Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från Scootering

MOTOREX MOTO CLEAN PLUS I’ve never been one for obsessively cleaning my scooters, but after this summer’s German trip, even I had to admit it was time to tidy up the GP. I’ve said this before, so please forgive the repetition but I have one of the most reliable Lambrettas on the planet. Great news, but it does mean that routine maintenance gets neglected and because I’m not fiddling with it all the time there’s no need to keep things clean. The last time my riding buddy, Brad, looked under the panels he said that the last time he’d seen so much oil in one place it was “oozing out of the Exxon Valdez ”. Since then I’ve carried the accumulated road grime, petrol wash and film of two-stroke oil…

In a recent statement on behalf of the BSRA, Andy Greenslade of South West Scooter Clubs explained the reason for this departure from the usual October reveal. “This new way of doing things is for various reasons. Firstly, it is getting harder to find venues that will take the large numbers needed for a national scooter rally and when we do find them we have to book years in advance to get the dates we need. The venues in the likes of Weymouth, Scarborough and Llandudno can book up five or six years in advance. “Secondly, we are finding in this new era of social media people are releasing rally dates sometimes well over a year in advance which means we cannot just release dates in October anymore. I personally…

Alpinestars Hurricane Alpinestars needs no introduction to most riders and its Hurricane V2 range offers several options from a full suit to separate jacket and trousers. The manufacturer’s description lists them as 100% waterproof with inner mesh pockets, Velcro adjustments on the arms and waist, reflective print on the chest/back yoke/arms, bottom leg opening with a zip and gussets for easy boot passage and a storage bag. Prices range from £42.99 for the trousers to £114.99 for the full suit. ■ www.alpinestars.com ARMR Eyoshi waterproof sports jackets Although aimed at sportsbike riders, the ARMR range offers a sporting take on waterproof jackets that would compliment any streetracer. The Eyoshi 3.0 waterproof jacket features a Dryguard membrane for weather protection, pant/jean connectors for a secure fit and a removal laser-quilted thermal…

The 1970s was a difficult decade for the two leading established scooter manufacturers. In 1971, the Lambretta would all but disappear, leaving Vespa to represent the Italian scooter industry in a highly competitive marketplace. The two major Italian manufacturers had all but monopolised the scooter market for decades but now they were assaulted from all angles. Most notably by Honda with its C90 but there were also several other Japanese manufacturers flooding the market with small-capacity motorcycles. The problem for Piaggio was that its designs were starting to look dated, both from a cosmetic and technical point of view. Piaggio needed to develop a radically new design if it wanted to compete with the competition and, more importantly, ensure that the Vespa brand survived. A bit square By 1977, scooter…

This month we’ve reports from a classic rally on the Isle of Man, an ever-popular grass roots meeting in Yorkshire, and a prize winner from Hampshire. Isle of Man weekend The Isle of Man weekend is a rally rooted in tradition but with an enduring popularity. These snaps are from this year’s event and were sent in by Graham Fox. They show Chester Scooter Club members and their scooters. The group shot was taken at the very southerly point on the island called The Calf of Man, shown in the background. The road shots are going up the Gooseneck on to the TT course near Ramsey. Prize day out This picture is of Hamble Scooter Club founder Jono Ashley. He’s beaming with delight, sitting on his newly acquired Lambretta after…

Many of us may know the name of Paul Diamond, and even know or count this character of the classic scooter world as a friend. He proudly enjoys dressing up in period attire to match whatever classic vehicle he has decided to use on any given day, and could be ranked high on the scale of British eccentricity, if such a thing was to exist. We need folk like this on the scene, as it keeps things interesting. For those of you who don’t recognise the name and can’t recall seeing such a person at scootering events, then unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, be aware of some scooters sold by a classic vehicle auction house that have commanded a hefty winning bid. These…

PRACTICAL SCOOTERING TECH TIPPart 20 Admittedly, the last few jobs on the Vespa haven’t shown much visual progress to motivate us. Bleeding the front brake and fitting some floor runners are essential but somewhat boring jobs. They take a while to do as they are fiddly tasks, so I’m glad they are now at least ticked off the list and that we can move on to more fruitful items: finishing the electrical wiring jobs and getting the petrol tank and seat fitted. I’m not a fan of electrics and wiring but the PX is much simpler than it looks, in the fact that the connectors are pretty much foolproof, as is most of the colour coding. My ‘old faithful’ Haynes Vespa manual came out to play, as usual, just as…

