Adler Junior MR100
I noticed this scooter for sale
on Ebay in late January 2004.After a very late and very high bid, I
secured it for a decent price for a pile of apparent junk, missing a
Dynastart commutator (where the hell am I going to get hold of a 1956
Adler commutator these days ?).
I
had only seen one Adler Scooter in the UK and that belonged to the guy
who I bought my MB200 from. That one is now in the hands of another
private collector and is the only roadworthy example known in the UK. It
is one of only 2 known original UK imports to have survived, mine being
the other one.
I travelled to Cambridge, paid the cash and loaded the scooter into the
back of my car, whilst wondering how I was going to find the missing
parts for the engine. The owner claims he has the missing access doors
somewhere in his house or garage(s) and he would keep looking for them.
I'm sure he will, as he has no use for them and he seemed glad that the
scooter had gone to someone with an appreciation of the Marque. I keep
e-mailing him with gentle reminders and fingers crossed they will turn
up sometime soon.*
As for the commutator, I spent
a fair bit of time in February e-mailing anyone and everyone whom I
thought might be able to help me find the missing parts.
I put a plea for help in Classic Scooter magazine and thought no more
of it. However I couldn't believe my luck when a selection of Junior
scooter engine parts turned up on Ebay the following week, including the
missing commutator - you couldn't make this stuff up could you ?
Michael Leibig e-mailed me that he had seen the parts and after a bit of lobbying by him on my behalf, the owner was good enough to change the auction to a buy it now auction. So for another ton, I had the missing part and most of a spare engine.
The scooter looks in a very
sorry (but restorable) condition and is still missing the side stand
(I'm hoping a 1970's MZ side stand can be modified to fit) and the
access doors. On the
plus side, I do have the original log book (fingers crossed I
can retain the registration number) and the original owners handbook
showing where it was originally sold
(Park Lane, London, no less. You don't find many
better
addresses than that, do you ?).
I'm getting towards the end of
my 1975 MZ ES150/1 restoration, so I hope to start the Adler MB200 strip
down sometime in May and then, who knows; maybe the Junior ?
*16th November 2004 ~ John found the missing panels and very kindly posted them to me. It looks like I might just have a complete scooter with which to start working on once I have finished my MB200 rebuild.