What the heck is an Allstate Vespa?

[truck]

It has a new tail light gasket so I suppose it is well taken care of. Is this a Sears and Roebuck thing?
http://allentown.craigslist.org/mcy/1019983869.html

[Hoist!]

1959 allstate vespa

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[attachment removed after 60 days by system]

[truck]

Is it a Vespa that Sears sold?

[Hoist!]

Is it a Vespa that Sears sold?

Yep, back in the day! Sears sold all the Allstate models. They were name branded Allstate from a few manufacturers.

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[Hawg Holler]

In the 60s Sears sold the Vespa as an Allstate and also sold a 50 cc moped and a couple of other small two strokes from Puch. I distinctly remember these because when I was 13 I lusted after anything with two wheels and a motor and used to drool over the Sears catalog pix (when I wasn't drooling over the ladies in the lingerie pages). I had a couple of super lucky friends who got the Allstate mopeds when they were 14 (you could get a driver's license for anything with 5 hp or less in Tenn.). At 14 I finally got a basket case Cushman that my dad and I rebuilt.

[truck]

So....It's probably a Vespa that is branded Allstate.
Thanks for the info.

[Hoist!]

Here ya go!

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Sears Allstate Made in Italy and Austria
from the early 1950s to late 1970s
Puch
Gilera
Sachs
Vespa
Sears Allstate Forum
Sears Allstate Directory

Motorcycles, Scooters and Mopeds

Brief History of the Marque: Sears Allstate
Puch two-strokes from Austria were sold by Sears-Roebuck of Chicago from the 1950s to at least 1979 under the Sears Allstate label. Sears sold scooters built by Vespa 1952 to at least 1967, as there is one advertised in their Spring '67 catalog. They also sold Italian machines manufactured by Gilera.

Sears Allstate by Troyce Walls

VESPA ALLSTATE 125cc

788.100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951
788.101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1952
788.102 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1952
788.103. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1953-54
788.104. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1954-55
788.94490. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955-56
788.91191. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1956-57
788.94492. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1957-58
788.94493. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958-59
788.94494. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958-59
788.94495. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1960-62
788.94330 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1963
788.94331 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964
788.94332 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965

VESPA SEARS (125cc)

788.94370 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966

VESPA SPRINT SEARS (150cc)

788.94360 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966

Some of the information above from http://www.garnersclassicscooters.com/Vespa-ID.htm



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Sears Models

* 250 Scrambler 810.94201 
* 250 Early 810.94222 
* 250 Late (square tanker `67-`69) 810.89571/2 
* Compact scooter (early model w/steel front fender) 810.94380 
* Sport MoPed 810.94060/9 
* MoPed 810.94020 
* SR175 810.94211 
* SR125 (radial head chrome-bore 2-stroke) 810.89581 
* SR124 (Gilera) 808.895511 
* 106SS (Gilera) 808.895403/13/23/33
* Sears Sabre Puch 50cc 810.89511

[guido4198]

Like Hawg said...
In S. Florida...the same rules applied. 14 yr. old for anything under 5 hp...so me and all my friends were hot to own a moped, or Vespa. The neighborhood 18 yr. old "bad boy" had a Cushman Eagle...and a slutty girlfriend who wore skin tight pants, and waaayyy too much lipstick...
Talk about imprinting on young minds...!!

[Kansas]

I grew up on the NW side of Chicago and there were a bunch of guys riding Cushman Eagles. As I recall 14 was the magic year you could ride one legally.  They had the swagger of a Harley and a thumper 4 stroke rumble for the kids back then. It was a two speed tank mounted shifter with a centrifical clutch and a nasty exhaust note that was pure magic.  Anyway, I ended up with a restored 1956 Eagle for about ten years and the Cushman Club of America is a bunch of really good folks with a fun national meet annually.  Finally the crap 1956 brakes became an issue I couldn't ignore and I sold the Eagle and bought another Harley.  A Vespa could whack a Cushman like a sport bike can whack a Harley but who cared?  They weren't cool.  Cushman Eagles rocked.  Vespa's were for weenies.

[sandrooney]

I had an Allstate scooter when I was a kid, hand me down from brother. He had pretty much trashed it, my Dad found another one at the Goodwill in downtown Dallas for I think 5.00 ( this was 44 yrs ago 5.00 was a lot of money ) and we made one good one out of two. It looked different then the one pictured , but it was an Allstate, went to the local Sears to order parts.
SR

[GaryD]

I had the scooter when I lived in Chicago, red and cream paint. I bought it in 1961(?). Went in the Marines in 63, came home on boot leave and had a picture of me sitting on it and my dad standing along side. Last picture I have of my dad.
I had a rag tag moped I paid $50 for before buying this scooter.
I had the scooter in the Sears shop to get the kick lever replaced. Building burned down. A couple days later a Sears truck pulled in front of my house and they dropped off a brand new scooter, no questions no paperwork. I've been a Sears customer ever since.
I really had a good time with that scooter, lots of memories. Even thinking on getting another scooter just for laughs or to hang off the back of my Ultra in case of an emergency. LOL
That picture is a Vespa. I didn't know Sears sold them too. Lambrettas and Vespas were the Cadillacs of the scooter world. Then you had the 'bad boy' Cushman Eagle.

[Hawg Holler]

Like Hawg said...
In S. Florida...the same rules applied. 14 yr. old for anything under 5 hp...so me and all my friends were hot to own a moped, or Vespa. The neighborhood 18 yr. old "bad boy" had a Cushman Eagle...and a slutty girlfriend who wore skin tight pants, and waaayyy too much lipstick...
Talk about imprinting on young minds...!!

