Graeme Sherburd

He got the parts he wanted and took them back to Rotorua. Next he received a call from the owner of the shop: “If you're prepared to pay that much, you can have the lot”. So he bought the lot – hired a truck, took his daughter and son with him, and brought everything back to Rotorua to his workshop.

The vespa agency at that time was W. Whites of New Plymouth. John had started importing Bajaj scooters, and also vespas from India, which sold quite well. The prices were lower than

Graeme Sherburd can be seen in the photo above dressed as a clown, part of the Otago Vespa Club contingent to the 1964 Auckland Easter Show.

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the Italian vespas sold by W. Whites, and this led to some disagreements between John Patterson and W. Whites. Eventually they offered the agency to John anyway, even though he'd had no plans to take it on.

At this stage, John had people arriving, phoning, writing to him seemingly every day, requesting parts. John would send the parts off the next day – this kind of service hadn't been offered before. “There was a group of people in the Waikato, and they were real scooter enthusiasts. They'd come down, wanting parts. I had to call my daughter to help me when we were really busy. We had very good servicing down here (Rotorua), and I had a good workshop.” John then found suitable premises to lease in Auckland, and Scooterworld began. “It didn't really go as well as I thought it would go. We started bringing in scooters from Italy. I always felt that they were quite highly priced”. “I'd had a couple of heart bypasses, and it got to the point when neither my son nor myself wanted to live in Auckland, and it needed someone to be in Auckland to work the place. He'd go up for one week, and the next week I'd go up. We had a van, and when I came back I'd bring the load of scooters back down to Rotorua for servicing. That was alright, but then my heart packed up again, and nobody expected me to live. While I was in intensive care in Auckland Hospital, they [my family] advertised the business and sold it.”.

The buyers of Scooterworld didn't purchase all John's stock and equipment – he continued to supply the shop with parts, especially older parts. He later advertised the parts for sale – and despite interest from several people in New Zealand, no one was prepared to pay the money. Then one day, a couple of Australians turned up on his doorstep, had a look around, and agreed to take the lot.

John was on the receiving end of abuse from scooterists calling for parts, when they heard it had all gone to Australia. He subsequently suffered several more heart attacks.

John still has a couple of scooters, a 1998 Skipper, and 1998 Hexagon, and he can still get around, although he needs to be careful. He is also restoring a 1953 vespa 125 (not his own), and still gets calls from people wanting information about scooters.

“Vespas are a disease. I can't leave them alone. And a lot of people I know, they can't leave them alone either.”

From an interview by phone in early 2008.

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Canscoot 2013

Show Weekend ride

Photo: Mark Powney

Photo: Mark Powney Scoot NZ #34 12

Photo: Mark Powney

Photo: Steve Wall

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Photo: Steve Wall

Mobile vespa service.

● Repairs ● Broken clutch/gear/brake cables ● Punctures ● Electrical failure ● Servicing ● Drive belts ● Oil change ● Brakes pads/shoes ● Tyres ● Rebuilds ● Engine rebuilds ● Front end assembly ● Disassembly and reassembly for repaint by automotive spraypainters.

What scooters do I service? ● Bajaj (Chetak, Super,

Viking) ● LML (NV, Belladonna, Star) ● Innocenti (Lambretta) ● Piaggio / Vespa ● TVC (PK, PX) What scooters don’t I service? ● “Asian resto” ● Chinese scooters. ● Japanese scooters.

Advanced Services: Rebores Brake shoe relining Upholstery Other services available, please enquire.