First ride
Scootering | #335 May 2014
The new 125cc Vespa Sprint
8
page
guide
to suspension
Lambretta Model A
with rare Picozzi accessories
116.2mph is this the
“Zebedee will put it right,” said Florence
world’s
fastest Vespa?* Exclusive
first ride
Scomadi
Prototype
(*or do you know different?)
Also
Malossi – we visit the world’s most technically advanced scooter tuning laboratory, a tidy Mod Lambretta, Back to Basics & more!
No.335 May 2014
www.scootering.com
£3.99
scooters
CONTENTS 03 Hello & welcome… 93 Scooter Trader … it’s the May 2014 edition of Scootering and we hope you enjoy it!
Classified and business advertising, for all your scootering needs.
06 Kickstart
Guide to 100AScooter Suspension
Packed full of information from news and reviews of products and events, to archive material, opinions, rumours and whispers, workshop essentials, old custom scooters from yesteryear, handy hints, readers’ letters, personals, app of the month, a couple of show reviews and plenty more.
14
Exclusive First Ride
Scootering are the first to go for a spin on a prototype Scomadi scooter!
26 First Ride
Iggy tries out the new 125cc Vespa Sprint in Rome.
34 Gillette
An eight page guide for all scooterists, from tourers to boy racers, as to what to look out for with regard to both maintenance and upgrades, all necessary in keeping your scooter safely on the road.
Bounce 112More to the Ounce
The ‘Picozzi’ Model A Lambretta, a rare scooter with even rarer period modifications.
130Scooter Club do’s Show Us Your 134Scoots!
The best a man can get… in more ways than one. A very sharp Lambretta street racer indeed.
Pictures of you, on your scoots – simples, eh?
40
Lambretta Li Series 2 with long history and a modern nod to the old club.
Malossi factory visit
136The Harrow Pirate
Behind the scenes at the world’s most technically advanced scooter tuning laboratory. Would we like to work there? Of course we would!
144Scooter Racing
48 Club do’s & events 50 Morecambe Pre-season Run
146Into the Sunset
A calendar of scooter related events.
The 2014 BSSO season kicks off with four races at Croft.
Another of your tales of trials and tribulation. Keep ’em coming folks!
The scooter riding season seems to have well and truly started... it’s raining!
The VMSC 60 Vintage & Custom Extravaganza
A very good reason to be sent to Coventry.
72 The Green Hornet
Recently recorded at 116.2mph at a Top Speed event in March, is this the fastest Vespa in the world?
78 Back to Basics
Fitting a Lambretta speedo cable. Sometimes the simplest things cause the most swearing and blaspheming!
Scootering – 83 Practical Staff Scooters
Barrie’s Spanish Series 2 and Andy’s Italian Series 3 Lambrettas are in need of a little fettling.
88 Specialist Services
Whatever you want, you’ll find them all here. Hopefully.
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KICKSTART
By Andy & Sticky
New historic VED rules SIP Kneepad and SORN updates Now here’s a simple but essential item for anyone working on their own scooter at home (or indeed in a workshop). SIP Scootershop has had its own branded kneepads produced. Having used a similar item myself for a number of years now, all I can say is – great! They’re inexpensive, take no space to store, are light as feather, and make any tasks that involve kneeling or sitting on the floor far more comfortable to do. Measuring 435 x 195 x 30mm, they’re made of a high density PE/EVA foam-cushion material which SIP states is petrol and oil resistant, as well as being extremely tough. By the way, the logo doesn’t restrict you to just Vespa maintenance! The price of comfort is pretty cheap too, just £7.42 via www.sipscootershop.com
It’s only a few years before this 1977 Vespa TS125 and the SIL GP next to it become tax free!
It’s not often you get good news in a Government budget, but we did last month with regard to VED (aka the tax disc) for historic vehicles. Those with good memories may recall that when the ‘historic vehicle’ VED class was introduced some years ago, exempting older vehicles from paying road tax, it was initially planned to run with a 25 year rolling exemption. Realising that this could cost valuable revenue, the criteria was quickly amended and fixed to vehicles constructed before January 1, 1973. The good news however is that in the latest budget the rules have been changed with an automatic 40 year rolling exemption introduced as of April 1, 2014, using January 1 each year as the cut-off point. From a classic scooterist’s point of view this means that not only are all Italian Lambrettas, pre-1973 Vespas and all classic British scooters exempt, but from April 1 this list will grow to include early Spanish Lambrettas and 1970s Vespas (Rally 200s, 150 Supers, Primaveras etc), and in just a few years’ time will also include the first of the Vespa P-range too. Apparently the VED exemption is intended to support the classic vehicle scene, which the Government considers “is an important part of the nation’s historical heritage,” presumably prompted by research from the Historic Vehicle Research Institute and the Federation of British Historic Vehicles Clubs’ publication, The British Historic Vehicle
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Movement: A £4 Billion Hobby, which suggests that the historic car industry employs about 28,000 people in the UK. Or it could be they are trying to get more voters onside as well as appeasing all the classic car owners in the House of Lords. Whatever the reason, it’s still good news for scooterists! For more details visit www.gov.uk/ government/publications/vehicle-exciseduty-40-year-rolling-exemption-forclassic-vehicles Elsewhere, I recently declared a scooter of mine SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) via the internet. I received an (optional) email confirmation, but then a few weeks later realised I’d not received the customary letter from the DVLA confirming my scooter was officially SORNed. It turns out that the DVLA doesn’t send out such letters any more, which is slightly worrying for a sceptic like me, especially as the agency has a less than exemplary reputation for losing personal details held on its computers. As such the advice is to take a screen print of your SORN confirmation as well as requesting an email. Our advice is to do this as well, or alternatively support your local Post Office (if you still have one) and declare your SORN there using your V11 tax disc reminder form which will be stamp and for which you’ll get a receipt. Remember also that a SORN declaration is now valid for as long as you own that vehicle so there’s no need to renew it annually.
