Culture & Customisation: The Motor Scooter Story

Now, I’ve never owned a scooter and while I admire the enthusiasm of those devoted to teeny tiny wheels, it’s not a world into which I have really ventured. So when Barry John’s new book turned up on my desk, it stayed there for quite some time, gradually being buried under more and more stuff. Finally I had a tidy-up (well, one of my cats pushed a large pile on to the floor) and it surfaced, so I figured I ought to have a look at this book.

And what a revelation! This is a rather wonderful little book even if, like me, your life has been a scooter-free zone. From the 1915 Autoped to the military Cushman Model 32 and Excelsior Welbikes and the first post-war Piaggio and Innocenti models they inspired, through to the latest electric machines, Barry maps out how surprisingly influential the scooter has been in modern culture. It’s filled with interesting facts – did you know the first Piaggio scooter was designed by a man who hated motorcycles? Or that a streamlined Vespa clocked 124mph in 1951? Or that, in 2014, Don Calvo rode his 1979 Vespa around the world in exactly 80 days? Or that the first practicable electric scooter was produced in Belgium in 1936?

Barry explains how Hollywood led to the huge popularity of the motor scooter and how the Mod movement developed.

There are even chapters on the three-wheeled Piaggio Ape and Lambro (with, of course, the Ape still being in production after 70 years). I thoroughly enjoyed my excursion into scooters and while I still may never own one, I am more than happy to own this book and to dip a toe into the world of scooters from my armchair!

Custom & Customisation: The Motor Scooter Story

by Barry John Evro Publishing ISBN: 978-1-91050-5-748