Funky Moped
Any automotive manufacturer worth its wheels must be able to adapt to differing market requirements. The Vespa 50 Pedali was Piaggio’s attempt to satisfy the French rules and regulations, enabling them to get a share of the very lucrative small cc moped m
The 50 Pedali – Vespa's attempt to satisfy new legislation
As with many countries (especially ones with warmer climates) the motorised two-wheeler is a rite of passage for any teenager to become upwardly mobile. As this market was continuously expanding and the name Vespa was already one of the cool machines to own, Piaggio produced a 50cc smallframe but with clever, but aesthetically clumsy, adaptations, enabling the fitment of the working pedals to satisfy the rules for the French market at the time.
Piaggio quite clearly aimed their product directly at the youth market, effectively producing a Vespa moped known as the Pedali, which has that lovely sound to it, like many Italian words, but which simply translates as ‘pedals'.
TOUR DE FRANCE
According to the ‘official' Piaggio information: “This model was built exclusively for the French market from 1970”; but I've experienced several anomalies with Piaggio's ‘official' line several times previously and this proves to be another such occasion, as Douglas advertising material exists stating that the Pedali was also officially sold in Great Britain.
PEDAL POWER
In the UK, a law was passed in December 1971 to limit under 17-year-olds to riding a moped with a maximum engine size of 50cc and fitted with pedals, so that the vehicle could be propelled like a bicycle (previously learners from the age of 16 could ride motorcycles up to 250cc). The big Japanese manufacturers didn't hang about and produced sports mopeds aimed at this new 16-year-old learner market, with the likes of the Yamaha FS1E. These Fizzies and the like were very popular and could really shift, which probably explains the rather low numbers of the Pedali being sold in this country, making this particular variant of the Vespa 50 a rare beast indeed.
On August 1, 1977, sports mopeds were outlawed as the law changed again, limiting 16-year-olds to 50cc machines with a maximum top speed of 30mph and learners over the age of 17 being limited to 125cc maximum. This levelling of the game combined with start of the Mod Revival and the popularity of Vespa and Lambretta scooters once more saw us all on the trusty Vespa 50 Special as soon as we were legally allowed (and sooner if our folks didn't know). We could now be part of the ‘in crowd' and join in with the older, cooler lads and lasses without having to compromise with the Piaggio's rather ugly, for the time that was, attempt at a smallframe Vespa moped.
SPIKE’S BIKE
One of the true characters of classic scootering (especially the Vespa scene) is Spike Edwards, a dyed-in-the-wool ‘Vespista' from way back in the day. As such, it naturally followed that his wife Vi (and eventually their two children) would also become part of this world, as they'd grown up within the scene and around the Vespa scooters.
When his daughter Janet was coming up to her 16th birthday, Spike tasked a very good friend, Norrie Kerr, to keep his eyes open for a suitable Vespa 50 at the right price for her to learn how to ride on. A nice machine, but not that nice that it would cause heartache if it fell over a time or two while the lessons were taking place.
Norrie sourced this particular machine close to his old business, Midland Scooter Centre in Stapleford near Nottingham, with his business partner and fellow scooter racing champion Dave Webster. The scooter was handed over to Spike at an MSC open day where Spike was helping run the Vespa Club of Britain stall.
Norrie had made sure the engine was mechanically sound and Spike, with his trusty brush in hand and tin of red coach enamel car paint, had refreshed the bodywork. This was about 1989-1990 and once the scooter was completely back together, in full running order and roadworthy with a fresh MoT and road tax, Spike decided to use it as his commuter scooter to work and back for a while, just to make sure everything was perfect before he let Janet begin to learn on it when she turned 16 in 1991. Janet can remember that she didn't get on too well with the 50 and was happy to upgrade to her Vespa 90 when she was old enough, which was an 18th birthday present from her parents (and a scooter that she still proudly owns today).
The 50 was then loaned to her younger sister Sheila, when she in turn became of an age to begin her Vespa journey and started to learn to ride too; Sheila eventually upgraded to a Vespa Primavera 125.
The red Pedali was then once more looked after by Spike and used to great amusement at many Veteran Vespa Club events where he would often get members of all ages having a go at propelling the scooter along using nothing more than pedal power; not a very easy option and helping demonstrate that the addition of pedals was nothing more than a way of getting round a legal requirement.
POST OFFICE RED
In 2013, after having the little red funky Vespa moped in his small but varied, interesting and historically important collection of machines for about 24 years, Spike decided to sell it to Mark Miles, one of his fellow Vintage Motor Scooter Club friends, a postie and one of Great Britain's fine key workers, but unfortunately a Lancastrian.
Mark loves his Pedali, but is the first to admit he doesn't know much about the scooter, as, like myself, hadn't had anything much to do with the model, with them being so few and far between; in fact, I can only ever remember one lad owning one when we were just starting out on our Vespa 50s back in the 1980s and haven't seen another, that I've noticed anyway, until seeing Spike's Pedali a few years back.
What he does know is that it has nine-inch wheels, a narrow stand to facilitate the fitting of the pedals, cut-down floorboards for the same reason, six-volt electrics and no rear brake light.
The chain goes from the front cog on the pedals to a cog that's fitted to the rear wheel hub which enables the scooter to be propelled by pedal power alone when the engine isn't running. With the engine running, the inner workings of the pedal set-up (which I've never seen) disengages, preventing the pedals from turning; this in turn keeps the pedals stationary, preventing them from possibly constantly thumping the back of your legs as you ride along – which would make for a rather unpleasant journey.
So, there we have it... yet another variation on the seemingly endless versions of Vespa scooter that were produced and especially in regards to the smallframe models, of which the list seems endless.