Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Scootering

Asked to name the critical battles of the Second World War, many would name the D-Day landings, and maybe Dunkirk or Market Garden. However, it was on the scorched sands of North Africa that Hitler suffered his first major defeat and participating in all these campaigns was Keith’s father-in-law Bernard. “He never spoke about his war,” said Keith “It’s only through my interest in military history that I’ve pieced his service together. It’s hard to believe that the man I knew was one of the last men taken from the beaches at Dunkirk and also one of the first to land on D-Day.” Bespoke build “I’ve always had full frame scooters and wanted to build something different,” explained Keith. “My ambition was to create the chopper we all wanted to…

Stepping off Kev Walsh’s Bradford parts fair is his curtain-raiser for the scootering season ahead, which provides scooterists with a final opportunity to grab those hard-to-find parts at the best possible prices before hitting the road. When I arrived at the venue it was a hive of activity with numerous vans parked outside and dealers busy unloading their parts, items and scooters ready for the sale. Inside, Kev was working hard making sure all aspects of the operation were running smoothly to ensure that the day ahead would run perfectly. Once most of the dealers, traders and jumblers were set up I managed to grab a quick couple of minutes with Kev. Heexplained that because of the success of the 2017 parts fairs, Bradford being the year opener for 2018…

Is your scooter ‘original’? In response to both letters ‘Whatever’s comfortable’ (Feb 2018) and a subsequent response ‘Missing the point’ (March 2018) raises the subject of what constitutes a genuine Lambretta… Both authors regard the scooter’s ORIGIN being of the utmost importance. My question is, what percentage of parts that were original Innocenti manufactured items constitutes a ‘genuine’ Lambretta that is still ridden on the road today? If by definition the bare frame is the criteria, is it then acceptable to use any ‘non-genuine’ parts and still boast this is the ‘bees knees’? If so then please forgive me for regarding this as hypocrisy. If however an owner can claim 100% authenticity, surely such a vehicle belongs in a museum to preserve its rarity? For those purists who sneer at…

At first I wasn’t sure we’d found the right place, it was a Sunday and the desolate, neglected old industrial area seemed totally deserted. It seemed to still carry the scars of the siege that the Nazis had inflicted on it over 70 years ago. My brother-in-law called them on his mobile and after a couple of minutes a grinning face waved us over to the right building. We entered a Thirties built brick factory-cum-warehouse and then were ushered into a large, plank floored rusty gated lift. Four stories up in the decaying factory block in the old industrial part of the city (St Pete is about seven times the size of Greater London... think on) I found myself in an Aladdin’s cave of invention, engineering and renovation. Butchers Garage…

During Lambretta transmission maintenance there comes a time when the front sprocket will need removing. This may be because it is being changing for different gearing options or just a regular check to see that there is no wear on the cush-drive, especially on high powered engines. Sometimes there can be a problem when it comes to bolting it back together and getting the alignment exactly right… and this can lead to all sorts of problems and cause unnecessary damage. Ignoring the oil throw washer that sits behind it, there are six components that make up the Lambretta front sprocket and cush-drive set up. In order of fitting first, they are: the cush-drive sleeve, front sprocket, sliding dog, tension spring, top plate/cap and finally the retaining bolt. Firstly the sleeve…

During his time on the scene, Jason has owned and ridden a few Lambrettas, none of which were quite what he wanted. His aim when embarking on his mission to create this one was that the end result would be a scooter which stood out, without being too much of an in-your-face machine, and that was also good to ride. He enlisted the services of an old school friend for the paintwork, an ex-pat southerner for the engine work, and a rally riding companion who is based little more than an hour away for the physical build. Jason’s project began in 2015 after he obtained the 1962 Series 2 Lambretta that would, over 14 months or so, be transformed into Autobiography. “Compared to Series 3 Lambrettas, the Series 2 outline…

This is the all-inclusive scooter rally hosted by the Spirit of 84 Scooterists held at Wunderland Kalkar in Germany just north of Dusseldorf. It is a straightforward 120 miles from Rotterdam Euro port which will be a shorter ride than most other rallies I will attend this coming season in the UK. The venue, Wunderland, is an old nuclear power station built in the 1980s transformed into an amusement park with six on-site hotels, restaurants, a bowling alley, anumber of bars, and this year’s Scooterist Meltdown brought together 1400 rally goers from all over Europe. Eat, drink, and be merry Upon our Friday arrival at Wunderland we were cheerily welcomed by organisers Marieke and her crew, giving out free shots of Ficken (a blackcurrant and gooseberry liqueur) and gift bags…

One that numbers among the few is the 1971 film Le Mans, starring Steve McQueen. In box-office terms it was a disaster, however, over time, Le Mans, which features footage from the 1970 Le Mans 24-Hour race has become something of a cult classic. Vince Lunn has been riding scooters since his early teens in his native Nottinghamshire. During the halcyon scooterboy era of the 80s and beyond he relocated to the deep south west, riding with ISCA in Exeter to rallies all across the UK. Although Vince is now based back home in Notts, he remains a life member of ISCA. When the call went out to crowd fund the development of the Scomadi 200, Vince got on board early on, eventually becoming an owner of one of the…

Blackpool… most of us have been there and it is Colin Appleby’s home town. I asked Colin – ‘Alberto the Shadow’ of Shadow Management and director Coast Town Events Limited – where his idea for Coast Town began. It all started 10 years ago, he said, when he was one of the founder members of the Blackpool based band Ska-Face. They had been formed from a 2-Tone covers band after seeing The Specials in the Winter Gardens on their 30th anniversary tour. “That’s when we became an out and out ska band,” said Colin. “We added a horn section and developed from there. Ska-Face has performed at scooter rallies and at biker rallies as well. “We were doing this gig and there were a couple of bike gangs there. Satan’s…

