Following are various forms of comment on scootRS for you to peruse:
Amongst others, there have been the following:
“Best Overall Scooter”
Rally in London, UK, Aug. 2007. See below and read our Roadkill entry with more photos.
“2nd Place”
High-end competition, Beverly Hills, 2007. First ever scooter to win an award, beating out Nicolas Cage's superbike in 3rd! Custom work by Bigassmotors in LA.
“Best Two-Wheeled Vehicle”
Italian Week in Ottawa, Canada, July 2003.
“Coolest Scooter”
FIV Vespa Club of Japan annual rally in Nagoya, Japan, May 2003.
“Best Vespa” and “Best Overall Scooter” amongst 90+ scooters
May 2003 at the Garden City rally in Victoria, BC, Canada.
“Best Lambretta” in the Concours d'elegance
Amerivespa Rally 2002, as judged by Vespa Club of America staff.
It is blatantly obvious the steps you have taken to elevate your business head and shoulders above the rest in your country (as well as other countries it would seem).
Following are just a few hands-on reviews, from new to very old.
Note: Most of the recent commentary and customer photos has gone in the Roadkill section and can be found where email was mentioned. See there first.
Everyone at scootRS, well what can I say, got crate home, opened it and WOW, so pleased with it, looks even better than the pictures. Thanks for all the EXTRA bits and pieces (spare bulbs, touch up paint, cables and rear wheel jack and of course the famous calendar) please forward my thanks to all the team for a fantastic hassle free purchase, I would not hesitate to recommend anyone to your company, roll on summer...
--------- Update:
Everything fine with new scoot, took it for M.O.T. test today (road worthiness) passed easy, had to spend hour and a half showing scoot and explaining how I got it (have to get used to that i suppose)[....] By the way, everyone is very impressed with the scoot.
--------- Update:
Winner of a Best Overall Scooter Award.
I'm loving every Km on this bike. I thank you for the opportunity to purchase such a product. Every time I fill up I get stopped and people compliment the scooter, they can't believe that it's 39 years old! If they ask where to buy one, I send them right to ScooterMD and give them the ScootRS web address. I can't wait till it warms up a bit here, so I can ride everyday! Man, I'm hooked!
>> Marty, can you describe what kind of scooter do you have and your experience with it in more detail?
I got a Vespa VL1 (handlebar with the lamp on the bars) 150 with 5 ports. From the moment I ordered it the folks at scootRS kept in close contact with me to make sure they were building EXACTLY the bike I wanted. They convinced me to get the 5 ports because, although rebuilt, the engine is an original engine and could use the extra Oomf. I understood from the onset that I was buying a bike with a motor that had been built from parts. After upgrading to the 5 ports and choosing the colour and seat material I wanted, I waited a totally acceptable amount of time until the bike arrived on my shore. I was out of the country when it arrived and because they were so thorough with the paperwork I was able to leave all the importing and shipping issues with a broker in my home town who took care of everything while I was away (without any trouble).
I came home to one of the most beautiful looking scooters I've ever had the pleasure of seeing (I've been a scooterist for 12 years) and when it kicked over on the third kick I took off on it and have been beyond happy ever since. The engine runs like new and it's been 6 months since it got here. I have nothing but kudos for scootRS and the exceptional work they do there. Five stars, 120% satisfaction.
Marty the Mod
[This scooter won “Best Vespa” and “Best Overall Scooter” at a Canadian rally, as noted above under “Awards.” - scootRS]
I received delivery of the GS at my home on Saturday 11th January and pleased to report it arrived safely. Despite the interruptions from jealous neighbours, I eventually rolled it out into the sunshine and was rewarded with a scorcher of a scooter - seems too good to ride, looks so wonderfully Italian I feel like it may be better displayed in some bistro somewhere.
After locating keys and such like I went on to fill the oils and petrol and went to kick it over. No problems it started after 5 kicks and subsequently each cold morning starts on the second kick without fail. The scootRS exhaust looks the business and sounds real nice even though I'm running her in. The engine also sounds very sweet and runs smoothly, it promises to be immensely enjoyable to ride and delicious to look at.
