Family Affair
In our ‘father and son’ scooterist trilogy we’ve feature Doug and Jack Edwards, Steve and Ben Finlay and now in the final element we cover the story of Kev and Tom Hawkes…
Stu Smith completes his miniseries of ‘Dad ’n’ Lad’ features with a look at the scootering household of Kev and Tom Hawkes.
First encounters
I first met Kev Hawkes and the other members of Wicked Willy’s SC at the Burton Brewers Scooter Club do, where Kev won the 'ridden-in' element of the custom show with his Series 3 Lambretta ‘L’Ombra’.
Later that year I saw Kev again at the VMSC extravaganza. It was there that Kev introduced me to his son Tom and explained that Tom was getting excited about the scooter build they were planning, to get the lad fixed up with his first scooter. Enthusiastically, Tom said: “I can’t wait, I’ve always been really interested in Dad’s scooters and the scooter scene in general. I study catering at college and I’ve a part-time job in a café, which is helping me save up for the scooter.”
A smashing start
Kev himself has been into scooters since the age of 14. The main influence, which drew him into the scene was his brother Keith. Kev said: “One year, when Keith went on holiday he left his Primavera in the garden. As he was leaving he warned me not to go on it, but of course that meant I had to. When he’d gone I took it out and fell off it! I smashed all his mirrors, and when he got home I told him it had fallen over; he believed me for a while and the rest is history!”
Kev’s first scooter was a Vespa 50 Special, and it wasn’t long before he ‘palled up’ with his close friend Dave ‘Chubbs’ Corbett, who also owned a 50 Special (and is the current owner of custom scooter ‘Midnight Oil’). In 1985, as Kev’s involvement in the scootering scene developed he, along with Chubbs formed Wicked Willy’s SC in Leamington Spa. The club’s initial HQ was the bed-sit which Kev and Chubbs shared.
Kev explained that towards the end of the 80s, like a lot of other clubs, the number of members began to fall, people went their separate ways and the club eventually folded. Kev said: “We all moved on with our lives and had young families. I was no exception, I had a family and Tom was born in 1998; scootering had to take a back seat for a while.”
Being nurtured from a young age Tom began to share his dad’s interest in scooters and the scene. In 2014, with Tom now aged 16, Kev, Chubbs and Keith decided that they would reignite Wicked Willy’s SC. Kev said: “We were going to call ourselves ‘Lambretta Legion,’ but after we’d given it a bit more thought we decided against the idea because we thought it was a bit too exclusionary towards riders of other scooters, and after all Chubbs, Keith and I had all started off our scootering days on Vespas!”
At present Wicked Willy’s SC has 12 members, all of whom are scooter riders and owners. Kev said: “Tom’s our youngest member and the club is just like a little family.” Chubbs added: “But we’re all still the same people that we were back in the 80s.” Moj (one of the recently established members) said: “The only thing is we just ache a little bit more!”
Luck of the Irish
The start of Tom’s scooter build began in May 2017, but it didn’t get off to a great start. Kev said: “I’d organised a Vespa frame for Tom, which we were going to start the build from. However, the guy I was buying it from had a problem with the paperwork and after a lot of irate phone calls I had to give it up as a bad job. Tom and I looked round for an alternative and we finally ended up getting a non-running cut-down Vespa, which was imported from Ireland.”
Having received the cut-down scooter it was taken to Tom and Kev’s purpose-built shed for completion. The main portion of the build was supported by Moj, who took an active role in developing Tom’s understanding of the workings of the scooter. Tom said: “To be honest, it was dead easy – dad and Moj were excellent tutors. I was a willing student and I was eager to learn the mechanics of the scooter. After all, I would be riding the scooter and if it broke down I’d not always have someone to turn to.”
Other matters
In the meantime, Kev was managing two other projects of his own: ‘Butcher-Bird’, a custom cut-down Vespa with Lambretta
forks based on the German Second World War fighter aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190; the other a Lambretta Luna based custom called ‘Ankle-Biter’, which has an Imola 186 kit fitted by Harry Barlow and was built by Kris Green.
While all this was going on time was ticking by and the date of the first scooter rally which Tom would be riding his scooter to, the Oddballs Rally, was fast approaching. Kev said: “Things were beginning to get a bit too close for comfort. My plan was for us to have built Tom’s scooter, had it MOT’d and for Tom to have completed his CBT. In the meantime, I’d have ‘Butcher-Bird’ back from H-Bomb, and we’d all be ready for the Oddballs Rally.”
A close call
July 2017 Tom turned 17 and four days after his birthday he passed his CBT. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing as towards the final stages of his scooter build Tom and Moj hit trouble with the indicators. Tom said: “It was a nightmare! Even after three hours of cursing we couldn’t get to the root of the problem.
However, thinking outside the boxes dad and Moj realised that the scooter didn’t need indicators for the MOT.”
On August 3, Tom’s scooter passed its MOT. On the morning of Friday, August 4 Kev picked up ‘Butcher-Bird’ from H-Bomb and in the meantime, Tom and Moj set off for the Oddballs Rally. Kev managed to set off for the rally later that day with his partner Claire and they arrived there later that evening.
Kev said: “I was as proud as anything, Tom was in his element and he loved every y minute of it! We all had a great time. I entered ‘Butcher-Bird’ into the custom show and it won the highly coveted Ron Morgan Memorial Trophy.”
Tom said: “It was around 120 miles there and back, and I really enjoyed it. I’d heard a lot about the Oddballs Rally and the friendship of it; for it to be my first ride-out on my own scooter and for my dad to pick up the Ron Morgan Memorial Trophy was amazing!”
Season in reflection
Kev, Tom, Moj, and Chubbs were at the W.o.T Rally and there I managed to share a few beers with them and reflect back on what had been an eventful year. Kev said: “It’s been crazy but we’ve loved every minute of it. Tom’s had a great start to his first scootering season and he’s looking forward to 2018. I’ll hopefully be riding and showing ‘Ankle-Biter’ and hopefully Wicked Willy’s SC will continue to go from strength to strength”.
Words & Photographs: Stu Smith