Geoff’s incredible British scooter collection
Geoff Burton has 49 scooters arranged over two levels in his garage, and every single one of them was made in Britain.
There isn’t a Vespa or Lambretta in sight among a collection of some wonderful, some weird, and some very rare British machines.
In all, there are scooters manufactured by 14 different marques and, if you didn’t realise many of them existed, you’re not alone.
Hooked on British scooters
It’s the very reason Geoff became hooked in the first place, spotting a Triumph Tigress for sale on eBay when he was working overseas as a power station engineer.
A trio of Triumphs
“I’ve always had very stressful, responsible jobs where if I did something wrong I could wreck millions of pounds of machinery or hurt or kill someone, so whatever I did I had to do it right,” he says.
“The only thing I had to help me switch off from the stress of the job was eBay, and when I saw the Tigress advertised I thought ‘that’s interesting, I didn’t know Triumph made scooters’.”
He bought it, and in the 20 or so years since the 71-year-old has amassed possibly the largest collection of British scooters under one roof in the world.
British scooters everywhere
As well as about a dozen Triumphs, there are scooters from well-known motorcycle marques Velocette, Ariel and BSA, along with DKR, DMW, Dayton, Sun, Swallow, Raleigh, and Bond.
“I didn’t really have any idea that we made these scooters,” says Geoff, “and then I was given a book about British scooters, and that was a really big mistake for me.
“When I realised how many there were, then I had to go for it, and try to see what I could get.
‘Bee in my bonnet’
“I get a bee in my bonnet and my late wife Hazel said ‘you can’t do anything by halves can you?’ and I can’t. I think that there’s something driving me to do silly things. If they made it, I wanted one.”
Left to right, a Triumph T10, Sun, and James
For example, there are six different variations of the Triumph Tigress – the 250 with kickstart, the 250 with electric start, and the 175, in addition to the same three models that wear a BSA Sunbeam badge. Geoff has five of the six, along with several frames.
The Dayton Albatross comes with single and twin cylinder engines and, of course, Geoff had to have them both.
Geoff with a Dayton Albatross
“It was ‘why are you buying that, you’ve already got one?’ Well, I haven’t quite got that one…” he smiles.
Geoff had no history with scooters in his younger days, initially riding a Royal Enfield 250 at 17 before quickly moving on to a 1957 Ford Prefect that he rebuilt with his father.
The Ford gave way to much more sporty cars, first an Austin-Healey Sprite, then a Triumph TR6, followed by the Lotus Elan S4 that currently shares the garage with his scooters.
Geoff with his Elan
But he always retained an interest in two wheels sparked by growing up a few miles from Brands Hatch, where he would watch motorcycle racing with his father, a keen biker himself.
Geoff had spells as a fingerprint officer for Lancashire Police, an apprentice with the Central Electricity Generating Board, and major works with Southern Electric, but spent most of his career working in power stations – as his father and grandfather had before him.
It took him all over the world, from Saudi Arabia to Singapore, and Ghana to Lebanon.
Start of an obsession
And it was while working away that his therapeutic eBay searches led to the fateful Tigress purchase, and the start of an obsession.
He quickly filled his double garage at home in Newbury, Berkshire, then his father’s shed, and then a series of further sheds he bought and erected at home.
“I had no room left and nowhere to work,” he says, eventually buying up a large workshop five years ago to house his collection and give him the space he needs.
“This place was in a bad state, so I’ve spent a lot of time doing it up, creating the mezzanine level and a manual vehicle lift with two chain blocks on either side.
“It is difficult to do on your own because you have to do one side at a time. As I’m raising or lowering them I play a little game of chicken with myself to see how far I can raise each side without them toppling over.”
There is method to where each scooter resides, partly related to marque grouping, and partly their condition.
“The hopefuls are on the ground, and the hopeless at the top,” laughs Geoff, pointing out the original Tigress perched on the mezzanine.
“I never did anything to it. I’ve always been working abroad, I didn’t get very much leave, and when I did get leave I wouldn’t have been very popular if I’d spent it working on scooters or motorbikes.”