Well done for a service that's personal and sympathetic to the true value of these wonderful machines.
----------RE: GS (email), May 22, 2003
The scoot is going just fine - all run-in now and getting a familiar feel to it that is very endearing. [....] The GS is used nearly every day to take me along a beautiful stretch of road from my village house in the New Territories next to the sea and beaches, through open countryside to a subway station on the edge of the urban area. Total travel time round 20 mins - maybe all too brief but in HK this is real good riding.
A couple scootRS M-class Vespas were used at NBC in Hollywood for celebrity promo photos, May 2006:
A scootRS VBB appeared on the converse.com home page (2003):
A scootRS VL1 appeared on the envelope of an Aeroplan Visa credit card promotion:
I recently received a scooter I ordered from scootRS and it's better than I imagined - first class resto on everything. (Click the photo to read in full.)
(See more photos above of this award-winning scooter.)
Here's some feedback on the scooter shop that started all this “should I buy from Vietnam?” controversy, ScootRS. [....]
1) How was the scooter when you got it? Excellent! Better than I expected. Only 1 minor scratch in transit. From the U.S. Customs Contraband Enforcement Team taking it out of the crate twice for “inspection” and X-rays, no doubt (I'm not making this up). ScootRS included a bottle of touch-up paint so all is good. Got it home, gassed it up, kicked it twice to suck some gas into the carb, turned the key, kicked it ONCE and it fired up. Ran perfectly out of the box! [....]
I wanted a vintage scooter; not a totally correct, 100-point all-Italian original, but a “daily driver” and something nicer than I could do myself. So the “all-new-parts” rebuild was the choice for me. My Vespa has a 66 Super engine but is the equivalent of a new LML or Vespa PX motor. Engine cases are original '66 but modded to accept a 5-port topend. All internal parts are new: Crankshaft, bearings, seals, gearset, mainshaft, piston, rings, cylinder, head, CDI ignition, flywheel, stator, etc. I've got the classic look I wanted, but with modern dependability. I can find no signs of a “bodged” part anywhere (nor could my local Vespa dealer ! who's gave it a clean bill of health after a thorough inspection). [....]
2) How were the details of the restore? Again excellent! Very nice paint. Excellent chrome-work, old-school quality plating, thick, hand polished, stainless trim is precisely fitted, no rattles etc. Nice badge repros. All original components painted or polished nicely (engine shrouds, airbox, hubs, etc.) Clean engine rebuild, case numbers match, new hardware, rubbers, and cables, almost everything. It's broken-in nicely with no problems. 100 Kph Max (so far :o ) ~ 150 Km per gallon. [....]
Would you recommend to others? Sure. ScootRS delivers what they promise at a reasonable price.
Photos and full review by a recent scootRS customer.
The magazine checked out our M-class Vespas for sale in Vancouver and had the following to say in their annual “Best of the City” round-up:
After a browse through the recently opened vintage scooter shop Scooter MD Services, you may not need a second opinion before picking up one of your own. Mint condition Vespas (circa 1961-69) are more multi-cultural than a CityTV newscast: originally from Vietnam, the bikes are purchased and restored in Vietnam, sent to Canada and fitted with new engines from India. With a modest price-tag of $4,500-$5,500 [Canadian], it's an Italian design classic that's fit for a star, but priced for the paparazzi.
We've got no idea what this says, but the Japanese scooter magazine, Scooter Style, reviewed a 5-port, 10 inch VB1 a customer special ordered from us.
.... Within an hour the crate was unloaded, oil added and the scooter running - 36 years after coming off the assembly line and more than 12,000 miles from where it was built. ....
In the cult classic movie “Quadrophenia,” everyone knows that Jimmy and the fashionable Mods were much cooler than their street-tough, motorcycle-wielding rivals the Rockers.
