In April 2009, Jean-Yves set off from his Paris home to ride his Vespa 125 TS to Vietnam. As well as updating his online blog via internet cafes en route, he is also sending us special reports so you can follow his progress on these pages every month. www.audeladufarghestan.fr

After one week of pure holiday in Istanbul, I have crossed the impressive bridge linking Europe to Asia. It used to be the biggest bridge in the world and it is still both a physical and an emotional challenge to take it: I have found myself 71m above the Bosphorus, in the wind and dense traffic trying to enjoy the amazing view over the whole city. The Bosphorus was streching below my wheels and I could see all the neighbourhoods I had been wandering around. It has been a week of walking and visiting, discovering this huge and rich city, its history and its hectic life. I knew from the beginning my journey would start from Istanbul. Now I am heading to the unknown, to the exotic, to Asia!

Much more in the current issue of Scootering Magazine.

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(A tale of unconditional love, betrayal and reconciliation)

I left Italy in 1960 to seek employment with a special partner in the UK and after a cramped journey by ship found my way to my sponsor, Pullins Motorcycles of London, who made sure I was in peak condition to optimise my chances of attracting the right sort of person.

The formative years
I was accepted as an immigrant, registered with the authorities as a Lambretta Series 2 TV 175 and was christened 694 ALE on 25th August 1960. I had a series of short term relationships in the South Norwood and Stanmore areas (Arthur Clark, John Gibb, Richard Hugget… I wonder what happened to them?) before travelling northwards to Luton on July 8 1965 to join my long term partner (he claims to have been attracted to me by my non standard black livery, my ‘sports’ alloy front mudguard and the £65 price tag).

My new house was a 8ft x 6ft wooden shed at the bottom of his parents’ garden which was shared with a stripped down 1956 Lambretta 150 LD that he used for scooter scrambling at Elstead and the dismembered remains of a 1959 Lambretta S1 LI 150, his first scooter, that had been written off in an unequal argument with a Bedford Dormobile (she kept telling me that she had taught him to drive – I wouldn’t have bragged about that!).

Much more in the current issue of Scootering Magazine.

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This month I have mostly been drilling a hole in time...

What good is a shed without power tools? After all, without power tools it’s simply a garden shed! So welcome to the shed workshop where anything can be achieved and anything is possible, so let’s power up!

The drill
Sooner or later you are going to need to drill holes in your scooter – whether it’s for cables, brake lines a bigger carb, frenched-in lights or accessories. And not just that; you can polish, strip paint and rust, cut and grind or use as a screwdriver – the list is endless for this versatile tool if you have the correct attachments.

My advice would be that if you are buying one tool for general scooter tinkering then a drill would be it. However, for regular and specific cutting, sanding and grinding of metal I prefer the angle grinder as it’s a lot better suited to these tasks, but more on those in future articles.

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What is Dry Lake Racing? Well if you’ve seen the movie ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ or heard about the Bonneville speed records, that’s basically it. Years of effort for a ride that takes only seconds, to get the fastest top speed on a salt lake over a timed distance.

The Australian Speed Week is held once a year in early March at Lake Gairdner, about 300 miles North-West of Adelaide and organised through the Dry Lake Racers Australia (www.dlra.org.au). The good news for a would-be record breaker is that the Australian scene is small and the 250cc motorcycle record (Modified/ Partial Streamlining/ Gas) was only 106 mph, which is a ridiculous amount for Vespa but fairly standard for a motorbike. So I thought, hmmm, that would be fun to get an Australian land speed motorcycle record on a Vespa PX200!

Much more in the current issue of Scootering Magazine.

Top /\ |Feature Scoots | Contents page | More in the magazine