No one said it would be easy
These days we expect vehicles to look after themselves, but in the past, it was down to the owner.
Any modern-day vehicle, be it two or four wheels, tends to look after itself, and we, as owners, expect nothing less. Turn on the ignition; the dashboard lights up like Blackpool illuminations, and the onboard computer instigates a series of checks to ensure it’s okay to proceed. It all seems so simple, and if there is a problem it tells you so or even prevents the car from running, saving it from damage. It’s a far cry from the experience of owning a scooter back in the 1950s or 60s. (Or owning a classic scooter today.)
Imagine, back in the 1950s, riding your brand-new purchase out of the showroom. The scooter salesman would have given you a few basic pieces of information but from there on in, it was down to you to ensure it kept working.
For starters, there was the running-in process, which all vehicles of the era needed. But for a two-stroke scooter, not only was the distance greater, there were also rules to be followed regarding the revs in each gear. These rules were crudely applied to the legshields by way of a water transfer, and once mastered it was on to the next hurdle.
That was oil mixture mismanagement – which if it happened would spell disaster. Forget to mix it at the filling station and the engine would seize and the new owner would face a costly repair bill. Of course, there was a handy reminder in the form of a little sticker on the petrol flap about oil, but it’s not quite the same as a warning light on the dash. Then there was the quantity which needed measuring out. Here there were two choices: either the crappy scale on the side of the bottle (which I don’t think anyone has ever worked out) or a jug that would spill any excess into the toolbox. To complicate it further was the percentage; some manufacturers said 2% while others claimed four or even five. Many owners resorted to simply ‘tipping some in’ but if too much was used, the plug would oil up, causing poor starting, while eventually the exhaust would slowly coke up, reducing performance as time passed.
Having mastered the art of filling up there was then the question of how often? No trendy gauge told you how much fuel was in the tank; it was down to you to guess. Aftermarket fuel gauges were available but to view them the seat and petrol flap had to be lifted, so they were hardly convenient. Of course there was the option of just waiting until it went on to reserve and hoping that a petrol station could be found before the supply ran out. This method assumed that the reserve flow hadn’t clogged up and left you stranded, but never mind, scooters were built for pushing.
That nicely moves us on to stopping the bloody things. There was no easy-to-use hydraulic brake system but rather a stretchy cable that needed constant adjustment as the shoes wore down. Again, it was up to the owner to ensure that the vehicle’s most significant safety feature was working adequately. The list kept growing, from adjusting the headlamp so you could see where you were going at night to ensuring the wheel nuts hadn’t come loose. All this was nicely described in a handbook that came with the scooter, but this usually ended up rotting away in the toolbox, having been soaked in oil from the two-stroke jug that we’ve already mentioned. For a few shillings the manufacturer would come to
The scooter salesman would have given you a few basic pieces of information but from there on in, it was down to you to ensure it kept working.
the rescue by way of a nicely detailed workshop manual listing the 10 million things that could go wrong with their product and how to solve them. It was then down to the owner to extensively research the book on the weekend; the scooter lay beside them in the garage, ready for an overhaul, only for the owner to realise they hadn’t got any of the factory tools required for the maintenance.
This all created a culture of selfmaintenance, using anything to hand and often creating unorthodox solutions to achieving the desired result. A breed of scooter mechanics was born, and to be honest, many of them were finding better ways of keeping their scooters on the road than had ever been considered by the manufacturers.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, and many thousands of scooter riders past and present have enjoyed countless years of enjoyment from maintaining their steeds. Now technology has progressed, making it far easier to own a vehicle with less emphasis on the owner checking for problems. Now, if something goes wrong, then the only option is to take it to a garage that can plug it into life support to find the fault and become a mere passenger; maintenance by the owner is now all but forbidden.
Hopefully, none of these ramblings has put you off because a big part of the appeal of owning a vintage scooter is accepting the challenge of keeping them going. That isn’t always easy and, at times, it can be frustrating. Keeping a classic vehicle, of any type, on the road may not be easy but in my book it’s far more enjoyable than owning one of today’s sterile, untouchable vehicles.