Motorcycles

Frantisek Janecek opened a mechanical shop in Prague that made armaments for European armies.  After WWI that business declined and he decided to diversify by building motorcycles in 1929.

A monowheel is one big wheel with the rider and engine inside the circumference. It differs from a unicycle which has the rider above the wheel.

NSU began motorcycle production in 1901, four years before they began producing cars.

During the communist regime in Poland, scooters were associated with the freedom and luxury of the West. The Osa M-50 entered mass production in 1959, powered by a two-stroke 148cc motorcycle engine with a capacity of 6.5 hp.

The Scoot’elec shared both body panels and suspension components with the Zenith, but differed greatly in the frame. The on-board charger, controller, and cord are stored beneath the seat, leaving only an irregularly-shaped cubby up front for storage.

In 1935 Californian E. Foster Salsbury, an innovative businessman, was impressed when he saw pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart using an old small motorized two-wheeler Motoped around Burbank’s Lockheed Airport. He had a vision for “a cheap and cheerful vehicle that would propel the country forward to prosperous times.”

Sears began selling American-made Cushman scooters under their “Allstate” brand since 1948, but also imported various Vespa models from 1952 to 1969, also re-badged as Allstates. In 1954, Sears began importing small-displacement two-stroke motorcycles from Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch, A.G, or Puch, like the Compact DS60 Scooter seen here.