The Art of Scooters
By Andy Gillard
If we are allowed to follow the lines of popular misconception, then the motor scooter as we know it today evolved from machines created in the postwar commuter boom. As such we choose to turn a blind eye to the prewar history of the motor scooter, ignoring the era that saw marginal success from the UK in the 1920s, the achievements of the Americans in the 1930s and even Italian efforts of the early 1940s. 10 • The Art of Scooters
Members of the Mitcham Lambretta Club (‘The Goons’) in 1958.
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nstead many prefer to concentrate on those machines developed after World War Two, when the emphasis was on helping the masses return to a regular way of life. At the time the cheapest, and in some instances the only viable alternative to walking or a bicycle, was a powered two-wheeler and so experienced motorcycle manufacturers switched back to civilian production after hostilities ceased, rubbing their hands with glee.
“Contrary to popular belief, scooter sales in the UK and indeed Europe were greater in the 1950s than the 1960s, despite the Mods hitting the latter decade’s headlines.” There were, however, other companies with an engineering background also searching for routes out of the rubble at that time. Some of these were restricted by recent regulations as to what direction they should head towards (as a rule those on the losing side of a war weren’t permitted to return to the aircraft or armaments business for example!), others found supplies or even premises hard to come by. All, however, were after a quick turnover so they could get back on their feet. As a result a number of new companies entered the twowheeled market for the first time, many without any experience in this field at all. Two of these companies were Piaggio and Innocenti of Italy, who had previously specialised in planes and trains, and steel tubing respectively. They weren’t the first or only manufacturers from that particular country, however a combination of design, manufacturing process and marketing meant that their respective Vespa and Lambrettas products soon became known and desired the world over. The Art of Scooters • 11
Way Life
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of
Deckchairs at Dawn
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hile researching this publication I asked a lot of people to name their favourite customised scooters of all time. Inevitably this ended up in a sizeable discussion as friends and acquaintances joined in with their two penn’orth. Opinions changed, the finer details of certain scooters debated and cats thrown among the proverbial pigeons. The fact is that these scooters mean something to both those that built them and others involved in the scooter scene. Without trying to make anyone out as some sort of obsessive, throw the name Lambretta or Vespa into a conversation and a scooterist will have a point of view. The next step for many is to customise a scooter. Certainly as a teenager I aspired to creating a fullblown custom Vespa or creatively chopped Lambretta. Granted I’ve never produced anything close to worthy of inclusion on these pages, but that’s not the point. Customisation comes in all shapes and forms, which is what keeps the scene so vibrant and the critics busy debating the latest show results. At the top end of the scale we have many of those included here, although pretty much all customised scooters are in some way depicting the owner’s chosen lifestyle. In this chapter, specifically, we take a closer look at those with an
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understandable link. The obvious are those with a theme based around the scooter scene, embracing the apparently minor idiosyncrasies such as the Paddy Smith scooter rally patches that featured on Memorabilia belonging to Vince of the Birmingham Olympic SC for which Paddy adapted his screen-printing technique to apply images to the scooter’s panels. Similar artwork can be seen on other scooters included here, along with more straightforward murals depicting the scooters alone or as part of the scene as well as some of the music around it. My World for example being the title of an anthem by Mod band Secret Affair. It may appear, in this chapter at least, that the Vespa scooter is the one of choice. Could that be that those customising scooters in a lifestyle-related theme choose the reliability of Piaggio’s P-range to clock up the thousands of miles they travel each year? That’s one left for the dedicated to thrash out around the table next time they find themselves discussing the merits of tuned versus standard engines, Lambretta versus Vespa, ridden versus show bikes, reliability versus speed.
“Customisation comes in all shapes and forms, which is what keeps the scene so vibrant and the critics busy debating the latest show results.”
