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22 April 2025
Classic motorcycles have a fairly broad following, but the same can’t be said of old mopeds and scooters. Despite being cornerstones of personal transport for decades, the humble two-wheelers can often be overlooked when it comes to considering a classic runabout.
Cheap to buy, run, and repair, we look at some of the best classic mopeds and scooters to pick up.
Photograph courtesy of "Bike News Japan"
Holding the distinction of Honda’s first scooter, the Juno arrived in 1954 and was also the first with an electric starter, indicators, glass-fibre plastic body shell, and full-height windscreen. All of which sounds like Honda hit the ground running with its first effort into the market.
But it didn’t. Honda’s former vice-president Kihachiro Kawashima describes the Juno K as a ‘splendid faliure’; too expensive, heavy, and not without reliability issues. As such, it’s quite a collector’s item, and with a few tweaks here and there, can prove a great looking, fun set of wheels.
Think of Ducati and ‘cruiser’, and riders are more likely to picture the likes of the Diavel, which could hardly be further from a scooter while sticking to a two-wheel formula. Instead, the Cruiser was a 1952 model, Ducati’s first scooter, and bucked the trend by offering a four-stroke, overhead valve 175cc engine, rather than the ubiquitous two-stroke units.
Offering a three-speed automatic transmission and electric start, the Cruiser looks fantastic… though is tricky to find. Only a few more than 1,000 units were built, so if you’re looking for classic scooters and spot one, snap it up quickly.
Photograph courtesy of "MB Vintage Vehicles"
Germany is famous for cars, has a fine heritage in motorbikes, but scooters? Less so. However, that curious but pioneering firm Zundapp built the Bella in 1953, with streamlined appearance and aerodynamic cooling.
Powered by either a 146cc or 198cc engine, it was fairly basic in the sense it had a kick-start, and undamped front fork, but it proved successful for more than a decade and was exported widely, with around 130,000 units built.
Holding the record for the most produce vehicle in history, Honda’s Cub – or Super Cub – has surpassed well over 100 million units in 70+ years in production. Naturally, there have been a great many developments over that time, but introduced in 1958, the Cub blurs the lines between scooter, moped, and motorbike, but is as significant in terms of transport development as the Ford Model T or Mini – probably more so.
The Super Cub started out with a 4.5hp 50cc four-stroke engine, which when paired with the plastic-clad, lightweight pressed steel step-through chassis, meant performance was adequate for urban riding, while the low compression ratio allowed for low octane fuel usage. Even the larger-than-normal 17-inch wheels meant stability was improved for novice riders – all of which helped combine to make the Super Cub a worldwide phenomenon.
Photograph courtesy of "Museo Nicoli"
If Honda’s Super Cub is the most popular scooter, perhaps the title of most famous goes to the Vespa. Named because of a throwaway comment by Enrico Piaggio, saying “sembra una vespa” (it looks like a wasp) on first sight of the prototype, the Vespa (Italian for wasp), the name fitted the wide rear body, pinched ‘waist’ and antennae-like handle-bars.
An instant design classic, it came out in 1946, and not only rode, but helped drive, the crest of the Italian style wave that was sweeping the world. The sight of Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday epitomised European city chic, and the Vespa was quickly picked by by film stars and urban riders alike. Over the years, developments have come and gone, but the same core design is still available – a testament to its longevity.
Photograph courtesy of "Historics Auctioneers"
Arriving at a similar time, and with a comparable design to the Vespa above was Innocenti’s Lambretta. Production started in 1947 in Milan – with the Milanese area in which it was built responsible for its name.
In the UK it is most famous for its core part of the ‘Mods & Rockers’ culture clashes of the late 1950s to mid-1960s. With gangs clashing, the contrasting styles were epitomised by the choice of transport, with the Mods often picking Vespas and Lambrettas as their pick of wheels. Lambrettas fitted with more mirrors than you would have thought possible, adorned with roundels are as much a part of the era as the contrasting gangs’ ethos. The Lambretta name became such a part of the social picture, that there’s a Lambretta museum in Weston-super-Mare.
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