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SHL is probably the oldest Polish motorcycle factory. In the 1930s, the company started fitting Villiers 98 engines into its own chassis. Until the outbreak of World War II, 2000 of these were made. The factory survived the war but the production line was dismantled by retreating Germans and then borrowed by the Russians although

Johann Puch & Company of Austria was focused on the manufacture of motorcycles for the first half of the twentieth century.  Post-war Europe needed small, economical transportation, and Puch filled that need with the “Baby Puch,” also known as the Steyr-Daimler-Puch ms50, inventing a new method of two-wheeled transport–the moped.  Sears sold these bikes through

The Peugeot Scoot’elec is considered to be the first successful mass-market electric scooter. It was based on and shared many parts with Peugeot’s entry-level gas scooter, the Zenith. Although the electric bike’s 40 km (25 mile) range was not met with much excitement, the performance and expected operating costs were. As fast or faster than

In the 1950s and ‘60s there were over 300 motorcycle manufacturers in Italy.  Paglianti was one of the small manufacturers in business from 1948-1966.  They built 49cc mopeds and 75cc mini scooters using engines from three different manufacturers.  This model is the 75cc mini scooter version using a French-made Morini engine.  The mini scooter was

During the communist regime in Poland, scooters were associated with the freedom and luxury of the West. After World War II, when the motoring industry had numerous difficulties to overcome, scooters became very popular in Eastern Bloc countries, especially during the second half of the 1950s. Warszawska Fabryka Motocykli (Warsaw Motorcycle Factory), or WFM, led

The NSU Fox was the first entirely new design motorcycle after World War II.  The Fox used a 98cc four stroke engine which was very new, as most motorcycles built before World War II used two stroke engines.  Although the engine was a four stroke, NSU made it look very much like a two stroke

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.  Wanderer was a motorcycle maker at that time, but eventually ceased production since it was not profitable.  Janecek bought Wanderer’s business and made improvements to the

After the decline of the armaments industry, in 1929 Czech engineer and inventor František Janeček began producing motorcycles. He purchased the German motorcycle company Wanderer from Winklhofer & Jaenicke and named the new company Jawa Motokov, created by merging the names JAneček and WAnderer. In the 1930s, Janeček began experimenting with smaller, 2-stroke, 250cc and