French Motorcycles

Today in Motorcycle History

Carley Mopeds

A Brief History of the Marque

Manufactured by Rocher in Cenon near Chatellerault at the beginning of the 50s.

Father and son team Joop and Jake Carley began developing a 49cc moped just before the war engulfed Europe.

The first model was built by Polynorm in the Netherlands around 1949, and was advertised as Empo-Carley Brommotor. Some 200 of these were built. Later it seems that M. Rocher met with M. Carley and a commercial agreement was reached. Rocher headed a large industrial group that produced under license the famous Cucciolo engine supplied to a number of small French manufacturers. The Rocher company had up to 2000 employees.

In 1951, a new model was exhibited, available in 49cc or 75cc versions and was effectively a faired light motorcycle with the appearance of a scooter. That year it was still in prototype stage, but was promoted in the Dutch press of the time.

In 1952 and 1953 Rocher suffered from poor sales, as did many other French manufacturers.

In 1954 a new model was presented which appears to have been built by ERIAC (Etudes Réalisations Industrielles, Administratives, Commerciales), a subsidiary of Rocher. This model was produced in the Netherlands at Vorden.

That same year the Carlette was introduced, which was probably marketed in France.

Shortly afterwards the Rocher factories closed, which brought an end to Carley.

See also Empo
Source: moto-scooter-annee50-60.over-blog

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