Innehållsförteckning för January 2024 från Scootering

As many readers will know, one of my most treasured possessions is my original 1990s vintage race scooter that I fondly refer to as Old#49. Long story short, I built this scooter in the 1990s and it went through various incarnations of paintwork but ended in the (very) 90s paint job which has remained surprisingly intact. I sold it back in 1995 and its new owner stored it in the back of a garage under a carpet for more than 18 years! A few years ago I had the chance to buy it back, so obviously I did. This race scooter is almost unique in being so original. I’ve had the chance to ride it again on track at the BSEC Endurance practice sessions, but unfortunately while doing so it…

Although government strategy is a move towards electrification, Motorcycle Action Group has pointed out that where motorcycles are concerned, that strategy is merely a pretence. Despite being home to one of Europe’s largest EV charging facilities, the home of the Motorcycle Live Show has admitted that there are no dedicated motorcycle charging facilities on site. Free motorcycle parking is offered in Hall 1 for the duration of the show, but with no charging points. The main car parks have a tiny number of charge points, none dedicated for motorcycles, and the BP Pulse facility is accessed via front-facing ANPR camera-controlled barriers. MAG’s director of campaigns and political engagement, Colin Brown, said: “It is ironic that, at the UK’s premier motorcycle show, where the future of motorcycling is displayed and promoted,…

Rewind a couple of years and picture David with his freshly engineered and built custom scooter, Fired Up. He poured his heart and soul into the design, fabrication and creation of that machine, and was proud to début it at Kelso’s custom show. The scooter was David’s own mix of Lambretta front, Vespa rear, GP forks and P200 engine. Executed to a high standard, the hope of winning Best Engineered was a real possibility; however, the show was sadly a damp squib for David. He came away with zero trophies and lost out to (as he saw it) “an old LD”. This loss hit David hard; upset at all the work he put into his custom scooter, and for it not to win a single trophy at all, he was…

Scooter ownership was all we craved, but once you got one, the floodgates opened. It didn’t matter whether you were a Vespa or a Lambretta owner, the lure of these fine Italian machines meant that before long a garage would be full of them. The problem was that storing them soon became a logistical nightmare; not just the scooters but all the usual crap that went along with them. Panels, exhausts, and racks discarded from our Mod phase kept stacking up. To us teenagers, that was acceptable, but not so for our parents, whose house was slowly but surely turning into a second-hand scooter junkyard. The old man would often make demands that it was shifted, usually followed by a threat to swap it all for a goldfish when the…

I like all classic two-stroke geared Vespa scooters, but for me, out of all the models, the PX is my favourite, especially the 200cc variant. It just does everything it is supposed to with ease: low maintenance, no issue with parts (for the time being anyway) and very easy to live with. Leave it alone, and use it as intended by the designers back in Toscana and it will give you a lifetime of reliability. There are plenty of smiles per mile and it’s easy to make memories during trouble-free journeys and adventures. You can use a PX all week for your commute, then jump on it of a weekend and travel the length and breadth of the country and beyond; with nothing to worry about barring the occasional puncture…

PRACTICAL SCOOTERING TECH TIPSPart 12 I love taking stuff apart yet, for some inexplicable reason, the rebuild process can often overwhelm me and become stagnant. I’m determined that won’t be the case on this build and will tackle the job one small step at a time, in order to make the whole process more psychologically manageable and thus (hopefully) maintain momentum until completion (well, that’s the plan anyway!). Last month we got the scooter stripped down to its bare components and sent off to the painters; the first job they undertook was to acid dip the bodywork back to bare metal. Our scooter has a few lumps and bumps here and there, but nothing too worrying – most imperfections will be straightened out via panel beating. The really rough bits…

Q. I was riding my scooter along the road near a building site. The road was absolutely covered in muck and debris from the site. As a result, I came off and suffered injuries. Can I bring a claim against the builders? This information is provided by Stephen Hattersley, of WildWood Legal, a firm of solicitors specialising in claims for injured scooterists. Stephen, a qualified solicitor for 25 years, has been riding scooters for more than 30 years and has acted for injured riders across the UK. He knows the tricks and pitfalls that insurers use and pulls no punches in his dealings with them. He rides to work every day and understands the challenges you face out there. A. Sorry to hear about your accident. You should be able…

Armando’s specials: The ABCCurrent engine specification Casings: PinascoCrank: Pinasco long-stroke 60mm (225cc)Kit: Pinasco 225Carb: 28mm Dell’Orto PHBH with Pinasco manifoldClutch: Pinasco Racing Bull with bespoke coverGearbox: Pinasco/PiaggioIgnition: Pinasco FlytechExhaust: To customer’s specification…

WIN a smart Scootering T-shirt with your photo DATA: Protection of your personal data is important to Mortons. Your data will be stored securely and only be used for the purpose of processing the competition and notifying the winners. Data will then be destroyed. Please send your scooter pictures to: Show Us Your Scooters, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ (include an SAE if you want your print returned) or email a HIGH RESOLUTION image to suys@scootering.com Least crap snap…

Modena museum Hi Stan, We recently came home from a week spent touring in Northern Italy and returned full of great food, wine and culture. While in Modena, in the middle of some lovely countryside, we came across a fantastic motor museum. It was created by a guy called Umberto Panini, who made a fortune producing stickers in the 1960s. He was also a passionate collector of Maseratis, scooters, bikes, tractors and engines. Being a keen scooterist I was interested to see the collection of Lambrettas and Vespas. The museum is in the middle of a large working farm, a very typical Italian laid-back environment. Having spent a great couple of hours looking at this remarkable collection we left and visited the little farm shop opposite the museum and left…

