successful worldwide. The family business already sold 150 bicycles in 1910. Brothers Alidor, Jerome, Remi and Aimé Claeys took over the former blacksmith shop and turned the company into a successful bicycle factory. The 250,000th bicycle was produced in 1927.

Flandria Logo

Aimé Claeys built his first four prototypes for a motorcycle in 1933: a 500 cc model with a JAP OHV engine. However, it stayed with these prototypes, the motorcycle never went into production. Alidor retired in 1929 and started his own iron foundry. Only after the Second World War it was decided to start producing mopeds in a newly built factory in Zedelgem. In 1951 the first Claeys-Flandria bicycle with a 40 cc Rex engine rolled off the production line. This block was replaced in 1952 by its own 49 cc block. In 1953 the machine got two gears and was fitted with a tank frame. In the same year they also started to build 125 and 175 cc motorcycles, which contained JLO two-stroke engines. In 1954 a 175 cc scooter and a 250 cc motorcycle followed, both with a JLO

 

Referenced website: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flandria