FREEAR
22,450
Vespa Raid
around Europe on a 1970s Vespa
Desert vs Scooter
kilometres
CALEND
Maroc
#343 January 2015
Subtle & Stunning
Modrod &
Rocket
Lambrettas
Last runs of
2014 Russian Scooter
❱❱
Campervan conversion
Also
Vespa PX ❱❱
Cylinder kits fitted
Classic interviews from the 1960s, Lambretta S-Type, Vespa SS180, nostalgic customs, news, reviews & more!
CONTENTS 03Hello & welcome… 06Kickstart ...to 2015!
Our informative front section jampacked full of useful stuff from news and reviews, products tested, opinions, custom scooters from yesteryear, readers’ letters, and plenty more besides.
26
Mod Rod and the Rocket
Our cover star Lambretta Series 2 is joined by its Series 3 stablemate. A pair of stunners from across the pond with some neat one-off touches too.
34Vespa Raid Maroc
Sticky battles North Africa on a Vespa PX, through some of the toughest scootering terrain out there.
44
Sailor Jerry
Inspired by an American tattooist, this Spanish MotoVespa has been customised by a French tattooist.
50Club do’s & events End of 53Mablethorpe Season Run
A calendar of scooter related events.
VFM’s 2014 finale on the east coast.
55
Warmwell Winter Rally
SWSC end of season run in Dorset.
97Scooter Trader
Classified and business advertising, for all your scootering needs.
110Clubs to Join
A massive list of scooter clubs across the globe, complete with their contact details.
Us Your 114Show Scoots!
Yes, they’re all yours. All you need to do is send us a photo (high resolution) with a few words and yours can appear here too.
Scooter 116Various Club Events from all over the world.
Touring – 122Scooter La Vida Vespa
German Vespa rider Markus clocks up more than 22,000km visiting 30 countries around Europe on his PX.
DDK AF Rayspeed 132 50th Anniversary S-Type A 2014 tribute to maybe the most famous dealer special series of Lambrettas in the world.
138Into the Sunset
Warning! We’re running out of your wonderful and entertaining stories folks, so please get writing and send us some more!
converted TMZ 58ATula Muravey
Iggy discovers a campervan that might just be accepted at a scooter rally!
64Scootering in the 60s
Wendy and Andy from Watford Lambretta Club (aka Ace of Herts) share their memories and photo album with us.
74Revived SS180
It’s always good to see an old friend, especially when it’s a classic Vespa like this.
82Back to Basics
Sticky takes a standard 2014 Vespa PX125 and with some bolt-on upgrading adds more power.
88Specialist Services
Planning your winter project or resto? Whatever you want, from platers to tuners, engineers to painters, fabricators to upholsterers, you’ll find them all here. Hopefully.
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34 WWW.SCOOTERING.COM | 5
ModRod and the Rocket
A couple of beauties! You could be excused for thinking that you are looking at a nice pair of factory spec restored Innocenti machines – both Li 150s, one a Series 2, the other a later Series 3. But when you start to examine them you realise exactly how much work has gone into this brace of customs.
VESPA RAID MAROC
SCOOTERING IN AFRICA I’m alone on a lunar landscape, sweating as the descendingAfrican sun beats down on my crouched figure. My borrowedVespa is on its side, in a gully cut into the track by rainwater.The only way to get going again will be to lift the scooter out and bump-start it on gravel; pushing until the motor reluctantly fires back into life. Welcome to theVespa Raid Maroc. Only five more days of this to go… 34 | SCOOTERING | JANUARY 2015
START
The Tag Heuer timing clock beeps another minute and the departing rider spins their knobbly-shod Vespa wheel in the gravel, leaving everyone in a cloud of choking dust. Next it will be team-mate’s Inigo’s turn, and a few minutes later I will follow. Inigo is a young engineer from northern Spain. He speaks good English and together we form Team Bastardo. Thankfully, he’s waited for me just up the road because to be honest, I don’t really have a clue what’s going on…
ORIGINS
People have done more adventurous things with scooters before: the French Vespa team in ParisDakar in 1980, Longoni and Carancini rode a Lambretta C from Milan to Liege (Belgium) and back nonstop in 1951 and there was the massed Vespa entry in the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) that same year. Those were scooters being asked to perform miracles in mixed events with motorcycles. Hardcore no doubt, but doing so takes a special breed of sportsman, often operating with factory back-up. For the rest of us, without that level of support, wouldn’t it be great to have a similarly adventurous event, just for classic scooters? Since 2012 that event has existed in the Spanish-run Vespa Raid Maroc. If there is a crazier scooter-only sport event on the planet then I’ve yet to hear about it.
