I grew up with a fascination of 1940s era scooters starting with the first time I saw the movie, Rebel Without a Cause, and seeing photos of Bo Diddley riding one. My dad was into building Harley Davidsons and so my teenage rebellion was getting into motor scooters.
Instead of buying and modifying a relatively rare and expensive vintage Cushman, I decided to just build one from scratch using the tools and techniques available to me.
I started with establishing the constraints of the scooter design, then preceded with component selection, CAD design and then fabrication. Notable elements include: Earl's fork front suspension in titanium, a simple frame design made from water-jetted brackets and mandrel bent seamless tubing, a 400cc v-twin with custom early aircraft style short exhaust, hydraulic racing kart brakes and a Comet 40/44 CVT transmission driving a very wide rear tire.
All this effort resulted in a scooter that's longer, lower and faster than a Cushman, capable of 70 mph, winning dozens of trophies and successfully capturing the attention of my future wife.
