Reynolds and scooters
I enjoyed the tribute piece about Ken Sprayson in the December 2021 issue. And what a smashing picture of Ken too; looks like Nick Nicholls just managed to grab the shot as
Ken powered by.
Ken was a brilliant storyteller and once told me a great anecdote about Alec Frick.
Alec came to Reynolds from Ambassador, and was a pretty good draughtsman. Ken told me that Alec taught him a lot.
Frick came into our conversation because I’d realised that Veloce had asked Reynolds to sketch out a scooter using the LE engine, long before the two-stroke Viceroy scooter was on the stocks. Ken was onto it straightaway, and showed me Frick’s drawings.
Ken told me that Frick went on to Jaguar, making it clear that he had been commissioned to do some top line design work for them. Ken told me that some months later, it came back to him that Frick was put on drawing electric windows. “Not quite what he expected,” said Ken – with the usual twinkle in his eye.
I’ve come to realise that Reynolds had quite a hand in other UK scooters, such as the Dayton Albatross. Frick’s design for Veloce shows a rather similar machine.
Eugene Goodman kept a scrapbook of designs which interested him, including the Albatross, see attached. That 20in dimension in Goodman’s handwriting, suggests that he was keen for his firm to have a scooter with a lower stepthrough area, and thus why Frick’s earlier design for Hall Green was put aside.
Dennis Frost, via email.