Scootering August 2016 preview

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Chiselspeed

Tuning dealer spotlight

Bonnie & Clyde

custom Vespa GS160 #362 August 2016

custom Lambretta

Euro Lambretta

4 PAGE SPECIAL

Tino Sacchi of LAMBRETTA.IT INTERVIEW

Gran Turismo

INSIDER

PLUS

PRODUCT REPORT

Scooter Trader ■ Events Guide ■ LCGB – a snapshot in time part 2 ■ Taylor Tuning Tech ■ Stu Owen – essential maintenance ■ Rally Reports: Big7 ■ Cleethorpes and more!

CONTENTS 03Letter from the editor A warm welcome to August Scootering.

06Kickstart

The front section with latest news, views and product reviews!

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Bonnie & Clyde – custom scooter

A controversial custom Vespa GS.

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Rally report

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Rally report

Big 7 scooter rally report BSRA#4 in words and pictures.

Euro Lambretta rally report, images and write up from Stevie.

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Rally report

Cleethorpes scooter rally report BSRA#5 in words and pictures.

46Show Us Your Scooters

The best of the rest from readers’ stunning rides.

49Dealer spotlight

This month we take a look into the legendary workshops of Chiselspeed.

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Letters

Feedback and full throttle responses from the readers.

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Inside Interview

Scootering delves inside the workshops and mind of GranTurismo’s Rich Taylor.

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Painting by numbers

Part 4 of our paintjob guide.

– a snapshot in 73LCGB time: Part 2

Special feature on the trials and tribulations of the LCGB: Euros & the Heyday.

78Club Do’s & Events

Your essential guide to the scene – what, where and when!

99Touring in Guernsey

Big Stan takes to the roads of Guernsey on his Vespa to bring us his top touring tips, sights and scenery.

Tino Sacchi – The 107 enigma behind Lambretta.it

Part 1 of Christian Giarrizzo’s interview with Lambretta-master Tino Sacchi.

113Tech Quick Fix Tip Stu Owen talks essential maintenance – wiring.

117Tech Torque

Bang for Buck tuning: Part 4 of the SIL 200 tuning developments – this month Darrell brings us a mammoth six page feature.

125BSSO 2016 #5 129Scooter Trader

Thrills and spills at Cadwell.

Your sales and classifieds section – including Specialist Services & At a Glance.

144Nostalgic Corner

Scootering magazine’s longtime lover Dave O takes a look at another iconic machine.

146Into The Sunset

Another crazy scooter story from the past.

Never miss from only £20 an issue Subscribe today on page 62

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Amazing level of detail.

T H E L E G E N D O F B O N N I E & C LY D E Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow rank highly among the best known American gangsters of the 1930s but, unlike their contemporaries, they weren’t driven by a thirst for money or power. Their story is based around Clyde’s desire for revenge on the Texan Penal System for abuses suffered while in their care. Mix in a huge dollop of romantic fantasy and illicit sex and you had an automatic recipe for newspaper sensationalism. Between them

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they were responsible for over a hundred known crimes, including the murder of at least eight law enforcement officers and several civilians. Their legend portrays them as hardened bank robbers, but the truth is more prosaic.

Although they robbed around a dozen or so banks in their brief career, they found it easier to steal from small family businesses and petrol stations, trying to build up an

armoury so that they could launch a ‘raid of liberation’ on Eastham Prison, the jail where Clyde had been held. Despite this, they found themselves on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, leading to their deaths on May 23, 1934. Caught in a hail of bullets from a posse, taking around 50 rounds between them, they died a violent and bloody death which brought to an end their 27 month long criminal partnership.

Euro Lambretta Rally GeIselwind, Germany

Geiselwind in south east Germany was this year’s choice of destination and we were really looking forward to the trip ahead as Avignon was the last Euro I attended, having travelled 2700 miles to get there and back (popping in to Paddy Smith’s Sun Run on the way home). So the 1500-odd miles we were about to attempt seemed small in comparison...

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ellow club member Ian and I left Glasgow at 6am heading to Newcastle to catch our ferry. We were only 15 minutes into our journey when I got a rear wheel blowout doing 60mph. A quick change of wheel (and pants) and we were off again, soon at the ferry. While waiting to board, I was explaining to Craig and his wife, who we had just met up with, about the blowout when he noticed my rear mudguard bolt had caused it. It was too long, and with the amount of luggage etc. it was hitting the tyre, so we cut a bit off the bolt to make sure there would be no more dramas! Once on board, we had a meal and a few beers and then it was time to hit the sack for our last descent sleep for the next few days as the rest would be spent slumming it in a tent.

