Scooters

For some reason ever since I was a young kid I have liked scooters. It’s probably to do with the fact that my old man had a rare Peugeot-made Lambretta (now in some scooter museum collection somewhere!) and I well remember going for rides around the back garden on it with him. When I was 16 I got well into ‘mod’ and Motown music and the 60′s in general and by the time I was 18 the film Quadrophenia had been released and scooters were the in-thing. I bought my original Vespa PX125 new from A1 Scooters in Doncaster in 1979 for about 400 quid. I well remember the financial arrangements I had to make to buy the machine. It involved a bank loan and an interest-free loan from a kind neighbour as well as a serious raid on my piggy bank!

I went on my first ‘run’ to Scarborough at Easter 1980 with about half a dozen others from Worksop in Nottinghamshire on an assortment of old and new Vespas and Lambrettas. It was a good time, only marred by me managing to drive into the back of a car that had stopped to admire some other scooters! Luckily there was only minor damage and I soon learned some new skills in body filling and paint spraying!

Over the next 5 or 6 years the scooter saw many parts replaced, many engine mods made and eventually a new body shell as the original succumbed to rot and too much hammer in the great British climate. It was a real working machine and only the severest weather would stop me taking it out.

Customisation-wise my original Vespa P125X ended up with a 175CC engine and 24mm carb. When bought new in 1979 it was a light blue colour, but it soon had panels etc resprayed white.

Some time later it got a metallic green paint job along with some nifty ‘Funeral Pyre’ graphics on the panels. Eventually I had to replace the panels and the main frame and I sprayed it all a metallic blue and silver. It was a bit plain but looked quite presentable. It also had some nice shockers (name escapes me) which helped keep me on the road a bit more than the bog standard ones did!

Reluctantly in late 1986 I sold the machine when I went to work abroad and although I have been close to buying another scooter on a few occasions I haven’t done so to my eternal annoyance!

The shield on the back of the Lambretta was done by Ade Cattley, chairman of the Worksop Lions Scooter Club (the shady geezer in black jumper in photo above!). I think we had about 20 or so members and I think Ade did most of the shields, they looked pretty distinctive on runs.

Okay, that’s your lot for now! Hopefully the quality of the scans is acceptable. I’ve kept it a bit low to avoid big file sizes and long downloads, but if anyone wants any more photos adding, feel free to let me know and let me know your preferences. I’ve probably got about 150 scooter-related photos!