Dandy - All Models

Company History

“Dandy” appears among Italy’s many postwar scooter and cyclemotor badges, a period when thousands of small workshops and modest factories built affordable transport for a nation on the move. These companies assembled machines from a shared ecosystem of suppliers—magnetos from one specialist, carburetors from another, stamped-steel bodywork from yet another—while focusing their own energy on frames, styling, and dealer relationships. Dandy-branded scooters and small motorcycles emphasized agility and thrift: narrow step-through designs, leg shields to keep riders clean on city streets, and engines sized for licensing tiers and fuel scarcity. As prosperity returned and highways expanded, the small-scooter market evolved; household names like Piaggio and Innocenti consolidated share, and many micro-brands either pivoted to parts or faded entirely. What endures is the culture: Italian cities woven together by two-wheelers, a generation learning to maintain points ignitions and two-stroke oil ratios, and a design sensibility that made even simple machines look joyful. Historically, Dandy stands for that democratization of mobility—where owning a motorized vehicle became possible for students, shopkeepers, and workers who previously relied on bicycles and buses. Today, surviving Dandy-badged scooters turn up at local meets and in garage restorations, prized for their mid-century curves and for the stories carried in their patina. They remind us that motorcycling’s history isn’t just superbikes and GP paddocks; it’s also the daily commute, the weekend picnic two towns over, and the first time a family could afford to go somewhere together under its own power.