I have two restored Doodle Bugs insured with Hagerty. I've been with them for, I think, 4 years now. I've never had to file a claim, but am happy with their service and their prices seem competitive. The biggest thing for me is that Hagerty "gets it" when it comes to scooters and motorbikes, and antique/vintage vehicles. I know that if something happens and I do need to file a claim that I am dealing with the right sort of company.

In my case I have them insured more to protect against the risk of theft and fire (and because proof of insurance is required at some sorts of shows and almost all museums).

Although Doodle Bugs were ridden on the street in the 1940s, there is not a chance they'd be street legal today and I wouldn't feel safe riding one in traffic even if I fought to get it grandfathered in. So...mine are not registered or plated and not operated on public roadways.  Because they are insured but not registered, each year the State of Texas sends me a letter asking me why I have insurance on two unregistered vehicles in my name and at an address in Texas. I send them back the same reply each year and they've never seemed to have an issue...until the following year when I get the exact same letter again. 

That ultra cheap storage insurance through State Farm does sound interesting and in incredibly cheap. How do they define "storage" and is that for an agreed value policy (as opposed to stated value or traditional) as Hagerty is? 

That is an AMF Roadmaster moped. It's actually late 1970s, probably '77 or '78.

The one in the photo is actually missing the rear plastic shroud that covers the engine. It is a friction drive on the rear wheel with a 2 stroke McCullough engine. Like Mike said, you could flip a lever to engage or disengage the engine.

I have two of them in excellent original condition (I did mopeds before Doodle Bugs). I haven't run them in years, but they are complete. Honestly, I cannot believe anyone would actually pay that much for them. In the world of late 1970s mopeds, the AMF Roadmasters were built cheap, cheap, cheap compared to the popular brands like Puch, Motobecane, Kreidler, and Batavus among others.  If you guys are really willing to pay $700+ each for them, I should dig mine out, clean them up and let them go! 

Speaking of the auction, to see the full catalog to to Mid America Auctions and look at their results. There was a Doodle Bug model B (Clinton Engine, temporary fill-in model, one of 750 or so ever built) restored correctly to perfection (by Dennis Daily) with all of the accessories available that was sold to the Barber Museum in Alabama. It went for under $4500 and was perfect. That's way "under the money" in my opinion, especially considering the price of the parts alone. So, while some things seems up or even on fire, other segments seemed just average or even down based on these auction results.

Around here Coleman fuel is a touch over $20/gallon.

It is low octane (50-55) and has no traditional gasoline additives (which is the main reason people use it), but is apparently very hard on the valves when used as a motor fuel. I've seen that engines tend to run pretty hot using Coleman fuel. Mind you I'm talking about 4-cycle scooter engines (not model engines and not Simplex engines, but still...). I wouldn't use it, personally, as I think there are better options for similar money. Those that really think running Coleman fuel sounds good can probably buy non-Coleman branded naphtha for half the price through a paint store or similar.

I think one of the big problems is ethanol.

Modern gasoline blends, most of which contain ethanol, are garbage. The stuff has virtually no shelf life and is very hard on gaskets, seals, fuel lines, and the like. The ethanol blended gasoline of today is also hygroscopic, meaning they will absorb moisture from the air and you'll end up with water in the gas tank eventually. In a car that is driven all the time and was engineered to use this kind of fuel, it's no big deal. In an antique, this stuff causes lots of headaches.

The only way to defeat modern fuel is to not let it sit. Run it ALL out of the system and drain out any used fuel when you're finished. It's still hard on your machine as you're using it, but at least you will minimize the risk of the fuel breaking down and gumming things up.

I think that the best thing to do is search for non-ethanol gas, race gas, or AV gas. Race gas (from a drag strip, for instance) isn't cheap, but it's designed for use in gasoline engines and is ethanol free. AV gas (either blue or no-color grades) is probably the best thing, but it's hard to get unless you have a small scale airport near you that's willing to fill up cans for you. Often times they want a tail number to associate with the purchase. Since I don't have a plane, that's kind hard...

Look here:

http://pure-gas.org/

I know...here I go digging up another old thread. Sorry, I just wasn't around here when this thread was fresh!