“Back in the day when some of the campsites weren’t quite up to today’s standard – I’m sure Whitley Bay campsite was a car park and if you arrived late you were on the tarmac! Not good for tent pegs...” This seductive scooter theme comes in the form of 80s sultry suicide blonde Wendy James – lead singer of pop-punk band Transvision Vamp. Now, at the end of that decade, they had several chart hits including I Want Your Love and Baby I Don’t Care; and even a number one album namely Velveteen. The latter single will always have a special place in my favourite scooter memories of that time. After riding nearly two days and 600 miles up to the ‘was it on/off’ Fort William 1989 rally, this song…

Life is far from a level playing field; we all live with the dice fate rolls us, and for Benoît Shooty that means living life as a tetraplegic, resulting in paralysis that causes partial loss of use of all four limbs. But that doesn’t stop the man from loving scooters, the passion is there no matter what. Luckily for Benoit, he has agood friend in Lebreton Desriac, a man who has spent the past six years adapting, altering, modifying and developing a GTV to suit Benoit’s needs. Obviously, the use of a wheelchair meant the chassis, frame and controls needed substantial work, but that didn’t phase Lebreton one bit. It’s not a task which you might initially undertake if you hoped to make the machine look purposeful, mean and moody……

“Nationals are vitally important as they connect scooterists across the whole of the country directly with each other and without them that real world connectivity would be gone.” The birth of the national scooter rallies as we know them today came at the beginning of the 1980s. Their roots were established in years previous, but the rally scene we recognise and still love today, evolved during that decade. That was also the period of the highest attendances; sadly those days will probably never return. Even so, almost 40 years on the national rallies are still here and well attended. I, like a lot of people, like a bit of nostalgia… looking back at grainy photographs and recalling a certain rally. We were all young back then and partial to sleeping…

Hive of activity The do was held at the usual venue of the National Brewery Centre, Burton upon Trent, and was helped along by unbroken sunshine throughout the day. By early doors the place was a hive of activity with the final preparations taking place. Traders and dealers were setting up their stands in the Worthington Suite, the main rear courtyard area, and in the custom show marquee. Mid-morning and the atmosphere was buzzing. Scooter parking at the front of the building was at a premium and the rear main parking area was building up as large groups of ride-outs arrived. The swarm of scooters created a great sight to see and the crackling zip of the engines round the building was easy on the ear. The marquee custom show…

There are two main approaches to creating a custom scooter. Both start as a concept, and once the idea is settled upon, that’s when time, trouble and money come into play. An avenue then often followed is to enlist the services of one, or several, specialists to carry out the work to the specifications of the owner. This way gives more or less guaranteed results but it can also prove to be more costly than anticipated. Alternatively, potential custom scooter builders, certainly those with the right skills and abilities, can opt to carry out as much of the work themselves as possible. So that’s exactly what Paul Lowden did, and threw himself into it at that! Last month we saw the effort which went into fabrication and paint as Paul…

Over the years I have seen and heard many stories behind a plethora of customised Vespas, some of which border on both weird and wonderful. I’ve learnt that there is always a catalyst for a scooter project that hasn’t previously arisen. Like Ramie Stewart and his interesting looking Vespa P-Range with a set of luggage accessories. It was Christened ‘Pizza In A Hurry’ by Ramie, as it is potentially the ultimate fast food delivery scooter. Secondhand aftermarket accessories, whether used or new old stock are on a parallel with and pretty much mirroring the ever-spiralling market prices of the classic scooters they were designed for. That isn’t only applicable to genuine 50s, 60s or 70s extras either; even rare extras from the 80s and beyond command similarly inflated sums. When…

1997 Lambretta sprinter Capacity: 237cc Power: 27bhp Weight: 160lb Top speed: 98mph SS ¼ mile: 14.2 seconds 2002 Lambretta sprinter (the same machine five years later) Capacity: 237cc Power: 34bph Weight: 138lb Top speed: 117mph SS ¼ mile: 12.7 seconds Lambretta RB 225 standard Capacity: 225cc Power: 25.5bhp Weight: 223lb Top speed: 91mph SS ¼ mile: 14.7 seconds Lambretta Group 4 200cc cast barrel engine Capacity: 203cc Power: 22bhp Weight: 215lb Top speed: 87mph SS ¼ mile: 15.20 seconds Over the last five editions of Scootering, wehave looked at several different areas involved in improving the performance of the Lambretta. Each one has been looked at in fine detail to show how it is possible to either get maximum efficiency from a component or improve how it actually works. Though…

Picture the scene: you’re at a rally, walking past row upon row of scooters squeezed in together. Your eyes rove back and forth, taking in the details, savouring the spectacle. You happen briefly to notice a standard-looking machine, just like plenty of others you’ve seen over the years, and it fails to make much of an impression. ‘Nothing special,’ you think and move on, instantly forgetting it. Does this make you shallow? Not necessarily, but it does mean you’ve probably missed out on some truly amazing machines – ‘sleepers’ whose exterior has been carefully prepared to mask the true nature of what lies beneath. I’ve been guilty of this myself, I admit it. But you’ve heard of the luck of the Irish? Well, we Italians make our own fortune. I…

I met up with ‘H’ in a boozer near Manchester, where he told me all about the St George’s Day ‘meet up and ride’ which he’s been involved with for the past seven years now... The ride out originally started when the organisers of the parade asked H if he could ask ‘a few’ scooters to turn up and ride down with them. Since then, each year, it’s got bigger and bigger. We’re getting people from Yorkshire, the Midlands and Lincolnshire riding over to take part. Last year he had more than 800 taking part. He did it for ‘something to do’ as a prelude to the beginning of the season – and to have a laugh. This year the ride is starting from the LCC (Lancashire County Cricket Club)…