Scootering July 2019

50hp Vespa Quattrini kit conversion for Lambretta!

Accessorised Shaft!

Fully loaded ’57 LD

De ealers’ Ch hoice: LT TH Moto espa GT160 Ve

Spectacular

PLUS

71bhp Sprinter

CLASSIC CUSTOM HELLBOUND: BACK TO HELL… AGAIN! ITALIAN RECORD BREAKERS ANCILLOTTI BROTHERS’ CHALLENGE UNEARTHED! Madspeed Rub Through Spectacular ■ BSRA Weston ■ Phoenix Nights ■ Skeggy Rally ■ LTH SCK & SIP Dealer News ■ Tech Torque ■ Scooter Boy Tales ■ Readers’ Rides ■ Show Us Your Scooters ■ Readers’ Letters ■ Scooter Trader - Events Guide and more…

No.397 July 2019

UK Off-sale date – 25/07/2019

£4.30

Editor: Dan Clare Email: dan@scootering.com Publisher: Tim Hartley Publishing director: Dan Savage Design: Chris Abrams, Luke Medler Picture desk: Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield Production editor: Mike Cowton General queries and back issues: Tel: 01507 529529 24hr answerphone Mon-Fri 8.30am-6pm, Sat 8.30am-12.30pm help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk Archivist: Jane Skayman 01507 529423 Email: jskayman@mortons.co.uk Subscription: Full subscription rates (but see page 38 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £49.20. Export rates are also available – see page 38 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax Subscription manager: Paul Deacon Circulation manager: Steven O’Hara Marketing manager: Charlotte Park Commercial director: Nigel Hole TRADE ADVERTISING Gary Thomas – gthomas@mortons.co.uk Tel (01507) 529417 Stuart Yule syule@mortons.co.uk Tel (01507) 529410 Divisional advertising manager: Zoe Thurling 01507 529412, zthurling@mortons.co.uk Group advertising manager: Sue Keily ADVERTISING DEADLINES The advertising deadline for the next issue of Scootering (Aug 2019) is Thursday, July 4, 2019 On sale in newsagents Thursday, July 25, 2019 SCOOTERING (USPS:020-245) is published monthly

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The Professional Publishers Association Member

Welcome to the July edition of Scootering g

Stunning tuned/custom scooters adorn the front page in every era... but are they just the work of the devil? Not in my book.

T

his month’s Mailbox page is a beauty. Amongst other more usual correspondence, I received two letters from different readers, the content of which I honestly found both hilarious and mind-boggling. One bloke was so incandescent that we had issued a free Power & Performance Supplement with the magazine that he felt compelled to write to me in order to highlight his disgust. It wasn’t the concept of giving a free supplement away with the magazine per se, more the content of said supplement… power and performance. The second gentleman was hopping mad at the amount of custom scooters featured in the pages of the magazine each month. I was left a tad bemused.

Just to be sure I hadn’t got my role as editor of Scootering magazine completely wrong, I took a stroll down into the archives here at Mortons Towers, and looked for the era where we focused the flavour of the magazine strongly around completely standard, un-tuned, stock scooters, which were quite ordinary in every aspect… with not so much as a sniff of custom paint or Don Blocksidge going anywhere near them. I was, of course, relieved to find my sanity intact, and my

reputation as editor vindicated, when I couldn’t find such an era of the magazine. If I had found it, I fear it would look a lot like a library of Haynes manuals.

Please don’t misunderstand me, we do feature plenty of ‘factory/barn finds’ and ‘concourse restoration’ machines within these pages, because on balance I think we need to encompass as many aspects of scootering as possible: Vespa, Lambretta, auto, custom, street-racer, mod, cutdown, standard, tuned, engraved… and so on. It’s all about focusing on your core readers, whilst also endeavouring to encompass a broad variety of equally interesting alternatives and linked themes. So when someone writes to me and tells me that Scootering has too many painted/engraved custom scooters, and that the concept of increasing the performance of your machine is ‘a load of old shit’… I have to wonder if these people have really ever read the magazine before at all. Funny.

Anyway, that’s enough of my ramblings, it’s another belter this month… enjoy the issue, no matter what you ride or how fast it goes!

Dan

S C O O T E R I N G WA S B R O U G H T T O Y O U W I T H T H E H E L P O F. . .

Stu Smith

Vespa & Lambretta owner, scooter obsessive, amateur home mechanic, rally goer, Mod sympathiser, music lover and general all round good egg. He writes your rally reports, be nice to him.

Nik Skeat

Vespa P-range obsessive, welltravelled rally rider since the 80s, founder of the notorious Scooterboy World forum. He’s also a brilliant beer-brewing bearded Scootering feature writer.

