Scootering November 2016 preview

The Troubles controversial

custom Lambretta

The Italian Connection

Armando’s Dealer Spotlight

STOLEN!

Scooter

theft

insight #365 November 2016

MARTINI

STREET RACER VESPA 220LC

PLUS

RALLY REPORT 4-PAGES OF WOOLACOMBE

NEW

Winter n

restoratio

guide from Stu Owen

KTM ENGINE THE ART OF

LAMBRETTA

AIRBRUSHING:

BIG POWER, GREAT MPG THE MASTERS’ TECHNIQUE

AND RELIABILITY

EXPLAINED

Vespa tuning & upgrades feature ■ Casa Lambretta insider interview ■ Scooter Trader ■ Event Guide ■ Show us your scooters ■ Armed Forces Scooter Club ■ Darrell Taylor: Tech Torque ■ Sprinting ■ BSSO racing and more…

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

06

Kickstart

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

14

A The Troubles – custom scooter

Controversial custom Lambretta.

23 28Stolen!

Rally report

BSRA – Woolacombe rally report.

The murky world of scooter theft and the damage it causes.

33Letters

90Club Focus 95Tech Torque

Armed Forces Scooter Club.

Stu Owen starts his new winter feature – Scooter Restoration Guide – Part 1.

100Cursum Perficio

A personal touch to a sentimental scooter.

106Tech Torque

Dan continues the new and ongoing Vespa tuning and upgrades section – this month looking at cheap cylinder and head tricks to gain more power.

220LC Vespa: 110Martini Shaken not stirred

Feedback and full throttle responses from the readers.

A monster of a scooter, expertly engineered into a classic race cut and painted frame.

36Jet 200

117Tech Torque

46Dealer spotlight

122Robbo’s TV200

– custom 52KTMBretta scooter

Sprinting 126Scooter Report

No chequebook restorations here, just a beautiful scooter.

This month we nosey behind the scenes of Armando’s.

Motorcycle-engined beast of a scooter.

58Painting by numbers

Part 7 of our paintjob guide – the subtle art or airbrushing.

day we discovered 63The the twin

Stu Owen opens up on the day he stumbled across the Twin Cylinder Lambretta.

68The Clash

Music to your ears and beauty to your eyes, Clash themed custom.

72Show us your scooters The best of the rest from the readers stunning rides.

77House of Lambretta

Darrell Taylor takes us through the intriguing results from his dyno day.

the word.

A classic in every sense of

Darrell Taylor reports on recent sprinting shenanigans.

128BSSO 2016 #8

A difficult weekend at Cadwell – Paul Green explains.

133Scooter Trader

Your sales and classifieds section – including Specialist Services & at a glance.

144DNCC

Dave’s Nostalgic Custom Corner with another historical gem.

146Into The Sunset

Another amusing scooter story from the past.

Christian Giarrizzo investigates another historical scootering behemoth.

82Club Do’s & Events

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

87

Scootering Words & Sounds

The best of words and music as reviewed

by Nik and Sarge.

4 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016

Never miss from only £20 an issue Subscribe today on page 44

100

77

46

52 WWW.SCOOTERING.COM | 5

s e l b u o r T The Not the obvious choice for a custom scheme.

STOLEN

Scooter theft, the scourge of the scootering community. Whether your scooter is a brand new GTS or a classic Lambretta, they are equally likely to be the object of unwanted attention from opportunist thieves and career criminals alike. Simon Wells investigates...

Gone in 60 seconds…

It was meant to be nothing more than an afternoon out on their scooter for Paul and Kim Farmer. The couple from East Grinstead, West Sussex, had purchased their Vespa ‘twist n’ go’ GTS 300 in 2013 and had enjoyed many rides out on the vehicle. Living just 30 miles away from the south coast, weekends were opportune to catch the sea breeze and meet up with friends and other enthusiasts.

With numerous unhindered trips under their belts, there was nothing to suggest

28 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016

that Sunday, July 24, would be different to any other day.

“It was pretty spontaneous,” recalls Paul to Scootering. “We got up and as it was a sunny day we just decided to ride down to Brighton. We have a few friends down there and so we thought, ‘let’s just go and do it.’”

Arriving on Brighton seafront they parked their vehicle at the dedicated bay for bikes and scooters on Madeira Drive.

However, nothing prepared them for the events that were to ensue.

