[condor]

Damn you, Karthik !! You bring back memories of our old scooters - and how I regret neglecting our 1986 F-green color Chetak with the number CAR-4005. How I wish I can find it and may be restore it !

And that 1983 Chetak that you have shared pics of - it reminded me of our TVS-50. CAL-8836. A dark green one, we had it for about 2 years before selling it to a mechanic at the service station (I still go to the same place even now !) for pretty much the same price we got it for. Btw, sometime last year I came across a senior person riding his two-wheeler in Jayangar. The number ? CAL-8837 !!! (Dont remember the model, though)

I doubt I will find our old Chetak, but been looking out for a KB100. Came close to one, but missed to get it. Hope, someday soon, I will.

Meanwhile - hats-off to you for maintaining these classics. Keep them shining !

[boniver]

Lovely thread, Sir! Your scooters look beautiful, and I admire your passion to keep these nifty old ladies alive at a time the entire world is shifting to automatic/gearless vehicles.

Originally Posted by funkykar

Model: Chetak

Year: 1989

I too have one of these in the garage at home, and it belongs to my uncle. It's a 1988 Chetak in absolutely mint condition run approximately 47k kms. My uncle cleans the scooter every few days and fixes everything himself. The best part is, it is used daily for a couple of kilometres when he goes to meet his old friends in our previous neighbourhood. For everything else, he uses a 2015 Honda Activa.

Attaching a couple of pictures of his scooter:







The only part that's a little bruised:


Regards,
Sayantan.

[v12]

Lovely post Funkykar! That's really a great Scooter collection. I am sure in a few years, you would surely start your own scooter museum.

Since childhood I never liked these geared scooters. My dad did own one (although I don't remembwr which one) and I used to travel with him standing in the front and honking at speed breakers to move out of the way. The KiHo was the scooter I started learning at the age of _ (don't think I should mention that here) and that's a scooter I would love to buy. Among the gear scooters, I love the Honda Street.

A few scooters that I almost came very close to buying were :

Vijay Super
Priya
Bajaj Super

Of this the Vijay Super was in the best of conditions but the asking price was too high (without papers and any documentation).

But yes, a KiHo is definitely on my wish list.

[raghuram.cg]

Great write up! and great pictures - Thanks Karthik

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Wow!! That's an enviable collection!!
The way you have maintained all those scooters, Bajaj should be paying you for their up keep. :P

Where do you keep all those scooters though?

On a lighter note, government has been yelling from roof tops, don't hoard any goods, and look at you!! Hoarded all the beautiful scooters!!

[mh09ad5578]

Lovely scoots mate! And an excellent detailed thread. Loved every bit of it. Had seen excellent resto mods ofthe M50/80 in Bali last year. It looks classy in funky metallic colors with chopped fenders and without the white plastic splash guard. Will dig up the pics later. Thanks for giving new lease to these machines, I expect these to become really valuable and beautiful pieces in the coming decade or so. It's a labor of love, thanks for sharing!

[blackwasp]

Superb thread there funkykar! Lovely to see you going out there and picking up a new scooter every once in a while like I do for my hot wheels.

Of all your scooters, the red M80 ones are my favourite. The story of you landing up with not only the first but also the second was very good. The red colour and the profile of the bike has always been a favourite of mine. One of my earliest memories of school include one friend being dropped off by his mom on their M80!

Keep it up and all the best for your collection - may it grow even more.

[ash22]

Excellent Thread Buddy. You are just collecting scooters like toys.
In the longer run, You can start a private museum showcasing your collections.
I wonder, How your family members keep quite for all your purchases like this?

[Jeroen]

Wow, what a thread, what a collection. Lot of work went into the restoration! Thanks so much for sharing. Really interesting.

Jeroen

[libranof1987]

Lovely to see, great work!

Interesting that you spent all that effort finding a M80 and restoring it. I doubt it has the same cult status as Priya and other scooters do. I've had the good fortune to ride both the M50 and M80; brings back some heartwarming memories from childhood summer breaks!

[Slick]

Wow, what a fantastic thread and what an awesome collection of scooters.

At one point in my life I had two Rx135s and one Rx100 together. I know the effort behind maintaining such vehicles.

After reading every post, I assumed it was the last one, only to be pleasantly surprised by the next one .

- Slick

[ashbhat2]

Wow funkykar ! Thats an awesome collection.

Brings back good old memories of my dad's scooters and the numerous long rides we used to do on them ( Mysore to KRS used to be classified as a long ride then for me as a kid ). All we have now is memories and some pics of those scooters. One was a CKW registration and the other a CAU.

Gotta admire the effort you put into getting the FC done for all these vehicles too, must be quite a task running around the RTO to get the FC done.

Great work, please do keep adding to the collection and posting them here.

Best read I've had since the lockdown started. Thanks !

[narayan]

Thanks for sharing funkyar. After your post I have been spending some time on OLX . Actually old Bajaj chetaks are not that expensive ( as I thought ). I even saw a beaten down M80 for just 5k. As Long as paper work is ok and one has access to a good Mechanic, I think this is a relatively safe area to venture into unlike other classics like Lambys and Vespas I suppose ?

[VaibhaoT]

My father owned Bajaj Priya. When he purchased our scooter, there used to be waiting period of around a year. Major chunk of my automobile memories are from our scooter. We sold it around 15 years back.
In my teenage years, I used to ride our three gear transmission Priya at around 40KMPH and I used to feel like I like I am flying. I used to love it.

Unlike today, in those days, parents used to hardly worry about what our kid is doing outside with scooter and where he is going .

Could you please tell us how do you take care of security of your scooters? Most of them might have a very basic cylindrical lock.
What is future plan for your collection?

[PKG]

Very Nice thread Funkykar, and what an amazing collection. I too would like to lay my hands on one of these. I have chances of getting old late 80's chetak lying in my home town belonging to an uncle. should explore taking your help in getting this restored. I have a 15 year old Activa too.. my own and bot new running just fine.. would want to get both of these into better shape. thanks for this and giving good ideas.