PRACTICAL SCOOTER & MOPED MAGAZINE
The Swinging 60s was famous not just for the Mods and the fashions influenced by the youth movements, it was also the high spot for the cult of the scooter. Nowhere was this more evident than in the magazine publishing field, where scooter fans had a wide range of magazines available to them.
Titles such as Scooter World (with its features starring tuner Arthur Francis) and the somewhat staid Scooter & Three Wheeler battled for sales with the cream of the crop – Practical Scooter & Moped.
TOP SHELF MAGAZINES
Not the most inspirational title, Practical
Scooter & Moped did have an eye-catching full colour cover and was produced in a large format that leapt off the shelves and into the hands of an eager young scooterist audience. One cover upset some of the more conservative scooter faithful by featuring a parka-clad and helmetless Scooterboy in full flight on his Vespa. This cover was thought to promote a bad image of the folk who rode these small-wheeled machines, provoking howls of horror from those hoping and praying that the entire beach fight at Brighton scenario had been forgotten. These protests further ensured that Practical Scooter &
Moped would be the magazine of choice for the younger set. Take the May 1967 edition as a good example; the cover carried a picture of a Lambretta mechanic delving deeply into the gearbox and for a cover price of two shillings (10 pence) promised to show the less squeamish owner how to pull his SX150 engine apart. Bearing in mind that most of the younger scooter owners would draw the line at a top end de-coke, this advice was manna from heaven!
For those on a nostalgia trip, perhaps the adverts are the most evocative. The inside cover of the May issue had a full-page ad for the long lost, but not forgotten, Avon Spartan tyre – ‘The tyre that gives 23% more wet road grip’. Quite what the 23% extra was compared with wasn’t mentioned, but nevertheless the Spartan was reputed to be the best scooter tyre of its day and being pictured on Supertune SX200 Lambrettas with reversepull front disc brakes was one sure way to demonstrate a degree of excellence. Other ads for Nannucci, the ‘Greatest name in scooter accessories’, displayed the Super Florida GS/SS crashbar and the rear folding carrier with wheel lock for the Slimstyle Lambretta (Nannucci; where are you when we need you now). Alternatively, you could ‘Go where the action is – go Vespa’ (presumably with the long-legged young lady wearing only a guardsman’s parade jacket and sat astride a Vespa 90). Or, if you were well into irrational sexual stereotypes being used to sell motorcycles, try the Suzuki ad featuring a bare-footed, long-legged dolly bird and wording asking you to ‘See the naked truth on page 4 and you’ll want to ride the 125’. Page four had a review of this particular machine, by the way. Sex sells, apparently.
Even less PC for the modern mindset is the cartoon on page seven that might well set off a holy war against Practical Scooter & Moped in today’s less tolerant times – a cartoon of a burka-wearing lady scooter rider where the burka covers the entire scooter as well as the individual.
Man the barricades, Practical Scooter!
EDITORIAL THOUGHTS
When compared with current scooter-based publications, Practical Scooter & Moped people cast their net widely as far as content was concerned. ‘Scooter' also equalled three-wheeler cars (the Bond 875 was road tested, for instance). Scooters, at that time, included the previously mentioned Suzuki (a small motorbike in reality). Mopeds were also seen as fair game and featured.
Of real interest to modern scooterists are the articles on what's now termed as classic scooters. The May 1967 edition featured a fascinating set of pictures with accompanying text demonstrating how to fit accessories. These now rare accessories are worth a mint by today's estimation, but that might not be the main point of interest. The surprising point is the apparent willingness of the workshop staff to drill holes in the bodywork, or the accessory, to secure the parts in place. How many modern-day scooterists would drill holes in the rear of their beloved GS to secure the back rack – not many.
The editor's comment column spookily rings a few bells, noting that sales for two-wheelers for 1966 fell by 27% against the 1965 figures and ‘is due to national and international economic factors'. It goes on to state: ‘Are we in fact a vanishing race?' Apparently not! ‘The boom conditions of five or six years ago are not likely to be repeated, but neither are the slump conditions of 1966'. Crystal ball gazing that could well be applied to the present day?
The really exciting article for 1960s Lambretta fans must be the ‘Lambretta 150 Strip' where Eric Pollard of Lambretta, ‘shows you how to do' it (the engine strip-down, that is). This is an excellent Haynes manual style, 18-picture, step-by-step guide to taking apart an SX150 engine.
It was assumed, apparently, that the rebuild was taken as read, as it was not mentioned – perhaps ‘as read' in the next month's magazine? Can't help you there! Certainly, by the standards of the day, a cutting edge and to-the-point article.
READERS’ LETTERS
For light relief the letters page is quite amusing and includes a few gems, including an item on touring in France and Belgium where petrol was an extortionate price of 6s 6d-6s 10d (about 35p in decimal currency). UK petrol was around 5s 6d (27.5p) and suggests that the entire trip might cost £50 – a bargain. However, pride of place must go to the letter from a Mr Miller of Whitley Bay who had his trip out on his moped made difficult by ‘a large motor lorry... driven in a rather erratic manner'. Mr Miller noted a man sat on the left and a large black dog sat on the right of this lorry and ‘nearly fell off my bike when I realised that it was the dog that was in the driving seat'. Of course this was in the 1960s and hallucinogenic drugs were on the go... possibly not in Whitley Bay? We know this because, thankfully ‘when I looked in the cab at a road crossing, I saw the mistake was mine; it was a left-hand drive'. Now, there's a relief!