Despite its Italian name, the Piatti scooter was of Belgian (and later, British) manufacture, being originally produced in 1954 in Belgium by

D'Ieteren D'Ieteren SA () is a company, based in Belgium that is engaged in automobile distribution and vehicle glass repair and replacement (VGRR). Activities D'Ieteren is a group of services to the motorist, founded in 1805. D'Ieteren Auto distrib ...

. Its name came from its designer, Vincent Piatti. In 1956, production also commenced at the Cyclemaster works at Byfleet in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England.'' The Motor Cycle'', two-page road test, 7 March 1957, pp.298-299. Accessed 15 June 2019 However, the increasing availability of affordable small cars in Europe affected sales of the Piatti (and other scooters) and production eventually ceased. According to Erwin Tragatsch in a brief entry on the Piatti scooter in his ''Illustrated Encyclopedia of Motorcycles'', Cyclemaster "failed to find many customers for this product", and manufactured only a small number before British production terminated. The Piatti scooter has the dubious distinction of being, in the words of Bob Currie (author of ''Great British Motorcycles of the Sixties''), "the worst scooter ever perpetrated."

Notes

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External links

Alan Abrahams, 'The Piatti Scooter'
Motor scooters Scooter manufacturers