Scooterotica

Hi, I'm Avrom, a close friend of Jeremy Howlett's and admin for this group on fb https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=274289337730
dedicated to Jeremy's custom scooters.

I thought long and hard before responding but feel that a few points need to be addressed so here goes.

I spoke with Jeremy a few days ago and he is flattered by the interest that people show in his creations after all these years.

He kind of felt that he'd gone as far as he could with Wake back in the day and as so many of us do, moved on to other things. Wake was basically put in the shed and left there. Jeremy has no plans to return to building custom scooters or to start restoring Wake. He is happily living quietly in Harwich with his young family . He takes only a passing interest in the scooter scene these days.

He asked me to stress that he has no interest in selling any of his custom stuff, he still has most of Spirit Walker and Dazzle along with what was the Nike Air Racer. these things are personal to him and he really would appreciate folks not calling or e mailing regarding buying stuff. If that ever changes we'll let people know via forums such as this.


I'd now like to address a few of the points made in this thread without causing any offence or starting an argument

IMHO Jeremy was the most innovative builder of custom Lambretta's ever known, obsessed doesn't begin to describe how he was
between 1980 and 1990.

Anyone can ask Paul Karslake, Dave Webster or Don Blocksidge how Jeremy was back then , they'll all recount some crazy story about the times he asked them to redo seemingly perfect work because in Jeremy's mind perfect simply wasn't good enough. But he was also happy to let artists create, I remember him simply telling Macca " I want it Orange and I want Nike on it" when he dropped off what was to become the Nike Air Racer at Downtown Custom in Leeds.

Genius some times borders on madness and I think that Jeremy would certainly agree that he's a touch eccentric, Jeremy is the kind of guy that when he's into something , he's really into it. Witness his massive collection of Nike Sneakers , some 3500 pairs, including stuff even Nike don't have in their archive . Believe me when I tell you, when Jeremy was building custom Lammys nothing else much mattered. The creative process was what fired him, the obsession with being the best and constantly creating new bikes, When he was done he was done . He simply moved on.

The abuse wasn't helpful either, Jeremy is a nice guy , taking constant abuse became wearing especially when it started being aimed at his girlfriend and other people close to him. I personally believe that this amongst other things colored his decision not to return to the Scooter scene in the past 20 years.

Will he ever do another custom? Possible, but unlikely I would have thought. But then Jeremy is an enigma and no one really knows what Jeremy is going to do even Jeremy himself.

I'll finish by saying that Jeremy did attend Mersea Island for a couple of hours last year, nobody recognised him, and when we spoke afterwards he seemed disappointed by the lack of creativity in the custom show.

If anyone has any further questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

Kind regards

thanks for that ...i had asked him to take a pic out in the open ,nice if he could but i will leave at that

Stokie wrote:

lozmondo wrote:I remember seeing Dazzle in blue at weston '84 I think, then by Clacton '85 it was green and it was like f*ck me ! how can he better that. Spirit Walker topped the lot and to this day is still my favourite full blown custom scoot.

Jeremy Howlett & Russel Mitchell pushed the boundaries in originality, that in my opinion haven't been passed.

Spiritwalker was my favourite too but I'd argue that the scooters built by Carl Hissey have broken new ground since the '80s - and he's done the lot - full frame, cutdowns and chops

Yes Splinter is very impressive, a mate in my club owns it currently. I doff my cap in acknowledgemet squire and add Carl Hissy to the list.

Is he still about ???

RICSPEED wrote:future shock thread got me thinking and there was a guy asking after script for a jesters tear on face book as he used to own it ,

so any one got an old feature scoot and have some resent pics??

This was in Holland at the weekend at the Dutch Lions rally

nice words from avrom.
but they make it harder to understand,that this icon will rest in the shed,and the time will even more destroy the masterpiece.but thats the decission of mr.howlett,and we have to accept that.
on one side,it is intresting,what rust can do,but in this case it is just fustrating.
also to know,that he still have some pieces of the former scoots lying around.
everyone of us woul be the proudest man on the world ,to have a dazzle panel on the wall in the shed...
still feeling very sad...

schniedel wrote:everyone of us woul be the proudest man on the world ,to have a dazzle panel on the wall in the shed...

i would particularly like the right hander off wake Even for no other reason that Wayne hussey is on it

nothings wrong with wayne hussey.liked the stuff he did with the sisters and the mission.
seems like all his scoots(except nike)were based on his favourite band.
what would it have been today?queen???
what about hissey?ther was a time,when he monthley spit out a new blasting machine?

schniedel wrote:nothings wrong with wayne hussey.

no...thats why i particulaly like the right panel

Better drag Babe Ruth from under the covers before it ends up like wake.

I think the problem is is that Jeremy spoiled us , he was at the top of the scooter customising game when I was still spraying my scoot with spray cans from Halfords.
I remember first seeing Spirit Walker and being totally blown away, and even now in original condition there wouldn't be much to touch it on the scooter scene.
I think every custom scooter we see is judged against his creations, fairly or unfairly and I think the majority of scooterists would agree.
As for custom shows , give me two unridden Spirit Walkers for ten of anything else.