Paul Green

Vespa & Lambretta scooter enthusiast, BSSO professional and general good egg. Our Paul has a long history of scootering both on the road and on the track, with the breakdown bills and crash scars to prove it.

Stuart Owen

LCGB ‘life member’, 100mph LambrettaClub owner and scooter restoration expert to boot. Scooter rider, rally-goer, restorer and author. Reaches the parts other scooter journalists just can’t reach.

Dave Oakley

Riding and building scooters since 1983, Dave has been a contributor to Scootering since the 90s. His builds include chops, cutdowns, street-racers, autos and the most infamous custom of the 80s!

Big Stan

80s scooterboy turned long-distance rider.

Be it local, national or international, he’ll ride anywhere in his quest to bring you the tastiest scooters, best roads, trade interviews and hidden gems.

Sarge

With over four decades of riding, rally-going and competing on both Lambretta and Vespa scooters under his belt, this former Freddie Mercury lookalike is still going strong.

He’s a top DJ too, don’tcha know.

CONTENTS letter from the 03Welcome Editor 52Pretty Green A warm welcome to the July edition of Scootering

06Kickstart

The upfront section with all the latest news, views and product reviews

14

Feature Scooters: Rub Through Spectacular!

Dave at Madspeed has fabricated cut-downs, choppers, street-racers and original full-bodied scooters. His enthusiastic and pro-active mind-set led him to develop the ‘rub-through’ look

Rally Report: Weston22super-Mare

Following the sunshine in Scarborough for the first National Rally of the year, there were high hopes for a repeat Bank Holiday heatwave. Weston-super-Mare didn’t disappoint. Happy daze!

Rally Report: Phoenix 27Nights

This year’s Leicester Phoenix S.C.’s Phoenix Nights 14 rally incorporated their 40th anniversary celebrations, which was always going to make it something special and a great weekend

31

Rally Report: Skegness

In five weeks Stan’s new GTS has covered over 3,000 miles and visited eight nations. Seems like a good time to ask what Vespa’s HPE is really like

Reader’s Ride: Back to 56Hell…

Again

Owning a classic custom is a tricky business and choosing to preserve or update is just one of the challenges. In the case of Hellbound, fate played the deciding hand

60Feature Scooter: Dr Death

Dr Death is Richard Bowman’s Vespa street-racer, which delivers a ‘Toxic Twist’ on the MotoGP champion’s style

66Kevin’s Chronicles

Part 7 of our homage to scooter legend Kev Walsh. In this episode we take a look at the first Euro Lambretta, and wonder if we were allowed to attend. The Brits show them how it’s done properly

72Club Do’s & Events

Your essential guide to the scene – What, Where & When

80

A quick one with: Claire Mahoney

We caught up with Claire for an exclusive chat about her book: Welsh Mod - Our Story

Ten years in the making, the 10th Anniversary Skegness Scooter Rally was always going to be something rather special

An Englishman in New 84 York – The Grahame Fowler interview

37Mailbox

Torque: Accident 92Tech Damage

Readers’ letters, laughs, feedback and fury – get it off your chest man!

40Show us your scoots!

The best of our readers’ rides as sent in by you

44

Dealer Profile: LTH Germany

Whilst it has an enviable reputation for high-quality products, LTH remains a mystery to many. Stan meets the man behind the magic

48

Event Report: SIP Open Day

It’s 25 years since SIP first opened its doors. On Saturday, May 4, its founders Alex and Ralf threw a party to celebrate

50SCK Parts Fair

This year Scooter Centre Koln kicked off the season with something different, an open air parts fair

4 | SCOOTERING | JULY 2019

124

Sometimes even the slightest of accidents or even just a scooter falling over can cause damage that is unseen, leading to big problems later on. Stu explains all

107Silver Special

A 71bhp Vespa engine deserves to be raced and fortunately that’s exactly what SIP have planned for their 25th Anniversary Special

111Hydrographics

Hydrographics, run by Harry Sykes, has now developed into one of the highest quality hydrodipping companies in the country. Stu investigates

Italian record 124The breakers

During the 1960s the Ancillotti brothers were the leaders in breaking speed records. Many would try to beat them, some in the most unorthodox way

Never miss from only £20 an issue Subscribe today on page 38

111

14 22

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KICKSTART

BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER!

After a rather long and lean spell, Eric Cope has returned back to the track to take his Lambretta into uncharted territory, by going faster than ever before on a full-bodied Lambretta. At Elvington airfield on May 12 he recorded a top speed of 112.321 mph over a half-mile distance, from a standing start.

