Feature Scooter: Highlander Resurrection
Countless numbers of custom scooters were built in the 1980/90s, many long gone. However, some still exist but need overhauling to live once again…
Countless numbers of custom scooters were built in the 1980/90s, many long gone. However, some still exist but need overhauling to live once again.
Issue 124 (March 1995) of Scootering magazine featured on its front cover a custom Vespa by the name of Highlander, a heavily modified Vespa PX which at the time created a lot of attention and won many trophies on the custom circuit. Since that time, like many others of its ilk, slowly but surely it fell into a state of disrepair. At the time of its launch in the magazine it caught the eye of a young Michael Zinnen. New to the world of scooters, he was easily influenced – but more so by Vespas, where in his homeland of Germany they are the number one choice of scooter. For him, owning anything like that was a distant dream as he continued his scooter apprenticeship.
Lost and found
Many years later and the scooter was still imprinted on his mind but was slowly becoming a distant memory, seemingly lost forever. That is until it miraculously resurfaced in 2012 by way of an old post on a scooter forum. Eager to see if it was available, Michael contacted the owner who had purchased it elsewhere. After several months of negotiating it was finally in his possession, albeit in a sorry state. To Michael that didn’t matter – he was now the owner of the custom scooter that had started it all off for him all those years ago. His plan now was to put it back to its former glory.
That would take some doing and it soon became apparent it wasn’t just a simple job of cleaning it all up. The paint was damaged in many areas and the only option was to repaint it once again. That’s when he came up with the idea of a Highlander resurrection. That way, the whole scooter could be brought up to date but still be a reminder of its past. It isn’t the first custom scooter to go through an overhaul and it won’t be the last; it’s a process that is widely accepted within the scene. By using up-to-date components in areas such as the engine and suspension, it’s like the scooter’s second coming. Asking Michael about it, his words were: “A new design from the old but not forgetting its history.”
War of attrition
Once you have met Michael it doesn’t take long to see that he is a real perfectionist. So much so that the building of the scooter would take a long time because of his attention to detail. In n total it has taken eight painstakingly long g years. The first process was to strip it down to a bare frame and see what needed repairing. Most of the work was carried out by Michael himself but anything that needed to be outsourced was given to those that could do the job to his high standards.
Once the paint was removed and the bare frame exposed, it was possible to move on to any fabrication that was going g to take place. These were items such as grilles in the side panels, the adding of a
spoiler underneath the legshields, and a reshaped front mudguard for better looks. These items were separate from the repair work, such as the whole floor area which needed to be replaced. Probably the most significant alteration wasn’t with the frame at all but with the handlebars, changing them to a drop version which seems to be all the rage in Germany at the moment. Also altered were the front forks and gone was the traditional one-side type of the PX to be replaced by a set from a Lambretta. It’s a conversion that works well and allows much wider options when it comes to what front brake and suspension set-up you want to use. Happy that everything was done exactly as envisaged, he started the next stage.
Repainting a masterpiece
Highlander has a purple base colour with the murals laid over the top. There are quite a few and, while some would be replicated, others would be changed even though they would remain around the same theme. The paint was laid down by a local company in Aachen, while the airbrushing work would be carried out in Austria. This was trusted to Marcus Pfeil Custom Painting from Ried Im Imkreis. As the pictures show, his work is outstanding, with many of the images almost coming to life while others are almost shadowed in and sunk in the bodywork. Almost everywhere you look there is a mural, each telling a certain story or giving a message about the scooter’s theme. There are many stand-out features on the finished article but the paint is the one that’s most striking.
Power upgrade
Over the last 25 years Vespa engine technology has come on in leaps and bounds. With the engine undergoing a full rebuild, there was no doubting it would be significantly improved over the original. The cylinder is now a Malossi 211 which has had more porting work done. Various other items include a Mazzucchelli 60mm crank, LTH clutch and FalkR exhaust. So let’s just say it’s got plenty of power, far more than it had in 1995. Asked what it’s like, Michael said: “It takes a bit of getting used to and has to be controlled somewhat.” As for reliability, so far everything is holding up very well, with Michael citing the fact that good old reliable German engineering makes it all possible.
Stopping the inevitable
With a powerful engine, good brakes and suspension are a must. The Vespa with its single-sided forks perhaps limited what could be done in this area, even though there are plenty of good modern-day options from which to choose. By switching to Lambretta forks
this allows for greater scope from components that have been significantly developed over the last decade or so. With the forks in place, the dual disc PM Tuning set-up was the preferred choice, giving plenty of stopping power. Combined with BGM front dampers, the handling at the front has been vastly improved while aesthetically it looks good – so much so, in fact, you would think it’s a factory version.
Darkness
While having great art and paintwork, a tuned engine and all the extras, sometimes it’s the finishing touches that make it all perfect, like the use of powder coating on the engine to blend it in rather than just leave it bare metal. Dark chrome is subtly placed on certain parts, making them stand out but not too vivid and bright. The cleverly vented panels work so well and it’s these finishing touches that bring the scooter to life. There is so much going on and the more you look at it, the more you begin to see things. Sometimes the more you add, the more cluttered something can become. Here though, because every single component has been meticulously thought about that’s not the case, with each one complementing the other. There is no doubt he has got this project perfectly right.
Asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, Michael categorically answered ‘no’. He is right – how could you add any more to what already looks like perfection? Building a custom scooter from scratch isn’t easy, with all the planning and execution required. Perhaps though, taking an existing custom scooter and improving it considerably is just as difficult.
Where do you start – and how do you improve it without changing the existing theme? While you have to admire all the skill with the paint, build, etc. the real art is in delivering the idea. That is exactly what Michael has done and most definitely Highlander has been resurrected. Stu Owen Claudia Zinnen and Daniel Bischoff