Next morning the ferry docked and we were soon on our way, but met with weather more suited to our native Scotland. It was pouring down as we made our way to the motorway. Thankfully the weather soon picked up and the humidity we encountered had us stripping off at the next fuel stop, as the sun followed us

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on our journey ahead. Germany has some lovely countryside, beautiful valleys and forest areas, not that the Germans would notice them at the speed they drive at on the Autobahns. If you have never experienced them then it can be scary stuff, as cars whizz by at well over 100+ mph. We were thankful of the breeze though as temperatures soared into the high 20s. As the light faded we made our way into a little town called Haiger and with some beers purchased we made our way to the campsite where we were amused by the little fireflies around our tents with their bright lights shining in the darkness. I remarked that if the grandkids were there we would kid them on that they were fairies, much to the amusement of the others. Finally, with no more beer left we bedded down for the night.

Friday morning and we once again we opted for the autobahns. On one of our many fuel stops we met many British riders who were also finding it hard in the searing heat of the day. The temperature was now in its 30s! While on our journey, we witnessed a crash involving two large trucks which had

Show us your

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

Scoots

Warren J Webster, who rides with Aberdeen Classic Scooter Collective, sent these in of his T5 Classic at Aberdeen Harbour with his works vessel in the background, his scoot with its white summer seat on, and the combined loves of his life – scooters and Rangers FC.

Rob from Portsmouth sent these in of his wife’s LML auto which has had a bit of a makeover.

Dave Coombs sent these in of four of his five grandkids, who live in Bahrain, on his 1967 Vespa Sprint and also of his Bristol City 1966 Vespa Sprint (which will annoy Gary in advertising!).

Boggy and Jacko are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this August.

They both still own scooters (back in ’91 they both owned Vespas and Jacko still owns the Vespa they got married on) but nowadays Jacko rides Lambretta chopper ‘Pig Iron’ and Boggy rides ‘Bomber’ auto, which are both home built machines. Their son Tommy is eager to join mum and dad but at 11¾, he’ll have to wait a while yet!

Happy anniversary to you both!

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GRAN TURISMO LAMBRETTAS, LIFE & CHOCOLATE

He may not quite be Howard Hughes but the man behind the exotic scooter components of Gran Turismo is almost as hard to track down.

Scootering speaks exclusively to Richard Taylor…

In the beginning

Gran Turismo has a reputation for innovative, high quality Lambretta tuning equipment, yet little is known about the company, its ethos or products under development. So it was with a mixture of excitement and nervousness I arrived at its Birmingham HQ. First impressions of Richard are that he is passionate, strongly believes in his product and has firm views on doing business, but how did it all start?

“Bizarrely I started in the arts,” he said.

“While living in Germany I started racing 100cc go-karts, only a few little events here and there but I learned a lot about building two-stroke engines, particularly tuning and flowing, but only what was known at the time. I could go fast and have a laugh but was never in contention, I was lucky if the thing hadn’t disintegrated before the race’s end.

“After Germany I studied industrial design – art applied to consumer goods.

That taught me about production processes and technical drawing. Scooters came later. First it was LDs and then I got a Series 2. I could build engines and restore a bike but I didn’t really get into tuning. At that time I was working with engineering contractors so I wasn’t scared by big machinery. The most exotic items were rocket engines, they were good fun. There’s nothing left when one of those fails!

“At this time I was hanging around with Derek Askil, and one day he said, ‘You’re a clever guy, why don’t you give us a kit for the Lambretta small block?’ At the time there was only the TS1 and so for some reason it struck a chord. I had experience in design, I understood two-strokes and I knew how to set up a business, including the financial side, so I thought why not?”

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custom Lambretta After arriving at the Royal Lancaster and checking into his suite, Lord Croker found himself faced with a bevy of scantily clad ladies who were supplied as a ‘coming out present’ by his girlfriend, who enquires “Now, what would you like?” Croker replies, straight-faced “Everything.”

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The enigma behind Lambretta.it Tino Sacchi provides scooterists with exotic components such as the Targa Twin engine and Super Monza kit to name but two. But what drives men like him? Our Italian reporter Christian Giarrizzo finds out...