Paul Farmer: “We locked the scooter up and went off and had a drink in one of the bars nearby. We then walked into town for food. An hour and a half later, back at Madeira Drive, the scooter had gone. We knew exactly where it was parked, as the bike alongside it was still there. Initially, we were thinking someone might have moved it. We asked a parking attendant who was walking past if it had been towed away because it might have been parked illegally, but obviously it wasn’t. It was at that point that we phoned the police.”

Armando’s shop at Randall Street, Sheffield – their home since the 1970s.

ARMANDO’S CAVE TRADE

A dealer’s loft full of scarce and NOS parts is the stuff of legend, but in Sheffield it’s a reality. Scootering was invited to take an exclusive look behind the scenes at Armando’s.

46 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016

The obvious things when entering the shop are the racks of spare parts and NOS items which seem to be suspended from every available space. “We’ve a lot of scarce items here” says Giulio “Not all of them are for sale though!”

A major part of Armando’s business is their painstaking restorations which are almost all based on machines they source from Italy. “We know that people like to see scarce parts – the series 1/2 mudguard hanging in the corner still has its original parts label. It creates a lot of interest and we’ve been offered big money for that but there’s a TV175 awaiting restoration. It needs a mudguard and if we let that one go we’ll never get another as the factory has closed and no more

genuine Innocenti parts are being made. It’s not a question of just selling things on, we’ve a responsibility to make sure they are used properly. People come wanting NOS parts but when we talk to them it’s obvious that there are better, and often cheaper, options. On the other hand we have customers with some very interesting ongoing projects and sometimes we know what parts are required before they do, so we put them to one side, waiting for them to ask the question!”

Although born and raised in Sheffield, it’s easy to see the brothers’ Italian

SP

O TLI G H

T

T

hanks to their range of Vespa specials Armando’s are well known to British scooterists but there’s so much more to this famous name than Pinasco-fuelled fun. Situated in the shadow of Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground, Armando’s are now in their 58th year of business and can trace their heritage directly back to the Innocenti factory in Milan. They are a true family concern, the shop now being run by brothers Giulio and Guido who took over the business from their father Armando in the late 1980s. Today their premises are both a treasure trove of spare parts and a home to state of the art tuning equipment.

Above left: The rear end of the frame had been stepped out to possibly allow for moving the engine further back in the frame. Note the flat sided hub, again possibly for offsetting the engine in future, the lack of a lock washer not ideal before a test drive. Above: The prototype front disc brake showing the boxed in calliper. I couldn’t tell how good it worked due to the fact it was not cabled up, not the ideal situation when driving at full speed.

THE DAY WE DISCOVERED

THE TWIN

During the mid-1980s Lambretta restoration was seen by most as a novelty. With the rally scene in Britain at its peak most owners had little interest in returning one back to its former glory. Those that did faced a constant battle to source spares. There were a few Lambretta dealers still in business but finding that elusive part remained a problem.

A trip to Italy

Having spent most weekends sifting through the remains of old dealers’ stock it was inevitable that at some point I would meet up with Nigel Cox. For a year or so he had been travelling the length and breadth of the country clearing out whatever the remaining dealers had left.

Soon our paths did cross even though it would be confrontational at first. Seeing that someone else had the same idea as him maybe came as a threat but it was soon pointed out that no-one had exclusive rights to what Lambretta parts were scattered around the country. A deal was soon struck to trade and exchange what we had found as we were restoring different types of Lambretta models.

It soon became apparent that there was not much left in Britain and Nigel had discovered on a flying trip to Italy that a vast amount of original Lambretta spares were still left over there. Determined to get his hands on it he soon planned and organised several trips to the Lambretta homeland, offering a paid seat in his car to help with the expenses. I duly paid up

The original rusted key still sits in the ignition with its spare. The Smiths cable-operated tacho showing up to 12,000rpm, what were they planning with this engine?

WWW.SCOOTERING.COM | 63

Remembering A Legend J “When they kick at your front door How you gonna come?

With your hands on your head Or on the trigger of your gun” 68 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016

ohn Graham Mellor (aka Joe Strummer) was born August 21, 1952, and shuffled off this mortal coil on December 22, 2002, and I for one was gutted. I loved The Clash, their music has been a backbeat to many a scootering related escapade or eventful evening. I once got to meet Joe Strummer and he was a very unassuming man. I told him how much I liked the Clash to which he replied: “I am very proud of our records, even the crap ones.”

