Voltrophenia
In 1979 a low-budget film inspired a new breed of scooterists. Stan asks if Saigon Scooter Centre’s electric conversion can do the same for the next generation of riders?
The world's changing at a rapid pace and there's no doubt that electric vehicles are a part of our future. Fortunately, as the TV show Vintage Voltage illustrates, there are a number of individuals that are determined to keep classics rolling by retrofitting electric motors into classic shells. Among these is Pat Joynt, the owner of Saigon Scooter CCentre (SSC). A committed scooterist and lover of all things two-stroke, Pat has been an unlikely, but enthusiastic, advocate of electronic conversions for more than a decade. Although his first prototypes were fully functional, they did require significant alterations to the frame, something that Pat realised was unacceptable to owners of valuable original classics. Having gone back to the drawing board, Pat unveiled a fully reversible Lambretta conversion last year. Thanks to Covid it's taken a while for the kits to arrive but they're now available and the UK distributor is another well-known twostroke enthusiast, Tim Boardman.
Breaking bland
When we last spoke to Tim, he was working in Milan with Tino Sacchi. Having moved back to the UK last year, Tim's used the contacts he built up in Italy to identify an exciting new range of products, the first of which is the SSC electric conversion kit. “I've been in the motor industry for most of my life,” Tim explained. “During that time, I've worked on both sides of the Atlantic and on everything from Aston Martins to Targa Twins. I'm a true petrolhead but there's no disputing the demand for environmentally friendly transport. It's just that the current offerings are, in a word, bland.” Thanks to his industry experience Tim knows that although most people will opt for a massproduced product there'll always be a market for something more individual, a gap he believes can be filled by the SSC kit. “The demand for electric scooters is increasing month by month,” he said. “Being honest, at the moment I don't see many ‘traditional' scooterists opting for an electric conversion. These are designed as city bikes, not street racers or long-distance tourers. However, there's no doubting that the lines of a classic scooter have universal appeal.”
E-asy riders
He may be right. Experience shows that electric scooters attract entirely new customers. Other kits have found buyers ranging from a successful businesswoman who rides a wideframe Vespa to an American student who loves her smallframe. These aren't people who'd normally cross the threshold of a scooter dealer's, but once they've been welcomed, sales of clothing and accessories follow. They may never attend a National but if they help to keep the local scooter shop going for those of us who do, everyone's a winner.
Power to the people
An electric scooter's output isn't only determined by engine size but also by the on-board computer. Theoretically it's possible to tune, or more accurately programme, the motor in the same way as a conventional petrol engine. However as with two-strokes, performance comes at a cost. An e-scooter can go faster but its