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ow far can passion carry a man? What are the boundaries which determine how his happiness in life can be fulfilled? These questions were bouncing round my mind when, at 4am, I set off from my home town to get to the heart of Lambretta.it in Milan. The name Tino Sacchi often echoes across conversations at rallies, shows and exhibitions of classic scooters. Some of his products seem to be a ‘must-have’ to breathe new life into once deceased Innocenti engines, or to add more bhp where no further development seemed possible. A real ‘guru’ of Lambretta. But who is he?

The meeting

I see him around 10 o’clock in the morning, after six hours of tarmac and toll booths. His headquarters is located at the provincial border between Milano and Lodi. Each region of Italy has its own peculiarities and Lombardia is renowned throughout the country for its productive capacity. In this region everything is ‘industrial’ and the work begins early in the morning before other regions begin to work. Sacchi does not subscribe to this philosophy however, in fact he has the opposite peculiarity: do not go to see him before 10am. He gets nervous and in all probability will chase you out of his office.

His phone, however, rings from 10.30am

to two in the morning, lunch and supper time included. I meet him outside his lab, which later I find out to be like an endless underground cathedral. Next to the entrance I see a man with crossed arms, a kind of bodyguard, waiting for a signal while looking at his SUV. Inside is a Lambretta type-A scooter made in 1947 just restored and brought back to life. It is the new classic project of Sacchi that will accompany the long series of machines which are resting in the museum. We allow ourselves a coffee before the big dive-in, up to my neck in the ‘bunker’. Two blue eyes are hidden under a pair of photo-sensitive glasses, which change colour if exposed to strong sunlight.

Tino’s slender build gives him a certain

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SIL 200 – BANG FOR BUCK TUNING: PART 4 How far can we reasonably take a SIL 200 engine, with each step giving the most ‘Bang for Buck’ (more power per pound spent)?

Darrell Taylor finds out…

The SIL 200 workhorse.

The story so far

Last month’s instalment brought an end to the ‘bolt on section’ of the report, resulting in a 15.33bhp/15.41tq output using the original SIL cylinder with re-jetted carb/free-flowing filter, head gasket removed and an expansion type exhaust fitted. This now begs the questions: how does the cylinder perform so well, what part of its spec is producing this result, and how did the spec come about? So before moving on to changing the porting or head specs let’s see what we have to start with.

Let’s get measuring

With the engine removed the first measure was an accurate check of the squish and head volume to calc out the compression ratio with the head gasket removed as per its last run. The repeated squish checks averaged out at an outer dimension of 1.05mm, 1.16mm is a standard yardstick on a 58 stroke so this was a fraction tighter but still acceptable on a new crank/ bearing engine set up. I say this as when an engine gets more miles and wear the big-end/small-end bearing clearances will change, and will show a bigger squish

clearance while compressing solder. But in a running engine it results in a smaller clearance – this is a handy way to check for engine wear, especially useful on race engines running tighter clearances. The head was then removed and bore greased to seal the top ring and reassembled to measure the volume using a burette and petrol/oil mix, the total volume was 27cc to the top of the plug thread. The plug thread volume was 2.3cc, thus leaving 24.7cc as the combustion chamber/squish volume this equates to a top dead centre/ uncorrected compression ratio of a

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Back on track BSSO Round #5

Cadwell Park June 25-26

The greatly anticipated fifth race of the series took place at Cadwell Park, and neither riders nor spectators were to be disappointed with the fast paced action…

Off and away...

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he first visit of the season to Cadwell also included the 50th anniversary celebrations of the host club BHR, so the paddock was filled with trade and club display stands as part of the celebrations. The previous day the circuit was open to non-racers who could parade their bikes and get track time. A couple of scooter racers took to the track for extra practice but it’s a shame road going scooterists didn’t make the most of the track time to experience a race circuit… they missed a treat!

Day 1

Saturday dawned bright and dry and with good entry numbers the grids were split to provide separate races for geared scooters and automatic scooters. Up first were the autos, and straight away Justin Price and Warren Wilkinson were battling each other for the race lead with Lee Bamber chasing in third place followed by Scott Chapman getting back up to speed after time out, just managing to get ahead of James Campen and John Woods. This was the order for three of the four laps until Warren Wilkinson was spat off his machine

on the last lap leaving Justin Price to cruise home with a 21 second lead and the fastest lap of the race.

With some delays to the programme it was getting towards 3pm before the first geared race took to the track. It was immediately obvious that the two Casa Lambretta riders Luca Zani and Luca Fuschini were in a class of their own with their opening lap being 3.5 seconds faster than their closest rival, lapping in one minute 57 seconds for their opening lap from standing start. Mikey Bonett, Darren Conneely and Damon Tunnicliffe were all

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