S&S Curley The Newline Curley exhaust system for Vespa P200 engines from Scooter and Service will fit most large-frame chassis, although the spare wheel and batteryholder have to be removed. Aside from simply looking damn gorgeous, Scooter and Service also explains that this exhaust is the “best solution if you’ve lowered your Vespa,” for example with its own Superlow suspension concepts. With power output apparently the same as the other Newline exhaust models in the range, the Curley is available in normal or stainless steel, both also in ‘S’ (silent) version. The exhausts are all handmade in Hamburg, Germany, prices start at €449. For more details visit www.scooter-andservice.de
New drug-drive offence details
Plans to bring in drug-drive limits for the first time have moved a step closer. While there are still aspects to be discussed and proposals to be investigated further, following consultation, recommended limits for 16 different drugs have now been approved. This means eight generally-prescription drugs and eight illicit drugs will be added into new regulations that will come into force in autumn 2014. The new rules will mean it
will be an offence to be over the generallyprescribed limits for each drug and then drive a vehicle, as it is with drink-driving. The illicit drugs include cocaine, cannabis and also LSD (where a limit of 1mg has been set, although we’d have thought anyone behind the wheel of a car, even only tripping their tits off a little bit is probably a dangerous thing!). The prescription drugs for which limits have been set include morphine and methadone.
Malossi Vespa Ignition
VE (UK) has announced the launch of the new Malossi VESPower ignition kits for classic Vespa scooters. The new kits follow on from Malossi’s recent modifications to the classic Vespa cylinder kit range and feature a lightened flywheel manufactured from forged aluminium, 12v four-pole stator with battery charging capabilities, red plastic fan with secondary cooling fans to boost cooling air flow, integrated coil and CDI
HANDY HINT
unit, and a voltage regulator. The VESPower ignition kits are available for the Vespa ET3, Cosa 125/150/200, PX 125/150/200, and 50 Special. www.ve-uk.com
How essential is an earth wire?
Dear Scootering, As someone who has at least half a dozen old Ducati CDIs which no longer have an earth wire on them, just how essential is that earth wire? I seem to recall the Vespas they were from all ran well enough as I only noticed the snapped wires when doing something else rather than the scoots grinding to a halt on me. Thanks, AG
Dear AG, It’s not essential at all if the white wire to your stator plate is in good condition. They both do the same job and both terminals are connected inside the box anyway. However, it might be a good idea to cut off the broken wire flush with the box and cover it with Araldite so that no water can get inside the box. Sticky
Remade Spanish dampers
Getting hold of the right size (larger) front dampers for the later Spanish Lambretta has always been a problem in the past with your option either old second-hand sets or adapting from the car world. However the folk at Buzz Solomoto have addressed this problem by tracking down the company that made the original front dampers for Eibar/Serveta and getting it to reproduce a small run of them exclusively for Buzz, to the same spec as they were in the 1980s. Available today in either silver and black or red and black, they retail at £99.50 a pair and are available from Buzz Solomoto, www.buzzsolomoto.co.uk
Book Review
The Scooter Diaries – Ronald N Bowman Published posthumously, this wonderful tale of Lambretta, extreme travel and romance from the 1950s is an inspiring and nostalgic read. Ronald’s son Gordon used notes and family anecdotes to tell the story of his father’s epic (in the true sense of the word) journey combining impromptu marriage and honeymoon with his equally adventurous new wife, Tove. The restored photographs help to enhance the story and the cultural accounts remind the reader of how different the world was back then, for example when Tove is being admonished by strangers for wearing trousers! And also how some things don’t change with the overbearing red-tape encountered by the intrepid trio (yes, they definitely include the Lambretta LD as one of the gang). The Lambretta LD transported rider and pillion and enough luggage for almost a year away,
covering around 20,000 miles from Canada to Peru arriving home in 1960, and is still within the family today. A very entertaining, informative yet easy read, the hardback copy I have being a lovely 126 page coffee table book. Enjoy! AM Available from http://thescooterdiaries.com Prices start from about £16 (depending on exchange rate) plus postage from Canada for the paperback, with hardback and even signed versions available too. If you can’t wait for the post, an e-book can be downloaded for approximately £8.