It wasn’t just cropped hair, straight ties and short collars that set the Mods apart from the Rockers. The Mods’ fashion sensibility transcended their wardrobes to their mode of transportation � a fleet of chromed out Vespa and Lambretta scooters striking panic on the streets of London. Considered quirky and eccentric to an American culture infatuated with gas-guzzling automobiles, scooters have been a mainstay of European culture for decades, but it has trickled to our shores over the years.
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Scooters have always been a symbol of independence and a true expression of individualism � the very concepts that brought the first Vespa scooters to market right after World War II.
A war-ravaged Italy needed transportation for its people, but money and resources were scarce, and roads were disastrous at best. Piaggio & Co., an airplane parts manufacturer, saw the need of the people and a way to get its bombed out factories humming again by producing inexpensive transportation that would become the Vespa.
Piaggio charged Corradino D’Ascanio to design a simple, robust vehicle that was both comfortable and elegant. It was a must that both men and women could easily operate it without dirtying their clothes and could perform basic maintenance with ease.
In April 1946, the first 15 Vespa scooters left the Pontedara works complete with 98cc two-stroke motors that eked out a meager 3.5 hp and a top speed of 35 mph.
If your Italian is a little rusty, Vespa translates to “wasp.” The scooter got the name because its bulging waistline and buzzing engine resemble the feisty insect. The initial success of the scooter as basic transportation created competitors quickly, with the Innocenti factory churning out Lambrettas beginning in the 1950s until the early ’70s.
Vespas sold in the millions worldwide with newer and more powerful models being introduced each year. The scooters were sold in the United States in the 1950s and ‘60s through Sears as an Allstate model, and they were sold through actual Vespa dealers until the early 1980s. Pollution laws kept the smoggier two-strokes out of the country after that.
Vespas are once again coming to our shores through Vespa boutiques with cleaner-burning 4-stroke engines, automatic transmissions and turn signals, but scooter purists contend that they are a far cry from their two-stroke ancestors.
For roughly the same price as a new Vespa, it is possible to buy a restored scooter that has much of the functionality of a new scooter with a serious injection of vintage Italian style.
In typical new economy fashion, there are plenty of Web sites selling used and restored scooters around the world. Considered one of the most reputable sites and renowned for its quality restorations, scootRS.com is at the forefront of getting vintage Vespa and Lambretta scooters on the road.
Its founder started the businessin true entrepreneurial style. He built a business based on combining a need with a passion for the product.
scootRS.com was set up in 1998 and has always been entirely Web based.
“We sell nothing in Vietnam. I could have simply resold scooters from a local shop here as others do, but they have severe quality problems. Old scooters here are basic transportation for the poor, not ‘classics.’”
For those not looking to get their hands too dirty restoring an Italian classic, ordering from a site like scootRS.com is definitely an alternative.
[....] scootRS.com has an easy-to-navigate site that lets you build an assortment of Vespa and Lambretta models with a vast number of options, paint jobs and performance upgrades.
As you point and click to build that dream scoot, you can keep track of the price. A bare-bones, stock Vespa 150 starts around $2,300 plus shipping and import tariffs. Adding performance options, electronic ignitions, electric starters and better trim upgrades increases the price to around $3,500-plus. The sky is definitely the limit. The owner says some of the more popular options are installing newer, more reliable and powerful engines into older, 1950s-era models along with a 10-inch wheel upgrade. Older scooters used smaller 8-inch wheels that aren’t as stable at speed.
[....] With a little Web surfing, elbow grease and taste for the eccentric, it’s more than possible to inject some Mod sensibility into your life � and spark a little panic on your local streets.
Jonathan Kersting
Southeast Asia abounds with scooters, and every time I heard the buzz-buzz go by, my ears perked, and I had to look. I couldn't believe how many beautiful restored scooters I saw. I had found my El Dorado, and all I could think of was “How the hell do I get my hands on one of these?” Truth be told, anyone can buy a scooter from Southeast Asia. All that is required is a source, a little green (or green, blue, and red if you live in Canada), and some patience.
