Reader’s Ride: Rallymaster TG300

The uptake on the Royal Alloy TG300 has been quite phenomenal in this country – and they’re even converting many traditionalists to the marque.

The uptake on the Royal Alloy TG300 has been quite phenomenal in this country – and traditionalists are among those snapping up the model.

Adam Gray is a proper ‘time-served' scooterist and lives in a beautiful part of the world, blessed with fantastic roads for blipping about on. The only downside about living way up north beside Aberdeen is that he's miles away from a main dealership of any marque. He's pretty much always been a Vespa man, and now he's ventured on to a Royal Alloy TG300.

So why the switch from Vespa to Royal Alloy? The last scooter I had was a T5 – and I'm what might be called ‘big boned'. I'm 50 and I wanted something more comfortable so I thought, ‘I'll sell the T5 and try one of these', and I'm glad I did. I've always liked the Rallymaster (hence the Dennis The Menace/Gnasher paint job). But when I thought about getting one, I realised that I couldn't be bothered with the constant tinkering and the time for TLC an original Li150 would really need to keep it decent. So my compromise was thinking the TG300 would be a good starting point. You can't make it identical because it doesn't have the Spanish-style mudguard and things like that, but it has the same appeal to me. The other bonus is the four-stroke 300cc engine. You can put decent miles on it and keep up with all traffic, you know, the old getting up a hill thing, trying to overtake something and as soon as you pull out, you just end up going backwards. So the decision for the 300 was pretty easy.

SC: So why didn't you go for the Vespa GTS? AG: Vespa (in my eyes) always had great-looking front ends until the Cosa, it didn't have a defined horn cover and that destroyed the look of the front to me – and in their infinite wisdom Vespa thought they'd make the GTS look similar. I just didn't understand that. Nothing against it as a machine, it just wasn't for me. Royal Alloy has come up with something more traditional looking, in my eyes.

SC: Would you change anything about the TG?

AG: The seat, it's not the best-looking thing. I understand it's good for short-arses, but that's not an issue for me. I've a new seat on order, nothing too fancy, just a bench seat in plain black, with red piping around the edge, keep it simple. I've fitted an exhaust from Adam Tassoman since the photos were taken and removed the ugly mirrors, replacing them with a single bar end fitted on the throttle side. I'll see how I go once that's done and it's been through its first service. To be honest, I feel it's quick enough for what I need. I've had motorbikes in the past and I'm not really looking for 100 miles an hour. I want enough power to overtake on main roads and we've got some great winding roads up here.

SC: What does the new scooter handle like?

AG: It handles a lot better than the T5, I can say that with no fear. The bigger wheels and tyres obviously help but the suspension also helps a lot too. As for spares, all I take with me as back-up is a throttle cable, some fuses just in case something electrical blows and just the usual tools. Not much, to be honest. When I was on the T5 I had loads, but you've only got the throttle cable on this, there's no other cables. Everything's hydraulic. The brakes are superb. You can't compare them to the old Vespa drum brakes – and you shouldn't either.

SC: Right. Let's go back to the very beginning. Scooters, how did that come about?

AG: It was 1990, I was a Skinhead and needed motor transport and that was it, I wasn't interested in a bike at the time and never even thought about a car. My first scooter was a red PX125 from Bert at the 2 Wheel Centre. Good old reliable, with ‘L' plates on, and I rode it for a few months but wanted a 200 so it was a mission to get my test done, then I got a P200. My scooters have mainly been Vespa, and predominantly Vespa cutdowns. I've had a couple of chops too. I joined Aberdeen Scooter Club, at the time that was the only local club. I guess there ended

up (probably) close to half a dozen clubs, either in the city or around about the area. You know what it's like, somebody would fall out with somebody else and the next thing you knew, there's a new scooter club popping up. We had all sorts of scoots in our club, though I don't think anyone had the Mod lights, mirrors and that nonsense. There were choppers and cutdowns, street racer types and plain standard things, that sort of stuff. Nowadays, we are a club by name but we don't have any rules, pay any dues or anything like that. There's only 10- 12 of us but that's fine. There are loads of clubs in and around the area and the scene is probably the busiest it's been in years. A Touch of Blue P2 was my second scoot. I remember me and the (now) wife did a week's holiday on A Touch of Blue in the Lake District after a weekend at an Edinburgh Blues SC Farmyard Rally. Tent, sleeping bags, clothes and both of us on it meant we didn't get there and home quickly! It was a bloody great scoot until some fecker pinched it! Some of the lads (Brack, Coke and Scotty to name a few) really ventured out, going overseas, to Holland and Italy and the likes… England and Wales were far enough for me.

SC: Do you think there should be more rallies up in Scotland?

AG: We used to have a great national rally over in Oban, we've also had Kelso – which wasn't my cup of tea, it was too big for me by then. I prefer local, smaller events to be honest. They're just more friendly, I think. The Highlander Rallies we had throughout the north-east of Scotland were absolutely brilliant. This year, I think a few of us are just doing a tour or two of the Highlands. It sounds like we'll be able to meet up in groups fairly soon. The roads up here are ideal for it, I travel less than half a mile from my house and I'm on country roads.

SC: Any advice for anyone getting into scootering?

AG: My advice to anyone getting into scootering would be… please yourself, get what you want, wear what you want and listen to what you want! I've never really been one for open-face helmets, I'm too attached to my chin. I'm not one for uniforms either these days, so just wear a practical jacket with some tumble protection but fair play if an MA1 and open face are your thing... Oh, and no matter what you ride – just get out with a few of your mates for a laugh. Though recently, we've almost forgotten what that was. I'm loving my scootering again, and I've only one minor irritation and no one has said it to me personally (yet), but it's the scooter ‘purists'… the ‘that's not a real scooter' brigade. The thing about people moaning about modern autos is… are they still driving Ford Anglias every day? No. No, they are not. Why? Because things have moved on. Yes, classics are great, but so are the modern classics too.