Retro Features Archives

Retro Retro Features

Three Generations: Our Unforgettable Tour of the Purbecks | FEATURE

We always enjoy reading about and sharing our reader's scooter rides and adventures. This little tour of a lesser-known part of the UK involved, dad (right on the picture, 79-year-old John Chatten), lad (centre - 57-year-old Nick) and lad's lad (Nick's son, Ollie 25). Three generations of the same family…

iggy-grainger15 July 2024

Retro Retro Events

SWSC Sand Bay scooter rally | RALLERY

Well, my Friday starts off much as any other rally weekend, in a panic. Having booked my scoot in for a well overdue tyre change (wear indicators are just a helpful hint, right?) I need to get to the fitter before I head off to Sand Bay. Tyre changed and…

iggy-grainger8 July 2024

Retro Features

VESPA DOUGLAS 152L2 – BROKEN AND BURNT #4 | FEATURE

Missed the story so far? This series of features were originally published back in June 2017. We've just revamped them and moved them over to this website from our Archive site. If you’d like to catch up on the first three parts of this 152L2 project you can click here…

Rory McIntosh5 July 2024

Retro Retro Events

2024 race season: Ben Readings #65 Pembrey BSSO

Returning to Pembrey Returning to Pembrey is a little daunting for me. I had my first proper, weekend-ending, red-flagged, 'off' there last time. The scooter was having some issues and as I was finding that I could take corners flat out, I was also finding that the scooter would splutter…

iggy-grainger2 July 2024

A grey Spanish Series 2 Lambretta being ridden in France.

Retro Retro Events Retro Features

EUROLAMBRETTA, MAGNY COURS, FRANCE | FEATURE

France hosted the 33rd EuroLambretta rally, just as it did the very first one in Strasbourg 1989. I attended Strasbourg on my TS1-powered Lambretta chopper from the UK en route to Athens. Back then, it was a uniting of some very different worlds: Italian collectors like Vittorio Tessera and Tino…

iggy-grainger27 June 2024

Vespa W1 Racing clutch next to a Vespa Cosa clutch.

Retro Retro Tech

Vespa Largeframe Clutches: W1R Proto | TECH

White One Racing’s Proto clutch (right) compared to a banded Cosa 2 clutch (left) Does W1R’s lightweight largeframe clutch offer any advantages? I can remember back to a time when the best option for a tuned PX was stronger springs for the original 7-spring clutch; fitted with a reinforcement band…

iggy-grainger24 June 2024

Colourful scooters parked near a French beach.

Retro Events

D-Day at Sea Scoot and Run – Brittany | RALLERY

Not quite the ferry we were hoping for... Sea Scoot and Run #2 is the second time this event has been held in South Brittany and what a fantastic weekend it turned out to be. Although Euro Lambretta was being held in France the following weekend, our travelling group decided…

iggy-grainger18 June 2024

Retro Events

2024 Race Season: Ben Readings #65 – Cadwell Park BSSO

Ben Readings is back on track and writing about his second full BSSO season for us. You can also keep tabs on 15-year-old George Fielder with his SLUK Rookie's report.A few days prior to this race weekend the weather drastically improved. It changed from pouring with rain every day to…

iggy-grainger13 June 2024

A drunken man crashed out on the grass outside his tent at a scooter rally in Kelso. There's a battered Vespa PX parked alongside.

Retro Retro Events

BSRA #4 Kelso National Scooter Rally | RALLERY

Regular readers here on ScooterLab will have likely heard of the Kelso scooter rally, if not attended one or more of them over the years. It’s one of the ‘set in stone’, ‘always on the calendar’ kind of rallies. Every year, its future existence as a rally is questioned, with…

iggy-grainger5 June 2024

Retro Retro Events

Cadwell BSSO: The highs and lows of racing – rookie George Fielder and nobbled veteran Steve Wright | FEATURE

BSSO Rookie, George Fielder turned 15 just a few days after the Cadwell meeting but he's still the youngest scooter rider to grace the tracks for many years. Juggling school and racing isn't easy and calls for a few sacrifices, but when you're as keen as mustard, getting up at…

iggy-grainger3 June 2024