OWNER DETAILS
Name: Steve Hearne.
Scooter club & town: Guernsey Scooter Collective.
First interest in scooters: At age 12 when I saw my older mates on them.
First scooter: Vespa 90.
Favourite scooter model: Rally or SS 90.
Favourite style of custom scooter: Street sleeper.
First ever rally: France, Carnac.
Least favourite rally: On a trip to France with the boys I had my Lammy laden down with bags, we stopped at a petrol station and in a hurry I (foolishly) guessed the oil ratio for a full tank. Hoofin' it down the motorway she locked solid, and I spent three hours waiting for a grumpy French Renault Trafic-driving geezer to turn up, and attempt to secure my scooter in the back of the van with bungee clips. Pointing out that this wasn't an ideal
way to secure a valuable scooter was met with casual indifference, and it was a long three-hour drive to St Malo in stony silence with the outside temperature 26-plus degrees. I did give him a tip though… learn some English if you're going to do recovery work!
Funniest experience involving scooters: You could ride scooters under 100cc at 14 in Guernsey when I first started riding in the 70s (recently changed to 50cc). There was a local dealer who used to put trade-ins, in an large old store, at the back of his extensive shop/garage. As kids we were always mooching about, looking at the scooters and bikes traded in, and when I reached 14 I spoke to the owner and bought a red Vespa 90 for £7 (1974). I was that chuffed, I pushed it home on cloud nine, only to find it was heat seized, and needed a complete engine strip. So started my love affair with Vespa!
What do you like about rallies: The craic.
Favourite Scootering magazine feature: All good, read it from cover to cover.
Favourite custom scooter of all time: No special type, just something someone has put a lot of care and time into. Not keen on cheque book restos, get your hands dirty, you're going to anyway, owning a classic scooter.
Your most recommended scooter part or related item: Decent tyres.
Favourite scooter dealer: Millard and Co (the oldest motorcycle dealership in the UK) BGM and Readspeed.
The Pony changed ownership with its original, standard motor fitted. Complete with correct and matching engine number stamps, four-speed gearbox and everything else exactly how Piaggio intended. As is often the way, Steve wanted to put his own mark on the smallframe. Out came the stock 90SS Mk2 engine, replaced with a Polini 135 kitted lump with several additional upgrades also bestowed on the power unit. Additionally, there's been a bit of porting work carried out too.
“Pete Silvester gave it a bit of a tune. Like the rebuild, and the paint job, it was (all) done on Guernsey, we're quite self-sufficient here on the island. We kind of have to be. I've got the original standard engine complete, stashed under a bench. If I ever decide to sell it, it gives any future owner the option to return this rare smallframe to its original specifications, should they want to. With the engine I've had fitted it takes a short while for the reeds to warm up, lots of popping and farting to start with, then once they do warm up, it goes like stink. It's a real fun scooter to ride.”
A rare smallframe model, that currently delivers a few more ‘horses' in the power output department... would it be churlish to tempt fate, questioning, given the livery colour, should Steve ever break down on the Pony, could the situation be described as being, err, marooned?