Donald Duck, 24 Tuareg, 27 Sinnis, 30 Camouflage

22 SPORTS MOPEDS

The smell of two-stroke, the tall tales of derring-do and the local chippy – for a generation, these two little stink-wheels represent nostalgia at its very finest.

WORDS: ALAN DOWDS AND DAVE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN GOODMAN

Variety: it’s your actual spice of life, isn’t it? And it’s one of the things that I was missing when I was sat down in the middle of ‘Lockdown Three’ .

I guess we all suffered our own ‘daily grind’ – mine was a Groundhog Day mix of wake up, work, home schooling, internet trolling, work, looking out the window, going for a walk, Netflix, bed – which was getting us all down. Thankfully I had my various project bikes – the Yamaha Fazer 600, my turbo ZRX1100, the mighty Burgman 650 – to keep me going and (just before winter gripped London last year) I got out for one of the most hilarious road tests I’ve done in recent years.

Like all the best stories, this one starts off almost by accident. I’m chatting to John Goodman, ace snapper, about the good old days. For him that mostly means Z1s in the 1970s and drag racing, but he’s got a million mates with interesting old two-wheelers, including his very good friend Stuart, who’s got an immaculate Yamaha FS1-E apparently. I mention it to Bertie, who immediately seizes upon it, and sends us out to find another 1970s moped for a two-bike test.

John comes up trumps after a week or so, tracking down a totally mint Suzuki AP50, owned by a fellow called Mark just up the road in Ashford – only a few miles away from Stuart’s house. Bingo!

A few weeks later I’m stood on a residential Middlesex street, watching two mint-condition 1970s mopeds burbling and tinkling and smoking away in front of me, the exhaust fumes rising up into the chilly-yet-sunny blue sky. I always get a weird ‘time travel’ feeling when I ride a mint version of an old bike, because the tech is obviously from the past – but in as-new condition. The cast metal switchgear, with hilariously scant functions, fresh paint, shiny chrome rims, every nut and bolt with the original finish in place, not a bit of rust –it’s absolutely nothing like a normal old bike. Dave Smith is sucking on his roll-up, checking the bikes out too, and there’s a real Life on Mars feel about the whole scene, like I’ve been transported back to the late 1970s. I half expect a Vauxhall Viva or Ford Anglia to appear round the corner at any minute.

Honesty time: I completely missed out on the moped thing, partly because I only really got into bikes when I was already 17, so could go straight on to a CG125, and mainly because the laws had changed so much by the late 1980s.

By then, mopeds were generally basic automatic step-thrus, restricted to 30mph, and I’d written them off as mere shopper/ commuter fare, suitable only for district nurses or spinsters on the way to Fine Fare, or lessthan-masculine Frank Spencer types who worked for the council.

I couldn’t miss the moped lore though, especially from guys a few years older than me. Alongside the fabled 250cc learner law and Sidewinder leaning-tea-tray sidecars, it was the stuff of moto-legend. Tall tales of 60mph Yamaha Fizzies, arcane tips for fitting C90 parts to Honda SS50s, heated debate over which version of the AP50 was fastest – it all trickled into my subconscious; useless, but utterly intriguing knowledge, which I eagerly soaked up. Time to see what I can remember… Dave, stub that fag out (in an eco-friendly way), let’s saddle up!

I pick the sweet little FS1-E first, its purple paint gleaming in the sun. As I swing a leg over, I’m really struck by the front-mudguardmounted numberplate, as it’s the first time I’ve ever ridden a bike with one of these. It’s hard to believe that curved, scythe-like edge ever got past the drawing board, but maybe life was much cheaper in the old days.

Like my last CMM road test on the Kawasaki H2 750, there are a few little tricks in the FS1-E. The gearbox has neutral at the top, and a fourdown change, which catches me out instantly. I’m a fast learner though, and soon adapt. It’s obviously a small machine, but has more of a ‘proper bike’ feel than many other 50cc machines I’ve ridden.

That proper bike feel lasts right up until the end of the road when I hit the brakes… and nothing much happens. I’ve not ridden a bike with a drum front brake for a fair while, and honestly, the little Yam has worse brakes than my old push bike at home. Terrifying, but at least I know now, and the rest of the test sees some very cautious distancing indeed.

