Scooter Heroes
So here we are, my Vespa ‘Negra’ and I, in a place which had seen death, sorrow, bombs and blood… Nervesa della Battaglia.
Christian rides his Vespa ‘Negra’ across a place which had seen death, sorrow, bombs and blood… Nervesa della Battaglia, and stumbles on true ‘scooter heroes’
The municipality of Nervesa della Battaglia was devastated during WWI bombing. The entire place was razed to the ground and reduced to dust. During 1918 the Piave River became the new Italian war ‘first-line front’. As my Vespa scooter (Negra) and I arrived at the town’s entrance, I thought of the men who struggled and fought back, securing a decisive victory for the Italian Army against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the right edge of the river are the remains a military cannon protected by tall cypress trees. The cannon bares a label which explained the struggle of those who fought to the death using damaged artillery, until the last round, before throwing stones at the enemy to defend the city. I cannot help but become emotional when I encounter places such this one on my
scooter explorations. Bravery and pride are quite rare in this world, now populated by generations of ‘lions’ behind keyboards.
A few left turns from the war monument and I rode past a garage painted in red, showing off a straightforward sign outside: ‘TV Scooter Garage’. A TV what? Was this ‘TV’ as in Turismo Veloce, the famous Lambretta? I had to know, and made a rapid U-turn. As I entered the shop, UK pop music was shaking the walls. A man in his early 40s leant over a balcony and immediately stopped using a high-speed air tool on an aluminium cylinder. This is how I met Fabio from TV Scooter Garage.
We custom made a BGM and then a Mugello, but in the end nothing of the original parts remained. They had modified ports, modified cylinders and transmission
“Tormented,” a voice projected out from one of the shop corners. Behind a Lui body was hidden Luigino, Fabio’s father. His voice, gentle and sharp, rose from the floor. “My lad was a tormented devil as a boy, and unhappy about his previous jobs, so I taught him how to drive big truck, but was not his cup of tea.”
“Helping my uncle’s business wasn’t my cup of tea either,” Fabio teased. “During the ‘bloody year’ (2012) I am not forgetting how many business closed. More than few good pals committed suicide too. It was a nightmare and all of the sudden here the Fabio’s idea came. Opening this business anew.”
Luigino breathed deeply and continued: “In those years new laws pulled out of the game hundreds of small bus rental shops, since government obliged us to buy new buses every five years instead of maintain in good conditions the old ones. So with great pain I was forced to close my business.” At this point I remembered a brilliant quote of my good friend Albert Einstein, ‘In the middle of difficulties lies opportunity. From Luigino’s business ashes a phoenix emerged. Fabio, who put all his effort and sweat to build up a proper shop. As I walked around the garage, a sensation of bravery and pride emerged and I was deeply bound to these Italian guys who fought back the ‘war’ of recession, inventing themselves anew.
Alan, the other half of TV Scooter Garage, popped in the discussion embracing a big smile. He had a similar tale, but seemed to me the guy to talk about the positive present instead of dead past. I switched the topic and asked their
opinion o concerning modern Italian rallies. r Usual story… too many ‘ hard-core’ groups welted on the idea of o ordinary restoration, classic scooters s and too much resilience to change. c “I once attended the Isle of Wight W in 2008, it was outstanding. I had never seen so many happy scooter s madmen in a single event. Now some say it seems the rally lost its vibe, and the big party nowadays is in Thailand,” Fabio went on. No way, I thought, I must see if this statement is true, so a UK trip by Vespa will be organised soon! Basso’s junior believes it is a generation problem. “We try our best to spread the old-school scooters to the youngest generation, sometimes we succeed. Other times we return home pretty frustrated. Passion was not the missing key guest in Nervasa, though. As I walked inside the core of the garage I stumbled in front of an old dyno, which stole my attention for half-an-hour. “We are going to restore this beauty, splendid she will arise… like the old days, I can’t wait to see it in action,” teased Fabio. The more I observed these guys, the clearer the picture in my mind of the war they were fighting. There was more, something I had never seen in any other shop, a perfect blend between the old school and the modern taste. As a matter of fact, two associates showed me their dyno notes on graph paper! I was momentarily returned back to school, with pencils and board just like that. “We love history here, to be the best around you have to go deep in past, and understand what they did, why, then make it better using modern ingredients.”
My usual question regarding the best touring motor was hot and ready to emerge. “There is no perfect engine; the perfect unit I would use might be a disaster to you,” said Fabio and Alan concurred. For the sake of a reaction, I asked if they considered their shop a ‘bespoke’ garage. Every technician usually has a perfect engine to suggest to me, but they remained very solid on their opinion. “We build the scooter behaviour and performance around the customer,” answered Alan very seriously. As you already know, I cover 10,000km/year along with my ‘Negra’ (speaking of which… I’ll update you on my 225 Polini-tuned motor as soon as we reach the 30,000km mark – we are now at 24,000km), and do care a lot about others’ opinion for travelling matters. “What about the last engine you made for that purpose then?” I pushed. “We custom made a BGM and then a Mugello, but in the end nothing of the original parts
remained. They had modified ports, modified cylinders and transmission. ”No specific recipe was given. “We machine, weight balance, port and weld everything we need here in our ‘sanctum sanctorum’. If you don’t, you spend days driving and phoning the machine shops, who (most of the time) have no idea about scooter parts,” said Alan.
By now it was time to photoshoot these guys at work, while I transformed myself into a ghost. Hidden behind the camera I explored around. “After different jobs in which these good friends were involved, it’s pleasing to know they finally found peace. I am very proud of my son, but a bit embarrassed to tell him from the heart. If it wasn’t for him, this place would probably be demolished. Alan and he are just like brothers, they knew each other from primary school,” a moved Luigino explained as if walking by chance near my shooting angles. The word ‘heroes’ is too much for a scooter garage compared with the WWI agony, but every generation has its own war to fight. Here was a story about two friends who finally made their way across the perilous roads of happiness. A few steps away from this reflection, sleeping under a white sheet was a race machine, red and white in colour, and it troubles me to think about slick tyres, high octane fuel and screaming revs. Sorry guys, but you have to wait the next issue to slide that sheet away.