CONTENTS
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03 Editorial
It’s on page 3 as always, just inside the front cover.
06 News
All the latest scooter news, new products, reviews, gossip and other bits ’n’ bobs of useful information.
12 NEW: Trigger Happy
The Young Guns SC on what got them into scooters these days.
14 Exclusive Interview – Bradley Wiggins
The cycling knight talks about scooters and soul music, among other things. Oh, and an old Honda C90 too!
22 The Grimstead Hurricane Replica
A classic Vespa in a classic dealer special livery, complete with added details.
26 Creating a storm in the South East Some background on Eddy Grimstead’s Hurricane, and AF’s Vespa SS200.
28 Feedback
Your letters, emails, personals, questions and other stuff.
50 Madspeed No 31
134 76
22
Lambretta Series 2 with some DIY old-skool patina applied.
54 The Book of Scootering Rules
How to select members for your newly formed scooter club.
34 Blast from the Past
45 years ago this month, the Luna range landed.
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38 Classic Interviews – Romolo Ferri (part 2)
The former racer talks about setting a world record at 201kph on a Lambretta back in 1951, and racing a J-range on the Isle of Man.What a contrast, hey?
130
86 Back to Basics
Is your scooter up to the MoT standard?
92 NEW: Staff Scooters
Sharing our daily rides with you. A new exhaust for Andy’s PX200 and a little maintenance too.
94 Specialist Services
Whatever you want, you’ll find them all here.
86 56 Club do’s & events
A calendar of scooter related events
60 Woolacombe BSRA Scooter Rally
If you missed it, you missed out – sorry!
68 Burlesque
A recycled Vespa Chopper, now with new paint and a new owner in Yorkshire.
72 Recommended Listening
83
76 The Veloce Raptor
A 700cc Yamaha Quad engine mated with a 50-year-old Lambretta. It’s Insane, and we’ve ridden it!
116 Show Us Your Scoots! Pictures of you, on your scoots – simples innit, eh?
118 Various Club Events 122 Going All the Way
The latest CD and vinyl releases reviewed.
Lejog for charity.
74 Introducing The Talks
126 The Scooter Shootout
A chat with frontman Pat Pretorius from the Hull-based ska band.
97 Scooter Trader
Classified and business advertising, for all your scootering needs.
130 BSSO Scooter Racing at Cadwell Park
All the thrills and spills of the exciting finale to this season’s race series.
134 Sweet as a Nut
A regular rallygoing custom Lambretta, that is what it says.
138 Into the Sunset
More of your tales of trials and tribulation…
Over 106mph on a smallframe Vespa? Yes it’s true! The top speeds and times from Elvington drag strip.
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www.scootering.com www.scootertrader.com Editor: Andy Gillard Email: editorial@scootering.com Publisher: Steve Rose Contributors: Sticky, Richie Lunt, Barrie Braithwaite, Iggy, Nik Skeat, Jordan Lewis, Dave Oakley, Steve Dawson, Sargie, John Woods, Lee Hollick, Paul Hooper-Keeley and Lee Daniels. Many thanks to all other scooterists and clubs that have also contributed to this issue in some way. Cover: Photography by Richie Lunt Designer: Charlotte Turnbull Reprographics: Simon Duncan Group production editor: Tim Hartley General queries and back issues: Tel: 01507 529529 24 hr answerphone Email: help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk Archivist: Jane Skayman Tel: 01507 529423 Email: jskayman@mortons.co.uk Subscription: Full subscription rates (but see page 20 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £47.88. Export rates are also available – see page 20 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. Distribution: Comag, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middx UB7 7QE Tel: 01895 433600 Printed by: William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton
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Gary Thomas – gthomas@mortons.co.uk Colin Smith – csmith@mortons.co.uk Tel (01507) 524004 Fax (01507) 529499
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ADVERTISING DEADLINES
Commercial advert deadline: November 7, 2013 Free ad deadline: November 6, 2013 On sale date: November 29, 2013
Free ads, personals, club do’s & events These are all to be booked via the website at www.scootering.com or via post to: Scootering Magazine, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ The next free ads deadline is Wednesday, November 6, 2013
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Subscription manager: Paul Deacon pdeacon@mortons.co.uk Circulation manager: Steven O’Hara sohara@mortons.co.uk Marketing manager: Charlotte Park Email: cpark@mortons.co.uk Production manager: Craig Lamb Publishing director: Dan Savage Commercial director: Nigel Hole Associate director: Malcolm Wheeler Managing director: Brian Hill SCOOTERING (USPS:020-245) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ USA subscriptions are $60 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. Periodical Postage is paid at Bancroft, WI and additional entries. Postmaster: Send address changes to SCOOTERING, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595. chris@classicbikebooks.com SCOOTERING is published by: Mortons Scooter Media, a division of Mortons Media Group Ltd © 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any way without the written permission of the publishers. ISSN 0268 7194
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Exclusive Interview
Bradley Wiggins on scooters, fashion, Mods, music...