Yeah, the Cushman motor --until about 1965 when the aluminum 9 hp "super" eagle or whatever it was called, came out -- was just a glorified vertical lawn mower engine with a two-speed tranny and centrifugal/manual foot clutch.  Flat head and flat wimpy but it did have that four stroke rumble and low-end torque that put it in a different class than the ringdinger two strokes that ran around then. You could lift the front wheel if you opened it up and popped the clutch as you jerked back the handlebars. Besides pulling the baffle, you could drill a hole in the pipe as it emerged from the header and get a great backfire effect when you closed the throttle on a hill and hit the kill switch for a few seconds. Nice blue flame at night. I got pulled over by the police in high school for frightening a group of girls with a HUGE backfire next to them as they were walking back from lunch.

Much like Guido, my first impression of a Cushman rider was a grade school dropout named Peewee Moats, who used to annoy the teachers by riding around the school on the Cushman with it's gutted muffler. This is back when we had to keep the windows open in hot weather to 'cool' the classrooms. He had a cheap (probably Sears) studded imitation leather motorcycle jacket and engineer boots. He wore long, comb-backed Brylcreemed hair with long sideburns (for a 16-year-old). He always carried a bull whip and was the neighborhood badass of the day, as he'd use the whip to pop kids on their way to and from school. Of course us guys in 6th grade all thought he was just cool as hell -- our own neighborhood Elvis and Marlon Brando character rolled into one. But we knew better than to hang out with him for fear our parents would take us behind the shed if we were ever seen with the 'juvenile delinquent.' Never knew what became of him except somebody said he died in prison a few years ago. As for Peewee, he was what many would call today a 'real biker.'

[Panzer]

Wow, someone else knows about "THE SHED".
Haven't been and don't intend to be in jail, the "shed' is enough for me. 

[Desperado]

My first 'motor' was a '52 Cushman Eagle that I bought in 1963 with money from mowing yards.  Flipped a lawnmower once trying to tow it behind the Cushman to a job.  My Cushman had been on the track - had a cut down tank and bobbed fenders to make it lighter and faster.  Also had a reversed throttle for less wind resistance.  On the Cushmans you rolled the throttle out to accelerate.  Mine was set up to roll in so you could tuck your elbows in and go faster.  What a joke, but I thought it was fast with all that reduced wind resistance.  Maybe it could hit 50 mph - down hill - with a strong tail wind.  Didn't have a speedometer on the '52 model so I don't know.

A guy in Texarkana challenged me to a drag race once.  When he called go, I popped that excuse they had for a clutch and he disappeared behind me.  I wasn't THAT fast.  I couldn't understand it until I stopped and saw him way behind me laughing his head off.  His dad had the local motorcycle shop, servicing the British bikes, the Harleys and the Cushman scooters.  They used the scooters as trail bikes around Lake Texarkana (Patmann Lake now, I think).  They discovered that there was room in that two speed tranny box to put a Studebaker reverse gear and it worked perfectly.  They would use the reverse when they high-centered on a log on the trails.  There was a little tab welded to the tank that prevented you pulling it back into reverse when you were wanting first, unless you pulled the shifter around the tab.  Pretty neat.  Of course, what he had done was put it into reverse and pop his clutch as we got off the line.  We were just doing it for fun so it was nothing if he 'lost'.

Fond memories of those early 'motor' days.  Wish I still had that Cushman.  When the 50 cc Hondas hit with an easy 60 mph top end, three speed, etc., the bottom dropped out of the fat tire Cushman market.  I couldn't give it away.  I finally did - to a guy who trashed it in less than a week.  Froze the engine, tried to use a cheater bar on that exposed clutch to break it loose, thus trashing the clutch....

[NETacomaFatboy]

a bunch on Ebay if you guys are looking..

[seattledyna]

somebody say Vespa?

I saw this one in Seattle a few years ago

[smokey3644]

My first real motor bike was a 55 Allstate Vespa.  It had a ugly green paint job and it was great.  I bought it at Dudly Perkins in SF, in 62 right after I turned 14.5, the legal age in Cali in those days to ride a motorcycle.  Those were the days, just buy it and get on, no insurance, helmet, endorsement or training school.  I saved up my paper route money for a year to buy it, 100 bucks.  When I was picking it up a couple of guys that looked like they might know what a patch was checked out my new ride and one of them said, "kid you'll be back in a year for a real scooter", actually it didn't take that long.  In six months I had a stripped down 53 BSA 500 CC single, straight pipes, no lights and a rumor of brakes.  I tried to deliver my papers on it but for some reason the folks kept calling the cops when I delivered the Sunday paper at 5 in the morning. 

[Little Al]

way back in 1971 or '72 I had a Puch 175 "enduro" (street and dirt ready, lol) and although I bought it used (about 3 years old when I got it) I pounded the hell out of it. it was a 2 stroke/2 cylinder and the pistons were tiny! Sears sold them new at the time (here in New York anyway) and they had parts in stock!

wow, did that bring back a hell of a bunch of memories!

[Hawg Holler]

way back in 1971 or '72 I had a Puch 175 "enduro" (street and dirt ready, lol) and although I bought it used (about 3 years old when I got it) I pounded the hell out of it. it was a 2 stroke/2 cylinder and the pistons were tiny! Sears sold them new at the time (here in New York anyway) and they had parts in stock!

wow, did that bring back a hell of a bunch of memories!

The good thing about sears in those days is that you could get parts for anything they sold. That was good if you lived out in the country like I did. And it would stand behind everything it sold. My dad and I always bought Craftsman tools because if one broke you just took it back and they replaced it free no matter how you had abused it.