Scooterin’ II
Love Slipped Through My Fingers
Riders’ lifestyles often extend further than the scooters and music of course, or at least continue on the theme but take an alternative angle. The obvious path to follow is that of the Mods and their history, whether the famous beach battles of the 1960s with archrivals the Rockers, or later through the late 1970s revival period. Then there’s the vices; wine, women and, ahem… other things. There have been countless scooters over the years covered with airbrushed women in various states of undress. Some mythical, others fantasies, a few famous faces and a few personal pleasures. Whatever takes your fancy I suppose, a sentiment equally applicable to those scooters dedicated to the grape and the grain. Lagers, bitters, ciders, bourbons and even alco-pops all have a place at the bar. For the more broadminded, or easy going (depending on your opinion or local law) scooters like Acid Trip celebrated the House Music era, albeit the owner didn’t get it together to build the Lambretta until after the scene was over. Take a stroll around Amsterdam in Holland and as well as the infamous ‘red light’ areas you’ll also find the Hash Museum, which had a Lambretta inspired by the Sensi Seed Bank next door a few years back, and indeed a custom painted Vespa Ape parked outside only six months or so ago. Apparently. The Art of Scooters • 15
In the world of scooter enthusiasts, a TWN Contessa fitted with a Bambini sidecar takes the ‘Best Kept Scooter’ award at a rally in Alcester, 1962.
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anufacturing processes were ever developing and as the consumer became more and more affluent, so their demands changed. No longer were the European masses asking for cheap and simple transport for basic mobilisation, now they were getting fussy! Whether it was the extra money in their pockets, natural progression, or the fact that they were growing up and having families, the people were now wanting cars. The response came at first with various bubblecars, some even produced by scooter manufacturers. Soon, however, the major car companies got involved, and keen not to miss out on this market they did as scooter manufacturers had done with the two-wheeled boom a decade earlier and came up with affordable solutions. These included the popular Fiat 500 and the Austin Mini and as a result of ‘real’ cars becoming inexpensive, sales of new scooters understandably suffered. On the positive side, however, the secondhand market became flooded as commuters switched allegiances. This was to prove very convenient indeed for a new youth subculture that was just emerging in the UK, the Mods. Long since credited with being the first youth generation to have full independence thanks to the scooters they rode, it was a simple fact that Mods wanted to go places and with cars being expensive and public transport finishing too early, the cheap Italian scooters fitted their image and needs perfectly. Not only were there hundreds of second-hand Lambrettas
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Cult status The Legendary
Vespa P-Range
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ndeed Piaggio are still leading the scooter market today and their modern take on the Vespa is as popular now as it’s ever been. The difference is that in 2008, all the new Vespas have automatic engines; you simply twist and go. The last geared Vespa, the P-range, rolled off the production line at the end of 2007 – 30 years after the PX first hit the streets. The 1970s had not been kind to the two-wheeled industry as a whole, the Japanese invasion seeing many victims on both the scooter and motorcycle side of things. Piaggio, however, managed to weather the storm, deciding towards the end of the decade to completely redesign the Vespa. The Nuova line of Vespas, the Prange, replaced the 150 Super and Rally 200 models and if fortuitous coincidence exists, it arrived just in time for the launch of the film Quadrophenia and the UK based Mod revival that followed it.
