David Dartnell
David Dartnell is not your average scooterist, loyal to either the Vespa or Lambretta marque. He has another passion; Dayton scooters – he owns three of them.
It all started in 1958 when he purchased a 250cc twin Dayton Albatross scooter. It was purchased as a form of transport, rather than any desires to belong to a scooter club – in fact there weren’t a lot of clubs in the area in which he lived. David did a lot of long distance travelling riding around the country on it and it would cruise all day at 50mph, although the claimed top speed was 68mph.
He owned the Albatross for around five years before moving on with his life. That was about it for him as far as scooters were concerned and he never dreamed at that time that he would ever own another one. But all that changed a few years back when he was given the 225cc Dayton Albatross you see here as a birthday present. He didn’t twig what his family was up to at first because he was just presented with a panel. It was only when other family members started giving him other parts and he was told that the rest of it was in the garage that he caught on.
It didn’t take him long to get into full swing and start the restoration. A lot of advice was given to him by Ian Harrop of the VMSC, whom David describes at “being the foremost expert in the world on the Dayton marque”. One of the downsides of restoring rare scooters is the availability of parts and David has had to make some compromises along the way. He needed a replacement mudguard and the only one he could locate was on another complete bike.
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