Yamaha
SS 50
Price new - £139.34
Power – 4.8bhp
Top Speed – 45mph
The motorcycling world would be very different
if it hadn’t been for the sports moped
boom sparked by the ‘sixteener’
legislation of 1971. Although Puch was probably
the first manufacturer to produce a sporty 50,
complete with the all-essential set of virtually
unusable pedals, Yamaha’s SS 50 (for Sixteener
Special) followed quickly by its derivative,
the legendary FS1-E, was the one everyone wanted.
The SS 50, the daddy of the FS1-E, sold in
1972 and is urguably the most collectable of
all, being much rarer than the FS1-E that superceded
it in 1973. But it was then that sales really
took off, averaging about 15,000 per year until
16-year-olds were forced onto ‘slopeds’
in 1977. While restricted Fizzies still sold
well, the fledgling stage of motorcycling was
losing its attraction, which had a knock-on
effect that almost certainly contributed to
the general decline in two-wheeler registrations
during the 1980s.
Many of today’s bikers are the very same
people who first ventured onto the roads the
L-plates sellotaped to the suspension of FS1-Es,
hence the nostalgia-fulled surge in prices in
recent years.
Despite huge moped sales, the survival rate
is low, so the best examples can be worth 25
times their original price tag.
Early models were Candy Orange and had SS on
the side panels. Honda already sold an SS50,
so they objected, hence the FS1-E sticker on
later versions. ‘E’ stood for England.
Engine
Probably one of the easiest engines to kick
start ever made!
Chassis
Pressed steel frames are prone to damage and
can suffer from the same corrosion as old cars.
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