Evolving only slightly over the years, the final Piaggio built Vespa PXs – still with their four-speed two-stroke engine – featured a hydraulic disc brake at the front end, adding some much appreciated stopping power. With no replacement announced by Piaggio at the time of writing, there’s still a few left in dealers around the UK, but you’ll have to be quick to buy one of the last of these legendary scooters. Earning itself the reputation as a the ‘workhorse’ of the scooter scene since its launch, it should come as no surprise customised versions of the Vespa PX have featured heavily over the years. With their single sided front fork and monocoque steel chassis, the options for cutting or chopping a Vespa are somewhat limited, but that didn’t stop a number from having a go at altering the original Italian design, some with great success. The obvious approach is that of paintwork, plating, engine tuning and maybe some subtle body modifications, and as the following pages show, utilise these methods in the correct way and the results can be stunning. Andy The Art of Scooters • 29
The 1970s were much more than a stopgap between the 60s and 80s or the decade that brought us Glam and Punk rock. For the scooter scene, the 1970s were very important indeed‌ The Art of Scooters • 39
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y 1971 the Mods were dead and buried, man had walked on the moon, small cars were affordable for most and Innocenti were about to cease production of the Lambretta scooter. Piaggio’s game-plan had obviously worked as the Vespa soldiered on, but the markets were changing too. Commuters in the UK at least were changing their habits, the Japanese had arrived and by all accounts you could ‘meet the nicest people on a Honda.’ All this however bode well for a dedicated bunch of scooter enthusiasts, both on and off the track. As the years moved on more and more old scooters were getting mothballed, stowed away in the back of shed and garages, their resale value minimal. To their rescue came a new band of scooterists, inspired by brothers or older kids they’d seen riding around locally. What would be classed now as vintage scooters were not that old then and were purchased at prices that would make a grown man faint today. At this point I must refer you to Mark Brough’s wonderful book, Time, Trouble & Money as a recommended read. A member of the Scunthorpe Roadrats SC, Mark’s story begins in the early 1970s and tells of the emergence of the scooterboy culture, how the pockets of clubs from all over the country gradually met via runs and race meetings and the national scene began to flourish. An important part of this development was that the 1970s also saw the birth of scooter customising as we know it today. By that I mean the combination of tuned engine plus fancy paint and shiny metalwork. At first scooter dealers were (gratefully!) relieved of
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Yambretta 125
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s a loyal Scootering reader since the first issue in 1985 (and Scootermania before that) I was weaned on a diet of heavily modified customs. Tuned scooters are a wonderful thing for youthful rebellion, but to really upset the apple cart you need more power. In 1971 Keith Lee was a teenage biker, but he had the same boat-rocking intentions many scooterists of the 1980s era. He set out specifically to upset every sort of enthusiast when he consummated one of the most extreme marriages of spindly scooter technology and motorcycle brute force. ‘Split’ boasted a truly split personality, with its 8-inch wheeled Lambretta D chassis groaning under the weight of a tuned 500cc Triumph T100 engine. The resultant monster was used purely for drag racing. In Keith’s hands it achieved a 14.7 second quarter mile time with a terminal speed of 95mph. He later sold it on to Robin Read who renamed the machine ‘The Mutant’ and converted it to run on methanol. Tantalisingly, an image of Keith’s creation was pictured in one of Scootering magazine’s first issues. The message for custom builders was clear: wherever you think there are boundaries, simply step over and keep going.
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GPT 500
At the time though, most scooterists were young, skint and still learning their customising skills so they tended to stick to what was simple. When it comes to road-legal conversions, one of the most popular over the years has been the Vesbretta: an attempt to combine the stylish looks of the Lambretta with the reliability of the Vespa engine. To be frank it’s not a hard conversion if you have a grinder and a welder, but nor is it an easy one to get looking right. After all the Vespa engine sticks out further to one side than the average Lambretta sidepanel. Wayne Clarke from St George Elite SC is one man who can always be relied upon to turn convention on its head, and is the only person I know so far to build a reverse Vesbretta, or Lambrespa if you prefer. His 1996 project combined the cereal-packet styling of the Vespa PK with the performance and dubious reliability of a TS1 Lambretta engine. This brush painted engineering exercise took a frightening amount of work to achieve. Short fat Vespas simply do not want to accept long, thin Lambretta engines without a fight. Still if you are skilled and determined enough like Wayne – a man who once created a TS1powered Honda Melody complete with shopping basket – then anything is possible. While on the subject of Smallframe Vespas: being diminutive has helped save many from the psychotic surgeon’s blade. But not all. I remember an early edition of Scootering showing a Honda 400/4 engine that had been stuffed into the footwell of one little Vespa by a New Zealander. However Cesare Ricci’s very rare Vespa 50 Elestart with a Suzuki GSX 750 engine shoehorned into it certainly topped the Kiwi project in terms of bizarre matrimony. Prior to its feature in Scootering Cesare’s scooter found fame via a video clip on the internet – as is often the case nowadays and counts for several of the following machines.
