I’m a sucker for accessories. Especially panniers and windscreen on a baby scooter.

I also particularly like original paintwork and dealer transfers.

My 1961 Cheetah does not exactly speed along with quite the same velocity as its animal namesake. But it is undoubtedly a charming example of that era of the late 1950’s/ early 1960’s before the Japanese invasion – when scooters were all the rage and mopeds and small motorcycles grew bodywork and legshields to give them scooter-style looks.

In 1962 the Austrian company Puch offered two models in the UK, the more upmarket 59cc Cheetah ‘Scooterette’ which sold for £99 17/- 6d, and the bog-standard 50cc MS 50 Nomad for £82 10/-

My 1962 Puch Nomad MS 50 VD moped is pictured below as comparison; you’ll see that they are indeed of very similar design.

The first Puch moped in the fifties was the ‘Steyr-Daimler-Puch MS 50,’ known as ‘baby-Puch’ because of its fragile and small body. Puch enthusiasts consider that it was the first proper production moped. However, it’s difficult to decide where the ‘cyclemotor’ ends and the ‘moped’ begins; the French machines of the early 1950’s in particular could be considered either. If you click on http://ridevintage.com you can observe many examples of the ‘is-it-a-moped-or-is-it-a-cyclemotor?’ debate.

The fifties scooter craze blurred the model categories once again with mopeds that may also be scooters – or a ’scooterette’ as the Cheetah was described.

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This model of Puch was also sold in the USA, where it was re-branded a ‘Sears Allstate.’ Sears also re-sold Vespa and Cushman scooters in the same way.

Here are 2 photos of a Puch Sears Allstate, showing ‘Allstate’ on its badge; they switched to a ‘Sears’ badge in 1967. Puch mopeds, scooters and motorcycles were marketed as such in the USA from 1954 until 1969.

Re-badged Vespas were sold by Sears between 1951 and 1966.

Re-badged Cushman scooters were sold by them from 1948 until 1960.