SPANISH INQUISITION
As the pink PX200 I’ve borrowed sits ticking over at the start line, I reflect on the difficulties of getting here. ‘Here’ being the car park of a luxurious hotel nestled between Morocco’s Atlas mountain ranges. The main issue was language. None of the event organisers are fluent in English, but all speak more than my limited Spanish. A decade ago I’d have struggled to even enter, but with the power of Google Translate and WhatsApp I was able to read the event regulations and conduct negotiations with Ferran, the originator of the raid. Very generously he offered the loan of his Vespa; which was already a veteran of three previous African raids. I guess that meant it was either very well prepared for the desert, or about to fall in half. All I had to do was find the 1100 Euro entry fee and arrange some flights. In the scooter world that isn’t cheap, but compared to entering any other professionally organised desert rally, it’s an absolute pittance. I took a risk and made a substantial bank transfer to somebody I’d never met…
WHAT’S GOING ON
Above: NaviServi gives a GPS lesson. It’s all a bit Trippy… Below: Body armour is compulsory while a neck brace and CamelBak drinks rucksack are advisable. The GPS Spot Beacon (shoulder) provided by the organisation allows a rider to call for rescue and be located.
The raid concept is relatively simple; three days riding in different looped circuits from a hotel between the Atlas Mountain ranges, before moving to another hotel on the edge of the Erg Chebbi dunes for three days doing the same in the desert. Navigation is the name of the game. You build points by visiting waypoints programmed into your GPS system. At each you must photograph your scooter in a pre-determined pose in front of specified landmarks. Points are deducted for missing the midway Control Point or for every minute you are late at the finish. Like half of the competitors, I’m using a rented navigation system called Trippy II; presumably because the Belgian inventors hadn’t eaten enough magic mushrooms when they built Trippy I. The device is pre-programmed with both a digital ‘road book’ for each stage, and a ‘track’ which is literally an arrowed black line on an otherwise blank screen. For anyone used to navigating with the comprehensive maps and touch screen interface of a modern automotive sat nav it seems very primitive. It doesn’t help that I’ve only had five minutes of group Trippy instruction, in a language I don’t speak.
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A tour of Europe by scooter
122 | SCOOTERING | JANUARY 2015
Getting lost in Malta can be impressive.
“He must be crazy or he got lost!” That is what most people thought when they saw me entering a gas station or a campsite anywhere in Europe. No, I’m not crazy and did only sometimes get lost. Well, maybe a bit crazy, since not many people choose to live the way I do. But let’s start from the beginning...
I
have been a Vespista for 21 years now and had already started planning this road trip sometime in 2010. It should have started in 2011 in Oslo, but life got in the way and made it impossible at that time. A new job, the family and the financial situation were holding me back. Factors that probably prevent most of you out there from doing a long trip like this. Then, last year in September I became single again at the age of 37, I had some savings and knew that I would finish my contract in May. It was now or never! I started preparing.
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Show us your scoots
Mark Rathbone of Castle Bromwich, Birmingham sent these photos. The first two show him and his then girlfriend Sara on his first scooter, a Vespa 100 in what they think was around 1982. The second two photos show Mark and his now wife of 29 years, Sara on their 1963 Lambretta Li 150.
This is the Vespa PX200E Transformers, owned by Toa Moonstruck, from Thailand, land of smiles!
This Vespa GS150 VS5 belongs to John Bailey and was restored for him by John Balcomb of JB Tuning.
”Yes, Leigh this is me.” From Colin Stones, Boston, Lincs.
This is Phil Orton from Hucknall’s scooter.