If you’re over 30, it’s quite certain that you were a babetta when you were young, or you had a friend who beat you with a babetta all day, then rolled it when the benya ran out, or spit on the candle and wouldn’t start.
My Babetta era was spent with my godfather, who had a baby blue and a green Babetta. I will never forget when my cousin and I set off for the village ice cream parlor with the two mocs. We were the kings of the world…
And a few days ago, a virtual message landed in the editorial office, which immediately caught my attention. Zsolt Szaniszló – who deals with the transformation of Babettas – contacted us, and his work immediately awakened the teenager in us. We interrogated the master.
Where did the divine spark come from?
Zsolt noticed while browsing motorcycle groups on social media that only at home cafe racer or they build rat-style Babettas. It was getting a bit monotonous, so they thought they’d see what could be done with a Babetta in addition to the styles just mentioned.
The basics
“I had a Babetta 210 at home, so I took it out and my colleague and I started brainstorming, the result of which was a bobber-forma Latvian; the engine’s name also comes from this: Babber” said Zsolt.
The first was the burgundy Babber, which can also be seen in the pictures. Here, 207 swingarms were added to the 210 Babetta frame, so the frame became longer. There were 24×3 wheels with 180 brake discs at the front, and 2.5×16 rims with 110/90 tires at the back.
The spring seat was lowered a little, the factory starting solution with a pedal was converted to a push-pull one, and it received a Dollerto carabiner and LED lighting. The burgundy color was individually mixed and added a little extra sparkle. The black parts are powder coated.
“This bike was quite a hit and quickly found owners, and then we were asked to build another Babber. The customer had a yellow 207 model, his request was to refurbish it to the factory and build a yellow Babbert next to it” Zsolt continued.
Second round
They didn’t want it to be exactly the same as the burgundy, so they changed the size of the wheels and brakes, the type of seat, and the shape of the frame was also slightly different. The 207 block received a 210 cylinder, cylinder head and a Dollerto carb, and it was also bolted in, eliminating the pedals.
For the third engine, the wheel sizes were also changed, this one already got a front fender, different lights, the frame was also modified and painted bright red.
Zsolt Szaniszló and his colleague, Roland Murányi, continue to calmly build the Babbettas, they have several projects running in the ReleWheels garage.
To Babetta
The werewolf of Czech mopeds (product of the PS factory – Považské laughs about the city, and the Snamed trojárne after the machine production), almost all Hungarians know Babetta, who also enjoyed film success in the Linda series. G. Ulicky and J. Safarík’s motorcycle was launched with 23 and 16 inch wheels, series production started in 1971, and finally the version with smaller wheels achieved success. In an extremely short time, PS produced several different types of the small motorcycle for markets with different needs: 207.200, 207.300, 207.400, 207.500, for example a 25 km/h top speed version for the Germans and the Dutch, a 30 km/h version for the United States, and conquered the market with a top speed of 40 km/h.
Babetta 207 – Photo: Miroslav207/Wikipedia
Source: www.vezess.hu
