Tom and Anna's collection is spilling out of the garage and into the house.

After falling in love with a 1962 Vespa VNB through a Craigslist ad, and then even more so when she pulled into the parking lot, the bike stalls and will not get going again.  Serious bummer.  The seller, a great guy named Louis, has promised that if we ride over to his friend’s house, we can easily solve the problem.  He describes his friend as somewhat of a guru with vintage scooters, and suggests the trip may also include a tour of his collection, consisting of over 50 rare scooters.  I’m game, I really need to get this thing running before I drop good money on it.

Away we go, with the scooter in the back of the rental van again, promises of a great mechanic, as well as a classic scooter collection, have us really excited.

Quick ride to the guy’s house, and we meet Tom, of Tom and Anna.  I vaguely recall seeing these names on some of the forums while doing research.  If memory serves, they seem to be members of a very small club – people who have dedicated themselves to returning vintage scooters to the road.  It turns out, most of these scooters are makes and models I have never heard of.

Tom is really gracious, and commences a tour of his collection – which consists of over 50 vintage scooters!  He details all the models, the quirky stories of how they acquired them, and the ins and outs of each machine.  Being new to this whole scene and culture, it dawns on me that I have just stumbled onto 60 years of education, in a single night!  This is amazing.  Tom and his wife (who unfortunately was not home when we visited) have an enthusiasm for odd, vintage scooters (which they call oddscoots), like no one I have ever met.

Some of the highlights were the Fuji Rabbit (my friend owns one as well – Tom seemed to get a kick out of that!), The Bastert with a sidecar (for toting the kids around?), and the TWN Tessy that looked as if it had just come off the showroom floor.  The tour concluded with a look at 4 perfect scooters in their living room, looked straight out of an add for scooters!  The most impressive aspect, to me, was the way that Tom seemed more interested in keeping the scooters looking like they typically would after so many years of use.  Most of the collection is aged and esthetically imperfect, keeping with the idea that 60 years of use will naturally present some fading, patina, and an expression of it’s history.  I also appreciated the fact that Tom seemed to get a kick out of how each manufacturer was able to surpass certain design challenges, by coming up with unique ways around each problem.  It seems that early on, the design of the scooter class of two-wheeled vehicles was decidedly branching off from typical motorcycle design (which had been around for far longer).  These challenges, heightened by the small working space, as well as the fact that the engines would be tucked away from view inside the frame, made for some amusing workarounds, and Tom filled us in on all these obscure facts.

After the tour, we headed down into the shop, where Tom got the scooter going in 2 minutes, exactly as the Louis had predicted.  Up and running, we were good to go.  An amazing experience, especially for a newbie to the scooter scene, and something that will stay with me, every time I see a scooter of any make or model.  The crash course in scooter history is priceless, and I look forward to meeting up with both the couple and Louis, at their yearly bagel brunch, in September.  A chance to see all the scooters out on the street, and get to know other enthusiasts for the sport.  Can’t wait!

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