Inhaltsverzeichnis für July 2017 in Scootering

On May 14, 2017, the Cyprus Scooter Rally took place in Nicosia. The four official clubs Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Famagusta were joined by others from Worcester, the 3 Pears Scooter Club and some other groups from Cyprus. All the above clubs met at an area called ‘Daydona Raceway’ for the first stage at 10.30am, the number of scooters totalled over 250. The programme started with instructions to the competitors, and at about 2.30pm all the scooters left for Nicosia to the municipal gardens for the second stage. The event started with music, dancing, prize draws, and a speech from the Italian ambassador. At 5.30pm the day drew to a close and all scooters set off for home safely. Congratulations to the Cyprus Vespa Lambretta Club for the excellent work.…

I’ve always felt that the ease of customisation and scope for modification of these classic scooters is what has enabled them to endure as social icons. Had it not been for the dazzling paint jobs, the grandiosely noisy exhausts and dare I say it the Mod-bling, then I doubt there would have been so many of YGSC members so eager to pick up the baton. Over the past few years I’ve read many comments claiming that ‘scootering is a rich man’s game’. To some extent that can be very true, particularly with high-end custom machines, however like anything in life… if it’s worth having, you’ll have to graft for it. In addition to this, ‘adversity’ often drives people to be more creative, making the most out of what they have.…

COAST TO COAST BY NUMBERS 1904: The highest point of the ride 1071: Approximate mileage of furthest travelled Trevor Newell 169: Riders signed on at Seahouses 152: Riders made it to St Bees 17: Riders failed to make the destination 8: Lakes were taken in on the route 3: Mountain passes scaled during the journey Stripping his carb down in the harbour car park, Steve Airey said: “I love the taste of petrol in the morning.” There’s no doubt about it, the Coast to Coast is one of those events where you’ve got to be prepared to get your hands dirty. It’s not a rally for posing, it’s not a rally you do for a ‘nice time’ and it’s probably not a rally for those of sound mind. It’s probably…

Slowly but surely I first meet Dean Harvey, the owner of Scootopia some 30 years ago on a Lambretta buying expedition to Italy. However rather than just buying up vast amounts of the cheap original spares that were on offer he carefully selected certain items. Asking him why he was doing this his reply was “I could get these manufactured quite easily”. It seemed a rather strange answer at the time considering that there were plenty of spares available and at an affordable price. Remember that Lambretta restoration was not mainstream in the scootering world during the late 1980s. It wasn’t till several years later, the turn of the millennium in fact, that the Scootopia name appeared as a mainstream scooter business. Not only offering high class Lambretta restoration but…

A few months ago I threw down the gauntlet to Vespa owners to build something worthy of featuring in the magazine, and readers responded in spades. One such owner is Leigh Maidment, who along with his uncle (Mick Maidment) has just finished building a PX125 with a 12in GTS wheel conversion, GS160 panels and mudguard, and a 1958 clubman headset to give the look of a classic scooter, but with PX size and reliability. The engine is an LML 125 reed valve engine with a Polini top end, and a 60mm crank, so a 187cc. For the bodywork finish they took the scooter back to bare metal, polished it with soft pads to give it a swirled look, then had it powder coated in transparent copper. This means that you can…

RESULTS Vintage Vespa: Jane Lightfoot, Smugglers SC, Motovespa 150s Vespa: Francis Fountain, Quatrinni Vespa T5 ‘This Is The Life’ Vintage Lambretta: Colin Dower, Wild Turkeys SC, Jet 200 Lambretta: Spencer Coe, LCGB, Burgamo O2 Automatic: Jon Patterson, Daytrippers SC, The Beast Streetracer: Phil Davidson, LC Vega Engineered: Mark Graham, Mansfield Monsters SC, Vespa Lower Class Shop/cutdown: Ronnie Spence, Lambretta Li Paintwork: Toby Taylor, Bridlington SC, Vespa PX210E Rossi Replica Murals: Mike Oxley, Black Sheep SC, Lambretta Li 225 ‘Amy’ Rat: Liam Smith, Lowlanders SC/ YGSC, P2 MK1 & Sidecar ‘Skippy’ Engraving: Gary Hall, Newcastle Setting Sons SC, Lmbretta GT150 Non Vespa/Lambretta: Jon Patterson, Daytrippers SC, The Beast Best of show: Mark Graham, Mansfield Monsters SC, Vespa Lower Class We planned to leave Helensburgh and stay over in Lanark on the…