and his old Honda C90
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| What do you get the man who has a trophy cabinet full of Olympic cycling medals and Tour de France Yellow Jerseys as a present to thank him for his efforts?
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f you are the Queen then you hand out a knighthood… on top of the CBE and OBE. The British public’s response was to vote for him as BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Fred Perry clothing – who know what Bradley Wiggins likes – got him a white and gold Lambretta SX200. Sticky attended the official hand-over event at Fred Perry’s flagship store in London’s Covent Garden to ask Britain’s first ever Tour de France winner a few brief questions about Mods, motor scooters and music. (photography by Sticky & Richie Lunt)
You’ve earned a reputation as something of a Mod icon – how did you get into the Mod scene and what attracted you to it? I think I got into it without really realising that I did. I grew up just two miles from here in Kilburn. My uncle – who is about 25 years older than me – was into soul music and the Small Faces, so I remember listening to that sort of stuff as a kid. We used to go to Carnaby Street all the time in the late 1980s and early 90s where I’d be surrounded by all these fake Mod shops, not really realising it was so clichéd. It still is today: all plastic Mods, Pretty Green and all that. Even though this was post-revival I watched Quadrophenia and it had a big influence, but by this time the style had changed. I used to go and see Tottenham Hotspur every Saturday as a kid and by now the look was terrace-wear like Adidas and Fila. I suppose we were post-revival Mods without knowing it, because it seemed important to follow the trends of what other people wore when watching the football. In 1995 – when I was 15 – Paul Weller came out with Stanley Road and that had a massive impact on me. I even took up playing the guitar. Also Ocean Colour Scene had appeared and nodded to Paul Weller. That made me start looking back at the Style Council and the Jam and educating myself about where all this came from. Then suddenly I realised – ‘f**king hell, that’s what I’m into’ – so I started dressing more Mod and getting my hair cut in Mod styles.
You’ve got quite diverse tastes though: not strictly Mod. You’ve got a tattoo of the screaming face from the Prodigy album cover of Music for the Jilted Generation on your arm. Well the Prodigy were in Camden Town – just down the road – and they were basically punk for my generation. I was attracted to their rebellious ‘f**k the world’ music, like Firestarter and Breathe. When I was at school everyone wanted to be Keith Flint and to tell the teachers to f**k off. With his attitude Keith was like Johnny Lydon for kids our age, so that’s where that came from. I was into a mixture of things then though really: I got into Joy Division and a lot of the Manchester bands like Oasis when they came along in the early 90s. So, according to the tribal divide of the time, which side were you on: Oasis or Blur? Oasis, 100%. I was never really into Blur. What I liked about Liam and Noel was their attitude; about not giving a f**k. What they were singing about was a lot more relevant to me growing up in Kilburn than the whole Blur and Essex thing.
