Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Scootering

Already the memories of 2016 are fading as we rapidly approach the looming mountain of the 2017 season ahead and all the delights it will have to offer. If all the indicators from the previous 12 months are anything to go by, the deliveries of these 12 are set to be absolutely phenomenal. This year will not only see the 70th anniversary of the Lambretta, but also the launch of the new model at the celebrations in Italy. Dealers of all sizes are now geared up with more exotic Lambretta and Vespa items than ever before, new frames, cases, kits, gearboxes… anything and everything you can think of. The sheer scale of what has happened over the past few years in terms of development is quite astonishing. Something else to…

January 21 Dorset Knights SC 10th Anniversary New Year Do The Olive Bowl, Gillingham, Dorset January 29 Bradford Parts Fair Richard Dunn Sports Centre, Bradford BD6 1EZ Details: Kev Walsh 07966 265588 February 5 Worcester Parts Fair Perdiswell Leisure Centre, Worcester Details: Kev Walsh 07966 265588 February 19 Mansfield Parts Fair Mansfield Town FC, Once Call Stadium, Mansfield NG18 5DA Details: Kev Walsh 07966 265588 February 23-27 High Rollers Las Vegas, USA February 25 Gloucester and Cheltenham SC Pre Season Do Walls Club, Gloucester G14 3BG February 25 Burton Brewers Custom Show National Brewery Centre, Burton DE14 1NG March 5 Wicksteed Parts Fair Kettering, Northants NN15 6NJ Details: Kev Walsh 07966 265588 March 10-12 Antwerp Custom Show Kattendijkdok, Antwerpen For info 00 32 0476 306450 or newwhitewall@gmail.com March 17-19 VFM…

“Innocenti’s greatest strength was that they believed in the Lambretta right up until the end” Continued development Though there are many reasons for Lambretta’s success there are certain factors that stand out more than others. The most obvious was Innocenti’s vision to constantly develop the Lambretta. By the time it reached its peak in terms of sales there had been no fewer than 20 different derivatives or models. Though this slowed down during the later years of production, there were still some unique and innovative designs that kept the Lambretta ahead of the competition. Remember the Lambretta was the world’s first production two wheeled vehicle to incorporate a disc brake and in the TV 200 the first 200cc scooter, capable of speeds up to 70mph. Lambrettability In terms of marketing…

BODGER BACKLASH… Just getting plastered in a field of tents! Bodger? What a load of rubbish! I am an old Mod from 1964 and live in Clacton and yes, I was there for the start of the long journey of Mods, although not on a scooter until the July when I turned 16. I still ride, now on a GTS 300 and up to ashort while ago a PX 200. There are no ‘Comedy Mods’ from the 60s, just some now jumping on bandwagon. I wear a parka to special events which once belonged to an old friend who died of cancer, and underneath I wear an armoured waistcoat. These can be worn under any jacket or coat, so Ican dress in anything I like safely! We are and always…

“I’d always heard smallies were fun to ride, if you haven’t ridden one you really should... I almost forgot I was riding a bright pink Vespa it was that fun!” Half of the time setting yourself a new year’s resolution is a pointless exercise, in my opinion. We’ve all been there, making those hollow promises that never really materialise… lose weight, drink less, find a new job, and don’t get me started on the reams of Facebook posts, proclaiming ‘new year, new me!’ With the risk of sounding like some kind of new age hippy, Idon’t really understand the need to focus on the negatives. At the end of the day we’ve all got a lot going for ourselves, and I’ve always felt it’s best to try and focus on…

JANUARY 21 Dorset Knights SC, 10th anniversary New Year do. The Olive Bowl, Gillingham, Dorset, 8-2am. 28 Soul in the Snow 2, Spring Meadow club, Old Hill, B64 6LB. Hitsville Chalky, Chevy, Dave Henderson and Tigga, £3 on the door 28 The Simmertones, play Exeter Phoenix, Earlybird tickets £8, then £10 advance and £12 on the door, support from The Embezzlers. 01392 667080 www.exeterphoenix.org.uk 28 Devizes Sweet Sensation SC, preseason do and charity fund raising night. The Mead Club, Trowbridge, BA14 7GW. DJ Dan Ashman, £3 advance or £5 on the door. Info 07714 255335 28 RSG Soul, night, Free entry. Finlay’s, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1BA. 8pm-2am. 29 Bradford Parts Fair, Richard Dunn Sports Centre, Rooley Avenue, Bradford, BD6 1EZ Info Kev Walsh: 07966 265588 or lcgb2@blueyonder.co.uk FEBRUARY 4 The…

