Scooter des 1950's & 1960's

Le Magnat Debon, j'ai les ailes arrières de celui de mon grand-père, c'est tout ce qu'il en restait ...  

OK, elle ne porte pas de casque, mais elle a une jupe parachute pour s'arrêter   

One thing our post from late last year on the elliptical-wheel jeep/tractor was missing was any mention of who developed that. Thanks to my ever-growing Mechanix Illustrated collection and the August 1949 issue, we have an answer: John Kopczynski, head of the Pivot Punch and Die Corporation in North Tonawanda, New York. So, judging from the fact that the photo in the earlier post was taken in late 1950s, John didn’t waste much time building a full-scale prototype to test his idea.


In the same issue, we also see a New on the Road roundup featuring a Globester scooter, an early Ferrari V-12, an Imp, a Bond three-wheeler, a Mayrath tractor and a Fend Flitzer three-wheeler.

UPDATE: From a little bit of Googling, it appears Kopczynski later went on to found Ascension Industries in North Tonawanda and even to serve as mayor of that city. Coincidentally, the article on the North Tonawanda History Museum’s website (originally from a December 1972 issue of the Tonawanda News) that relates that information also carries an interview with Jerry Boone, then a Chrysler executive who extolled the virtues of Chrysler’s turbine engines, which were the subject of the SIA Flashback the other day. Another page on the NTHM’s website mentions that Kopczynski died in 2005.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/globester-scooter/

Spécifications:

-New Streamlined design
-Tear drop body
-One-piece cast aluminum frame
-Spring suspended foam rubber and hair cushion for extra comfort
-Easy-starting 4-cycle Continental engne
-Maximatic torque converter
-Easy-riding pneumatic tires
-2 horsepower motor
-Up to 35mph and 95 miles per gallon

The Honda Juno is a scooter. Two versions were produced, the K-series of 1954 (K, KA, KB),



The Juno K was a deliberately elaborate bike in 1954. It was Honda's first scooter and would be competing with the well established Fuji Rabbit and Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon. It featured the first electric start, a full windscreen with a tilt-back sun-shade, and built-in signal lamps. It also introduced Fibre-Reinforced Plastic body construction to Japan.


modèle de 1956

Only 5,980 were produced in a year and a half. Kihachiro Kawashima, who retired as executive vice-president in 1979, remembered the bike as a "splendid failure": it was too expensive, the engine overheated, the FRP body was heavier than expected and made the bike underpowered and clumsy, the new cantilevered suspension was problematic, and customers did not like the motorcycle-style clutch operation.



The final Juno KB model can be distinguished by enlarged rear vents and new vents added to the windscreen.


Technology developed for the Juno K would be applied to later bikes. The electric start was re-introduced with the C71 Dream in 1957, and the new Plastics department under Shozo Tsuchida developed polyethylene components that would distinguish the Super Cub
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Juno

The story of the Vespa should be told at top speed – running as fast as possible to compete with its eternal rival: the Innocenti Lambretta.

The Vespa Monthléry was born out of antagonism with the Lambretta, which in 1949 set 13 speed records on the Roma-Ostia highway with a special model.

The year after, in April 1950, Piaggio took up the challenge on the racing track in Monthléry, France. The faired bike – designed by Vittorio Casini, and ridden by pilots Mazzoncini, Spadoni and Castiglioni – set 17 new world records in ten hours (and over 1,049 kilometers!).

Pontedera’s green bullet smashed, among others, the speed records over the hundred and five hundred miles, as well as the hour record.
Source: Italian Ways

125 terrot vms2 1953