And even then the sponsor picked up the tab
Former Brit commando Peter Lee-Warner was of two minds about emigrating to Australia. Ten quid (that was twenty bucks in 1953) would see him on a government-assisted voyage, but if he didn’t like the joint he’d have to pay his own return fare. If, on the other hand, he made his own way to Oz, he was free to do as he liked.
Peter was a very fit 34-year-old and may even have considered backpacking overland had he not spotted an advertisement declaring: “An amazing fact: riding the luxurious Power-Pak is cheaper than walking.”
The Power-Pak was a 49cc two-stroke that clipped over the rear wheel of a bicycle, which it propelled by means of a friction roller. It had a flywheel magneto, ‘petroil lubriction’ (either a patented process or possibly just a typo) and a fuel tank that fitted over the crankcase. The advertisement provided quite a convincing case for the Power-Pak’s economy, while failing to substantiate any reason for use of the word luxurious. Anyway, the purchaser had to provide their own bicycle.
Images of Peter depict a clean-cut ‘officer’ type and contemporary descriptions have him as ‘tall and bronzed’. By all accounts he also understood self-promotion because, instead of slipping anonymously on to the cross-channel ferry at Portsmouth to start his journey, Peter’s official point of departure was Australia House in London, farewelled by no less than our trade commissioner. Prior to departure in March 1953, Peter had undertaken a fortnight’s schooling to maintain his new Power-Pak in top condition – a quick de-coke of the 49cc two-stroke every 1500 miles.
Seven months after he had departed (and just in time for the Earls Court Motor Show), Peter returned to the UK and was greeted at Australia House by Hollywood star Vivian Blaine. And numerous motoring journalists. One of whom, Norman Sharpe, reported: “There on the crowded pavement I heard the outline of Peter’s story. His milometer showed 5501 miles … yet he had but a single puncture and was still using the same Dunlop tyres and Champion spark plug which had served him through his travels; he had averaged 200 miles per gallon. And, shades of Pythagoras, they told us the piston of his 49cc Power-Pak had completed no fewer than 250 million strokes.”
Certainly Peter had made it all the way through France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Malaya to check out his potential new home in Australia. And of course he had many stories to tell: A ‘prang’ avoiding a lorry in Italy; good times at the Postjne Inn, Yugoslavia; the locust plague in Iraq; the time his travels nearly ended when ‘a leaping kangaroo whisked over his handlebars’.
Then it was a quick jaunt across the USA – Albuquerque, Wichita, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Pittsburgh, New Jersey (where he was warned about dawdling on the freeway) and finally New York.
Strangely, for a bloke who suffered a pushbike saddle for more than 700 hours over some of the world’s roughest roads, Peter made little mention of the hardships encountered. Could it be that the advertising was true, that the Power-Pak was both luxurious and cheaper than walking? That must be the reason Peter was able to afford the luxury of ‘Stratocruiser’ seats on his Pan-Am flight across the Pacific and his berth on the world’s stateliest liner – the Queen Elizabeth – for his final leg from New York to London.
The total cost for petrol was 25 quid ($50), however it seems highly unlikely Peter had to put his hand in his pocket at all.
Only Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman could have had it better.
By Peter Whitaker
