When I was a lad growing up in the North of England, the Mod Revival was in full swing. Scooters were everywhere, mostly heading down the M1 motorway for weekend trips to the south coast resorts. At that time, I couldn’t tell the difference between a Vespa and a Lambretta, so goodness knows if one of these passed by. The first two images come from Vincent of Southsiders, who spotted this machine at a swap meet in France. A little digging around reveals an interesting history: we’re looking at a version of the German DKW Hobby scooter, built under licence by the French gunmaker Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin—better known as Manurhin. They started building the Hobby in 1956, incorporating locally made components and rebranding the machine as the Manurhin MR75 in Europe and the Concord in the UK. According to the sales notes prepared for a Manurhin sold by the English auction house Bonhams—for the princely sum of £253—this scooter “was constructed to a high standard and must have been one of the first motorcycles to be painted electrostatically, a process commonly known as ‘powder coating’. When DKW ceased production of the Hobby, Manurhin continued with its version, which in 1957 occupied third place in the European scooter sales chart behind Lambretta and Vespa.” It’s a beautiful machine, and that lovely French blue paint—which looks original on closer inspection—adds to the patina. [Thanks to Vincent Prat. See also shots further below of a slightly different but equally beautiful Manurhin, the single-seater SM75, taken by Toulouse-based Flickr member Mr Beuts.]
Canon EOS 40D | 1/400s | f/2.8 | ISO 100 | Focal length 165mm | 70-200 f/2.8 L USM lens
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14 Comments
That is one cool scooter. Nice find.
Great retro scoot. love it!
love it – the green in particular.
Beautiful scoots and a break from the Lambretta/Vespas you normally see.
lovely piece of vintage industrial design.
Is that a pull-starter on the left side of the body?
That’d be cool now!
Good lord, that it one amazing-looking scooter. And great shots, too.
Want to make it rich? In my estimation NO ONE is currently making cool scooters. I could be wrong – please let me know if I am – but I can’t think of any manufacturers atm that are making scooters that come anywhere close to the coolness of something like this.
Case in point – Vespa/Piaggio. Have you seen there current line-up? It’s horrible. For a company with such a strong history, they really seem to have lost their way…
???
Pamberjack – check out the Genuine Stella-
http://www.genuinescooters.com/scooters/stella/stella4.html
Tim – looks like a Vespa copy. It’s nice – but I’d probably prefer a REAL Vespa. May a re-conditioned one?
I’d prefer a new one instead of a temperamental piece of Italian hardware.
I think the Honda Zoomer/Ruckus is pretty cool. Probably not as cool as this though.
Hi I live in Byron Bay Australia I have recently acquired a Manurhin and it is mostly all there and in repairable condition ,the belt that comes of the motor and clutch is missing and I am not sure what it looks like or what size can you still get them ,also head lught and tail light gone ,can you help me find out more information or a manual on this bike ,just love your web site the bike I have is like the green one no chrome pieces,I would be very interested to here from you, thanking you kindly Gordon
The green one is amazing!
Hi Gordon, I too have just acquired a DKW Hobby, which is the same as the Manurhin, but made in Germany. Mine is complete but will be getting a total restoration so I also will be looking for parts which will be a problem. I believe they are readily available in Germany & indeed German ebay has quite a few advertised, which is fine if you speak German. Belts are the biggest problem, altough they last well, after 50 odd years one could expect them to be worn out. A new belt sold on German ebay last week for $Aus 60.00. but posting to Europe only! Happy to exchange notes with you. David.