By 1982, the Mod revival was well past its sell-by date in terms of a nationwide movement, but plenty of those who weren’t old enough to have been recruited in 1979 were still happy to join the party. The standard form of induction was via a crappy VHS copy of Quadrophenia, and though not everyone exposed to it got hooked, a small gaggle of us were. The first visible sign of conversion was the acquisition of a fishtail parka. Ideally this would be a genuine US military example but, if you were desperate, a Millets copy would suffice. Very quickly our Mod contingent started to make the school cloakroom look like some sort of army surplus store. There were fierce battles with the school Rockers at break time, most of…

My introduction to the Sixties had actually come a few years earlier when I was about 12, and my brother had given me some of his old original Beatles albums. They had sent me off on a voyage of discovery, leaving The Sweet, Slade, T-Rex and co behind. The Beatles led to The Kinks, Manfred Mann, The Small Faces and of course The Who. By the time 1979 arrived I was on the countdown to getting a scooter, and slightly ahead of the fashion curve. I appreciated The Jam’s strong influences and despite a (brief) flirtation with New Romantics and synthesiser music it was guitar-based Sixties-influenced music that had taken my heart. If I recall rightly, I had heard about the May Day gathering of Mod bands at a pub…

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. Q. I was knocked off my scooter recently by a cyclist who had pulled out of a side junction. I have witnesses who say that he was at fault. Can I bring a claim against him? A. Sorry to hear about your accident. You certainly can bring a claim against him. The main…

New releases Millie Manders and The Shutup – Wake Up, Shut Up, Work I’ve been a huge fan of Millie Manders ever since she emerged, initially as a solo artist. I’ve watched her grow and assemble various incarnations of The Shutup, improving and changing all the time. A few years ago, Scootering was lucky enough to be one of the very first publications to run an interview with her as I could see the talent that was waiting to erupt. The current four-piece lineup is hopefully the final and definitive one, as their new album has a very complete and settled feel about the way they all play together. Continuing from where the debut album left off, the new release continues to draw from many musical sources – punk, ska,…

WIN a smart Scootering T-shirt with your photo For your chance to win a stylish Scootering magazine T-shirt, email us your HI-RES pics to: suys@scootering.com and the least crap snap wins! For full terms and conditions, visit: www.scootering.com/comptc 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. Least crap snap Sometimes it’s the photo, sometimes it’s the story. This is Andy Money and his ’64 Li Series 3 with Paul Weller doing a photo session on the day of his Leicester gig in April. In Andy’s words: “Can I say a big thank you to so many people who helped set up…

Adrian first brought his Lambretta, City Gent, in to be sorted at Scooterotica more than 13 years ago. It was nice to see this scooter back through our doors again and the dyno results for her new pipe were very pleasing. I had to double-check when exactly it was that we had City Gent through our doors for the first time and it was just over 13 years ago! City Gent is a scooter dedicated to those who perished in the Bradford City fire disaster. Although inspired by sad and sombre subject matter, it’s lovely looking scooter. So, it was interesting to have City Gent back through the doors again all these years later, this time in for a dyno after a recent exhaust upgrade. I keep records of almost…

My original plan for the S2 Lambretta was to get all the chassis items (cables, loom, brakes, tyres, suspension, etc) all upgraded, and then crack on with a full engine rebuild. As part of that, we opted to do a little ‘bang for buck’ interlude between the chassis being sorted and the engine rebuild commencing. First, we changed the ignition from 6v point to 12v electronic and added a 25mm PHBL carb; those both gave us a small improvement in power. We then upgraded the standard factory clubman for an AF 42mm clubman, which also gave us a little boost. Last month, we then did an extremely basic and simple porting job to the cylinder, which added a little more power. We were going to leave it at that and…

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 GP 200. 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 manufacturer’s websites, this can vary between manufacturers depending on what methods are used to test their machines. For example the…

