Prague, Czech Republic - Neil Eamonn Smith fell in love while attending a wedding in the Czech Republic shortly after moving to the central European country from his native Britain almost two decades ago.
The object of his affection, though, was a popular communist-era Czech motor scooter nicknamed “the pig” that Smith is now seeking to revive and update for the modern day.
“You should never upstage the bride on the wedding day but the scooter was just amazing,” Smith says on seeing his first Cezeta scooter in 1998.
“I said what is that? I was with a friend and he said it was a Cezeta, a 'pig' - or 'prase' as they call it... I was instantly in love with her, it was a fantastic thing and I bought one.”
That led to buying others and restoring the old scooters with electric motors to replace the original smoky two-stroke petrol engines and it has now become a business for Smith, with plans to manufacture 1000 bikes in 2016.
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