I recently had a little plastic auto to work on, new belt and rollers needed. An Italian engined scooter, one of the many that use the same power plant, but something I’d not got my hands inside previously. I knew that I’d need a holding tool, so picked one up from my regular reputable scooter shop along with the replacement parts, and this is where my story this month starts… A quick look at the engine showed that the job was going to be pretty straightforward, so I cracked on with removing the cover, mildly surprised to find a second cover hidden underneath the plastic, but not a hindrance. I’m sure that enough of you have done this job that I don’t need to go into any more detail here. The…

“Build costs came to just under £1700 in a time frame of nine months – money and hours well spent I’d say! This effort was rightly rewarded when he picked up two trophies at last year’s IOW rally.” MAN & MACHINE Owner & builder: Paul Atkinson Job: Plumber. Scooter club: Ride with several Hull clubs. First scooter: SX150. Favourite scooter: SX200. Furthest ridden: Hull to Whitby. Favourite custom: Rhapsody & Blues. Name: POB73, my nickname and the first year I became aware of scooters. Model: Jet 200. Engine: RB. Paint: By owner. Stainless: K2. Chrome: Quality Chrome. Purchase price and date: £1800 – 2013. Overall cost: £3500. Thanks: Mike, Keith, Quality Chrome, Darrell for seat, Acorn Graphics. If, like me, you were brought up in the 70s, a trip to…

Neil Castle was over in the USA some six years ago. During his visit, he encountered a Mexican celebration day. “I’d not seen anything like the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival until I was in LA, where there’s a sizable Mexican population. I can remember thinking at the time, that ‘Day of the Dead’ would make a good theme for a custom scooter. I filed the idea away until last year when I started working on what would become El Bandido. I’d had the idea to do a Vespa auto custom for a few years. When I was more or less ready I scoured various places for a suitable machine to base the project on. I was all set to start right from scratch, then I happened…

Track record I met Mark Graham and his partner Tracey ‘Tufty Brett’ at the VFM Southport custom show when Mark was showing Lower Class for the first time. Throughout the day Lower Class had been attracting a vast amount of attention and won Best Engineering and Best in Show. Two weeks later at the VMSC Extravaganza Lower Class won Best Street Racer, Best Creative Engineering and Runner-Up Best Custom Vespa. Two weeks after that it won Best in Show at Scarborough, and then Best in Show and Best Vespa at the Bangers n’ Mash do the week after! Reflecting briefly on the attention Lower Class attracted at Southport, Mark said: “Yes, I know, when I told Tufty she jokingly said, ‘I’m not surprised, it’s bright yellow and it’s got its…

I remember spending two long years learning how to use a camera. It was all about getting to know the finer points – ISO, depth of field and lenses and so on – the knowledge you need if you want to take photos properly. And I also remember something Zak, my Australian photography tutor, told me right at the end: “Mate, now that you’ve mastered all this technical crap you can forget it. You wanna be able to study people’s lives. Make new friends, see how they live – tell their story.” I must admit I was surprised to hear everything I’d just spent two years on being dismissed so easily but later I realised he was absolutely right. No people equals no story. No story equals no interest. When I…