“The message for custom builders was clear: wherever you think there are boundaries, simply step over and keep going.”
Lamprilia
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One for the Road
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here was a huge array of second-hand scooters available at beer money prices for these newly inspired kids to get their hands on, and thousands of mums and dads up and down the country signed the HP papers on a new Vespa P-range for their teenage son or daughter. It was not unusual for people to have several scooters and a garage load of spares to mess about with, although this was often those that had ridden through the late 70s and were more established in the scene. This coupled to massive attendance at the national rallies led to a customising scene that was fast paced and very innovative. This era spawned the original version of most types of custom scooter seen these days such as full custom, chopper, street racer/race replica, rat look and the complete engine swap, and if not creating the original then often setting the ‘house style’. At first it was mainly the Mod look that dominated; mirrors, flyscreens, crash bars, Florida bars, ironing board back rests, whip aerials, Union Flag or chrome panels. But despite the revival the older ‘scooterboys’ had moved on by now. As the Mod influence waned through 1981/82 the youngsters looked to their peers for inspiration and the new ‘scooterboy’ look began to take over.
“Through 1981/82 the youngsters looked to their peers for inspiration and the new ‘scooterboy’ look began to take over .”
Wild Thing
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ll of a sudden, your whole world lights up… even if Jesus Christ walked through your front door asking to borrow a cup of sugar, he would have had to wait until you’d finished absorbing the image in its entirety. That scooter was from another planet. At the time – the mid 80s – most scooterists were busy cutting down their rides and squeezing more oomph out of their engines so, to those of us with a Mod leaning, that one article meant that those of us suffering from a bolt on shiny accessory fetish, were not alone. Sure we had the ‘Mods!’ book but even to our untrained eyes, it didn’t take much to realise that
most of the scooters pictured within were rough, scruffy heaps with a few accessories thrown on to set them apart from the crowd. Quality Mod scooters in the main they were not. And that’s really the point : with few exceptions, most of the Mod scooters in the early 60s were done up in this way. The Mod culture had taken to Italian scooters – most already second or third hand – so, to set you apart from everybody else, the easiest way to customise your ride was to bolt on a selection of cheap, chrome accessories from your local dealer. Top the whole show off with some chromed lights and mascots that you could find in just about any scrapper at the time and you were on a winner. The revival of the late 70s saw the Mod culture once again making headline news and scooters were being pulled out of the woodwork left, right and centre. Once again fully ‘loaded’ scooters made up the masses at the rallies of the time. The longer established dealers still had original accessories sat on their collective shelves and
“The revival of the late 70s saw the Mod culture once again making headline news and scooters were being pulled out of the woodwork left, right and centre.” The Art of Scooters • 79
It’s a 90s thing O
K, let’s all blame Thatcher! And of course people growing up, having mortgages and children and generally changing their lifestyle too. Whatever the reasons, the early 90s were a quiet period for the scooter scene and this was obviously reflected in the custom scooters too. For much of the decade there seemed to be far less ‘stunning’ scooters around, although the quality was still high. Maybe for that reason it was taking more to flick our proverbial switches. Who knows? Even Scootering magazine was 86 • The Art of Scooters
going through a turbulent time until Stuart Lanning took control and began steering it back on course. Scooter restoration was growing in popularity, and full-frame customs were replacing cut-downs. Extended forks and frame rakes were hardly to be seen. The custom scooters that shone through though were pretty good, black and white photograph-type murals being fashionable for a while and of such good quality that it was commonplace for the Scootering/NSRA stand at the annual NEC bike show to be filled with bikers asking about the ‘stickers’ on the scooters. Dimwits… The scene had almost perfected the art of customising, scooterists using the best painters and engravers around and new talents emerging with high standards to follow. Even scooters themselves were being honed, well-ridden machines such as Glyn Dove’s Pseudo Satisfaction receiving a makeover in 1994. The expansion of Scootering magazine around the world together with rallies in mainland Europe saw the scooter scene gain further influences. This was not unlike the 1970s when the northern and southern scenes in the UK began to meet and socialise for the first time. The Germans brought us some radical engineering, we showed them heavily muralled and engraved scooters and advised that leather chaps and waistcoats were never going to be fashionable. We all got on well, drank
Splinter In My Mind’s Eye You can’t beat a good cutdown Lambretta in my opinion, as long as it’s done well – which for me means it's Lambretta origins must be obvious. Bradford’s Madness created this little beauty in 1999, a blend of the right snips and cuts, together with a tuned engine, all topped off by expert artwork from Trotsky’s that suits the scooter well, accentuating the lines and intricate while at the same time not being over the top.
