Mr. Sylvain de Jong, born in Amsterdam, moved to Brussels with his parents in 1868. When he was 18, he went to the UK to study the production of the Safety bicycle. In 1895, Sylvain de Jong, together with his brother and another investor, started a factory in Antwerp for the production and repair of bicycles under the name "Mercury." Two years later, after a conflict with the investor, he started a new company on October 15, 1897, under the name "Minerva." In 1899, he announced that they would start building Voiturettes and motorcycles. In 1900, he purchased the license to build the Swiss Zürcher & Lüthi clip-on engine blocks, and thus began the production of the first Minerva motorcycle. Available in 172 cc (56 x 70) 3/4 hp and 211 cc (62 x 70) 1 1/2 hp. The carburetor had only just been invented in 1900 and here it was still a surface carburetor. This means that the gasoline vapors in the tank went directly into the cylinder via the large pipe. Because these vapors were too rich, there was a kind of false air control slide on the right side of the tank to make the vapors poorer by adding fresh air, so you could manually control the correct mixture yourself.

The Minerva 211cc from 1901 offered here is in original unrestored condition. The engine is detached. These early Belgian motorcycles are rarely offered for sale, and certainly not in this original condition. The motorcycle comes from a large private collection where it has been stored for many years.

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