| Date: | Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:16:42 |
| Subject: | Re: Motobecane and mobylette |
| From: | Kiroja |
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> I'm just getting interested in mopeds, and I've been trying to figure
> out. Are motobecane and mobylette two different companies, or is mobylette
> a motobecane product, or none of the above?
Motobecane is a motorcycle company.
In 1949 the importer of motobecane motorcycles in the Netherlands came to
motobecane with the request to produce a moped. This became the mobylette AV3. For
a while the dutch Kaptein and the french motobecane went their seperate ways in
producing mobylettes, importing and exporting to everywhere, even to eachother.
After 1965 the Kaptein company stopped producing their own models and mobylettes
were only produced in france.
The name Kaptein Mobylette or just mobylette stayed on the mopeds till 1974, after
that there was only motobecane on it. (btw, the sticker on the later types which
says "Pantin" is not a type, Pantin is the place where the motobecane factory is
in france)
Somewhere along the line, around 1985, Yamaha took over the motobecane company
and since then the name is MBK (I once heard it means mobylette kaptein, which
would be a reference to the original Kaptein company). Even the Yamaha FS1 has
been reintroduced briefly in the late 80's under the MBK label. Till this day
Yamaha produces MBK mopeds and scooters in St Quinten, France.
Hope this answers your question.
Robbert
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