Motobécane SC 125: French scooter dream with fatal end.

Motobecane SC 125

A luxury scooter that would cost its makers dearly

In 1951, the Vespa arrived in Europe like a veritable tsunami. The compact Italian scooter conquers the market at lightning speed, and at Motobécane they watch this with great concern. They fear that, despite its dominant position in the French motorbike market, the brand will not survive this storm. They need to react quickly - and they do.

In order to offer something opposite the successful Vespa and Lambretta, they engage the famous illustrator Géo Ham (Georges Hamel), known for his iconic posters for Bugatti and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, among others. He is commissioned to design a scooter that can emulate Italian design - and the result is an elegant, charming scooter with flowing lines reminiscent of both Vespa and Lambretta, yet exuding its own personality. Thus is born the Motobécane SC 125 (STC at Motoconfort) - visually a small masterpiece.

A promising start, a dramatic end

The prototype is presented at the 1951 Paris Salon. Production starts in 1952, and by 1953 the scooter is at the dealers. Everything goes at lightning speed - too fast, as it will turn out.

In their haste to respond to Italian competition, Motobécane decides to reuse existing parts. They take their trusty 125cc four-stroke engine - originally designed for the D45 moped - and build it into a body of thick cast aluminium. This soon leads to practical problems: the first deliveries, for instance, reveal that the spark plug is totally inaccessible for maintenance. The solution? One asks dealers to simply cut a hole in the chassis, covering it with a metal plate....

But worse is yet to come. Just a few months later, it becomes downright dangerous: some scooters literally break in two while riding. The cause? Motobécane had made the main frame - a central steel tube - also serve as an exhaust muffler. The hot, corrosive exhaust fumes corroded the metal, and within a few thousand kilometres the tube broke off under the footplate.

That was the straw. In 1954, Motobécane abruptly stopped production of the Mobyscoot, buying back all copies sold and destroying them. It was an expensive lesson: quality will not be rushed, even under commercial pressure.