AS HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG

2023-03-21 -

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING

While all this was happening, Spike turned his attention to the motor, which had been removed and delivered to a friend of a friend called Tabby, who was an engineer and had access to the tools required to remove the seized, snapped-off exhaust bolt and repair the threads.

The motor was then taken to Norrie and Rob Kerr for them to strip and fully rebuild – which they did, replacing almost everything including the crank, producing what’s basically a new motor, albeit the wrong one for the scooter.

With all the component parts now back in Mr and Mrs Spike’s front room, it started to get slowly and carefully rebuilt to the standard they wanted for the young Spikelet (as Janet is often referred to).

The scooter’s restoration was completed in 2013 and the little 1964 Vespa 90 Standard, in the wrong shade of blue, with the wrong (but fantastic and professionally built) engine, was taken back to Janet in Wales. That was until the local garage monkey in the MoT station pulled on the front brake with the strength of Thor and broke the cable; so back to Dad’s it went, got fixed and was delivered to Janet once again at the VVC Summer Rally at Canterbury in 2013 where, despite all its imperfections and wrongness, it picked up a second-place award in the Concours D’Elegance.

CATCH THE PIGEON

Janet then took her pride and joy back to Wales once more and enjoyed it on sunny days, riding along the coast to Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Bangor; but further house moves and changes of jobs once again saw the scooter now thinking it was a homing pigeon, returning to the Edwards’ residence, which is where it stayed, covered up and protected in another coalhouse.

After much thought and deliberation, Janet decided it needed to be used and enjoyed, so decided to sell it in summer 2022, with the beautiful little 90 smallframe picked up from her parents’ house in October 2022. A rather sad day really, as it meant that for the first time since July 1957, there wasn’t a Vespa at the Edwards household.

NEW CUSTODIAN

The ‘custodian’ is now a gentleman named Julian Jones. Many who’ve read my Classic Scooterist ramblings may recognise his name as he is a serial scooter purchaser (and as such, does tend to keep me in work).

Julian has been quite absent from Classic Scooterist pages for a fair while, due to the fact that he was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer in April last year – words that no one ever wants to hear.

But he was also informed that as it had been found very quickly, it was potentially curable with a very good success rate.

Julian had radiotherapy and two courses of chemotherapy, ringing the bell which signifies the end of the treatment in early September. He’s now clear of the cancer, but will have to be periodically monitored as a precautionary measure; he’s extremely positive, throwing himself all over on the dancefloor as he used to do and continuing his passion for buying very nice scooters.

This little Vespa 90 Standard that is so perfectly wrong in so many ways is his little ‘well done’ gift to himself and he has also joined the Veteran Vespa Club, so the scooter remains within the family so to speak. [Thanks to Spike, Spikelet, Dave Hawkins and Colin Bangs for the additional information and images].

There can’t be many riders out there who haven’t at some point heard about the phenomenon that is named The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. It’s an event that takes place in May every year and has attained cult status worldwide, attracting hundreds of thousands of smartly dressed riders who have all come together to raise money for prostate cancer and men’s mental health charities (to date, the event has raised over $35 million).

Over the years the DGR event has spawned thousands of incredible stories, characters and anecdotes; and now many of these have been compiled into a book, which will further help to raise funds for charity. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride: a Decade of Dapper provides a lasting record of the triumph and heartbreak of the riders and celebrities who have taken part, or have been affected by health issues in some way.

Its 240 pages contain 200 stunning colour and black and white images – all for £28.