British Director, scooterist, and older-and-wiser Skinhead Shane Meadows is following up his gritty drama “This Is England” following the racial tensions in England in the early 80s with a four-part television drama for Britain’s Channel 4, “This is England ’86.”

The drama follows the characters established in the film a few years later as they “grow sideways” rather than grow up.

I was the same age as the lead character Shaun (and director Meadows) during both these scenarios and I can’t tell you enough how much both the film and what I’ve seen of the upcoming TV show accurately captures what it felt like at the time. Getting our kicks despite things being grim, jobless and depressing.

In particular I grew up in a town where Skinhead-ism was a major part of youth culture although to be fair, the local Skins were adamantly anti-racist and big supporters of rock-against-racism and other organizations that attempted to distance themselves from Neo-Nazi nationalists who had adopted the skin head look and twisted what the culture stood for. Remember it was born out of the bi-racial background of the Rude Boys.

In fact, in part it’s the Skins that I owe my love of scooters too. When I was a young teenager, the older kids I equal-part looked up to/was terrified of, in the neighborhood had two things in common. They were Skins and they drove scooters being part of the early 80s scooter revival in the UK.

Not sure when we’ll see “This is England ’86″ state-side but we’ll keep you posted. You’ve got to love any trailer that starts out with the sound of two-strokes:

Related posts:

1. This England, the Wigan Casino phenomenom Need some cheering up from the lousy weather today? Huddle...
2. Scoots on film: Gomorra If you've ever wanted to see how scooters fair playing...
3. NYC Scootering Lust: The Tonic Suit Tough to justify in these times of economic discretion, so...

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!

Related posts:

1. Video history of the Vespa, Lambretta Thanks to members of the Lambretta Club of Great Britain,...
2. The (re)search… So, I have decided to get a scooter. That part...
3. So you’re thinking of buying a vintage scoot? I can tell you from personal experience that the...

Of interest to scooterists (other than the fact that the movie is getting great reviews)? Clooney shows off his Vespa skills in the following clip in which he chases down a car while wielding a pistol from the back of his Vespa-P:

Related posts:

1. Scooter bike gang Lamborghini's recent marketing campaign boasts the line, "Feels Italian. Wherever...
2. So why learn to ride now? Three things came together in the perfect storm: 1. I...
3. Vespa S150 video review Steve over at Scooter Scoop has a fantastic review of...

The Vespa VNB I purchased.

So, I have decided to get a scooter.  That part was easy.  Now comes the tough part.  A search for the perfect scooter, one that fits my needs, and ultimately, my personality.

There are so damn many to choose from.  I have been looking at some of the great websites dedicated to scooters, trying to determine which one is right for me.  It seems that more than many other objects that we own, the model and style of our scooter, more outwardly expresses our inner complexion and tastes.

The first step was determining that I wanted a vintage scooter.  I can appreciate the benefits of the more modern scooters (automatic – no need to clutch and shift, warranty, etc.), but find myself drawn to the ‘lines’ of the older models.  I have a good friend who has a total of 5 scooters, some in various states of disrepair (in parts and pieces in the basement) and some that are in perfect condition.  He has given me some good tips for choosing – and I think I am starting to narrow it down.  There is some debate about whether the late 70′s model Vespa, the “P” series is in fact vintage, but as newer designs have flooded the market, it’s clear that they owe more to the traditional style and function than to the newer breed.  It’s decided.  A vintage scooter it is.  A bike made sometime between the years of 1960 and 1980 will be the one for me.

The second step was deciding that the Vespa brand is right for me.  Maybe it’s an emotional attachment to the ones I saw everywhere in Italy, maybe it’s that they have become synonymous with the concept of ‘scooters’ (like Kleenex for tissue), or possibly that I am not too familiar with many other manufacturers.  But let’s be honest here… most likely, it’s because the character Jimmy rode one in the lyrics of the Who album Quadrophenia.  Man, did that thing look awesome on the cover of The Who record.  Mirrors and chrome, the tire in a special holder behind him…perfect!  It has been pointed out to me that the movie version of the rock opera had Jimmy riding a Lambretta, but I’m old school, and my first love will always be the original 1973 album.

My search for vintage Vespas turned up hundreds, if not thousands of bikes for sale.  Being new to the trade, I wanted to make sure I bought one close to home, so that my friend could come with me to check it out.  The idea of not being able to see it up close, for a first scooter, was not appealing at all.  I wanted to trust my friend’s hands-on evaluation, but more importantly, I was curious about how I would feel when I first saw it.  Without sounding too corny (probably too late for that!), there is an emotion that is triggered inside me when I see antiques, an instant attachment to the history of the piece.  That’s what I was hoping for with this scooter too, and viewing it on the internet would not suffice.  I had also been forewarned on many sites about the trouble with “vietbodge” bikes, and this is something I wanted to avoid.

After a ton of research, I finally found on Craigslist, what seemed like a great vintage Vespa, about 30 minutes from my home.  A 1962 restored Vespa VNB.  As many well know, Craigslist can be a bit of a nightmare, but immediately I could tell that this guy was not one of the creeps that I dread, lurking on that site in the for-sale classifieds.

