The Sachs Speedjet is a family of 50 cm³ scooters from Sachs Bikes, listed by the company as the Speedjet 50, the Speedjet R 50 and the Speedjet RS. It belongs to the scooter range that the Nuremberg firm built after the management buyout of 2007.
Sachs Speedjet at a glance
| Maker | Sachs Bikes / SFM GmbH, Nuremberg |
|---|---|
| Type | scooter |
| Versions | Speedjet 50, Speedjet R 50, Speedjet RS |
| Capacity | 50 cm³ |
| Company from 1995 | Sachs Fahrzeug- und Motorentechnik GmbH |
| Insolvency | June 2006 |
| Management buyout | 1 January 2007 |
| Renamed | SFM GmbH, 2008 |
| Other scooters | Speedforce 50, Bee 50, 49er, Quattrocento |
The Speedjet has no Wikipedia page of its own; the sources give its three versions and the range it belongs to, but no separate history.
History of the Sachs Speedjet
Three versions of one scooter
The German model list of Sachs Bikes gives the Speedjet in three forms: Speedjet 50, Speedjet R 50 and Speedjet RS. All are 50 cm³ scooters, the class that made up most of the company’s range in the late 2000s.
The company behind the scooter
Sachs Bikes appeared 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. After financial trouble the company became insolvent in June 2006; the management bought it out on 1 January 2007 with the aim of concentrating on scooters, and in 2008 the firm became SFM GmbH.
Scooters of the new range
The small scooters of those years were cheap machines, largely sourced in China and assembled locally, and Sachs was for a time general importer of the Chinese maker Huanan Motors as well as of Malaguti, Voxan and the Italcar microcars. The Speedjet shares its role in the range with the Speedforce, the Bee and the 49er, while the MadAss remained the only Sachs-engineered motorcycle of the difficult years.
Design and features
- 50 cm³ scooter: the standard small-scooter class.
- Three versions: Speedjet 50, Speedjet R 50 and Speedjet RS.
- Post-2007 range: part of the scooter programme that followed the buyout.
- Simple city machine: cheap, largely Chinese-sourced and assembled locally.
Sachs Speedjet versions
- Speedjet 50: the standard version.
- Speedjet R 50: the second version.
- Speedjet RS: the third version of the scooter.
- Speedforce 50 and R 50: the parallel scooter family.
The parallel scooters are in Sachs Speedforce, Sachs Bee and Sachs 49er, and the largest in Sachs Quattrocento. More machines are in the Sachs collection.
Video: Sachs Speedjet Tuning
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Sachs Bikes, German Wikipedia: Speedjet versions, scooter strategy, company history
- Sachs Motorcycles, English Wikipedia: Chinese-sourced scooters, import business
