A story is popular on the network about how in 1993 a French electrician had a car broke down in Morocco during a traveling in Morocco and he remoded it into a motorcycle. We decided to check if this story is true.
About the amazing story of Emil Lera, who miraculously escaped from the desert due to the fact that he was able to redo his Citroën 2CV into a motorcycle, they tell Scientific and popular And Entertaining resources, as well as portals about cars And extreme rest. Social networks (""VKontakte" X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram) and the platform blog ("Picabu" Livejournal) They are divided on their pages with a story about the adventures of an entrepreneurial Frenchman. Most of the publications contain a photo of Lera in the desert against the backdrop of his amazing invention, as well as pictures of the stages of remaking the machine into a motorcycle. Some posts specify that of the instruments of Lera there were only wrench, ticks, hammer and a hacksaw. It is interesting that after the Frenchman was able to get out, the Moroccan police allegedly fined him for driving an unregistered vehicle.
The story of Emil Lera is definitely not just an invented online bike. Many posts about it contain a photo report of the alteration of the car into a motorcycle. Les himself is happy to distribute interview Journalists, tellingWhy did he get stuck in the middle of the desert, how he came up with the idea of moving the car to a motorcycle and how it was possible to do it.
Despite the fact that everything happened relatively recently (in 1993), and Lera willingly retells this story and shows his invention, many Internet users have doubts that history is true. Firstly, Lera claims that he remade his car within 12 days, but it is not clear how he had enough food and water for such a long time. Secondly, users are perplexed why he could not fix his car if he had enough skills and tools to assemble a new vehicle. Thirdly, some users believe that a set of tools allegedly available to Lera would not be enough to completely disassemble the car and assemble a motorcycle. And finally, a series of photographs of Lera in the desert looks very professional, as if someone else was present there. Although technically he could take off himself, having built a frame and setting a timer, users doubt that a person on the verge of survival would do this.
In addition, according to Internet users, it would be easier to get to civilization on foot than to redo the car.
On your website (at the time of writing, the analysis is not available, but preserved Archive copy) Lere placed a map of his route: he was traveling from the Moroccan Tan-Tan to the border of Western Sahara, where the military was deployed (the territory was closed for travel due to the armed conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara). He went back, but then decided to go around the border post through the off -road, where he ran into a fatal stone. The distance between the tan-tan and the point at which Lere was deployed-about 30 km (27 minutes by car or seven hours on foot). Judging by the map on his site, the distance that he drove away from the border post is hardly half of this distance. It turns out that Lera really had no need to spend so much time and effort on remaking the car into a motorcycle. To survive, it was enough to walk a few hours on foot to the village. Probably, the path in the desert would not be very light and pleasant, but that would be a less risky step than to spend 12 days and all its food and water reserves for an enterprise that could and not be crowned with success.
In 2015, the leading American shows "Destroyers of Legends" Jamie Heineman and Adam Savage decided check, is it possible to actually redo Citroën 2CV to a motorcycle in the conditions as LERE describes. They took the old car of the same model, the same set of tools and went to the deserted area near San Francisco. Despite the doubts expressed by some Internet users, they were surprisingly easy to make out the car, it was almost not even needed tools. However, when it came to the assembly of a new vehicle, the leading shows were at a dead end. In the end to them succeeded To build something like a motorcycle and even set it in motion, but it was not possible to drive at the invention, even hundreds of meters, since it all the time fell on its side.
Haineman and Savage did not stop there and decided to undertake One attemptbut this time it is not just to collect a motorcycle on a hunch, but to rely on the photograph of the motorcycle of Lera. However, she I was unsuccessful Success: both presenters managed to drive on an advanced motorcycle somewhat further than on the first prototype, but very insignificant.
This is not the only case when the Citroën 2CV car was redone into a motorcycle. So, for example, the Italian Franco Grosso, the owner of a workshop specializing in this brand of cars, Collected Motorcycle from the parts of the old 2CV. However, he did not set such restrictions as Lera, therefore, on the one hand, it is not surprising that he had a more successful prototype, and on the other hand, his result can hardly serve as a confirmation of the veracity of Lere history. Amazing exhibits, such as a motorcycle from car details, is one of the advertising techniques of the Grosso workshop.
Be that as it may, the Frenchman, apparently, liked the Citroën cars so much that he was in 2006 did From one of them, a boat to cross the Senegal river on it, and then shot a film about it and laid it on his YouTube channel. It is possible that the transformation of CV2 into a motorcycle is also a planned event, which Lera decided to add charm with an action -packed story about survival in the desert.
Thus, apparently, Emil Lera really collected a motorcycle from the spare parts of his car. It is impossible to check many details of his history (for example, the assembly time of the motorcycle and a set of tools used), since the only source of information is Lere himself. As for his motivation, he most likely embellished this part. Judging by the route that he drove, he had no need for a vehicle to get to civilization from the scene of the accident - this distance can be walked quite quickly on foot. In addition, the process of reassembling the machine into a motorcycle and Lera, which is thoroughly shot to the film, posing in shorts against the background of his creation, also give reason to believe that the Frenchman did not try to survive at all, suffering from hunger and heat. Most likely, if the motorcycle was indeed assembled in the desert, this was the initial plan of Lera.
Photo on the cover: SHAMEAU D'Cier
Read on the topic:
- The Times. A Citron, a saw ... et voilà, i have a bike
- Is the story of Taganrog Truth, who bought an old car for $ 9,000 in the United States, and after the repair sold it for $ 80,000?
- Is it true that Harley-Davidson founded Russian emigrants of Kharlamov and Davydov?
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