19561956Very nice machinery. Classic stuff.
I remember wanting one of those sooooooo bad back then, but the parents said “NO, too dangerous.”.
I had a 1947 model with the bathtub body and a sidecar. It was surplus from the flight line at NAS Jacksonville. It was slow but almost bombproof.
What kind of mileage did/do they get?
WWIIThanks for the blast from the past. I had a couple of these things. In the mid-sixties, they were dirt cheap.
A Cushman Eagle was hot stuff when I was in junior high unless you had a Mustang.
I have friends that are into restoring them. Some are putitng more reliable Vangaurd motors on them, but most unusual of all is a friend of mine that I am helping with an Eagle project powered by a small jet turbine engine and hydrostatic drive.
SWEET! I would ride one today. Better than a Chinese scoot.
Since I travel less than 2 miles to work I’d ride one.
BTW what happened to the old Honda 50-90 style bikes? Clean, light easy and fun to ride and got great milage. Rather ride one of those around town than a bigger bike.
Rode something similar in the sixties on farm work clearing fields. We called it ‘the tote goat’.
My Cushman was my school (and newspaper route) transportation at age 12, by age 14, I was driving my 1955 Chevy and working full time in a restaurant, by the end of my Junior year of high school, I had my own apartment and worked in a filling station.
I don’t think that stuff goes on much today.
In the early 70s, an old man in my town had a Cushman 3 wheeled buggy like a utility golf cart. He drove it around town doing his shopping. At the end of Main Street one day, there was a bang and it was laying on it’s side when he tried his U turn a bit too fast. Some guys went over and lifted it up and he was on his way again.
It was a sort of bare bones scooter. The Eagles were the cool machines because of the tank and side shifter.
Somewhere around the 7th grade I learned how much girls liked horses, so I talked an absentee neighbor into letting me care for his Palomino gelding and ride him daily. My scooter stayed in the garage most of the time...yuk yuk
I wouldn’t mind one for puttering around the neighbourhood.
My parents were dirt poor when I was growing up and a Cushman Eagle was the only vehicle we had. It was the early sixties and I remember riding on the gas tank as a toddler. Mom rode on the back. No helmets for anyone. I remember being afraid of the spinning flywheel when getting on it and making Dad kill the engine before I would get near it. It got stolen several times. Once the police woke us up at three in the morning to tell us they had recovered it and we didn’t even know it had been stolen. This was in Nashville Tn. and it gets cold in the winter.
Cushman, Mustang, doodlebug, and Whizzer was some old school stuff. By 1965, Honda had put all 4 in the grave, if not sooner. My first ride was a 1964 Honda sport 50 (49cc).
http://www.mopedarmy.com/photos/brand/22/540/
Here’s the 62 version and this is closer to what mine looked like:
http://www.cmsnl.com/community/vehicles/Honda/CA110_SPORT_50_US/1962/4590.html
A couple years later(1964) Honda began producing the S65(65cc) and the S90(90cc). These were fantastic bikes far far superior to anything ever built before in that class. The S90 would do 65MPH and get nearly 100MPG and simply did NOT break down. The sport 50 would do 45+MPH and get something between 100 and 200MPG. The American scooters just did not have a chance.
What is it about these wheels that makes me keep coming back to look at your pics? I’ve been looking at vids on youtube also. Vids of modern small displacement bikes that I would like have...especially if I was 10 years old again.
If I was to buy a set of wheels for a 10 year old today, it would be this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iStvQflJYE&feature=related
But I think everyone on this thread needs to check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMob7BqMDu0&feature=related
CALIFORNIA SCOOTER COMPANY...it looks like a modern incarnation of a classic mustang! I can’t wait to tell all my motorcycle buddies!