Skat Kitty History
- Thread starter MiniBike Paul
- Start date
- Tags history kitty skat
Hi Paul, my name is Chris and I work at Projects Unlimited. I came across this post and had to create an account to let you know, the Skat Kitty Mr. Wyse had in the shipping carton is now assembled and on display. When I found out they had it on the dock, I asked that it be un-packaged and put on display for our open house this year. Everyone got a kick out of it. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who work here who didn't even know the history on these or the Wyse Cycle till i had one put on display. Anyways I will be sending you a PM about the stack of the side car buckets I have. Very nice restoration!
:grind:
ut:::blink::no:Skat Kitty's
We just recently purchased another Skat Kitty..... Appears to be an early one os the only stampings are 755 on the kick stand mount. All the others have more letters and numbers.... This one is fairly complete however the guy shipped it and left out the front wheel, gas tank and brake pedal parts and linkage. We also are missing the exhaust elbow. If anyone has these parts we would be greatly appreciative. We have some extra parts like the rear sissy bar, the kick stand, the seat cover, and some other misc parts that are all extremely high quality that anyone would be happy with. Feel free to call me at 480 529-3700 Tom..... I will post some pics.
We just recently purchased another Skat Kitty..... Appears to be an early one os the only stampings are 755 on the kick stand mount. All the others have more letters and numbers.... This one is fairly complete however the guy shipped it and left out the front wheel, gas tank and brake pedal parts and linkage. We also are missing the exhaust elbow. If anyone has these parts we would be greatly appreciative. We have some extra parts like the rear sissy bar, the kick stand, the seat cover, and some other misc parts that are all extremely high quality that anyone would be happy with. Feel free to call me at 480 529-3700 Tom..... I will post some pics.
Restoration of 3 Kitty's
We also have restored three Skat Kitty's. You can see some pics of them and some parts at Classic Performance Restorations - Home . We are super fortunate to have been a apart of these projects that we had to buy one for ourselves....
We also have restored three Skat Kitty's. You can see some pics of them and some parts at Classic Performance Restorations - Home . We are super fortunate to have been a apart of these projects that we had to buy one for ourselves....
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
.
I can still remember sitting on a Skat Kitty w/sidecar in a Top Value Stamps store back in the 60's. I begged my mom to cash in some of her trading stamps for one. Wasn't gonna happen. Wish I could remember how many stamps it took to get one. I also remember seeing a Skat Kitty in Projects Unlimited display at the Dayton airport. Good memories, yes, I'm that old.
