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I think he was asking something like $1500 for it at the time, and it sat, and sat, and sat all day, and think he finally unloaded it for somethin' like $1200, and I can't imagine that they've gone all that much higher in market value since then.

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Now that surprises me. I have never seen a HD Topper, i imagine they are pretty rare. I would have thought novelty value alone would a higher value on it than $1500.

But then again. Maybe i am one of those Antique (aka old crap) salesmans dream customer.

Cushman scooter.....

My good friend, Ray the Upholsterer, has three really old Harley scooters/mini bikes that are in perfect condition. I laugh my ****** off everytime I see the HD badge on them. They sit in his garage ready to go but he only starts them up once or twice a year. he says he is just sitting on them until he knows he can make a killing selling them. he rides a Road King himself.

Quadrophenia scooter fetches £36,000

02 December 2008
The 1967 Lambretta ridden by Jimmy in the 1979 cult film Quadrophenia fetched a £36,000 at Bonhams Entertainment sale in Knightsbridge.


Lambretta scooters, together with the rival Vespa, mobilised a generation of Italians in the immediate post-war years. Scooters would eventually surpass their strictly utilitarian origins to become an integral part of British youth culture in the 1960s as favourite transport of the fashion-conscious 'Modernists', or 'Mods'.



Quadrophenia was inspired by The Who's double album of the same name. Phil Daniels' character, James 'Jimmy'' Cooper, rode the Lambretta Li 150 Series 3. After filming finished, the 'Jimmy Bike' was sold to scooter dealers Rafferty Newman and put on display in the window of their shop in Portsmouth. It was later sold and used on the road, before being left to rot in the garden of a quiet suburb.



The iconic scooter was restored in 1995. Since then it has gone on to win various concours awards. When Quadrophenia was re-released in January 1997, the Li 150 attended the premiere in Brighton where it was reunited with Phil Daniels and other members of the original cast. Later that same year the 'Jimmy Bike' was used for filming at The Who's Quadrophenia concert in Hyde Park, London and on location in Brighton.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIAL/bike_page_content/49374.html

Right I have to confess.The only reason I bought my America last month is because my scooter was stolen! Yep some lowlife pinched the thing from my garage.Rode it to work for 4 years (Bolwell Shark 150cc) and loved it.I was actually never intending to sell it. I always intended buying the Trumpy when I turned 50 next year.(that was the deal with my misses)With the scoot gone and insurance payout in hand there was no way I was going to buy another scoot with an opportunity to get the Triumph now!
Only problem now is I only work about 8km from home and the Trumpy is a bit of overkill for the commute.I get too tempted to turn away from work and keep riding. Hehe
Might just have to get another scooter after all.

since buying the missues a 150cc JiaJue i've taken a interest in scooters and the 1 that does float my boat is the Sachs Madass

and they come in a 150cc manual version
their's all so talk of a 500cc in the pipe line if they do that i'll be taking for a test ride if nothing else

500cc in a package that small would be a riot!

I bought a used HD Topper in 1961. It had a 185 CC two stroke engine and started with a pull cord. It usually started and ran pretty well. It had a 5 gallon or so tank and you mixed oil withthe gas at the filling station. The gs cap had a built in cup and for each gallon gas you dumped a cup of two stroke oil into it.

It would hit 75 on a straight road but you had to fiddle with the carb to keep the power band up. No clutch and ran with a V Belt not a chain. I ran it for about two years and then kept it on the farm in upstate NY. It was still running last year with my grand nephew on it through the fields on knobby tires. It ran 12" tires and was pretty good off road.
The NYCPD had a few of them running in the 70's in Central Park but they ended up with Vespas. When I was a Sergeant I ran around Midtown with a NYCPD issue Vespa. I was known for chasing prostitutes into the subway while riding the scooter and I would negotiate the stairs up and down pretty well. The scooter was great in Manhattan as you could ride between the cars and if necessary onto the sidewalk. However they were not good on ice, snow or greasy asphalt.