RIDER & MACHINE

David Delaney In 1983 I watched a Betamax copy of Quadrophenia and was hooked. 1984, a three-speed Vespa 90 for £50 (thanks Dad). Vespa 90SS. I have had several over the years and recently added my Holy Grail, Norrie Kerr’s multi-championship-winning K1. Full bodied street racer ‘Weston-super-Mud’, 1984. Slept in a bus shelter until a tramp told us to get off his bed! Later a couple came in eating fish and chips; when they left it was a race to the bin for the leftovers. On the train with mates. First rally on my scooter was Clacton ’85. Morecambe runs were always special, great boozers. Porthcawl ’86, wasn’t great for many reasons. En route we had to stop to syphon fuel into milk bottles on a car sales forecourt to keep us running through the night (before locking fuel caps and 24-hour stations). Back in the day it was Norrie Kerr’s monthly article, ‘How to make ’em bleedin’ quick’ with excerpts from his excellent book, Tuning Vespas the Norrie Kerr Way. Nowadays it’s the racing reviews and dyno product reviews. LTH clutch. DRT inter-changeable primaries. The Beedspeed 10-spring clutch, at that time seemed an evolution, but you needed to be Popeye to operate it.