cheap, strong European lager, rode our scooters even further afield, and returned home with crazy ideas buzzing around in our tiny little minds. By the end of the 1990s auto scooters had arrived too, bringing with them a whole new selection of bits to source from scrapyards and adapt for our classic Lambrettas and Vespas. Those returning to the scooter scene from the 1980s brought with them a few extra quid in their pockets and the desire to recreate their youth, and so custom scooters were getting as popular as restored machines again. Happy days… Andy The Art of Scooters • 87
Racing ahead 104 • The Art of Scooters
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hat’s not the only reason of course. For the manufacturers success in reliability or speed trials could be translated into success in the showroom, and after they’d proved their worth against motorcycles during the 1950s and focused more on production, dealers themselves took over the baton. Although no one is sure exactly when, the first real British ‘dealer special’ scooters probably emerged during the 1960s. Now legendary names such as Arthur Francis, Supertune and PJ Oakley emulated their achievements on the track by converting new scooters into replicas of their race bikes, both visually and mechanically, to boost sales. Over the years dealers have come and gone and while fresh names have entered the fold and offered similar scooters from their own showrooms, few if any have reached the legendary status of the 1960s originals whose paint schemes are often replicated even today on period restorations. There have been a couple however. Armandos Scooters in Sheffield managed to achieve this accolade in the 1980s with their modified Vespa PX scooters that boasted various levels of tuning and were each finished with a scalloped paint job and Driver flyscreen, they became the epitome of Vespa tuning at the time. As far as engines went, well that depended on what you started with and while the decision did ultimately lie with the customer, Armandos did have a reputation for utilising the Pinasco twin-induction kit and a fivespeed gearbox. Neither were arguably the best thing ever developed for the Vespa scooter with regards to go-faster goodies, or indeed gearboxes full-stop. However, having a second carb gasping from a hole in your sidepanel and the words ‘5-speed’ signwritten below alongside the increased engine capacity certainly looked good!
“For the manufacturers success in reliability or speed trials could be translated into success in the showroom.” One ‘brand’ popular today is that of AF, an evolution of the Arthur Francis. The S-type continued as a dealer special throughout the 70s, metalflake paint behind the signwritten panels, but as Arthur sold the business to Ray Kemp who eventually emigrated from Watford to Scarborough, so the name matured into AF Rayspeed. The scene was national by the 1980s, with tuning parts being sold between dealers and to the customer to fit themselves, which meant that having a fast scooter was no longer restricted to the few. And as it seemed you couldn’t build a full custom scooter without a tuned engine, the two facets grew up together. Lambrettas had a huge lead as the drive train and frame layout had been a favourite of racers for a long time. This has led to more development on the racing scene, which then filtered down to street scooters. Over-bored steel cylinders at 225 or 240cc with Jap pistons were the order of the day at first, a 34mm Amal or 30mm Dell’Orto carb with Fresco, Clubman, DJ or self-developed exhaust pipes. Parts and techniques developed and as tuners learnt more and more about how everything worked, things The Art of Scooters • 105
invasion A friendly
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ermany and Austria are probably the nations right behind the British when it comes to customising scooters, thanks to some quality scooter shops in each country, although they both have some very strict laws governing what they can and cannot do to their scooters regarding modifications. This not only shows the dedication of the shops and individuals to get around these TÜV (German transport ministry) restrictions, but also the avenues some follow to comply with them. As a consequence the Germans I think were pioneers of subtle body moulding and frenching of lights on the highly tuned Vespas they are renowned for producing. Maybe this is why we’ve also seen some fantastic machines emerging from the region, the task so problematical that the builders decide the finished product had better be worth it. It’s interesting to see that the Vespa is more popular than the Lambretta in many places throughout Europe and as a result these are often the scooters chosen for customisation. And so when pondering over such custom machines from Europe one immediately thinks of Bad Man (above). This scooter always sticks in people’s minds I think because, rather than be a variation on a standard theme, French scooterist Nico took a different direction with his Vespa. Instead he was possibly the first to fully embrace the 50s Hot Rod
