The classic scooterists club magazine

Scooter Tales: Long-haul scooter trips are nothing new

Long-haul these days has come to mean more than just an overnight run to the coast from the Midlands, or hammering up north for the weekend from the south. Trans-Europe travelling is now the thing to do. Northern France, Belgium and Holland are within fairly easy reach these days. Southern Germany, Portugal and Italy are more challenging, but not over-difficult.

But without taking anything away from these intrepid travellers, just consider how technology has made the whole thing so much easier today. Number one (naturally) is sat nav. Yes, you can still go wrong, but the right little piece of kit on your bike means you will never face the risk of disappearing off the face of the earth for all time. Then there’s the internet, which means you can always find a local hotel, dealer or even a helpful scooter club without too much trouble. Mobile phones mean you will never be stranded, at least not for very long. Then there’s the bikes themselves. By and large, modern scooters don’t let you down. Yes, you might be unlucky enough to shred a tyre, or stupid enough to run out of fuel. But this is just as likely on four wheels.

Getting eventually to the point of this piece, just compare long-haul scooter trips now to what they were like 50 years ago. Here, I must immediately mention the legendary Brian Freehold, from Reigate, Surrey. He spent a large part of the 1950s going up and down the Alps on a Vespa Rod model, with his wife Mary on the back.

For those not familiar with this bike, it brought a new meaning to the word ‘slow’. However, Douglas of Bristol (who manufactured it under licence from Piaggio) somehow made it all work and a fair number of examples are still around today – MoT’d and on the road.

Then there’s the astonishing Greg Kinge, who in 2002, rode another Rod model 10,000 (yes 10,000) miles around the United States to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. This was in tribute to his son Glenn, who died tragically from a heart complaint aged just 28. Greg’s adventures have been chronicled previously by this magazine.

If you think Italy or Spain are a long way, just remember heroic Bob Currie. In the 1960s Bob kick-started his white SS180 with sidecar and set off – for Australia! To my mind, his adventures travelling around the other side of the world are on a par with buying a wagon train ticket for a months-long trek out to the Wild West, and signing up to harsh terrain, disease, violent weather and attacks by Red Indians.

My early scootering trips in the mid-60s were not quite as adventurous. South London to Brighton was fairly routine when I was sixteen and that seemed about right for a day out on two wheels. However, I was actually brave enough to head ‘way out west’ myself for a week in the summer of 1967. My ‘west’ being the West Country (Wiltshire) where I was put up by relatives. But I had only a battered, out-of-date AA roadmap to steer by and four old pennies tucked away in case I had to make a call for help from a red phone box. Spares? None, other than a spare wheel. Tools? A plug spanner, a bent screwdriver and a claw hammer. Mechanical knowledge? Zero.

“Make sure your plug isn’t in too tight, otherwise you’ll never get it out,” said my knowledgeable friend Michael. So I loosened it before I set off. The loud bang came just outside Maidenhead as the plug blew out of the cylinder head and bashed the panel. Good thing I had the plug spanner.

This trip and a few more like it, were about as bum-numbing as my long-haul scooter trips got. People say the upholstered, well-sprung seats on early scooters were much more comfortable than they are today. Well, maybe. For me, the jury is still out.

Anyway, good luck if you are scootering abroad this summer. Bon voyage and don’t forget your passport. I’m sure Mau would be pleased to see some of your holiday snaps for possible publication when you get back.

Dick Smith