Among those on the ground floor are the Bond P1 scooter with its distinctive jet age rear end, the DKR Defiant with its bulbous front fairing, and the DMW Deemster ex police scooter, complete with its (possibly) original radio.
DMW Deemster with police radio
Scooter oddities
Oddities grouped together on the lift include an Ariel 3, a tricycle moped with a £2m development cost reported to have done for its makers, BSA; a Brockhouse Corgi, a civilian version of the Welbike, dropped by parachute to support airborne troops in World War Two; a Swallow Gadabout, produced from 1946 to 1951; and a BSA Dandy.
Left to right, Ariel 3, Swallow Gadabout, Brockhouse Corgi, BSA Dandy
The one nod to Italian scooters is the Raleigh Roma, effectively a Bianchi produced in the UK under licence.
Of the 49, only the Defiant and a very smart, and very large, Velocette Viceroy are currently ridden with any regularity.
Velocette Viceroy
“The Velocette is fascinating,” says Geoff. “The thing I always thought was odd with scooters was that all the weight’s over the back wheel, with nothing over the front. Well Velocette thought this isn’t right, so they put the boxer twin engine in front of you.
“I love the machinery – that’s what fascinates me. If I see a beautifully restored, painted, chromed machine I’ll think ‘oh, that’s nice’ and I’ll walk straight past it. But if I see one that needs a lot of tlc, I’ll fall in love with it.”
The DKR Defiant, left, with its curious front end
Are there any he still needs to complete the British set?
“I’d like to find a proper Douglas Vespa with the correct badge,” he says. “And I don’t have a Dunkley.
Collection not finished yet
“The objective is to get as many British scooters together as I possibly can. I’m doing well, but it’s not quite finished yet, although I do think it’s almost reached a plateau.
“If I started doing scooters from other nationalities, then I wouldn’t have enough room in here, or even in the entire village…”
When he first started collecting, Geoff had a “master plan”.
“I was going to retire when I was 60, and then I would spend a year doing each one of 20 bikes and scooters,” he adds, “and then by the time I reached 80 I would just hug and polish them.
“Well, I didn’t retire at 60, and probably because of that I went well beyond my 20.
“My new plan is to just enjoy myself, and when I come here I enjoy myself no matter what I’m doing. I like music as well, so everywhere I go I’ve got music. I do tend to go a bit too far though, I’ve even got disco lights here as well.”
The striking Bond scooter
When Hazel sadly passed away a week before Christmas 2023, the workshop took on an even more important role in his life.
“She hated motorbikes, which is why this place is so good for me, because she didn’t like to come here,” says Geoff. “When I’m at home it’s not always good because there are things there of hers that I see, but here I’m in a different world. This isn’t a Hazel place, this is purely a Geoff place.”
We’re chatting on a sofa in the workshop with a naked scooter frame on the floor nearby.
Grandson apprentice
It’s the bare bones of another Velocette Viceroy, and Geoff says it has been claimed by his 13-year-old grandson Henry.
“I said to him ‘have a scooter to rebuild’, and he wanted that one because you have to do everything on it,” he adds. “It came as a barn find, and I’ve got most of the bits for it.
“But when I took the engine to bits I realised that somebody must have ridden it through a ford or something and filled the engine with water, because the inside is completely destroyed.
“I do have a spare engine though, which I managed to find on eBay.”
Grandad and grandson will be rebuilding the Velocette together, and Henry has already proved adept at one very useful skill.
The hard to read Sun Wasp badge
“He’s going to be my welder,” says Geoff. “I’m not one to praise – if it’s rubbish I’ll say it’s rubbish – but my comment on his first bit of welding was ‘that’s bloody good’. I was amazed at how quickly he took to it.
“I’ve got two more grandsons, Thomas, 10 and Edward, eight, and I’m hoping that they will all come in here and help in the future.”
There’s certainly plenty for them to get their teeth into in the years to come, to gradually restore and safeguard this incredible collection of British scootering history.
Scooter stories is a series of articles exploring the lives and experiences of scooterists and collectors. Click on the Scooter Stories category link to read more.