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“It’s interesting to see that the Vespa is more popular than the Lambretta in many places throughout Europe.” style of customising and adapt it for the scooter scene. It appears low, fat and innovative, the use of parts clever and well thought out and even the pastel yellow paint is just right for the style, not too outrageous so as to distract from the subtle lines his Vespa now has. Bad Man can still hold its own too, for despite imitations since, I think the original is still the best. Apart from individual inspiration, it’s also exciting to note scooterists using a different variety of ingredients available to them. To many in Europe, twist and go mopeds and scooters are a way of life. If they don’t have one themselves for easy commuting, then a friend or relative probably does. This is doubtless why more auto parts are used on classic scooters within Europe; a set of forks here, a mudguard there, borrow a wheel and belly pan if I may… it’s what they know and what’s at hand. It was also in Europe that innovative scooter shops first adapted auto scooter parts for use on classic scooters, hydraulic disc brake conversions being a classic example. Add to this the recent surge in the development of Vespa tuning – large frames in Germany and small frames in Italy – and as far as the scooter scene is concerned anyway, a free trade within Europe is certainly a positive thing. Andy
Virtual Reality
Germany’s Oliver Kluger was responsible for this amazing looking Lambretta when it appeared in Scootering Magazine back in 1995. But while the inspiration and ideas may have come from mainland Europe, there was a generous slice of British craftsmanship involved in its creation. The engine boasts water-cooling courtesy of Mark Broadhurst. It has a Yamaha YPVS 350 barrel, a full circle Yamaha crank, Kawasaki reed block, 34mm Dell’Orto carburettor, six-plate hydraulic clutch, a Motoplat selfretarding ignition and one-off exhaust, again all by MB. Around that the chassis has Malagutti forks, a Peugeot front wheel, a Piaggio Typhoon disc brake and dropped Lambretta SX handlebars at the front. The owner modified the frame at the rear, now accommodating twin fuel tanks, and the rear wheel has been played with as well so that no inner tubes are required at either end now. The paint is by Ty at Pageant, the engraving by Pete Robinson (both British!). Oliver said at the time that the result is a 100mph Lambretta and he would buy you a beer if you can catch him to order it!
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bright The
future’s
Linksta
And so the 21st century has arrived, thriving Lambretta factories are a distant memory and the EU has recently outlawed production of the geared Vespa PX in Italy. What does this mean for the future of custom scooters?
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IT
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n the cover of this publication is a Lambretta called Fairground Attractions, a scooter of the old school style where even the scrollwork was hand-painted as it would be on an fairground ride from way back, as was the gold leaf on the forks and wheel rims. Sometimes the old ways will always be the best and shall therefore carry on into the future. Cable television has also played a part, believe it or not, with programmes like American Chopper inspiring some
MP3
Quadrophenia
to new levels of creativity with their tin-snips, although of course scooterists are renowned for being ever more resourceful anyway. And of course there are a new breed of machines that mean new challenges. Who’d have thought when modern automatic scooters arrived in the 1990s that they’d become more than a useful commuter tool? Now
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