I don't get it either. My experience is really almost all with Doodle Bugs, but this could just as easily apply to a Simplex:

-$5000 seems to be about the upper limit of what I see them listed for when restored to pretty close to correct.

-Most are actually selling in the $3000-$3500 range, done, complete, and running. Often with accessories, too.

-In most cases you can't even buy just the parts to restore your own for $3000.

-A professional restoration (including a real engine rebuild) will be $6000+ and that doesn't include the cost to buy the bike in the first place.

-Loose parts prices on places like Ebay are getting to be just out-of-sight high. A good, correct scooter could be parted out on Ebay for 2x what people are willing to accept for complete scooters, so they're leaving money on the table, I guess. It could be argued that there is more demand for the parts than there is for complete scooters, but then again, if the parts are "worth" that much, having them all together and on a scooter should make them "worth" no less, right? I don't want to see folks rip apart nice complete machines to part them out.

Overall, I just don't understand why someone would be willing to let a complete bike go for so little when the parts & restoration costs are so high.

Here's something I just had to share with my Simplex friends.

This is Scoots 'N Scoops in Ben Wheeler, Texas. It is, quite literally, an ice cream shop and motorbike/scooter/motorcycle museum. The town of Ben Wheeler is a very small, unincorporated town in East Texas, first settled in the 1840s, and is named after a postmaster in the town in the 1870s. Apparently it is the feral hog capital of Texas. A fire in the late 1800s devastated the town and just when things were on the rebound, the area was hit with a smallpox epidemic that reduced the population from around 500 to less than 250 residents. The area did well with oil drilling and cotton farming until the 1950s or so when that mostly dried up in the area (currently there is a resurgence of both in the area). Businesses closed and people moved away. The school district was consolidated with nearby towns.

Then came Brooks Gremmels. He grew up in the area, left and went on to be a successful stock broker, concert promoter, and oil and gas man. He also had a passion for two wheelers and raced motorcycles. When he decided to retire, he wanted to come back to Ben Wheeler. What he found was that there wasn't much left. So, he built his house on the outskirts of the town and then started pushing to restore and revive the town. The end result is that he purchased just about every commercial property in town, restored and rebuilt them and offered the spaces to retailers for $1 per year if they would agree to open a business and maintain a certain number of open hours per day.

Scoot 'N Scoops is his personal storefront on Main Street in which he decided to decided to open an ice cream shop he could display some of his collection in. The day my wife and I stopped in, the lady working the ice cream counter mentioned that Gremmels was planning on building a large scale museum in the town because he had "many, many more motorcycles than we could ever put in here." Unfortunately I just read a couple weeks ago that Brooks Gremmels was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his outlook isn't so good.

With that, I present to you Scoots 'N Scoops in Ben Wheeler, Texas. If you are ever in the area...GO! It's great!



The logo:








Sitting outside in front of the building:







Confession: I went originally because I had been told about "an ice cream shop out in the middle of nowhere with a Doodle Bug in it." Here it is:

I'll try to cover all of the questions asked in one response...

I am located in Texas, so I'm a fair distance away from the midwest where the vintage motorbike and scooter world seems to be centered. Texas isn't a bad place to be though and is an excellent place to be in Cushman scooters are your thing (don't have any of those) as they seems to be almost everywhere.

As for the Vintage Motor Bike Club, my intention is not to come here to bad-mouth them, though looking at my last couple of posts may make it seem like that. The club "is what it is" and one can take it or leave it, as is. I've been a member for 16 years and in fact I'm still a member despite being disappointed and in disagreement with various aspects of the organization. I don't really know why I continue because I don't really get that much out of the magazine and my present location and work life (far from retired) makes getting to Portland unlikely for the foreseeable future, but I'm still a member...

Gramps: Good to see you here. I've spent quite a bit of time browsing your site over the years. Some of the Doodle Bug content is stuff that I sent in and some of it stuff others have sent in of photos of my scooters or items in my collection. In addition to Doodle Bug stuff, I've sent in a fair bit of the Forall Scooter stuff (now in your minibike category).  