Frivolous as I was, had I the money I would have bought hundreds of scooters before I returned. I soon found out I would have been sorry. Kathryn and I toured shops and spoke with many riders. We spoke with locals and with visiting Westerners. I examined many restored scooters. I looked over the myriad reproduction parts that were available in both Thailand and Vietnam. Many times I was impressed, sometimes I was disappointed, but I was always fascinated.
I visited many shops in Asia, and only a few actually restored scooters for export. Perhaps the best of these was the scootRS shop in Saigon, Vietnam.
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Prior to arriving in Vietnam, I emailed scootRS, a web-based scooter restoration and parts manufacturing company, with the hopes of perhaps touring their shop and maybe scoring a city tour guide in the process. Kathryn and I were pleasantly surprised to succeed in both ventures. Upon arrival, Kathryn and I were pleased to meet Randall, the mover and shaker behind scootRS. Randall moved to Saigon five years ago from Montreal. He speaks fluent Vietnamese, is a great storyteller, and rides a restored LD150 through the insane streets of Saigon like he rode right out of the womb.
Randall insisted that he give us an objective tour of the restoration business in Saigon. He took us to three shops before we went to his. He was friendly with all of the owners of the shops, and we were welcome to walk among the restorations in progress. I must say, at times I was dumbfounded with some of the careless workmanship. Engines were split and rebuilt on the sidewalk. Old dirt stayed in the engine and some new dirt got in there too. Engines were modified to work, not rebuilt to original specs. Worn-out parts were patched to work and put back in. Though the finished products were pretty on the outside, they were something akin to really pretty commodes - nice to look at, but you don't want to get into with what's inside.
In their defense, Randall explained that these scooters have been running since their manufacture. Let me explain. Many if not most vintage scooters that are in the North America sat at some point in their lives for many years, your typical “barn bike.” Although these bikes may be in disrepair, and, as ScooterMD enjoys sharing, have been “bodged,” many of their parts are not truly worn, because they do not have high mileage. Take in contrast the Vietnamese scooters, which have been ridden since they were new in the fifties and sixties. Because the mechanics in Vietnam have not been blessed with an influx of available parts, many of them have fixed their scooters to run in the most ingenious ways. But indeed, they were fixed to run, not fixed correctly. This is how most scooters are still fixed in Vietnam; it's how their mechanics know how to do it. When these scooters are shipped to North America, they tend take a nose dive once they are driven at anything above 40 mph. Add that to the fact that they are severely “bodged”, and most mechanics won't touch them with a ten-foot wrench.
After visiting the other shops, Randall took us to his. Superficially, it was a lot cleaner, though still a “Vietnamese-style” shop. There were no counter and no parts display, just a compliment of workers diligently toiling away as hard as the workers in the Honda motorbike shops next door. Certainly, you wouldn't know this shop restored scooters for export unless someone told you. Randall gave us a full tour of his small shop, including the line of ready to be restored gems in the rough. I love the smell of old bikes - caked-on grease, dried-out leather. There were VB1s, TV175s, and a couple of special SX200s, just to name a few. The shop bike was a beat-up though quaint J-series Lambretta. The mechanics just laughed at it, but I thought it was precious.
Randall showed us the newly restored scooters, ready for shipment. They were shiny candy-cane gorgeous. I was drooling.
At the scootRS shop, I set about getting beneath the sheet metal and into the guts of the Italian glories. I don't profess to be a master mechanic, but quickly I could see many differences between the scootRS shop and the other Vietnamese shops. scootRS replaces nearly every bit and piece inside the engine with new imported parts. When they first undertook restorations, Randall admitted they only replaced certain this, and worn that, but he soon learned that nearly everything needed to be replaced.
What Randall can't get from overseas he manufactures. This is where I was truly impressed with scootRS, and how they separate themselves from any other shop I visited in Asia. scootRS manufactures many parts for Lambrettas and Vespas, from engine parts and performance pipes to crashbars and rubbers bits. Randall oversees all of the reproductions, and they are without a doubt of excellent quality. His crash bars were flowing wisps of chrome that made a scooter feel unfinished without them. In addition to selling his parts on his own website, he also supplies many companies in Europe, and some in the US. Leaving the best impression was perhaps the stainless floor runners, smooth and shiny, made to fit any model. They are reminiscent of the old Vespa solid floor runners of the Fifties, but with a sleek modern feel to them. Pure silver pudding.
