Zundapp Bella R200

The Zundapp Bella R200. German engineering at its best. A good solid heavy Scooter from the 1950’s.

As lifetime honorary member of the Zundapp Bella Enthusiasts Club (ZBEC) I’m pleased to show this early Metallic Green R200 Bella. I’ve always been a Lambretta man but over the years I came to like the shape of the Bellas. I think it was when I saw a Bella fitted with a Yamaha RD 250 twin air cooled engine painted Orange in the Continental colours. A Scooter I have seen at the Zundapp Museum in Sigmaringen in Germany where it is displayed in a Brewery!

When our first Grand Child Bella was learning to read I thought it would be nice to find her a Bella for when she is older. I came across this one which had been restored to a very high standard from a retired motor engineer who had founded Wakefield Scooter Club in 1955.

As a favour my ex race winning good friend Rob Miller from Newcastle did a round trip from to South Lincolnshire to Doncaster and home again – for that I made him a special exhaust for his vintage 50’s race Scooter.

Bella was just starting to read her name when we showed her the bike – she slowly spelt out B E L L A and we said it was hers!

Something I wanted to do for her to remember me by when she is older. Maybe she will ride it to her wedding, maybe she will pass her test and ride it, maybe she will have it on show in her house, maybe she will do nothing with it and maybe she will sell it – one never knows!

From this Bella I became good friends with Brian Crook who Runs ZBEC. Since then Brian has had a few one to one engineering days at our workshop. I’ve developed new parts to improve the Bellas and tuned a few and doubled the horse power so they can actually get up to reasonable speeds. And we’ve run open workshop weekend AGMs for the club and parties in the farm, which has become a highlight of the yearly calendar.

Zundapp Bellas

These German made Scooters were produced from 1953 to 1964. Around 130’000 were made next to Lambrettas and Vespas they were one of the biggest selling Scooters for the time. Two engine sizes were made 150 and 200, with slight differences in body design from early and late versions. This is an early version which has a kickstart vertical cylinder engine. Later ones used a sloping cylinder to aid cooling. Having 12 inch wheels and a large seat and lots of foot area these are a pleasure to ride. But been so heavy, even tuned they are never going to be a racing Scooter. This will stay standard, it runs and all works and for one of the open AGM weekends we restored an old trailer which mounted on the back of our Morris Minor Van.