Welcome letter from the editor
A warm welcome to the July edition of Scootering.
I'm pretty certain that the behaviour pattern of repeatedly buying scooters which you don't actually need should really be classified as a recognised medical condition… well, that's what I tell my good lady when I fail to mention each latest purchase, as they magically appear in the garage without any prior explanation. She's a forgiving woman, she has to be, she's married to me… but there is certainly a sense of frostiness as we both stand there in the garage staring at the new arrival, her waiting for me to speak, and me determined not to incriminate myself further. Thankfully, though, it's a short-lived experience as I try to point at something shiny as a distraction and endeavour to change the subject. She's no fool though, she keeps tally and it's all logged for future ‘negotiations'.
I've had a few Vespas in my time, my first scooter was a PX200, and I've owned numerous PX125/200s since… but never a T5. I always wanted one, and like most of us do, I kept ‘watching' them on sale sites as they came and went, often thinking, “ooh, that one was a bargain”, and “wow, that one looks smart”, etc… but never quite getting my hand in my pocket (well I am a Yorkshireman after all!).
But recently, I'd been watching scooter prices taking a hop, skip and a jump in the upward direction... indeed, Stu Owen reflects on the very same issue in his column this month. Presumably, the price hike is due to some tenuous link with lockdown fever, but who knows. I always found PX125s largely undervalued and would often use them as my ‘budget go-to purchase'. When fitted with a 166 kit, a pipe and an up-gear kit they were often quite the bargain. But, when I recently came to ‘take the plunge', almost everything on offer seemed either overpriced (read out of my budget), or else was a clappedout heap. What to do?
After a brief pause for thought, I turned to my old buddy Scott Durnion, anyone can easily find him on Facebook. Scott regularly imports quantities of Spanish Lambretta and Vespa scooters into the UK, providing each one complete with a NOVA number and Date Cert to help you with registration. He also tries his best to cherrypick the cleanest and most solid examples, so I was confident that he could help me in my search for a bargain… and so he did. Not only did Scott find me a Vespa, but it was also a stunning Spanish T5 model, in exemplary condition. I think that with as little as a new rear hub (£35?) it will sail straight through the MoT (I'll report if it does). Scott was also good enough to organise MB Courier Services to deliver straight to my front door, and I was pleased to find that the courier himself (Mark Beveridge) was also a scooterist and his prices were reasonable too. So, what started out as a demoralising hunt for a scooter turned into quite the purchase in the end, happy days.
Said Vespa will, of course, be featuring in future tech articles, though I wouldn't want Stan to think I'm trying to highlight the fact that his equivalent T5 purchase ended up being a bit of a lemon, requiring a complete rebuild at great expense… no, I would never do that! Because that would be very mischievous of me, wouldn't it ;–)
On that note, Stan has another T5 tech update for us, check it out on p62. Stu Owen balances the scales with his Lambretta tech (crankshafts) feature on p80, Rik covers the autos with the TG300 Rallymaster on p58, and we even have the new eBretta electric conversion from Saigon Scooter Centre on p52. Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings, it's another belter this month… stay safe and enjoy the issue!