To briefly recap We started with a bog-standard PX125, a 2015 Euro 3 compliant model with 6.3hp, with the intention of selecting a range of commonly used ‘bolt on bits’ and seeing what (if any) power gain each one gives. The SIP Road 2 exhaust was first up and gave a tidy 1.5hp power gain across the board. We later combined this with a ‘home tune’ to the 125 cylinder and achieved further gains of another 2hp. We then fitted the BGM 177 kit and progressed once again, now hitting 11hp. Then last month we hit a stumbling block: we fitted the 60mm ‘long stroke’ crank, but strangely saw NO benefit whatsoever… now why would that be the case? Holding back the power Having added the ‘plug and play’ BGM…

Shane Wayland couldn’t wait to get on his first scooter at the age of 16, and now having progressed to the PX125 Shane is looking forward to years of good riding ahead of him. Knowing the smoky two-stroke era was now over, and that Euro 4 would kill the classic PX, Shane snapped up one of the last few remaining scooters from a local dealer. It’s quite something to think that this brand new machine will be looked back upon as iconic by future generations, as they most likely whizz around on their electric powered machines! ‘Cavemen’ such as ourselves will still be reminiscing about the smell of Castrol-R and how fast we used to be. Shane is the start of a new scootering generation, just getting going as a…

Big Stan Reaches the parts other scooter journalists can’t reach. Stuart Owen 100mph Lambretta Club owner & scooter restoration expert to boot. Jordan Lewis Hard-riding scooterist representing the Young Guns SC. Darrell Taylor Two-stroke tuning guru and scooter dyno specialist. Christian Giarrizzo Travelling scooter journalist, living the dream. Paul Green Scooter enthusiast, BSSO professional and general good egg. Sarge Key player in the Scootering editorial team since the 80s. Nik Skeat Brilliant beer-brewing bearded feature writer. Dave Oakley Resident nostalgia master, bringing the old school scooters back.…

We at Scootering magazine were saddened to hear of the death of Jonnie Bolland on December 8. Whether you classed him as a close friend or were barely on nodding terms with him, your enjoyment of the British scooter scene was enriched by his efforts and desire to improve all aspects of rallying. Although a native of Manchester, Jonnie became a key figure in the Stockport Crusaders Scooter Club. An active and enthusiastic scooterist from the late 1970s, Jonnie later became a driving force within VFM. Despite a long fight against lung disease, his passion for scootering remained undiminished. As recently as the National Rally meeting in November he was an active participant – albeit by telephone. His funeral was held on December 20 with scooterists…

Given it’s name it should come as no surprise to learn that the rat rod style emerged on the hot rod car scene. It has since been picked up by VW camper van owners searching for a style removed from the concours standard restoration. It was inevitable that elements of the motorcycle and scooter scenes would get on board this bandwagon. There are many different approaches that can and indeed are utilised to achieve the required look on classic scooters. One of these is to obtain an untouched organically aged machine, get body and panel parts from different sources albeit from the same model and mix them together, or even strip most of the paint off and treat the bare metal to a deliberately accelerated rusting process. All deliver the…

“Last December, the scooter rally scene lost one of its true legends: Jonnie Bolland. The Stockport Crusaders stalwart and VFM main-man was one of the few who have left an indelible mark on our little world.” Last December, the scooter rally scene lost one of its true legends: Jonnie Bolland. The Stockport Crusaders stalwart and VFM main-man was one of those few people who have left an indelible mark on our little world. I’m sure so many words will have been written about his actions, his attitude and his passion for scooters that I need not add any more, but I’m glad I could call him a friend. That’s all I have to say on that subject. Unfortunately though, his passing has brought home to me, even more than ever,…

Deep Six Full Fathom Four EP (Heavy Soul) Not so new ‘kids’ on the block, Deep Six (new band but not ‘kids’), are a bit of a Mod scene supergroup to those in the know, with Paul Hooper Keely, ex-The Threads, along with former members of The Upper Fifth and Making Time. Debut EP Full Fathom Four was released to more or less coincide with the August bank holiday weekend scooter rallies. Somehow this review got lost in cyberworld, ooops! There are four brand new tracks mixing classic British guitar pop with a touch of revival style power-chords. Opener No I Haven’t A Clue is infectious, with cascading jangly riffs and choppy stop-start chords. Heading for a Fall is dark and frantic, contrasting with the gentler more whimsical Don’t…

