A different kind of drug

Hi Stan,

You recently asked for reader feedback and views on all things scootering (‘be careful what you wish for, it may come true’) and this has prompted me to comment.

Let’s kick things off by coming clean and saying up front that for me, interest lies predominantly in the glory days of the Vespa SS180 and the Series 2 Lambrettas, with more than a passing nod to the sadly much ignored Super-Capri 150 (how about a few pages on this bike?).

As one who prefers to ‘pootle and pose’, I tend largely to ignore articles about those wishing to modify scoots to drink fuel in the quest for insanely faster and faster machines, a comment which has possibly now irritated many readers! It has been great to see articles about historic scoots other than Vespas and Lambrettas, even though many were (let’s be generous) not ever the most stylish of machines.

Also it’s great to see a balance in the magazine between the two very different subcultures of those (as am I) still following a Mod style, and those following the 80s Scooter Boy style. We are, after all, bonded by a love of the machines we ride. Additionally, many like myself will have largely transitioned to the new auto machines and with the onset of arthritis (we Sixties Mods are all getting ancient) it’s been necessary to spend-out on a Royal Alloy GP300 and of course I’ve smothered it in lights and mirrors, but this doesn’t mean that for short trips I’ve ignored my TV175 (Series 2) and my LD150 (Series 3). It just means that pain medications such as Volterol and ibuprofen are now on the regular shopping list for when the geared bikes come out of the garage.

Whatever you ride and whatever your ’scene’, let’s be safe and enjoy the roads while the sun still shines.

Richard Bambridge

Hi Richard,

I’m glad to see that you’re not ready for the insurance advert modded-up zimmer frame just yet! In fact it’s great to read that you’ve found a way of mixing machines to suit your circumstances. I think you raise a good point, there are a lot of ‘other’ scooters out there that we don’t really touch in Scootering, of course Mau has some great coverage but do readers want to see more ‘unusual’ scoots in Scootering? Please drop me a line and let me know (stan@scootering.com).

Dear Stan,

While building myself up to check on my PX which suffered a solid seize on Sunday it occurred to me that I have never seen a collective noun for scooterists.

Have you ever heard of one? If not, could you offer the question to your readers for suggestions?

Regards

Alan Colbert

A grammar question in Scootering, that may be a first! As we’ve got names for groups of animals such as a flock of sheep, an army of caterpillars and a gang of elks, I’d suggest a ‘breakdown of scooterists’. Has anyone got a better suggestion?