Reader’s Ride: Lendl GP
Serving up some style: The Casual scene has always had a close connection to the scooter scene. Jay Simpson illustrates that perfectly with his new Ivan Lendl, Adidas-themed custom scooter.
As the trend shifted it wasn’t long before teenagers like myself and Jay Wilson were spending small fortunes on tennis brands such as Fila, Sergio Tacchini, Lacoste and Ellesse; and when the new Ivan Lendl Adidas range came on to the scene it took centre stage (or court!) in Jay’s collection. Having been bombarded with the three-stripe Adidas market, when Jay saw the new Lendl range his eyes lit up. “The new branding was something different and I just had to have it. I can remember my old man telling me, ‘No!’ to buying a top because at the time things were tight and the gear was so expensive. To get round the problem I got myself a paper round and saved up every penny I earned until I’d built up enough cash to buy myself my first ever Lendl T-shirt and VH Lendl trainers. As far as I was concerned, I was the dog’s bollocks!” Jay grinned. The Casual scene has always had a close connection to the scooter scene; over the years, as well as owning a lot of top branded gear Jay has also owned several scooters and in 2015 he got the chance to buy a neat-looking Lambretta GP150; but was £1500 short on budget.
Sacrifices
Casting his mind back to the paper round he’d had in the 80s and the sacrifices he’d had to make to get the Lendl gear, raising the £1500 was not going to be any different, so to buy the scooter he reluctantly sold his Omega watch. “Having got the scooter, knowing I was going to make it into a project I pondered on a lot of things; in particular the theme and design. I looked at hundreds and hundreds of scooters up and down the country and then one day the inspiration
came to me: The iconic Ivan Lendl Adidas branding from my youth. I realised having seen a few other Adidas bikes that to my knowledge there had never been a Lendl themed scooter. My mind was made up, the Lendl theme was perfect and the GP was the perfect platform.” Initially Jay tried a fairly simple three-stripe design but it didn’t cut the look he was after.
“The panels remained in my living room for about a year until the penny dropped, and then having made a few sketches and collected some photographs in autumn 2018 I took the scooter over to David and John at John Espin Signs in Scunthorpe to organise the graphics.” In the meantime, knowing the work would take around two months, Jay got in touch with Keith at K2 Customs and commissioned him to produce some custom one-off themed pieces.
Power
While all this was going on, Jay also needed to consider an engine set-up which, like Ivan Lendl, would deliver power and performance. “I mean what’s the point in having an Ivan Lendl themed scooter if it’s not going to deliver some real power?” he grinned. With this in mind, at the end of February 2020 Jay made contact with AF Rayspeed and the scooter was handed over to the trusty hands of Ben for the necessary upgrades to be made. “Ben and I talked through the engine options and after thrashing out a few ideas (and several cuppas) we decided on a race-tour set-up which would deliver power, performance and reliability.” Having seen and heard the scooter on the road Jay’s definitely served up an ace. The exhaust sounds crisp and sharp, and the race-tour set-up delivers smooth, all-round excellent performance.
The graphics are stylish and the K2 themed items blend neatly into the project, adding a custom feel to the street racer looks – game, set and match!