You’ve owned both Vespas and Lambrettas in the past. Do you have a preference and what scooters do you own now? I’m very nostalgic and I love the heritage of the whole Mod thing. Original sixties Mods had one or the other, but I love both. I couldn’t choose between them. The Vespa GS160 is still a classic scooter of that era and I’ve got one, but I’ve also got a 150 Special, a TV175, a TV200 and now this SX200 thanks to Fred Perry. I’ve got about 10 scooters in total, including a few modern day Vespas that I use for running around on. Did you ever use a scooter in London? I had a Honda C90 when I was 17 in London because you could ride those on a provisional licence and I didn’t have a car licence. I didn’t give a shit at the time – it might as well have been a pizza delivery bike – but I thought I was Jimmy out of Quadrophenia! So you’ve never had a chance to go to a scooter rally? I’ve always been a bit of a loner and my interest in Mod and scooters is just really selfindulgent. It’s not really something I want to share with other people. A lot of my mates go
BRADLEY’S SX200 Even on a scooter, Fred Perry like to keep their branding nice and subtle. The gold details were chosen to symbolise Bradley’s haul of Olympic medals taken right after the Tour de France victory. The badges are actually Albrafin coated, which is much more durable than gold. Restoration: Gran Sport Scooters, Birmingham. Paintwork: White with BMW Ontario Gold. All graphics stencilled and airbrushed by Matt at i-Paint.net Walsall. Engine: as Innocenti intended but with electronic ignition. Custom Upholstery: Leightons, Birmingham.
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OWNER DETAILS Name: Tessa Abraham. Town: Burton upon Trent. First interest in scooters: Early 1980s as a young Mod. First scooter: Vespa PX125 in baby blue. Favourite scooter model(s): SS180 and SX200. Favourite style of custom scooter: Original with period touches. First rally: Newquay 1984 (Phoenix Mod Rally), went by train with best mate and camped under a viaduct. Favourite rallies: 1980s Morecambe and Great Yarmouth. Worst rally: 1987 Weston – campsite a refuse landfill tip. How could the scooter scene get better? Encourage the young Mod/suedeheads (we all started somewhere). Funniest experience with a scooter? South-west rallies with Mitch on the Bishop P200 and Andy ‘Goldenboy Tyres’ when we lived in Devon. Great time. Farthest ridden on a scooter? Southampton to Oban in the early 1990s – piles, backache and a buggered cruciform... not a good look. What do you like about rallies? Meeting up with old mates. What do you dislike about rallies? Cars on a rally. Favourite Scootering magazine features? Thirty years ago feature and Blast from the Past. Favourite custom/ featured scooter? Vespa – Worlds Apart; Lambretta – Wake (H R Giger). Who first inspired you in the scooter scene? 1983 in Newbury, Lisa Johnson. She was an older Mod girl, I’m forever grateful. If you had to recommend one scooter part or item: Quality comfortable helmet. Most useless part bought for a scooter? Tassles for the handlebars... maybe should keep that to myself?
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The Grimstead
Hurricane Replica
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The Vespa Gran Sport had proved a popular scooter since its launch in 1955, leading the way in everyday performance scooters for rival Innocenti’s Lambretta Tourismo Veloce to follow. But sometimes things have to change... and so in 1964 Piaggio made a brave announcement.
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45
ASthTe BL om fr
T P1A9S 68
YEARS AGO...
I
As the 1960s drew to a close, so the scooter market continued to shrink. Mopeds on the other hand appeared to be gaining in popularity, so Innocenti launched a futuristic product in the hope of gaining a large market share.
