Remembrance Day Scooter Ride 2017

It's been several years since I've taken the Troll out for a run, but on 12 November there was a scooter run in Fremantle. The 12th was my birthday and that alone was good enough reason to pull the beast out of the shed and hit the road.

Despite not having been ridden in two years the Troll fired straight up and needed little more than a quick lube here and there.

The Remembrance Run was organized by South Side Scooters and they did a great job of spreading the word across the scootering community. The event even got a write up in the local paper. https://communitynews.com.au/fremantle-gazette/news/perth-scooter-gathering-and-poppy-run-to-see-south-side-scooterists-pay-remembrance-respects/

Several SIVA members and fellow travelers attended. Ron De Pannone on his Lambretta Li, Andy Montgomery on this Vespa 150, James Long on his Honda Spacey, Tony Wong on his Lambretta LD and Greg Eastwood on his Heinkel Tourist.

Tony's lovely Lambretta LD. The oldest scooter on the run.



The Troll - solid and reliable like a Soviet tractor and just as pretty.

Greg's Heinkel Tourist is a thing of beauty

While James' Honda Spacey is.... 'uniquely styled.' But it is way more powerful and reliable than the Vespas and Lambrettas.

124 scooters attended - a fantastic turnout!

The route took us along the coast to Cottesloe, then through Mosman Park and back to Fremantle.





Getting started ready for wind resistance



One of Tony Wong's cool photos. All the stylish photos in this post are his.

Great photos from Mark Nagle.

See link to his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pg/PhotographyByMarkNangle/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1125112197624289




The Troll ran extremely well, although I was at the back of the pack most of the run. Quite a few Lambrettas stalled along the way (probably weighed down with all the surplus mirrors). Old fuel was the common complaint.

Andy and James

Greg on the Heinkel. Gotta love the helmet.


I made it all the way back to Fremantle without incident but Greg's Heinkel stopped running about 100 metres from the end point while we were waiting for the stragglers to catch up. I stuck around for a while to help him out before I headed home. It was a great start to my birthday.

Greg pushes the Heinkel the last 100 metres. Lesson for the future - never switch off your engine!

Tony W as 'tail gun Charlie'

A brief video of the start.

Cars of the German Miracle

In May the temporary exhibition at the Prototyp Museum was the Cars of the German Miracle. The exhibition covered a selection of German vehicles from the early 1950s. This period covered the rise and fall of scooters and microcars and the evolution of many of the prestige German cars we know today.

1937s Goliath F400 triporter van. Triporters like these were the backbone of German industrialisation. The choice of the Goliath however was a little odd, given that Tempo tricycles were actually manufactured in Hamburg, while Goliaths were built in nearby Bremen.

Borgward Isabella cabriolet.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz 300SL

Opel Rekord

Volkswagen

Volkswagen T2 Transporter

Zundapp Janus

Heinkel Kabine and Messerschmitt Tiger

Messerschmitt Tiger cabriolet

Mopetta

Vespa 125 and Lloyd LT 600 van. Lloyd vans, manufactured by the Borgward group, are extremely rare.

Kleinschnitter leading the microcar row.http://home.clara.net/peterfrost/kleins.html



NSU Super-Max motorcycle with a Vespa 125

1949 IFA RT125. A very early East German version of the prewar DKW RT125. This example was probably built using prewar surplus parts as it has old style girder forks.

Bubbling rivals - the BMW Isetta and Heinkel Kabine

Volkswagen transport. The VW drive train was very versatile and could be adapted to many uses.

Vespa - Sito and the extra ten

After speaking with another VBB owner I decided I would spend a little time and money to improve the performance of my Vespa. As I didn't want to invest too much money I bought a second hand (but unused) Sito PX exhaust off ebay. The original VBB exhaust was a very simple affair and didn't really add to the performance of the scooter. Sito built larger bore exhausts that improved the gas flow through the engine. While this doesn't substantially increase performance in the same way as a racing exhaust would, it does offer an improvement without requiring changes to the carburettor or jets.

The new Sito exhaust is in front, the old VBB exhaust is at rear

Replacing the original exhaust is a very simple affair and the steps are described in detail here so I won't repeat the instructions: http://www.scooterhelp.com/tuning/sito.exhaust.html

What I will say however is that it was a revealing exercise into the dodgy world of Asian scooter restorations. The exhaust itself came off quite easily but the bolt securing the exhaust to the frame was very difficult to remove. The restorers obviously did not have the correct size bolts to hand and so used a roofing bolt that was overlength and a little too thin. To make it fit they'd used about six washers of different sizes with bolts in front and behind the connection to keep it tight. They'd obviously installed the exhaust before the engine and swing arm were in the frame as they'd threaded it from front to back. This meant I couldn't extract without removing the whole engine as the bolt was butted up against the frame. Instead I chose the dodgy mechanic's method and just cut the through the bolt.

It is much easier to get at the securing bolts with the rear wheel off.

There were signs of poorly welded repairs around the bolt hole. Obviously someone had smashed the bolt (and exhaust) out of the swing arm and then re-welded the damaged hole so that a new bolt could be re-threaded. Nice.

Dodgy bodges. A roofing bolt, the wrong size, threaded through from the front through a hole that has obviously been hacked about and re-welded.

The Sito exhaust slipped on easily but I suddenly found that it was missing the securing bolt. This led to two trips to the hardware shop for new bolts as I made the mistake of assuming the new securing bolt would need to be approximately the same size as the old one. That was a wrong assumption as it turned it. The end result though is that the new securing bolt is much thicker and sturdier than the old one.

All in all, if it wasn't for the problems caused by the dodgy repairs, the whole job could have been completed in 15 minutes.

So, did it work? The first thing you notice is the Sito gives off a deeper tone than the tinny old exhaust. It did not really improve take off speed but as I worked up through the gears I found the old girl was able push on through past the 40, 50 and finally 60 kph barriers much easier than ever before. For a few minutes the needle even waivered towards an unheard of 70 kph so from my perspective this has been a very significant improvement.