It was an interesting day. The weather forecast was showing easterly, which would have been a back wind (better for top speed records), but unfortunately competitors arrived at 8am to find thick fog and could not see the runway. Thankfully, by 9am the fog was clearing, but leaving a light wind across the runway, which got stronger during the day. Amongst those striving to enter the ‘tonne up club’ was Neil Pettitt on his RB-200, but sadly he just missed out at 99.02mph. Mike Pacey was flying on his TS1-225 and on his last run hit the magic 100.03mph. But the day went to Eric Cope on his RB-250 as he hit a fantastic speed of 112.321mph on a full-bodied scooter.

You have to go back almost three years to 2016, to recall when Eric Cope and James Winter were battling out for supremacy, exchanging new records, then standing at 107mph. Since that time, Eric has continued to perfect his machine as well as the continued development of the engine by Darrell Taylor. Now producing over 55bhp, the power is finally available to push the scooter up to these amazing speeds. Previously, the poor aerodynamic shape of the Lambretta couldn’t push through the head wind any faster, but now the engine has the power to battle it. The key to unlocking this extra potential has come from a new exhaust design, developed

by Darrell and Neil Pettit, it has proved a success.

Eric almost failed to turn up at the meeting due to an ignition fault that took eight hours to rectify the day before. This meant he was rushing around and, in doing so, forgot to pack the chain and sprockets, meaning he couldn't alter the gearing on the day. With there being a slight crosswind and stuck with gearing already fitted, his achievement is even more incredible. So what next? Can he go even faster? With perfect conditions (a tailwind) and different gearing choices, possibly so.

On the day Eric backed up his fastest speed with several more runs, all within 1%, and so can be accepted as correct. For now, he can be satisfied with the knowledge it's the fastest he has ever been on a full-bodied Lambretta, or anyone else for that matter. What is needed now is for those people who run the event to establish some sort of class that can accept this discipline officially so it can be claimed as a record.Congratulations go to Eric and the other teams for pushing the boundaries of Lambretta performance even further, and we look forward to what they come up with next.

LML... PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES S?

Industry sources have confirmed to Scootering that the administrators of the defunct LML company are actively seeking buyers for the factory’s tooling.

At least one major European company is engaged in talks. However, these appear to have stalled due to differing expectations of the parties involved. We understand that although none is seriously proposing to resume production of complete machines, the potential buyer seeks to ‘cherry pick’ a selection of tools and move

production to a location of their choice.

The administrator, however, prefers a solution that would see a more complete range of components manufactured at a factory in India.

This news is important as it confirms that, two years after the company was declared insolvent, the tooling still survives and also that the administrator understands their value. Is there going to be another chapter in the PX story? That’s uncertain, but we’ll watch with interest and bring you more news as it emerges.

SNEAKY SNAPS Although they’re still at the development stage, two prototypes were hiding in plain sight during Stan’s recent visit to Scooter Centre’s development facility. Small frame fans will be pleased to hear that the next addition to BGM’s

6 | SCOOTERING | JULY 2019

legendary ‘Big box’ series will be for the PK range, whilst Lambretta enthusiasts can anticipate a revised down pipe that promises better gas flow and, as a consequence, improved power delivery.

More info: www.scooter-center.com

LEADING LIGHTS Back in stock at SCK is the Moto Nostra LED light conversion for all pre HPE models of Vespa’s GTS. The unit offers a massive improvement on the standard item as the position light, low beam and high beam all ‘build’ upon one another to increase luminescence.

Unlike other similar products, the Moto Nostra is fitted with universal connector blocks, meaning that no cutting or soldering is required during fitting. Whilst on the topic of GTS lighting, another recent arrival to SCK’s showroom are sets of Audi-style ‘running’ indicators.

More info: www.scooter-center.com

CHARITY STREET RACER! Since building his 32+bhp liquid cooled, Quatrinni-powered custom streetracer ‘This Is The Life’, which was a feature scooter in Scootering (October 2017), Franky Fountain has been on the receiving end of a series of life's hard knocks… affecting both his personal health, as well as that of his parents. Franky suffered no less than three mini-strokes in under 12 months, and the following year both his mother and father sustained fatal strokes within a week of each other. Helping Franky through what was a tough two years were Chest, Heart and Stroke (Scotland) Charity, and to show his appreciation Franky has turned to something he knows and knows very well.

He's building a full-blown Custom Vespa Street Racer which, when completed, will be used to raise needed funds for his chosen charity. His aim is to create what promises to be a top-quality, fully customised Vespa Street Racer, with help by way of generous donations of parts and services from as many top scooter companies, dealers and outlets as is possible.

Here are a few words from Franky on the subject: “It’s a charity that, due to personal as well as family circumstances, proved to be

invaluable, with the amazing help and care they provided during a personally difficult period. I wanted to give something back, so I came up with the idea of creating a stunning custom Vespa Street Racer. It's my intention to maximise the amount of money eventually raised for the charity by generous pledges of (preferably) free donations of services, fixtures, fittings, running gear, engine parts, or even a full engine to help the build of the scooter. For starters, to get the ball rolling, Rich Coveny at Riding Dirty Customs has already very generously pledged a full custom flake paint job, worth in the region of £4k. I've been in touch with several other scooter specialists, and the charity is sending me some information packs about what they are about.

