Haynes Museum British Motor Scooter Exhibition pt3

The last set of photos from a visit to the very excellent Haynes Museum's British Motor Scooter Exhibition last summer. The exhibition is ongoing, visit it if you can, the rest of the museum is well worth a nose around too. An impressive cafe as well. Do yourself a favour and get free entry with British Motorcycle Charitable Trust membership.

Adventures in glassfibre. Villiers engined Excelsior Monarch.

Great lines. Scooters often tend to photograph better than bikes...

Further adventures in glassfibre. The Bond. I'm a great fan of
Lawrie Bond's designs. I'm not saying they were all good, they
were certainly innovative and always individual. My first car
was a Bond Equipe so perhaps that explains it.

Pure sixties. Fins and circular faux vents on
the Bond.

Super rare Ambassador scooter rocking it in
pink. Ambassador were the importers for the
German Zundapp Bella scooter. Their own scooter
shared design lineage with the Sun, Dayton and
Panther scooters through the draughtsmen at
Reynolds (the tubing manufacturer). Reynolds
ran a small design house through the fifties. The
influence is particularly noticeable in how many
British scooters have Reynolds 'Earles' style forks
fitted.

Go on, admit it. The Ambassador does look
quite nice.

Original dealer's transfer is a great touch.

The camera loves it.

Oddball Mercury Hermes 50cc scooter. It was
a licensed version of the German 'Meister Solo
Roller'. Unfortunately the Mercury version used
a JLO engine instead of the Sachs unit fitted to
the Meister. The JLO was fitted with a cord start
like a lawn mower and was woefully unreliable.
The warranty claims crippled Mercury and they
went on to sue JLO for £20,000.

Pull start. Not a terrible idea but an awkward
angle and a fine way to strain your back. Plus,
Why? Kick starts are actually pretty good...

View across the hall with Dayton Albatross to the fore.

BSA Dandy meets Dunkley Whippet. 

And Dunkley Whippet meets Dayton Flamenco.