And that just about sums the bloke up. Ronnie Burns (aka Bugsy) is also a huge Clash fan; hence his choice of subject matter for his latest, and possibly greatest, custom scooter build.

The lyric of a generation.

Take the fifth – no standing allowed.

Picking up the donor scooter, a tidy GP200, back in 2014 Bugsy he set about creating his dream machine. He knew exactly what he wanted, and where to get it done. So once the scooter was stripped back to its bare bones, he employed the skilful services of one Colin Fitzgerald at The Garage Artwerks to apply the breath-taking paint and artwork, which truly deserves a long lingering look to appreciate every meticulous detail. Col has a string of show winning feature scooters behind him already and for very good reason, as illustrated in this latest creation. The old motor was then shipped off to Alan ‘Singy’ Singleton for a ‘bare case up rebuild’, the idea being that the scooter

White Riot.

WWW.SCOOTERING.COM | 69

Armed Forces Scooter Club “COMRADESHIP – IMAGINED BY MANY, EXPERIENCED BY FEW”

The AFSC has been through several incarnations, most recently becoming part of the support network for Armed Forces Veterans.

If asked to name the three largest Scooter Clubs in the UK most scooterists could easily name two – LCGB and VCB, but the third?

W

ith a membership approaching 900 the Armed Forces Scooter Club has a massive presence on the UK scooter scene but is hardly known outside its membership. Simon Cuerden, founder member and current membership secretary, spoke to Scootering about the club’s past, present and future.

Cheesy Hammy Eggy and Pokey Pink Things “The club was originally formed in 1981 as The British Forces Scooter Club,” explained Simon. “There was nothing formal about the club at that time. Just a few mates linked by scooters and the armed forces who would meet informally at rallies and send the odd ‘Bluey’ (single sheet letter) to each other while deployed on operations.”

90 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016

Despite appearances kilts are not compulsory...

It’s all in

the name This is one of the most personal scooters that I’ve had the privilege to write about, one that represents much more than an interest or an idea. Paul Hunter’s Spanish Li125 custom is entirely based on his family, and is dedicated to the memory of the members of it that he has lost. A true labour of love.

P

aul had picked up this fine example of a Spanish Li125 around a month before the tragic loss of his mother last year. He’d already spent a few weeks trying to think of a theme for it when events tragically gave him the basic idea for the scooter you see before you. Taking his inspiration from his family name, Hunter, and its motto, he decided that a mobile tribute would be a fitting use for the Series 2 scooter. Cursum Perficio is the family motto, and is a typically clever heraldic play on words. Various translations include ‘I finish what I start’ or ‘I finish my journey’. A synonym for the second one could be ‘I run my course’, which is originally a reference to hunting, which brings us right back to Paul’s surname – Hunter.

Clever stuff, eh?

The scooter itself is full of similar visual puns on his family name, and also plays on something that his mother told him when he got his first scooter – “It’ll do to get you from A to B” – which inspires the bee on the handlebars, and also in the ‘CP’ monogram on the rear lamp, which incorporates a stylised one. It’s the paint that gets the immediate attention though. The simple buttermilk basecoat has an excellent example of restrained but meaningful pinstriping which was applied by Pete Hammersley (also known as Pete Von Brush if anyone wants to check out his other work!). As striking as it is simple, the burgundy and grey linework highlights the gorgeous curves of the S2, but also includes further plays on the family epithet.

Robbo’s TV200

Since 1969 Dave Robinson, or Robbo as he’s known to his friends, has been into scooters. Until now he has always done all the work himself, but for his latest ride Robbo opted to approach things differently.

R

obbo takes up the story: “Basically, last year I nearly died from a serious condition, as I’m now retired, and am still here, I fancied getting and building another scooter. First I needed to find one; I went along with fellow Ready Steady Go club member Vince to visit Andy Francis to see what he had or could source for me. Initially it was to have a chat with Andy about a TS1 engine. As we chatted, it resulted in Andy saying, look I’ll build the scooter for you exactly how you want it.

“Now, there’s always those who complain and criticise when something goes wrong or is wrong. It’s rare that when something is good, something is right that praise is given. I’d like to do my small part on redressing that, by saying not only did Andy Francis deliver what I wanted, he bent over backwards to help me out with this scooter. Andy more or less did all the work as a favour. I want people to know there are decent people on the scene, and Andy is without any question one of them.”

122 | SCOOTERING | NOVEMBER 2016