NORTH & CENTRAL MANCHESTER SCOOTER CLUB This is the third Ride of Remembrance for us, with each one getting bigger. We had an early start at 7am posting street direction signs from Salford to Moston and then getting the club set up before we hit the first problem – it doesn’t rain… it pours. The electrics went down in the club but this was nothing to what they had to overcome in the Great War so we went ahead and got the show on the road! At the meeting point the pavements and road were blocked with the amount of scooters and people. The ride then set off into central Manchester with Deansgate coming to a standstill due to all the scooters riding straight down. Over 200 turned up from…

TV 200 engine (see image 1) After the engine has been removed, the process of stripping it back to a bare casing is going to require a lot of care and attention. It is of great importance to keep the casing intact as this is the original one that left the factory with the frame. Before trying to strip an engine in this condition, make sure you have a blowtorch ready as a lot of heat will be required to free and remove almost everything. If possible try to use a proper plumber’s blowtorch as this will generate heat much quicker and target a specific part of the case more easily. Start by removing the easiest components first such as the cowlings, rear hub, exhaust and carburettor. Top end first…

The final weekend before Christmas saw the first test run of the SRP Racetech Lambretta streamliner. The team lead by Stuart Day and Paul Baker see this as an important milestone towards their attempt at a new official speed record in 2017. Though only a shakedown run to check handling, stability and operating systems everything went according to plan. The idea of attempting to break the established record, currently held by Innocenti since 1951, was first conceived by Stuart way back in 2015. So why has it taken more than two years to get to this stage? Well, beating Innocenti’s record of 125mph will take some doing and to make it an official record they will need to complete two runs in the opposite direction of each other with the…

It’s not just the average scooterist who sets aside a project or two for the winter: Vittorio Tessera is no exception and recent arrivals at the Scooter and Lambretta Museum are ready for attention. First off the blocks is a 1953 British-built Oscar scooter. One of only two believed to exist, this example is complete with sidecar. Although it was resprayed at some point it only requires light restoration before being ready to join the other British scooters on display. Destined for the pre-war hall is another British-built machine, in this case an extremely scarce 1921 Unibus scooter. Sadly lacking its body, this will require a full and complex restoration before reaching the required exhibition standard. Finally, Vittorio has recently acquired a rare 1940 Velta scooter. Designed and built in…

“You only have to take a glance at the beautiful fat ass of a Vespa GS to understand exactly what I mean” In the same way that many people say a ‘real woman’ has curves (a la Marilyn Monroe) there are also many people who increasingly appreciate the voluptuous curves of a scooter, especially some of the early Vespa and Lambretta models. You only have to take a glance at the beautiful fat ass of a Vespa GS to understand exactly what I mean. In fact most of the early Vespa models had that 1940s and 1950s ‘big ass curve’ thing going on in one way or another. It’s one of their most redeeming style features in my opinion. However when looking at Lambretta, the very early A, B, C…

It was midday during August 1964 and I was just finishing off a service on my German Maicoletta 250cc scooter when Dave arrived on his Lambretta Pacemaker. All that remained to do was fit the new spark plug which I had bought in a hurry that morning and strap the tent and luggage onto the rear rack and we would be on our way. The previous night we had been well sozzled and decided in a drunken state to follow our club, the Manchester Mancunians, down to sunny Paignton with little money but a lot of hope… and we were going to need it! At a set of traffic lights Dave came alongside and said: “Your rear tyre is so bald I can see my face in it.” I reassured…

Over the past few months we’ve covered modern two-stroke performance levels that are now commonplace in the scootering world, as well as the higher performing versions used in scooter sports, like road racing and sprinting (and those who are brave enough/have deep enough pockets to use them on the road). We have also made comparisons against other manufacturers in the industry such as Yamaha and Honda etc. along with providing some of their historical development data which shows us the performance levels they achieved with their big development budgets. Last month we presented some surprising findings about the maintenance and parts replacement regime that goes hand-in-hand with motors at these performance levels, right down to the lowest powered production models which are considerably more forgiving. So what of the current…

HEY HO, LET'S GO! Although Northern Soul and ska are the main musical genres associated with scootering, many of the 80s generation of scooterboys were also attracted to a mixture of punk, new wave and psychobilly which was charting during their 'formative years: While we like to think the UK was the birthplace of punk rock with bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash hitting the airwaves in 1975/76, the US had their own hardcore of punk acts from the same era. One band, The Ramones, shone out above the filth and fury, and had a major influence on many others that followed, from Blondie to Guns & Roses! Formed in Forest Hills NYC in 1974, none of the band was actually related, but adopted pseudonym stage names all…