Over the last six months, I bought and restored a Skat Kitty with an original sidecar;
Before
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After
Part of the process was to duplicate the original decals - the main one looking like this;
To learn more, I Googled "Projects Unlimited, Dayton, Ohio" (the name on the decal), and read that it is an aerospace technology company and has 150+ employees; I noticed there was a history section on their website and went in and was surprised to find . . . . . . .
Our History | Projects Unlimited, Inc. located in Dayton, Ohio
Pictures, but nothing else; so, I phoned them but was totally blocked from getting through by their receptionist; however, she did tell me that one of the original founders was the Skat Kitty guy, he now lived in Florida, and that she would get a message to him; sure you will, I thought to myself!
So, not to be stopped, after I hung up I started searching whitepages.com for the last name in Dayton, and before long I was talking to David Wyse, at his home. He filled me in with a story that is coincidentally almost identical to the Powell Brothers story that was taking place at the same time, 2000 miles away, here in California! Surprisingly, he was unaware of the Powells and their bikes!
Before Projects Unlimited was formed in the early fifties, his dad and uncle (brothers) manufactured under the name "Wyse Labs", and look at what they made;
1947 Wyse Cycles
Later, he didn't get specific, they made the Skat Kat, a regular size minibike, but one of the brothers had a large boat, yacht, and wanted a vehicle he could take aboard and use when in port, and thus was born the Skat Kitty!
Mr Wyse told me that he still has one brand new and in the original shipping carton - of course I told him to ship it to me but he only chuckled! He then told me how when he was in high school, his job after school was to help assemble bikes and he was the official test rider, exactly the same as Alan Powell was doing for his dad and uncle!
I took a deep breath, and confessed (and apologized if it offended him) that I had re-created the original water-transfer decals! On the contrary, he took my contact info and said they get requests for decals from time to time and will direct the folks to me.
Unfortunately, I think I was way more excited then him, and I probably don't get to persue him further - too bad, but for about 10 minutes I was in minibike heaven!!
This is a great hobby!!!
MBPaul
.
Before
After
Part of the process was to duplicate the original decals - the main one looking like this;
To learn more, I Googled "Projects Unlimited, Dayton, Ohio" (the name on the decal), and read that it is an aerospace technology company and has 150+ employees; I noticed there was a history section on their website and went in and was surprised to find . . . . . . .
Our History | Projects Unlimited, Inc. located in Dayton, Ohio
Pictures, but nothing else; so, I phoned them but was totally blocked from getting through by their receptionist; however, she did tell me that one of the original founders was the Skat Kitty guy, he now lived in Florida, and that she would get a message to him; sure you will, I thought to myself!
So, not to be stopped, after I hung up I started searching whitepages.com for the last name in Dayton, and before long I was talking to David Wyse, at his home. He filled me in with a story that is coincidentally almost identical to the Powell Brothers story that was taking place at the same time, 2000 miles away, here in California! Surprisingly, he was unaware of the Powells and their bikes!
Before Projects Unlimited was formed in the early fifties, his dad and uncle (brothers) manufactured under the name "Wyse Labs", and look at what they made;
1947 Wyse Cycles
Later, he didn't get specific, they made the Skat Kat, a regular size minibike, but one of the brothers had a large boat, yacht, and wanted a vehicle he could take aboard and use when in port, and thus was born the Skat Kitty!
Mr Wyse told me that he still has one brand new and in the original shipping carton - of course I told him to ship it to me but he only chuckled! He then told me how when he was in high school, his job after school was to help assemble bikes and he was the official test rider, exactly the same as Alan Powell was doing for his dad and uncle!
I took a deep breath, and confessed (and apologized if it offended him) that I had re-created the original water-transfer decals! On the contrary, he took my contact info and said they get requests for decals from time to time and will direct the folks to me.
Unfortunately, I think I was way more excited then him, and I probably don't get to persue him further - too bad, but for about 10 minutes I was in minibike heaven!!
This is a great hobby!!!
MBPaul
.
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