Putting two wheels front and centre
WHEN classic scooter fan Thornton Peck got married, he had only one stipulation – he wanted the wedding vehicle to be a creamcoloured 1964 NZeta scooter.
It took a little while for him to convince wife-to-be Sarah, however.
‘‘I said, ‘I’ve got us a wedding vehicle.’
I don’t think she was overly happy about it. She didn’t perceive it as a wedding vehicle.’’
Sarah, who shares at least some of Peck’s enthusiasm for vintage scooters, was eventually persuaded to ride pillion to the ceremony, sitting side saddle in her wedding dress.
The NZeta is one of a dozen classic scooters which have found a home in Peck’s Scooter Sanctuary museum in the basement of the couple’s Wellington home.
Asked to pick a favourite, he says he has several, including the two-tone green and orange 1957 Prior Viscount, the same make and model as the scooter his parents bought new off the shop floor in 1958. It’s the only one of its kind that Peck is aware of in New Zealand.
‘‘Obviously the pinnacle would be to have got the same bike as they had, but that is pretty unlikely.’’
An unusual, New Zealand-made Stewart scooter is another one he has a particular fondness for, despite its boxy appearance – and its backward mounted engine.
‘‘The Stewart is not seen as pretty by very many people. Even people who own them don’t consider them to be a good looking scooter. Their appeal is in their uniqueness and to some degree their rarity.’’
The scooters were designed and manufactured by Jack Stewart, who had lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and wanted a step-through automatic scooter to ride. He went on to build 100 of the scooters in his Auckland factory between 1959 and 1963.
‘‘A lot of people think that his company went under because they were so ugly that no one bought them. Well not only ugly, they weren’t incredibly reliable and they weren’t very powerful either.
‘‘But the company was actually bought out by BSA because they considered that the Stewart scooter would be competition for their BSA Sunbeam.’’
Peck has fanciful dreams of riding the Stewart to Stewart Island with friend and fellow Stewart scooter owner Mike Salmon.
‘‘There is no connection between Stewart Island and the Stewart scooter. It is just this crazy idea. Why not? Just because you can.’’
Peck says the craziness of the classic scooter scene is part of its attraction.
‘‘There’s a small faction of scooterists who like to ride their scooters stupidly long distances. It is a bike that was designed for Italian grandmothers to go to the shops on. They didn’t ride them long distances.’’
He is currently upgrading a 1961 Vespa in preparation for the Motoretta TT, a 1000 mile (1600 kilometre) four-day classic scooter Thornton Peck with now-wife Sarah en route to their wedding in Christchurch on his 1964 NZeta scooter. ride in April.
‘‘You can do that very easily on a big bike and there is no challenge to it, there is no craziness to it.
‘‘It is about taking something and using it for a purpose that it wasn’t ever designed or intended for. And that’s the challenge aspect, overcoming that.’’
On long distance rides the classic scooters attract attention from passersby who have fond memories of owning or riding them.
On a trip riding Vespas around the South Island, the Pecks came across a group of Italians at Fox Glacier.
‘‘They were amazed to see us riding these old scooters in the middle of the backwaters of New Zealand. I couldn’t really work out if they were just amazed or stupefied, but they seemed impressed.’’
Peck has acquired many of his scooters for a song, picking them up in original, unrestored condition.
One, a 1958 Vespa Douglas 152L2, he bought for $100 after finding it under a pile of wood.
‘‘I was walking past a construction site and I saw the back end of it sticking out from a big pile of wood and rubble.’’
Another, Sarah’s 1968 Vespa Super 150, cost only $350.
Peck has his heart set on just one more model to add to the collection – a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape, a forerunner of the tuk-tuk.
‘‘They are essentially the front half of a Vespa and then the back half is a small ute.
‘‘They were very popular for carting goods around the little laneways of Italy. And in the nature of the word ute, they were very utilitarian.’’ For more information go to: scootersanctuary.com