Many individuals and characters have played a hugely important part in the scooter scene over the years, all of them making a significant contribution. Without their input, things would have been very different, and had it not been for their hard work and commitment the scene we have today may not have existed. It would take forever to list them all and the work they have carried out, but Bob is celebrating a milestone birthday and deserves a special mention. The reason for this is that his work within the industry created a platform from which we all benefit, even though he is very modest about his achievements. Robert Kitson Wilkinson, or Bob as he is fondly known, has graced the pages of this magazine many times in the past…

It was back in 1958 that Ron Daley turned his part-time job of repairing motorcycles into a full-time career and for most of the intervening years this family business has held a Vespa franchise. In recent years it’s become well known as a PX specialist. Ron’s grandson Michael Daley is ideally placed to provide an insight into how best to look after the last of Vespa’s classic two-strokes as he divides his time between the company’s workshop and warehouse. Parts, Piaggio and pattern Having made us both a brew, Michael took us away from the showroom into part of the warehouse. There, the racks filled with parts made my first question about parts availability redundant, but I asked it anyway. “Well, as you can see it’s pretty good”, he began.…

The roots of this build go back several decades, when nine-year-old Chris Hunt was given a model JPS F1 car as a Christmas present. Like many boys of that era, the black and gold scheme enthralled him and although he didn’t know it at the time, it would lead to the stunning street racer we see before us today. “In the 80s there were a few JPS street racers kicking about,” said Chris. “I always loved them, but I never saw any of them as fabulous custom scooters. So, I decided that one day I would build one and make sure it was the best I could possibly do.” Over the years Chris has built several scooters from scratch, starting with a 1967 Lambretta SX150, which won Best Vintage Scooter…

For those living on the Isle of Wight, the annual scooter invasion will either put people off scooters forever or inspire them to embrace the culture with open arms. For islander Dan Shales, it’s definitely been a case of the latter. “I’d always been attracted to the scooter scene and had been going to gigs at scooter rallies for some time, but it wasn’t until 2010 that I bought my first scooter,” he explained. “That was a 1960 Series 2 Li which was found on the island. I’d been keeping my eyes open for the right Lambretta but nothing that I saw had jumped out at me. One day at work a great mate of mine, Joe, who runs a ska band on the island, told me that he’d seen…

Every month you ask our resident tyre expert, Rhodz, sales manager at Cambrian Tyres (the UK’s largest motorcycle tyre distributor) and dedicated PX rider for his recommendations. This month we talk about tyre date codes. Make it a date Q: I have bought some tyres. They look new, but how can I tell the date of manufacture to make sure they are safe to use? Sollars, Bristol A: Hi Sollars, We get asked a lot about date codes on tyres here, but it’s also handy to know when we rotate our tyre stock. On the side of all tyres there will be an oval-shaped tab with four numbers; something like 2422. The first two letters are the week of production , the remaining two are the year of production. In…

PRACTICAL SCOOTERING TECH TIPS Part 11 The Royal Alloy has been an interesting and enjoyable learning curve for me. It’s the first automatic four-stroke scooter that I have worked on to this extent, but things have been far more straightforward than I had thought it would be. After years of working on classic scooters where anything that can go wrong will go wrong, it was quite a revelation to work on a machine where bolts didn’t shear off, new components fitted with no problems, and the upgrades actually did what they said they would do! The only thing I would say, though, is that the tuning seems far more ‘limited’ than the equivalent two-stroke scooter and less ‘involved’, if that makes sense. On a two-stroke, I would measure the ports,…

I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time on electric machines over the last few years. I’ve ridden the expensive stuff, I’ve ridden the cheaper stuff, and generally I’ve been pretty impressed. Yet, I’ve heard a lot of negative comments from ageing motorcycle and scooter riders about our imminent electric future. I don’t dispute that concerns about infrastructure and energy consumption are entirely valid, but that’s no reason to dismiss an entire category of machines right off the bat. After all, they’ve got two wheels and a motor, so they can’t be all bad. Whatever your opinion, electric is here to stay, and as a result there’s an ever-increasing abundance of choice depending on your budget. On one side you’ve got brands like Energica who are building high-end, race-ready motorcycles that’ll…