n the grander scheme of things, the USA and the USSR were going head to head in the space race, Russia getting the first man out there and the Americans determined to be the first to set foot on the moon. As a result, all things out of this world were on everyone’s lips, which is no doubt why Innocenti decided its new range of ‘small’ Lambretta scooters would be known as the Luna Line. Designed by Bertone, the 50cc Luna and 75cc Cometa and Vega scooters were previewed at the end of November 1968 by the Motor Cycle newspaper. The scooters broke the trend for Lambrettas since the late 1950s by having no side panels to speak of. The Cometa also boasted to be the first (and only) Lambretta with Lubematic, an automatic lubrication system which meant the rider no longer had to mix two-stroke oil in with the petrol but instead fill a separate oil tank. Available in martian red, orbit orange, astral blue and luna dust, the 50cc would not be marketed in Britain until the following spring apparently, but the 75s were available immediately at £129-10s for the Vega and £139-10s for the Cometa. However, it seems that Vespa got there first with its autolube, as in the same month the Motor Cycle also wrote: “Vespa now offers throttle-controlled pressure-fed lubrication as an optional extra for its 150 Super and 150 Sprint models.” Not only that, but at the lower capacity end of the range Douglas was marketing its scooters competitively too, the Vespa 90 costing £137-29s-6d. Now having ridden both a Lambretta 75 and a Vespa 90 I’d have the latter, regardless of whether it had autolube or not. To be honest though, while the range of small Lambrettas may have had futuristic names and (in my opinion) been arguably ahead of their time design wise (albeit a superior, visual rival to
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the 1980s’ Honda Melody), the comparable Vespas were far more appealing to the market both at the time and today. There were still other tidy looking scooters around in the late 1960s too. In 1968 you could also pick up a new Capri 100 scooter for £136-7s-6d or the 98cc Ducati Brio for £125. Mind you, if you were looking for something
a little faster then you could get a secondhand 1965 Lambretta GT 200 for £129 or a 65 Vespa SS180 for £119. Bolt to that a Douglas Vespa box sidecar for £63-19s-6d, or Watsonian’s Bambini passenger sidecar at £82-16s-2d and scooters were still an affordable form of motoring. Andy
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Woolacombe Scooter Rally
If you are old enough, apparently you remember where you were the day President Kennedy got shot. A few years later Woodstock festival took place, which was another monumental event that went down in history. To that list we can now add the authentic (Doritos) mariachi band playing at Woolacombe scooter rally.
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epending on where you live in this green and pleasant land of ours, then the journey to most rallies in the South West can be very enjoyable indeed. Taking the weather into consideration too, of course. For us it’s about 280 miles each way from the eastern coast, but once we’ve negotiated the River Thames at Dartford, much of it can be done on A and B roads if you choose, which are invariably far nicer than motorways.
Woolacombe is unique I think on the scooter rally calendar – it’s a holiday camp that also offers camping as well as the on-site chalets and caravans which, together with nearby lodgings in pubs and guest houses, means there is something for everyone’s budget as no matter where you rest your head at night, the entrance fee remains the same for all. Entertainment wise the Sex Pistols Experience had those old enough to know better sweating off a few pounds on the Friday night –
picking up a few bruises along the way – while on the Saturday night we had the traditional ska sound of The Dualers. With a separate Northern Soul room on both nights, and daytime entertainment by way of the rockin’ sounds of The Corsairs in the outdoor Beach Bar (during happy hour – £2 a pint!) and a hypnotist too, there’s really no reason to get bored. The custom show and dealer market distracts while you’re waiting for a courtesy bus into Woolacombe itself, where the pubs were buzzing with accents from all over the country, the pastie shop was doing a roaring trade and those that can, were surfing – the waves that is, not the internet. With Sunday not a bank holiday, most go home while the organising South West Scooter Clubs hold a party for their members and friends. They’ve been great fun in the past, but this year topped them all with the appearance of the Doritos mariachi band (yes, the genuine
band of South Americans from the TV adverts). The dance floor was full of sombrero wearing scooterists, beaming smiles from ear to ear. From Europe’s Final Countdown to Tequila and Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby, a surprising majority knew the words and sang along to them all. The band went down so well that by their second encore they’d run out of songs, but nobody cared. I was crying with laughter (as were plenty of others), the atmosphere was the best I’ve seen at a scooter rally in ages, and congratulations must go to Andy, Stu and the rest of the SWSC for organising what many consider one of the most memorable scooter rallies for all the right reasons. I’m sure others will try and replicate this at rallies of the future, but it will never be the same. There is only one original, and if you were there that Sunday night then you’ll know what I mean. It was magic. Andy
