Scooter find of the Century!

[drunkmunkey6969]

I'm sure most of you have seen this on YouTube, but if not here is the video link: https://youtu.be/hN_OQK1K-GY

Explanatory text posted on Facebook by Steve Powell: "Probably one of the biggest parts producer and suppliers in the 80s and 2000s up until they suddenly closed 4-5 years ago and vanished! Best known for making the hydraulic front disk almost a standard fit on so many bretta’s. Well a while back Pat at SSC tracked it down and has been working months to secure it. Pat and I joined up on this and finally deal is done!

The haul is truly staggering and probably nothing like this has been seen in decades... thousands of new spares, accessories and some original 50s/60s/ accessories and scooters, lots of scooters. Not enough time to count everything but boxes full of seats, electronic ignitions, lambretta disk brakes, the original SX 200 style in cable and hydraulic. Drop headsets for GP, SX,S2 LI, PX. Also... 90+ Italian Lambretta and Vespa scooters, and a couple of Indonesian P-ranges, and a PK thrown in for good measure. All genuine (took us a lot of work to verify them all) these include...

5 x SX200
7 x TV3
2 x TV2
18 x LIS
2 x SX150
1 x SS180
2 x GS 160 Mk2
2 x VB1
LD
V90

And more sprints/supers/VBB than can count!

The scooters will all be for sale (well apart from my picks for my collection!) they will be sold as unrestored 90% complete rolling chassis (missing trims cables etc but main stuff there) but due to shipping costs doing an order of five at a time or one-off fully restored. I may bring some into the UK myself in batches for collection in Boston if enough people are interested and do not dick me about lol, been in the scooter business before. It's brutal! We plan to start supplying dealers asap and Pat will be restarting production on some of the most popular products under the SSC name and relaunching the Atomic brand."

Click to view video: https://youtu.be/hN_OQK1K-GY

[MilanoMod]

Are they bodges or original? Is this the factory that churned out bodges to sell to the states? Scootrs did sell lots of stainless like is seen on bodges.

(On the other hand Scootrs had some quality parts and I’ve never seen quality parts on the bodged imports.)

[storkfoot]

Are they bodges or original? Is this the factory that churned out bodges to sell to the states? Scootrs did sell lots of stainless like is seen on bodges.

(On the other hand Scootrs had some quality parts and I’ve never seen quality parts on the bodged imports.)

Good point, well made. Having seen one or two Vietnamese frames over the years, I can only conclude that their climate got the better of them.

Had this been a find in Europe, I can understand us all being quite excited. As it is not, and is it is not that many years since the demise of ScootRS, I think this is a non story.

[cgt75b]

Journalists always like to hype things up

[MilanoMod]

It’s still a great find! I shouldn’t have implied all those scoots are bodges without evidence. I couldn’t delete the comment. And SSC does great work helping us keep OUR bodges on the road.

[stevescoots]

It’s still a great find! I shouldn’t have implied all those scoots are bodges without evidence. I couldn’t delete the comment. And SSC does great work helping us keep OUR bodges on the road.

Steve Powell here, that’s me opening the doors in the vid. Scooters are original, We spent a lot of time checking them so we don’t waste our money lol. Almost all the lambretta’ s have been stripped so the condition of the frames can be seen and the authenticity of the chassis numbers. ScootRS did a good job of properly cataloguing which frame matches which casing and the original 50+ year old reg documents. Same for the engines.
I do understand the comments about “Asian bodge jobs” but that relates to the shiny new looking ones with yellow boots and coke can bearing shims. 35 + years in scootering I have seen plenty of bodges come out of the UK and Europe before. Only 3 bikes out of the 90 + are roadgoing runners, the VBB, Super and maybe the LD. The rest are all stripped or will be stripped right down by us for checking. There were lots of dodgy backstreet workshops out there in the past that damaged the reputation the few shops that were doing things the right way, no different from anywhere else I guess. I met Randall a few times way back in the early 2000s when I had my business, and they were innovators with the disk brakes tubeless rims and remade parts and despite his somewhat tetchy on line presence I can understand why as it seemed any lambretta whose frame snapped in half going up the road was immediately blamed on them, not the likes of Blue moon, Huys, imperial or any other number of back street chop shops who just took the money and ran.

[MilanoMod]

That’s lovely, thanks for clearing that up. Amazing haul!

[Cav]

I've had a few bits and bobs from Randall over the years. I found his prices were fair and the quality wasn't bad. I've still got a ScootRS front disc fitted which has stood he test of time well and is the best front brake I've ever had. The chrome is lifting in some places but that's par for the course with chrome on hubs. I also had a couple of flatslide 30mm carbs and manifolds which were outstanding. I was a bit miffed when he just disappeared under a shroud of mysterious online posts. I also buy off Pat at SSC now and again. So hopefully this all works out. Remade parts and copies are becoming the only really affordable way for many of us to keep things going. It's not just the cost factor, the rarity factor is a real challenge now. SSC do some good castings which fill a gap for many of us, if the range is supplemented by the ex ScootRS products, then that can only be a good thing IMHO. On personal note I wish I could get my hands on an SX200 frame (they've unearthed 5 of them). I've got a complete set of SX 200 engine casings with a full complement of NOS SX 200 internals, just waiting to be assembled.

[parky]

I bought my TV3 175 completely restored from Scoot RS in 2004. I still have it and it has taken me to the Isle of Wight 14 times. Apart from one piston replacement it is still exactly as it was when imported. Many of my friends have bought restored scoots from the UK which have proven to be absolute rubbish and have cost them thousands to put right. So I have nothing but respect for the stuff that came from Scootrs and I think they are sadly missed. I would still like to get my hands on a set of there tubeless rims as they look just like a normal split rim unlike the modern ones around today.

[Cav]

I bought my TV3 175 completely restored from Scoot RS in 2004. I still have it and it has taken me to the Isle of Wight 14 times. Apart from one piston replacement it is still exactly as it was when imported. Many of my friends have bought restored scoots from the UK which have proven to be absolute rubbish and have cost them thousands to put right. So I have nothing but respect for the stuff that came from Scootrs and I think they are sadly missed. I would still like to get my hands on a set of there tubeless rims as they look just like a normal split rim unlike the modern ones around today.

If you want a set of their tubeless rims, get onto SSC. They have some I'm pretty sure, picked up in the job lot. I've had an email off SSC with a quite a few items which they are already selling and I did see some pics of the tubeless rims. Seems like a lot of the old ScootRS stock was literally ready to go.