Letter from the Editor
A warm welcome to the September issue of Scootering.
Last month I picked out three quotes from various articles within the magazine to focus on, as I really felt that they either summed up the issue, or offered some great comedy value. It’s not something I usually do, and I’ll try not to make a habit of it, but… I have to say, and it is completely by chance, that two quotes from this month’s mag really stood out, and happened to emphasise polar ends of the scene, from eras nearly 30 years apart. The first quote is lifted from the DTC GTS article: “It’s only when good custom built autos start to come along that we’ll know for certain they’re finally embedded in the scene.” I believe that to be a fair opinion, and given that the legendary Maca from DTC has put his name to this tuned-up and home-built GTS, I think we may be turning a significant corner in that respect. The opposing quote, which in my opinion not only captures a distant era, but also offers a fabulous bit of humour, is taken from Stan’s write-up of the Sentinal custom Vespa. The quote is as follows: “Whether because the superpowers of the day seemed intent on atomic war or due to the amount of narcotics consumed in the entertainment industry, the Eighties spawned a huge amount of fantasy-derived material. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the custom scene fully embraced the prospect of scantily clad three-breasted warrior princesses riding tigers.” I had to smile when I read that, especially as my former Scooterotica business partner Sean Brady still owns a substantial fantasy art book collection, and has done his fair share of custom scooter airbrushing to that effect! It was an interesting era, and one I still enjoy… not sure about the three-breasted warrior princesses, but you get the idea!
Quotes aside, we have some fabulous stuff lined up this month, a great conclusion to the Lambretta Clubman series, Stan test-rides the Vespa Tech PX125 out in Germany, we have a plethora of custom scooters and rally reports, and a fabulous duo of big-name music interviews. Anyway, enough of my ramblings, it’s another belter this month… enjoy the issue.