As with Ebay, and any web-based company, you are always taking a risk buying something that you cannot see in person, touch, feel and get into. Nothing compares to “kicking the tires.” Many people have bought scooters from Southeast Asia and been horrified with the results. If some of the scooters I saw were indeed on their way to North America, then I am horrified as well. In contrast to all of this is scootRS.
Randall is the only Westerner that I found to actually own a shop in Vietnam. Other Westerners have scooter export businesses. They go about and buy scooters from local shops, some of the other shops I visited, and sell them in other countries including Japan and the United States. Obviously, they can offer little in quality assurance. Randall on the other hand oversees every part of the scootRS restoration process. He and his head mechanic have had to retrain mechanics to do it the proper way. From what I saw, they were doing quite well.
I can't make the broad recommendation that everyone buy a scooter from Southeast Asia. It certainly isn't for everyone. I can recommend that you do research if you are interested. I can tell you there are many great classic bikes to be had there. I can say that scootRS is an excellent company run by one hell of a friendly Canadian who I wouldn't hesitate to do business with. I would encourage anyone who is interested to check out the scootRS website, and read his reviews. E-mail Randall and ask him anything, and if you are in the area, stop by his shop.
by Christian Jahrdoefer
scootRS Notes:
-See the accompanying article in the Scoot! Quarterly Winter 2000 issue by Kathryn as well.
Back in issue 153 (October '98) Andy did a feature on a supposedly restored Lambretta from Vietnam that had arrived at a shop in London for a bit of work. Under what was externally a fairly decent looking scooter lay some absolutely evil bodgery, with things like gearbox shims that had been fabricated from old beer cans simply to get the thing to run. The Lambretta was basically a death trap in the state it was sold, and formed part of a consignment that arrived in Britain at around that period. As you can imagine scooters from Vietnam suddenly got a reputation amongst knowledgeable scooterists to match that of Jack the Ripper.
What the article didn't change was the fact that there are some desirable models of vintage scooter out in the Far East such as genuine Lambretta SX200s. The only problem was how to get them back to the west in a saleable roadworthy condition after they have spent upwards of 30 years in the many hands of the Vietnamese bodge fairies. This is something that Randall from scootRS.com has been trying to tackle from his business based in Saigon.
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In theory it would be possible to simply export rare machines to the West and have them restored here, but given the amount of parts that would no doubt be required to perform a full restoration, you are still looking at a very expensive scooter at the end of it. Randall instead makes use of the cheaper labour available in Vietnam to rectify the problems of years of misuse, and to restore the scooters locally. The clever bit is marketing this service on the Internet so that a potential buyer can choose the paint scheme and the mechanical specification of their scooter. This is exactly the situation with the scooter you see before you, which present owner John Tipping ordered over the Internet to his individual specification, even down to the layout of the two-tone paintwork.
scootRS offer a series of mechanical upgrades at extra cost to the restoration, which most buyers sensibly plump for. On John's machine, this means a new Indian (genuine SIL) GP gearbox, crankshaft and electronic ignition system on top of the standard engine rebuild. scootRS source their parts all over the world, and it seems like much of what they use in the engines comes from India, and is no worse for that.
The standard engine spec includes a reconditioned engine case and all new parts including a Stage 4 barrel. When John ordered his machine, he paid extra for a pattern Mikuni 24mm carb conversion, but these are now included in the basic engine spec. Again, this isn't a bad thing because a properly set-up modern carb should
perform much better than a worn out Dell'Orto from the 60's. Sticklers for nut and bolt perfect restorations may not agree, but then again, a lot of them don't actually ride their Lambrettas very far.
