Ask a simple question...
Ever been unsure of how to fix something on your scooter, asked a simple question and ended up more confused?
Not everyone who owns a scooter is mechanically minded. Even those who are sometimes need help or assistance when it comes to answering a particular question. It can be anything from tyre pressures to how much oil you should put in the gearbox. The problems start to arise when you get the reply, or I should say replies. The thing is, the question raised (more often than not) gets a plethora of replies, all of which can vary considerably, thus making it impossible to understand or make a clear decision. Back when the Lambretta was in production and the glory years of Vespa sales were at a high, it all seemed so simple. You purchased the scooter from the dealer and anything you needed to know… you simply went back to the shop and asked them for advice! Simples. Lambretta Concessionaires made it one of their biggest selling policies that if you were unsure of something, then you should simply go back to where you bought it from and they would help with any matter. Dealers were often bombarded with technical newsletters to make sure they were up to date on a machine’s workings. Eventually it became a policy for a dealership that at least one member of the shop staff undertook technical courses, thus having a fully qualified technician on site in a roundabout way.
All sounding good so far, but then in the 1970s it all changed. The demise of the Lambretta and the slowing down of Vespa sales meant that option didn’t really exist any more. Perhaps that’s when scooter ownership really began to change and a new breed of scooter owner began to emerge: those who would work it out for themselves. Let’s face it, many of today’s dealers (certainly from the 1980s onwards) evolved from those same people. When the 1980s did arrive, once again it became simple to pick up the phone, ring a shop and get the advice you wanted. It became a mix of the two, a possible solution from the dealer and a bit of experimenting by the owner to getting the
problem sorted. It mustn’t be forgotten there was still the home workshop manuals to rely on or those paperback books on How to Fix Your Scooter by F Bloggs. The trial and error method seemed to work quite well. There always seemed to be one member in the scooter club who was more mechanically minded than the rest of the club put together, their beer going flat at the midweek meet while they answered the deluge of questions thrown at them. Back then scooters only fetched a few hundred quid so if it became a terminal problem the simplest answer of all was to buy another that worked – that sorted the problem in an instant. Then, as the new century dawned, everything seemed to change overnight. It was two-fold, with the price of classic scooters going through the roof and the new age of the internet. The result of the prices going up signalled that no more was someone prepared to touch their scooter if it meant it could damage it. Now with several thousand pounds invested in their pride and joy, the idea of seeing if something worked simply by trying it out was no more. The real culprit was the internet. This opened up the current way we talk and communicate with each other. To begin with, it was basic forums where a question of scooter repair or settings would be asked, the replies coming back offering a wide variety of solutions at best. The poor soul asking the question was left even more confused by the range of oddball answers.
As the forums developed, those that owned them saw it as a way of getting traffic to their site. Specific categories where you could ask questions on one particular item such as carburation, for instance. It appeared to be a good idea apart from the fact that everyone who owned a computer would chip in with their opinion – not only giving more solutions than seemed scientifically possible but a conflict of interests. The so-called experts argued between them who was right in a huge row while the person asking the original question had long been forgotten. The forums ruled the waves when it came to scooter maintenance until the final nail in the coffin happened by way of Facebook. Now the whole world and his dog became a scooter expert. Asking such questions like: “What percentage of two-stroke oil should I put in my scooter” generated hundreds of opinions, almost all different. If a true answer was given then the inevitable “what brand should I use” sparked all-out war over which one is best and should a cheap option be used.
Nobody is saying you have to be an expert mechanic to own a scooter. But for those who do want to know the answer to a specific question, and who ask on social media… beware. Not only will it be hidden among a pile of wrong answers but you may not be able to filter out the right one. Unsure about something? Then ask the dealer you bought it from, if it’s a product. For anything else, just remember that when scooters are involved there is no such thing as asking a simple question.