RE SUBMIT: WHY SCOOTERS WERE IMPORTANT TO ME
Scooters have played a prominent part of my early years. I was fifteen years old and working as usher at the Palace Theater in Danville, IL. It was a fairly good walk to work so I really wanted to get some transportation. I could have gotten a bike I suppose, but I really wanted something with a motor on it. Unfortunately it was 1943 and right in the middle of WW 2. All manufacturing was dedicated to the war effort and scooters were not being made for civilians. Somehow one company was able to produce some scooters. It was a Regal and was powered by a Clinton one and a half horsepower engine. As I recall, it had a centrifugal clutch and belt drive. It topped out at about 30 mph. Didn't exactly take your breath away but it did get me to work and was fun to ride. I don't remember the price but I do remember it took all my available funds to pay for it. I only had it for a few months when the engine froze and the crankshaft broke. No parts were available and I sold it for junk.

A friend of mine owned a Cushman scooter. Now that was a scooter I really envied. It had a 5hp motor, centrifugal clutch and on a good day it could do 50 mph. After much cajoling and dickering my friend agreed to sell it to me. I was in hog heaven. I ran the devil out of that rascal. By this time I was working at the Steak N' Shake, and making more money. A friend of mine, Bob Lindley, owned a Czech 125cc two stroke bike. We traveled all over the Danville area on those bikes. On the open road we would race. We were pretty evenly matched. My Cushman ran pretty much the same all the time but Bob's bike was more temperamental. His bike was faster when he cleaned the plugs, but they were always fouling and then I could beat him.

My brother Ted wanted to get something so we could ride together. He took a different route. He sent off and purchased a Whizzer motor for $99.00. He already owned a bicycle, so all he had to do was install the Whizzer motor. It produced about two and half horsepower and was belt driven. Once installed, it required 100 miles of low speed running to break in. Ted and I took turns riding up and down Sherman Street all day until it was broken in. The neighbors sure loved that.

After the war, industries had to switch to the production of civilian goods again. One company, I believe it was Northrup Aircraft, produced an aluminum air cooled engine producing about 6 hp. Salsbury produced a scooter utilizing this engine, combined with an stage less automatic transmission. This beauty was very streamlined and had several features that were a head of it's time. The seat was very comfortable and had a short back rest. Instead of a hand throttle, it had a foot feed like an automobile.
It had tremendous acceleration up to 50 mph. After that it tapered off to a top speed of around 60 mph. I left many motorcycles in the dust at red lights. I loved that machine but it was a little temperamental and had some mechanical problems. When I turned 21, I purchased a brand new Indian Arrow motorcycle and that was the beginning of a whole new era of biking, and that is another story.

Learn more about this author, Robert Livesay.
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