On top of the standard chassis restoration (cables, brake shoes, wiring etc.) John ordered several of the accessories that scootRS manufacture in Vietnam. The stainless steel running board strips, legshield beading, fork link covers and floorboard edges are a nice touch, but what I was most taken with was the legshield toolbox which must be a modified one from some sort of oriental Vespa.* Not only did it look like it fitted quite well, but it also has far more capacity than many of the European alternatives. Other extras include chrome wheel rims, and a spare wheel carrier.
The extra that made John's bike really worth a look though, was the electric start conversion. It was developed by the mechanics at scootRS along the lines of that which Servetta had been working on in the 1980s, with a starter motor mounted underneath the mag housing, and driving the flywheel by a ring gear. A Vespa-style starter button has been mounted under the light switch and it is all driven from a battery mounted in the original Lambretta battery tray.
John freely admits that the electric start conversion is a bit of a gimmick, and said that scootRS were similarly up front about it. With only a small battery trying to overcome the high compression of a single cylinder engine, the electric boot can't really be used to get the engine running for the first time each day, but after that John says it works fine.** Certainly it started on the button a couple of times when I was watching, but too many starts will soon flatten the battery if you aren't putting miles in between to recharge it.
The scooter - built to John's own specification - cost $5,180 (around £3,600), which was not only cheaper than getting an SX 200 and having it restored in the UK by some of the major shops, but also quicker too. Even with delivery and import duty the scooter cost less than £4,000 on the road. Overall, John seems pretty happy with the service he got from scootRS; and
particularly that they were so honest about what he was getting. [....]
John has had a few niggles with the bike, like the steering lock falling to pieces and the tank springing a small leak. All it took was an email to scootRS and a new twin tank conversion arrived in the post free of charge and already painted to match John's scooter. No matter about the workmanship, you can't really fault the after-sales service, particularly from a shop on the other side of the world who could quite easily say “up yours” once they've had the money.
As final proof of the pudding, John was good enough to let me have a quick spin on his scooter.... The clutch needed a bit of adjustment and the front brake was fairly hopeless (as many
cable disc brakes seem to be) but the engine rode fine and the gears worked perfectly. I couldn't give the engine full stick because it was still being run in, but at least the pattern Mikuni seemed to carburate alright. The stainless steel scootRS exhaust is a rip-off of a PM Tuning pipe with their own design of muffler. It sounds great but is bordering on being a bit too loud if you have sensitive neighbours. Luckily for John, he doesn't.
Sticky
scootRS Notes:
* The glovebox is simply the one we make and sell onsite.
** The electric starter works all the time if you use the scooter regularly. If not the battery will discharge, but you can use it again after running the scooter once.
We received an email update from the owner in Oct. 2002:
It was a beautiful day and there were hundreds of scooters there. I parked up with all the others, then hung around to see what people would say about it. [....] [T]he comments were all to the effect that it was a fantastic restoration and I think it sums it up when one guy said to me (when I made myself known) ‘you've got the (dog's) bollocks there mate!’. In slang English, ‘the dog's bollocks’ means that it's THE BEST! There were a couple of SX200's (unrestored but only fair condition) on sale at £2600 - so my total cost of £3500, delivered to the UK is a bargain!
Those who prefer vintage bikes to new ones should consider handlebar Vespas available from Scootrs. Owned by a Canadian who has lived in Saigon since 1995, Scootrs buys Vespas and Lambrettas locally and restores them with parts from the West, exporting the finished vehicles to western markets. The company keeps scooters in stock in unfinished, as-found condition, ready for customer cosmetic and mechanical preferences. There are no restored scooters in Saigon. But there are some already in Oakland, California, waiting for you. Or you can order your handlebar VL1 or VB1 from Scootrs to your specification of fit and finish. Most of the company's VL1 scooters are from Piaggio. But some are from the French firm ACMA. The latter were imported when France was the colonial power in Vietnam. If you're interested in a vintage bike brand new for the second time in its life, log on to Scootrs at www.scootrs.com.
Richard Weiderman
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