Haynes Museum British Motor Scooter Exhibition pt2

More pictures from the very excellent British Scooter Exhibition at the Haynes Museum. Scooters tend to be photogenic - interesting lines and colours, and many of the British scooters are quite handsome in their own way. Just a shame that a lot of them were quite awful in function!

A BSA Sunbeam 250cc twin. A nice product.
Technically advanced and with a 250cc ohv
twin cylinder motor. Possibly a higher spec
than the market really wanted.

Another angle on the BSA Sunbeam. I owned
the 175cc version of this for a while powered by
an adapted BSA Bantam motor. It really was
quite a nice machine. I sold it to a museum in
Thailand in the end.

Velocette Viceroy. Another scooter offering
slightly more than the average punter expected
or wanted. Fitted with an innovative 250cc
flat twin two stroke motor. The motor found
favour with hovercraft builders. A pity that
Velocette never built a bike with the same motor.

The Velocette's flat twin motor. Built with a
decent centre of gravity and balance in mind.
British scooters never really embraced monococque
frames a la Vespa. For the most part they were
just building motorcycles with small wheels
and some bodywork. Same chain drives, same tubular
frames. A lot of them didn't even have proper
step through frames over concerns about rigidity.

BSA Sunbeam and Velocette side by side.

A James. Another sweet looking machine. James
didn't go down the route of over complication,
instead fitting a 150cc motor adapted from their
motorcycle range. Alas the Associated Motorcycles
home brand two stroke motor designed by Piatti
was universally derided as being nowhere near
as good as a Villiers power unit.

Original dealer's transfer on the James.

Another view of the James just because...

A Dayton Albatross. Unfortunate model name
from the Dayton 'marketing department' but a
very decent scoot fitted with a Villiers 250cc
twin motor and a machine that found favour
and success with sporting scooter riders.

To the left of the Dayton Albatross is a DKR
Capella. DKR were another British scooter
brand that gained a following amongst sporting
and eventing scooter riders. DKRs were powered
by a variety of different Villiers motors.

The mighty Trojan 'Trobike' powered by an
American Clinton pull start industrial engine
is flanked by a DMW Deemster to the left and
the DKR Capella to the right.

DMW Deemster. An acquired taste. Half sccoter,
half motorcycle and Villiers twin powered. The
Deemster found favour with some Police forces
in England. A few were also made with the
Velocette Viceroy motor fitted. Personally I
like them and would love to try one out. 

Aft end of a Raleigh Roma.

The Raleigh Roma was a 78cc machine made
under license from Bianchi in Italy. Nice lines
and Raleigh must have thought they were on to
a winner. Launched in 1961 and discontinued
three years later, Raleigh were probably a little
too late to market to really get a good ride from the
scooter wave.