Mike Sal: your question about what makes a Doodle Bug unique is a hard question to answer, but I'll try to be concise. It's hard...when you're passionate about something you can just about write a book about it.

-As far as I can tell, these were the first "catalog" and "department store" scooters ever offered. They were available 1946-1948 and were sold through Gambles, Western Auto, Macleods (Canadian arm of Gambles), and wholesaler Wheel Goods. They pre-dated the Sears Allstate line by several years and offerings from Montgomery Ward. Whizzers were available earlier, but they could not be purchased in a complete, ready-to-run, state from a catalog or department store, only as a kit and later (1950s, I believe) as complete units that could be purchased from bicycle shops, etc.

-They had a very unique accelerator and brake design in which BOTH the throttle and brake operated off of one control level on the handlebars. Pull in to stop, let it out to go. Basically means that the scooter could not idle without the lever being held in tightly. Looking at it now, it's easy to say "what were they thinking!" and it seems like a pretty dangerous design. Remember if you let go, the scooter would go full blast, not stop. It seems to me that maybe it should have been the other way around, but it wasn't.

-The original clutch design was very unique. It was an oil-filled centrifugal clutch they called a "fluid drive." They were made from aluminum and have a mushroom kind of look to them. The clutch is said to have been originally designed for the scooter and later adapted to other uses. The scooter was primarily manufactured by the Beam Manufacturing Company in Webster City, Iowa. Their primary business was automatic washing machines. They company eventually became Electrolux Home Products before the plant closed (just in the last couple of years) and the town lost 500+ plant jobs to Mexico. Anyway...back to the clutch. Beam was apparently having lots of vibration and dancing issues with the automatic washer. At some point, someone decided that perhaps they should adapt the fluid drive scooter clutch to it. They did, the washer ran smooth, and the clutch became the part that made mass marketing and sale of the automatic washing machine truly viable. The technology was later licensed to many other companies and variations of this clutch are still used to this day. I guess you could say we owe our clean clothes to a little motor scooter from Iowa!

Here are a few photos of one of my Doodle Bugs, taken a few years ago at the Doodle Bug Reunion. This is a 1946 Doodle Bug, model A (first production model) with the fluid clutch and Bendix accessory lighting kit. The "Western Flyer" decal on the side is rarely seen but is correct...this bike had the original side panels with those decals on it.

Greetings-

I'm "Doodle Bugger" and decided to register here after lurking, unregistered, for some time.

I don't actually have a Simplex (I know, I can "fix" that problem  ) but do have a collection of several other makes and "specialize" in the Doodle Bug Scooter. I have a personal preference for "factory correct," but can certainly appreciate something modernized and updated as well.

I post in several other automotive/motorcycle/engine forums and came here really as a "refugee" when the VMBC forum fizzled out as there really wasn't much place else to go. Although I'm an outsider, I'm excited to participate here and look forward to getting to know some of you.

I saw on the vmbc web site there must have been some "spatting" goin on a while back. Was there some complaining done with the president? I haven't seen any updates on the site for quite a while. I stopped even checking the forums... not even worth the time. That is a shame that there are that many members in the club and no one wants to take the time to do any updating.

Here's the short version of what happened:

Apparently member bjm (I did not know the identity of that person until coming here and seeing it) had been corresponding with Darren about magazine content which leans heavily Cushman and Whizzer. Darren took offense to some of the things that were said and got upset. So...Darren goes on to the VMBC forum and posts his "sorry I have neglected to reply to the website recently" thread. Within that thread he mentioned that he'd post an "explanation" of the delay. A few days go by and then suddenly the "explanation" appears on the club's homepage that was basically a copy and paste job of bjm and Darren's email exchange along with comments added by an upset Darren.

I am the one that wrote the lengthy reply to Darren's forum posting. I thought Darren really needed to hear (or see) that and I still stand by what I wrote. My post was about how poorly I felt Darren handled the situation and that he made private communication public. It was not a "he's right, you're wrong" kind of post.  I am not going to re-post that re-hash all of the content...you can go to the VMBC forum page and have a look. One of the things I suggested was that Darren pull that off the club homepage, which he did several days later. He hasn't been on the forum since then and the overall website has not been updated since.