My friend and I traveled up to where he is, meeting in a large parking lot for a good, long test run.  From the moment he pulled up, the beauty of this thing amazed me.  As mentioned earlier, antiques can give me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.  This antique did not disappoint.

Body inspection, check!  Engine inspection, check!  Lack of creepiness from seller, check!  Time to head back to his garage for the extra parts he has for me, as well as all manuals, printouts of schematics, and meticulously documented ownership.

But then it stalls.  Hmmm.  Can’t get it going again.  Strange, and certainly anti-climactic.  Throw it in the back of the rental van, and take it over to his place, where he can go through the carb.  He is definitely embarrassed, and I am certainly getting bummed out.

No luck at his place.  He says, “if you guys are not in a rush, I usually go over to a local guy’s shop to help out on Wednesday nights, and he can definitely get this going in 2 minutes.  He has an amazing collection of vintage scooters, and he is the guy who rebuilt the engine to 150cc.”  When he said vintage scooters, my friend’s eyes lit up, so he’s game.

Although I know the mechanical side of these beauties is a big part of ownership, I’m not looking to purchase a scooter that isn’t running on the day I buy it, so off we go!

The “collection” we ended up seeing was more like an armada of scooters.  More on that next time…

Related posts:

1. Buying the Vespa VNB, learning some history I finally close the deal and make the purchase of...
2. The NYCS Viet-bodge 101 At NYCS we thought it was high time we addressed...
3. Quadrophenia scooter sold at auction The 1967 Lambretta Li150 series 3 ridden by Jimmy the...

The Vespa ET2, ET4.

Ever wondered what prompted Piaggio to abandon the famous “putt-putt-putt” of the two-stroke engine and move to a four-stroke solution?

We’ve dug up this great Wired article from 2002 that details the transition made by the Vespa with the introduction of the ET2 and ET4 to the US in the early 2000s to meet tough emissions laws set by California.

Here’s a glimpse of the article:

It’s easy to see why 2-stroke engines were once so appealing. By generating power and expelling exhaust with only one revolution of a piston (the upstroke and the downstroke), they create torque quickly. This made the old Vespas fast off the line, a must for urban commuters. But the design’s efficiency is what makes it so filthy. A 2-stroke blends oil with gasoline to provide lubrication and burns the mixture together — then simply dumps the unused portion into the earth, water, and sky.

Cleaning up the Vespa proved tricky. Four-stroke seemed the obvious way to go. A 4-stroke engine, like the one in your car, has separate combustion and exhaust strokes. It generates power in one turn of the piston and expels exhaust through valves in the next; the dedicated cycle is what reduces hydrocarbon emissions. But a conventional 4-stroke is also large and heavy and so would compromise the scooter’s signature design. The Vespa’s original architect, Corradino D’Ascanio — an aeronautical engineer who had a hand in designing the first helicopter — found motorcycles to be inelegant and dirty. He wanted his scooter to be more female-friendly. So he gave it a low-slung body with a leg shield to protect the rider from splashing mud and water. Placing the gearshift on the handlebar and using smaller wheels allowed him to enclose the engine over the rear wheel, beneath the seat. This protected the rider from the engine’s heat, oil, and muck — and, just as important, allowed D’Ascanio to design a step-through frame. Motorcycle riders mount their bikes like they would a horse, and ride leaning forward. D’Ascanio imagined scooter drivers sitting upright, with room between their feet for packages — or a skirt.

To read the full article, click here.

Related posts:

1. Does a scooter pollute more than a HUMMER? Seems some of the green-beans out there have been complaining...
2. Silence(r) is golden This morning I figured I'd take a slightly different route...
3. So you’re thinking of buying a vintage scoot? I can tell you from personal experience that the...

I have recently decided to get a Scooter.  At 40 years old, I’m not sure if it’s a mid-life crisis, my recent trip to Italy where I was surrounded by tons of scooters, or just wanting the ability to be free from New York City’s public transportation.  As a child, I dreamed of riding motorcycles like I saw zipping around the neighborhood.  As a teenager, my friends and I would buy small motocross bikes and fix them up, riding them all over the streets of our town, and often in any woods we could get to.  Since becoming an adult, I have yet to ride a two-wheeled vehicle on the open roads.  This decision is a long time in the making, and it’s a decision I am excited about.  I look forward to joining the throngs of loyal (potentially obsessive) fans of this genre of transportation.

Obviously, I have also decided to document my experiences with the early stages of my scootering.  My love of all things The Who (and in particular the masterpiece Quadrophenia,) and the attention they brought to classic scooters, has pointed me in the direction of a vintage bike.  I realize that there are a slew of issues and potential headaches that come with this decision, but I really can’t see myself purchasing a different type of scooter, for my first ever bike.

So, after much research, internal debate, and the common ‘confusion-enlightenment-confusion’ scenario, I finally decided to look for a Vintage Vespa.

The decision for me had been whether to go with something more practical (Vespa P200e) or something with a little more history.

