The Sachs Bee is a scooter of the later Sachs range, listed by the company in a 50 cm³ and a 125 cm³ version. It belongs to the years when Sachs Bikes, after its insolvency, aimed at the scooter market and traded from 2008 as SFM GmbH.
Sachs Bee at a glance
| Maker | Sachs Bikes / SFM GmbH, Nuremberg |
|---|---|
| Type | scooter |
| Versions | Bee 50 and Bee 125 |
| Company from 1995 | Sachs Fahrzeug- und Motorentechnik GmbH |
| Insolvency | June 2006 |
| Management buyout | 1 January 2007 |
| Renamed | SFM GmbH, 2008 |
| Aim after the buyout | stronger position in the scooter segment |
| Later range | Bee, Speedjet, Speedforce, 49er, Quattrocento |
The Bee has no Wikipedia page of its own; it is listed only as a model name in the article on the company.
History of the Sachs Bee
A scooter for the new strategy
The Bee appears in the German model list of Sachs Bikes in two versions, the Bee 50 and the Bee 125. Both are scooters, the class the company turned to after the difficult years around its insolvency.
The company behind it
Sachs Bikes was created in 1995, when the Mannesmann-owned Fichtel & Sachs sold the Hercules brand and its bicycles to the Dutch ATAG Cycle Group and kept the motorcycle production in Nuremberg under the Sachs name. In June 2006 the company had to file for insolvency. A management buyout took it over on 1 January 2007 with the declared aim of positioning itself more strongly in the scooter segment; in 2008 the proceedings were closed and the firm was renamed SFM GmbH.
Scooters of the period
The scooters of those years were small, cheap machines, largely sourced in China and assembled locally, and Sachs was for a time general importer of the Chinese maker Huanan Motors. Next to the Bee, the range included the Speedjet 50, Speedjet R 50 and Speedjet RS, the Speedforce 50 and Speedforce R 50, the 49er scooter and the larger Quattrocento motorcycle-scooter of 2007.
Design and features
- Two sizes: Bee 50 and Bee 125.
- Post-insolvency product: part of the scooter strategy of 2007–2008.
- Simple city scooter: the class was small, cheap and largely Chinese-sourced.
- Range companion: sold next to the Speedjet, Speedforce and 49er.
Sachs Bee versions
- Sachs Bee 50: the 50 cm³ version.
- Sachs Bee 125: the 125 cm³ version.
- Speedjet 50, R 50 and RS: the other small scooter line.
- Quattrocento: the 400 cm³ motorcycle-scooter of 2007.
The other scooters are in Sachs Speedjet, Sachs Speedforce and Sachs 49er. More machines are in the Sachs collection.
Video: 2008 Sachs Bee 125 German scooter
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Sachs Bikes, German Wikipedia: Bee 50 and Bee 125, scooter strategy, company history
- Sachs Motorcycles, English Wikipedia: Chinese-sourced scooters, import business