PRACTICAL SCOOTERING TECH TIPSPart 2 I think that as most scooterists are big kids at heart, one of the fun parts of owning a new scooter of any description is making a wish list of stuff to pimp your ride. Last month we introduced our latest addition to the Scootering test fleet, the S2 Lambretta Li150, and went through the procedure of obtaining a NOVA number/letter from HMRC. By comparison to previous years, this is now a very simple process, and thanks to Sam at Lambretta Finder (whom we purchased the scooter from) furnishing us with the all-important documents that are required (date certificate, invoice for the scooter, customs document and a C88 clearance form), all we had to do was email copies of those to HMRC (ecsm.nchcars@hmrc.gov.uk) and request…

How to use the guide We’ve divided the market first by capacity, and then alphabetically within each category. We can’t possibly give values for every classic scooter, there are far too many variables for that, but we have included data for three of the most common machines; a Vespa smallframe, Vespa PX and Lambretta GP200. These should allow comparisons between ‘then and now’ and help anyone switching from classics to modern scooters, or vice versa. We’ve started with models from the usual suspects but over time we’ll be adding more models to widen the range of information available to you. The data Most of the data is taken from manufacturers’ websites. This can vary between manufacturers depending on what methods are used to test their machines. For example the type…

This year the Veteran Vespa Club celebrates its 60th anniversary, an occasion that Scootering is proud to sponsor. With the departure of Mau and full merger of Classic Scooterist, fans of classic scooters could be forgiven for wondering where that leaves coverage of their favourite marques – but fear not. From the very earliest days Scootering has always understood the importance of classics in our world and that’s something we’re proud to continue. This year the Veteran Vespa Club marks 60 years since a group of Vespa enthusiasts first gathered to champion, preserve and enjoy the early Vespa models, especially the British Douglas-produced machines. Now catering for the owners of all classic two-stroke geared Vespas up to and including the PX, the club has a packed itinerary for its diamond…

As our December issue went to press, camping arrangements for Big 7’s Margate rally were still being finalised, but we’re now pleased to report that it’s full steam ahead. One of the things few rallygoers fully appreciate is the number of hurdles that must be cleared before a rally can go ahead. With the move of Big 7 to Margate this year, the organisers were effectively starting from scratch. One of the last pieces of bureaucracy to complete was obtaining permission from Thanet District Council to use Palm Bay Green as a campsite. Thankfully that permission was granted which is great news for the rally. For more information on the event and how to obtain tickets, visit www.big7sc.com or follow their social media.…

There can barely be a scooterist on the planet who isn’t familiar with the name Pinasco, yet if asked few will be able to detail its history. Unless you’re fluent in Italian this book won’t remedy that situation but that doesn’t prevent it from being a fascinating object to own. Published in 2012, this is the company’s story in the words of its founder, Andrea Pinasco, and takes the reader from his upbringing, to the sale of his company in 1999 to the current owners, Bettella. Having been born into a relatively poor family, Andrea left school at 15. One of his first projects as an ‘adult’ was to modify his Vespa GT125, taking it to 150cc and fitting twin carburettors. The following year, 1967, he advertised the conversion in…

★ STAR LETTER ★ Hammer Time Hi Stan, There’s a lot in the media about scooter theft but I thought it may be of interest for readers to know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of such unwanted attention. Firstly I’ll introduce Echo, my silver Vespa GT125 and I’ve owned her since 2019. Despite being an A and B road rider on L plates, we have sure been through a lot! Including breakdowns, theft, crashes, sabotage, nearly catching fire and even being held up at hammer point. I have been riding scooters since 2013 and was a 365 rider, living in a rural area who depended on two-wheeled transport to get around. However, since the scooter attack in 2022 I have been slowly building my confidence back…

The seasons have changed and as they shift, so does the balance of work in the garage. Summer months seem to be inundated with dyno work, whereas winter months shift towards servicing, repairs, restoration jobs and full engine rebuilds on the bench. One of the dynos I recently undertook was on an S2 Li150 that had some subtle enhancements (brakes, suspension, kit, carb, pipe etc) – it was nothing fancy, just a solid workhorse… and I liked it. This was quite notable to me, as I’ve always been a huge fan of the Series 3 Li Special and GP, especially when either is done in minimalistic race paint and usually paired with a large cc engine that has high bhp. But now, the thought of a rustoration S2 with a…

With the scooter weighing in at 130kg, the performance stats for our air-cooled 125cc GY6 motor were not encouraging. The dyno showed 7.2bhp at the rear wheel, and GPS testing indicated a 51mph top speed (on level ground) and a 0-45mph acceleration time of 18 seconds; not very impressive at all. The task now is quite simply to see what we must do to improve on those figures, and to get some meaningful performance out of this little engine. On any two-stroke engine, we would be looking at an expansion chamber, an exhaust, a larger carb than standard, and maybe some cylinder porting to begin with. Following that, we would look at cylinder kits, variable ignitions, and uprating things like the crank, engine bearings, and stronger clutches to make sure…

How and when did you get into scooters? “Two Tone and The Jam were what first sparked my interest in scooters. I also remember being fascinated by a line of scooters I saw when I was on a road trip up north to visit relatives in the late 70s. A few years after that, around ’81 or ’82, I stayed with my gran in Bridlington for a few days and me and my mate took a trip to Scarborough scooter rally. Despite sh*tting myself with the sight of a big crowd of Scooterboys falling out of a pub, the sound and smell of the scooters stayed with me. My first scooter was a Vespa 50, then a cut-down P Range and after that I got the Lambretta bug.” Tell me…