It seems that the Swedish Vespa importer "Como M & T Bjerke AB" discovered the side cars for Vespa early on. Here are two leaflets or sales brochures from the early fifties.
The "greenish" one above should be from 1951-1952, the Vespa being a "vacanze romane" (Roman Holiday), the nickname came from that movie.
Below is a "faro basso", Vespa 125, also with a Piaggio side car. On the leaflet it says "Vespa mod. 53 med sidvagn och inbyggd hastighetsmätare" in Swedish. Meaning that it is a 1953 Vespa with side car and speedometer", although there is no speedo on the handle bar in the picture.
I love scooters & motorcycles with side cars. Everytime I see one I have to & take a closer look. There is something very appealing to carrying a passenger comfortably, instead of them squirming around while riding pillion.
ReplyDeleteMy Vespa 125 -51 was sold with side car according to documents from the official Swedish registry. It also has the options like the locking thing on the break pedal. It also has a speedometer so question if that was equippedwith speedometer 1951? Have to check the documents, it may be that it was sold in 1952 even if it was a 1951 model. /H
ReplyDeleteThank's Dar! I ilke to have one too. Soon, the kid's are growing. The oldest one, 17,5 years, is 1.96 meters and will not fit in a side car. The two younger ones are growing too...
ReplyDeleteHenrik! I'm not sure but I think the speedometer was optional at first, at an extra cost. Since the importer Como M&T Bjerke stresses that the Vespa has a speedo in the leaflet, that indicates that it was a novelty for 1953? And I haven't seen a VM1 sold in Sweden without speedo, or at least without the housing.
The speedometers on the very early Vespas imported to the US (52-53) were mounted on a bracket behind the legshield, not on the handlebars. Perhaps that is how there were sold in Sweden as well. Of course, the US versions had the headlight on the handlebar, and not on the fender.
ReplyDelete-Paul
I have this leaflet too. If you look closely, you will see that it's actually a bacchetta (49-50). They probably didn't bother to take a new picture for the 51/52 brochure. And the speedo was an option for the 51/52 model.
ReplyDeleteThanx for clarifying, Paka! I tried to see if it had rods in the 51/52 brochure, maybe bad eyesight...
ReplyDelete