very few bands that make us sit up and go wow! There are a few European bands that haven’t made any impact over here that we’re into, and we’re playing with one of them, Italy’s The Offenders, at The Pipeline in London in a couple of months. I’mnotsuggestingBritishbandsdon’tcutit,butwe’vebeenmore involvedwiththeEuropeansceneandsoknowmoreaboutit. How did you get into ska in the first place? Before we started The Talks, Joel, our guitarist, and I worked alongside Bad Manners and Neville Staple, back in around 2003/04. This introduced us to the European scene where they’re still big bands. We were also a part of The Special Beat at one point, touring Australia, again with Neville and Rankin’ Roger, and have also worked with Roger playing bass stuff for The Beat. Naturally this also helped when we wanted Neville to appear on the new EP. As well as this, I’ve also worked with Dawn Penn on a couple of shows, and also with Pato Banton, so I’ve learned a lot from these guys about getting the feel for this kind of music. I feel they’ve set me on the road to where I am today. I’ll be honest, I think the first time I came across you was on television... would you care to elaborate on your 30 seconds of TV exposure? Hollyoaks? That was quite a funny experience. We’d had some of our music published and ‘out there’ if you will. Somehow the music supervisor for the show stumbled across us and started using our material as background in some shots. The next thing we know, we’ve been approached to appear as the band performing at a party in the show. Obviously we wouldn’t turn it down, so we spent 12 hours making a 30 second spot. It’s quite strange how they go about doing things on TV. They’d play the intro to the song so we could get into the swing of it, then they’d cut the music and we’d have to try and keep miming along to where the music should be as the actors do the dialogue, and then they add the music to the scene later. Hopefully we managed to keep something approaching good time. It was fun though, if somewhat surreal. You were involved in last year’s Specialized album project too? How did that happen? I’ve known the organiser Paul Willo through the ska scene for some time, and through his Specials2 ska forum. Via the wonder of Facebook I saw that he was talking about doing something for the Teenage Cancer Trust and I said that I’d love to be involved if possible, and ended up covering Skinhead Moonstomp for the album. It’s great to be involved with something as varied as this, and the album is still bouncing around inside the van now and gets quite a lot of plays. We’ve also got involved with the new one too. After the big Specialized gig last year the ball started rolling again, this time with tracks by The Beat. We got in early and called dibs on Hands Off... She’s Mine. It’s something we’ve been covering in our live shows for some time, it’s a favourite of ours – it’s just so lively and
bouncy that you just can’t resist the urge to dance to it. We’ve pretty much finished with it, just tweaking it slightly, and hope to have it done by this weekend. So what else does the future hold for the band? We’ve played a lot of festivals this summer, including a spot on the This is Ska Festival in Germany supporting The Aggrolites, but we want to do a lot of small club type gigs too. One thing that we’re sort of kicking about is the idea of linking up with other similar bands around the country, trying to create some sort of support network for each other, helping each other at gigs and the like. All that aside, the big thing for this year is to get moving on the second album. We’ve a lot of songs written and so we’ll have it done by the end of the year if we can get our shit together. It’s fine getting the tracks recorded, it’s the mixing and mastering that takes the time, going backwards and forwards trying to get the right feel to the album. I work on the theory that if I can’t get excited by my own album then how the hell can I expect anyone else to? If we’re putting something out then it has to make a difference in some way, it needs to deliver emotion and hopefully some sort of message too. We’re also hoping to play a couple of scooter rallies too. We’ve had a couple of chats with Steve Foster from VFM and we’re hoping something will come of it, but nothing has been signed. We’ve played a couple of scooter club parties and have gone down well. Our keyboard player, Ross, owns a Lambretta, so it’s something that obviously he’s keen on doing. You mention that you feel the need to have messages in your music? That’s one thing that I’ve always felt, and it’s something that 2Tone – in particular The Specials – was as much about the underlying social message as the music. It’s always struck me that if you can get people to dance then that’s half the battle won. It does seem that in dark times people get drawn towards something like ska as a release. You can then talk about the things that you see as being important in the world. Ska’s always had that underlying approach about it, even back to the Rude Boy records from 60s Jamaica, you’ll always find that social commentary in a lot of records. Obviously The Specials and The Selecter picked that up, and the current crop of new ska bands seem to be thinking about injustice. The difference between ska and punk is that hopefully ska is a bit easier on the ears and feet, but we share that common ground of trying to get a message across to people. We’re at the arse end of nothing at the moment, and it’s our way of shouting out about it. I love the idea of people buying our music thinking that it’s all about sunshine and that sort of crap and then discovering that it isn’t at all, and that there’s a message behind it. Nik The Talks’ WestSinister EP is available now from www.thetalks.co.uk and will no doubt be available for download from the usual sources. Try to catch them live before they become too big for clubs.
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