Any scooter companies, outlets, dealers and similar who are interested in being involved by providing services or parts, please get in touch either by email at thisthelifefrank@hotmail. com or by telephoning 07938195003. Thank you sincerely, in advance, to anyone who is interested in getting involved in this exciting project, that is also for a good cause, and is literally close to my heart. Of course, all those who generously donate services or goods will have their logo displayed on the finished scooter. I intend to complete this charity project by summer 2020, and plan to display the finished custom scooter at several scooter events, including rallies, prior to it being sold, raffled or maybe auctioned to raise funds for Chest, Heart and Stroke Charity. I'm a survivor.

I hope there will be many more survivors like myself in the future, too.”

LLANDUDNO CAMPSITE CONFIRMED

This year’s site for the national rally will be located on land at Fferm, on the edge of town, just off Queens Road, Craig Y Don LL30 1UB. It is just 15 minutes’ walk to the sea front, and facilities include showers, toilets and catering on site. Note: It is not suitable for large, or oversize campervans and/or motorhomes.

WWW.SCOOTERING.COM | 7

KICKSTART

SUNSHINE IN STEEL CITY

One of the biggest secrets in scootering’s summer calendar is Armando’s open day. Held in early May, it’s more of a weekend event and is Giulio and Guido’s way of saying thanks to their customers for supporting them over the previous 12 months. This year’s Saturday evening party was held at Sheffield’s Millennium Hall, with DJ’s playing to a packed audience. On Sunday the workshop was open for inspection, giving an opportunity to see both ongoing projects and the latest scooters to arrive from Italy. Hundreds of scooterists had made the trip and with scooters lining each side of the street, a party atmosphere filled the air. In addition to a parts and clothing fair, a retro sandwich van catered for the hungry whilst a free dyno provided entertainment for owners and spectators alike. The event closed at lunchtime with the traditional ride out. All in all it’s a throughly enjoyable event that showcases the mutual respect felt between the brothers and their customer base. When congratulated on hosting another successful open day, Guido summed things up perfectly: “Of course we put on a good party, we’re Italians!” www.armandosscooters.com

SAIGON CELEBRATIONS Incredibly, it’s now 22 years since Pat Joynt made his unplanned arrival in Vitenam.

Since then he’s established Saigon Scooter Centre as one of the major suppliers of re-made premises to celebrate in typical Vietnamese style.

As the afternoon rolled on and the weather deteriorated, a steady flow of party goers arrived at the shop. Although many opted for taxis, there was a good turnout from the local Saigon scooter clubs who battled the downpour. The afternoon ride out was cancelled after a quick vote of either getting drenched or getting drunk. Getting drunk won by an overwhelming majority!

Both Pat and his partner Linh would like to extend a a big thank you to friends and customers for braving the tropical storm to come over and celebrate with them. “The support of everyone both at home and abroad over the past 22 years has been much appreciated,” said Pat. As we go to press there’s still one place left on this year’s Vietnamese scooter tour. As Stan discovered last year, it truly is the scootering experience of a lifetime.

Further information can be found by visiting SSC’s website or FaceBook page. www.saigonscootercentre.com

SCOOTERBOYS: THE LOST TRIBE (TWO-FINGER SALUTE) This book is an easy and enjoyable read, summing up the gritty and organic evolution of the scooterboy, with Sticky’s usual humour firmly entrenched throughout. Using perfect tempo he (almost through gritted teeth) acknowledges the ‘mod pre-cursor’ era, before quite rightly parking it up in the space it deserves with this gem of a statement: ‘Mod is not scooter-dependant. You can be a perfectly viable mod on a bus, a train, or driving a classic car. For mods the scooter is an accessory. For scooterboys the classic Vespa or Lambretta is essential.’ He then goes on to deliver his insight on the people, places, events, scooters and faces that have shaped the ‘lost tribe’ of scooterboys and scooterists.

Never miss an issue 8 | SCOOTERING | JULY 2019

The book is littered with previously unseen images of the era, and though it bobs back and forth a little, on the whole it’s chronological illustration and commentary of all that matters to those who lived (and live) the life of a scooterist, is delivered perfectly. It sums up the scene just as well to those who are part of it, as much as it educates those who don’t know the first thing about it. Finally, it gives a clear and definitive clarification to those who, through ignorance, mistakenly ‘cross-label’ anyone who ever rode a scooter, as being a mod. After all, as Martin reminds us: ‘A scooterist without a scooter is just an ist.’ It’s a thoroughly recommended read.

Dan

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