For my purposes, living 3 blocks from work at the recording studio, I definitely do not need a commuter bike.  I realized that owning an older scooter would require more hands on maintenance, or else some hefty repair bills.  The thought of having to take apart the thing became more pro than con, when I realized that it is the problem solving, in audio engineering, that really gets me going.

Also, the idea of having a real piece of history appealed to me, and although the P series is no spring chicken, the look of an older model Vespa, really drew me in.  I like all things old.  Music, radios, cars, furniture…

So there you have it.  Decision made.  Time to find MY vintage Vespa.

I have found so many great sites dedicated to the love of scooters, but hope that these entries can offer some insight into what you might be getting into with a similar decision.  Also, given my nature (and my luck), I am hoping that this comes off as entertaining as well….

A brief history…

I live in Brooklyn, NY.  I own a recording studio, and also occasionally tour with bands, doing live sound and tour managing.  I have a 12 year old puppy named Mazzy, and she rocks!

Related posts:

1. Does a scooter pollute more than a HUMMER? Seems some of the green-beans out there have been complaining...
2. Buying the Vespa VNB, learning some history I finally close the deal and make the purchase of...
3. The (re)search… So, I have decided to get a scooter. That part...

It should be pretty clear by now that when it comes to scooters I have a bias to those with “vintage” and “Italian” in the descriptions. But running a scooter site means reporting all things scooter regardless of manufacturer, make, or origin.

Thankfully, I do have another burgeoning passion. I love me some pimped out Ruckus. The bike is just so cool in its standard format that any customization just takes it into the stratosphere.

Today’s CraigsList find is a tricked out Ruckus that has has all the standard customization for this type of bike:

• Engine swap for a 150cc GY6 using an ATR kit and harness.
• ATR front disc brake setup.
• Rpro handle bar.
• LED Tail-light upgrade.
• License plate relocation.
• Soda can holder??

The original bike is a 2002 but the GY6 is barely broken in with just 800 miles.

$3500 gets you a very tight bike providing you’re a fan of riding within inches of the ground beneath you. The seller is based in Jersey City and you can contact him through the original posting here which also has plenty more photographic pleasure.

Related posts:

1. Today on CraigsList: 2006 Modded Honda Ruckus Even though I'm a die hard Italian scooter fanatic, the...
2. Japanese Honda Ruckus commercial I don't know what it is about the Japanese but...
3. Today on CraigsList: Scooters, Scooters, Scooters Deals abound this week on CraigsList. Seems like the Summer...

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s WNYC piece on parking related issues for scooters around the city, I parked my bike this morning next to a BMW motorcycle owner who would appear to have had enough of being the victim of an overzealous traffic enforcement officer.

The bike has a very neatly drawn up note addressed to the officer with polite but very firm language to tell him or her to stop issuing tickets for a missing inspection sticker. The note reads further to indicate where the sticker is on the bike, and how its location (front fork) meets the NY DMV code.

Poor guy. I’ve been pulled over before by an officer asking to check my inspection sticker, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting multiple inspection sticker related tickets by the meter maids.

Have you ever had this happen to you?

Related posts:

1. NYPD cracking down on inspection stickers? Remember Hill Street Blues, or The Wire? Remember when the...
2. NYCS Interview: NY Motorcycle Parking Tired of parking your scoot on the mean streets of...
3. Up to 25% off parts at Scooter Mercato Georgia scooter parts supplier Scooter Mercato (a favorite among US...

WNYC reporter, and fellow scooterist, Jim Colgan, has spent the past two weeks interviewing local riders including NYCScootering, culminating in a short video piece that draws attention to the frustrations of scooterists riding in the big apple, two-wheeled advocates, and the bicycle riders who compete to share space.

Specifically Jim gets riders takes on parking, damage from cars and  the dangers of sharing the roads with other vehicles. Among Jim’s interviewees is local scooterist Melissa who has contributed to NYCScootering in the past.

In addition to show segments on air over the next couple of days, WNYC put together the following video. You can also read the interview segments here.

Related posts:

1. Scooter parking advocates make local news The NY Post has run a recent story about the...
2. Spotted this morning: parking woes I parked my bike this morning next to a BMW...
3. Local scooterist, DJ killed on Williamsburg Bridge Sadly, at around 4pm yesterday toward the Manhattan side of...

Reader Greg from Columbus, OH is putting his prized Lammy up for sale and asked us to help out. With a beauty like this it’s our pleasure. While the bike is a bit of a trek from the NYC area, it could well be worth your while.

The scooter has been garaged for the past eight years with the gas tanked emptied as appropriate. The paint job is not original but was completed professionally about 20 years ago. The bike fires up and works great and has a clean Ohio title. It’s an Italian made Innocenti (Serveta never made these babies) and has 7000 or so original miles.

Greg’s asking $2850 or best offer and can be reached via the “for sale” page he has put up which also includes plenty of high resolution photographs of the bike inside-and-out.

Related posts:

1. Today on CraigsList: 1964 Lambretta Li150 Series 3 From the post: A mechanically sound, 1st or 2nd kick...
2. Today on CraigsList: 1964 Lambretta Li150 I love a scooter with bodywork that tells its history....
3. Today on CraigsList: 1969 Lambretta Li150 Details are scant on this vintage – except the price...