Stan’s story This is the reason I fell in love with scooters. By ‘this’ I don’t mean ‘Vespa’ or ‘Rally 200’, I mean HVH 80S, ‘The Joker’.Igrewupthe1970sina village outside Leeds, a world dominated by beige Ford Cortinas and brown draylon. When ‘The Joker’ arrived in the village with its multicoloured candy paintwork it felt like a rainbow had exploded. I was smitten and for me life would never be the same. However tragedy struck. There was an accident. Its owner was fine but The Joker was no more and once again beige enveloped my world A few years ago I seriously considered building a replica and while researching the possibility I learned that not only had The Joker survived but it was being restored to its former glory. The rebuild…

We all know scooters are something that many of us feel passionately about to one level or another. They somehow get into your blood in a way that few other things do. But that passion and how it reveals itself can vary widely. To many it’s the passion of overall style, clean lines, clean clothes that were just the same in the 1960s when scooters became really popular. Then came the passion of adding things to them to change the style... customisation! So it was racks, bars, lights and all manner of extras that became the norm. The clean smart lines of scooters extended to the clean smart clothes and style of the rider too. In some ways for many the 1980s brought scooters together with other passions that became…

SHOW RESULTS Best Club Display: Flatliners Best Lambretta: Christian Schnieder – Lambretta Li Series 3 (1965) Best Vespa: Mattias Klabis – Vespa PX80 (1984) Best engineering: Mattias Klabis Leticia – Vespa PX80 (1984) Best bodywork: Peter Voss AlligatorPush – Vespa PX 125 Lusso E (1991) Best sprinter/racer: Nils Hachmann – Vespa VBA (1959) Best paint/airbrush: Jens Kruse Lambretta SX150 (1962) Best custom: Peter Werhand – Violator Lambretta DL200 (1970) Best modern Vespa: GT/GTV/GTS/ LX/LXV/946 Patrick Doll – Vespa GTV 300 (2011) Best 8in: Klassik-Roller Holger Schneebeck – Vespa ACMA V56 (1956) Best display: Andere Jennifer Nanzig Pikaciao – Vespa Piaggio Ciao (1982) Best 10in: Klassik-Roller Isabella from Rimini Lambretta Centre – TV200 The first Custom Show in 1997 was an event for twist and goes only. At the time, the…

We all know of enthusiasts who have amassed a number of scooters but Israel and Charo have taken collecting to a whole new level. As the owners of Recambios Motos Clásicas, an Alicante based supplier of parts for classic scooters, the couple have developed a network of contacts across Spain and its territories. Although their passion is for machines of Spanish origin they make regular trips to Italy, acquiring machines for the collection and also to sell in their shop. It was a privilege to meet the couple and view the rarely seen collection while sharing their passion for classic scooters. Incredibly Israel and Charo have only been collecting for around a decade but as they show no signs of slowing down this may not be our last visit to…

I love vintage vehicles, they just have more soul. I’ve owned four; my latest was a ’58 Triumph TR3. That car spent a good portion of my ownership in the garage being fixed, as Robert, my Grateful Deadhead mechanic, hunted the Triumph graveyards in pursuit of parts. He hunted in places no one would want to live, but that’s where you find the crazy people, the cool people, those who hoard and who stockpile parts. My introduction to scooters was courtesy of my cousin who took me for eye-watering rides on his ’64 Vespa VBB. I was a kid standing between his knees, and leaning over the handlebars as he steered through the streets. The speed was intense; it laid my hair back. From this moment I always had cool machines…

Thailand’s rally was a unique event in an exotic location. Around 800 scooters attended, and not only Lambrettas either; they were also joined by Vespas and other vintage scooters to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Lambretta. The event took place in a huge area the size of eight football fields, previously an old train station, now called ‘Train Night Market’. A big part of this area is dedicated to vintage memorabilia including antiques, clothing, bikes, cars and best of all… scooters. This event hosted a spectacular international extravaganza for not just Lambrettas, but for scooterists from all over the world! A large group of Brits, some French, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Indians, and one Italian! There were many stalls as well as shops offering spare parts old and new, plus tuning…