SPORTS MOPEDS 23

24 SPORTS MOPEDS

OUT NOW

That’s made very easy by the microscopic power output of course. Taken in isolation, the little discvalved two-stroke is pleasant enough. It runs far better than post-speedrestriction mopeds, or the two-stroke learner 125s of the 1980s and 90s. On something like a 12bhp restricted Aprilia RS125 two-stroke, any semblance of a natural power curve is artificially strangled and cut off. Not here though; the engine feels nice enough, revving out smoothly and cleanly, but it’s just very, very slow.

We start off pottering around the suburban roads of Ashford and Twickenham, and things are just about manageable. But at one point, John the snapper (mounted on my Fazer 600) leads us off down a sliproad in Sunbury and on to a dualcarriageway – which just happens to be the A316 right at the end of the M3 motorway. The massive three-lane trunk road feels like one of those 10-lane American freeways, and I’m frantically stretching the throttle cable, while the Yamaha’s speedo needle leisurely arcs its way past 30mph, and a last-minute lifesaver reveals the grille of a giant HGV about three feet off my back tyre…

We all survive, (even John who I wanted to strangle as he disappeared up the A316 on the 20-times-morepowerful Fazer), and steer clear of even moderately big roads for the rest of the day. The lesson is clear though: modern traffic levels, London driving standards, plus the speed of cars, trucks and even buses all mean life can be quite intimidating on a moped, even a ‘full power’ one.

We park up for some static pics, and I grab the AP50 off Dave when we saddle up again. On the face of it, the Suzuki is practically the same as the Yamaha – a small disc-valved aircooled two-stroke motor hanging off a pressed steel backbone frame with skinny suspension and wheels, drum brakes and minimal equipment. This one doesn’t even have any mirrors fitted, which is obviously super-cool, but makes riding it a little bit terrifying – I expect to be carrying an Uber driver inside his Prius as a pillion at any moment.

The AP50 makes up for that a bit by having far better brakes though. Nothing to rival anything from the modern era mind, but they give much, much more confidence than the FS1’s stoppers, especially up front. It’s also a lot faster than the Yamaha, thanks to the sweet chromed expansion chamber bolted on the side and, as I discover later, some cheeky engine porting and carb jetting. It’s got a crisp, sharp exhaust note, and sounds just like a little race bike.

Head-to-head, there’s no contest, with the little red Suzuki easily pulling away from the Fizzy. These are small margins in the big scheme of things – on one long run down a clear road, I see 50mph easily on the tweaked Suzuki, where the standard Yamaha only just manages to creep past 40mph, with much more sedate acceleration. But in the 49cc game, an extra bhp or two, and a 10mph speed boost make a massive difference in cool and street-cred…

Yamaha FS1-E – Stuart Penny

Stuart is a builder based in Middlesex, and aged 62, he’s right in the sweet spot for 1970s moped fan-dom. His first bike was, of course, a Yamaha FS1-E, in ‘Popsicle Purple’, identical to the immaculate machine he lent us for this test. It’s not his original bike though – he ended up owning three of those, in turn, after crashing and writing off two of them during his first year of riding in 1974.

After the Fizzy, he progressed to a Kawasaki S1C 250 and a Yamaha DT175 for a bit of off-roading, before moving up to a 1976 Z1B (which he smashed up in crashes three times too, needing the frame replaced twice). Stuart bought this current FS1-E six years ago after someone offered it to him. “I basically fancied it – I wanted to do the Purple Haze day at the Ace Cafe, and bring back a few memories of the good old days! It’s in the same original condition as I bought it, though I reckon it was restored beforehand. It’s in real standard order, with the official Yamaha chromed accessory sports rack on the back, which is very rare now.”

The FS1-E doesn’t get a lot of use now though. “I’ve only really ridden it on the road a few times – it’s a bit intimidating nowadays, with modern traffic! There’re a lot more cars about on the road, and they’re a lot quicker than in 1974!” Classic Motorcycle Mechanics is the place to go if you’re interested in modern classic Japanese and European bikes of the last 50 or more years.

We stick to the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club’s rule of 15 years or older, which opens up a wide array of amazing machines dating back to when Japanese bikes were almost looked at as a curiosity. But it’s not just the Japanese. We also look at any European machines as well as the post-1990 Hinckley Triumphs.

Every issue has two sections: one which is ‘inspirational’, being full of road tests of modern classics and identifying the classics of the future, and the other which is ‘practical’, with ‘how to’ articles and project bikes aplenty.

With expert contributors from across the globe including top, former racers such as Niall Mackenzie and Steve Parrish, as well as hosting one of the biggest classic motorcycle shows in Europe every year, CMM has everything you need for your modern classic fix!