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Morecambe pre-season run March 21-22,2014
For those of you that think Morecambe is a tired, stale and run down shadow of the once proud and vibrant seaside town and rally favourite, I would agree. But this firstVFM rally of 2014 proved me so wrong.
A
s the wind blew all along Marine Parade the all too familiar noise of two- and four-stroke engines could be heard and the troops were gathering! This year we changed tack and started our socialising at the other end of town – often forgotten by many, but enjoyed enormously this year by more. The pubs were friendly and as our numbers swelled I thought, ‘hey this is actually quite good’. Friday went by too quickly, in a haze of drink and chat, as many of our mad scootering family hadn’t caught up since Mablethorpe. Sleep beckoned at 2am, remembering we were to be up and about early the next morning for the parts fair and custom show. A quick breakfast and down to the exquisite Victorian theatre; terribly run down, but once again open to paying guests. Hundreds poured through the doors and it was a sight to see so many scooters outside on a cold March Saturday. Trading was brisk and there some very nice bikes on display, even if overall there weren’t that many.
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Down the road, at PM Tuning, there was a charity open day and dyno run for those looking to blow away the cobwebs. However, as lunchtime approached for us, it was down to the Belgiques to take us on our tour of some never before visited pubs. Needless to say it was nearly over before it started, as we rushed to get in the do – numbers were restricted to 500. We made it and on arrival a very good atmosphere awaited us inside. Well done Steve and a refreshing change; no ska or Jam tribute bands but a good punk covers band who had the sell-out crowd jumping about for all their worth. All too soon it was 2am; that late two nights’ running is not good at our age, but well worth it! So a great start to the rally season and if Morecambe is back again next year we will return for sure. Words: Ann & Rick, ERSC Photos: Duncan Patey
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MORE BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE
‘PICOZZI’ MODEL A
In 1947, only two years after the end of the SecondWorldWar, two rival firms competed to provide affordable transport solutions to Italians living through the reconstruction. Vespas and Lambrettas of that era were totally new designs from the ground up and while functional, they were undeniably basic. Comfort was in short supply.
Tino Sacchi unearthed this original Picozzi advert from the late 1940s.
High RollersWeekend,LasVegas,USA – February 28to March 3,2014
They call this place America’s playground, The party capital of the world, Sin City and countless other epithets. It’s a place where you can do whatever you like, whenever you like; be naughty and get away with it! It seems more like a holiday than a scooter rally to us travelling Brits, but those who attend on a regular basis realise what a unique and special event this is. Vegas just has a special feel among the neon lights, high rise towers and the shadow of the American Mafia. But enough of the USA tourist board stuff, we were here for a scooter rally. We came into town on Thursday, and we were the late arrivals. Liza and Derek from Aberdeen were busy emptying the bar, as were the Beck family from Barnsley. High Rollers Weekend was being held in The Plaza Hotel, where the first ‘jolly’ of the weekend kicked off with DJ Nelson and Co putting down some familiar tunes, and a few less ordinary ones to boot. Seven dollar pitchers of PBR and a free drink on the rally hosts started the event off nicely. Friday morning broke and somehow I was transported back to the UK; yes it was
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raining, a rare event in Las Vegas. So while the locals revelled, Eric Porter and the rest of the crew had to find an inside venue for the trade stalls. Inside the bar perhaps? Which for scooterists works nicely. The vendors set up impromptu displays of their wares, ranging from vintage clothes to scooter parts. Friday night’s entertainment was held at the now renowned Beauty Bar, where Sonic Archers from Denver were the main attraction, and quite the crowd pleasers. The evening’s music finished with DJs at 3.30am, and I did not hit the sack until 7am after an all night whisky binge with Oregon’s legend, Matt Braddock. I woke up in the middle of the afternoon to discover most of the scoots had left for the ride out to Red Rock Canyon. I found the Major, who was celebrating his pre-stag night on an all day binge in the Hogs and Heifers Bar. This establishment is an acquired taste and I did not stay long. The Saturday Allnighter was fast approaching and I needed food and sleep to restore my energy.
The Triple B Bar was the venue for Saturday night, with ska outfit A Checkered Past featuring the son of Blue Beat legend Prince Buster. This event was rammed to the rafters, and though not a fan of ska I had to take my hat off to them. The whole place was buzzing with energy and the band left a very pleased crowd clapping for more. After the live music, both the Major and myself did a stint on the decks, along with the Americans. Some great sounds were played and the dance floor was going all night. Sunday was a wind down, leading to the gymkhana and a huge raffle. An exhausting weekend, but worth every mile travelled. Many thanks to Eric and the BSSC for organizing the event, to Lurch, Sue, the Major and Jas for travelling over with me, to the Arizona crew for loads of fun as usual, and to the California girls and everyone else, too many to mention. Pete Kelross, LSSC PS: Next year is going to be a joint UK/USA event held at a new hotel location in Downtown Vegas. Start saving now!