Air- Cooled Junkie
Ring-ding-ding-ding… frog, that annoying thing. The Smyth’s not the scooter! Steven Vespa street racer is a thing of beauty.
That annoying Frog – the ring tone, not Macron – put into paint on this custom Vespa. Not just cool, air-cool.
P-range Vespas have been the work-horse of our scene since I can remember – bulletproof engines, easy spares/ accessory availability, relative comfort and good carrying capacity have made them the ‘go to’ machine for clocking up miles. Keeping them standard with good maintenance should give years of loyal service. That said, many scooterists don’t like to fit into the ‘Mr SmithersJones’ mentality (thank God!) and like to make their rides personal and interesting!
The owner of this beauty, Steven Smyth, started with a PX150 he bought a couple of years ago for just £700. It was soon split apart though, the frame and bodywork sent to Clan Customs for paint, while the engine was replaced with a T5 hot tuned item with Malossi 172cc kit, Worb 5 crank, Taffspeed Goldline exhaust, SIP banded clutch and some light porting work. At Clan Customs, owner John set about creating some magic, with the brief of ‘retro street-racer with modern twists’. Everything was first prepared – frame was de-seamed, badges removed, panels smoothed, rear light Frenched. You can see the amount of work from the pictures. It was then fitted with drop bars and an SIP seat to
The engine was replaced with a T5 hot tuned item with Malossi 172cc kit, Worb 5 crank, Taffspeed Goldline exhaust, SIP banded clutch and some light porting work.
give a more street racer look. Paint-wise they decided on a gold/white/black Coke style flowing scheme, retro graphics and ‘crazy’ mural. I can’t help thinking of a mixture of two of my good mates when I look at it (better not say who though!). I especially like the frog footprints and the way Crazy Frog is graffiti airbrushing the Vespa logo on the front legshields.
Anyhow, once it had been transformed Steve, with the help of his peers, started the reassembly – not in his shed though on his son’s pool table in the house! From strip to rebuild this took six months and, as well as the mentioned changes, it also has upgrades to both braking and handling. It also had the seat pad professionally re-covered with a matching ‘Annoying Thing’. It still doesn’t look that comfy though, but it does look the business! So where did the name and inspiration come from? Well, Steve is a self-confessed lover of all things air cooled, be that traditional scooters or classic VWs, funnily enough you often find this. Words: Dave O Photographs: Alex Adair