Burt Munro 2024

  Burt Munro 2024 – Another Burt Munro challenge complete. There was a fair bit of interest in the NZ scooter community for this year’s event and a few north island riders had indicated that they may be keen to get out on the track at Teretonga. The usual social […]

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1962 Sportique update 2

1962 Sportique update 2  Most of my scooters have 10″wheels and have been modified in some way for suspension or engine upgrades. I have ridden 8″ scooters before but never spent a lot of time riding them and until now tended to stick to bigger wheels with better tyres and […]

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1962 Sportique update 1

1962 Sportique update 1 – The work continues on this scooter with the engine nearly complete and ready to start. The Sportique was a Douglas scooter produced in England and sold very well here in New Zealand. The Italian equivalent was the VBB1 and VBB2 models. The original 150 engine […]

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1962 Sportique

This scooter has spent some time outside and is almost at the point of no return. It mainly has surface rust but water damage has found its way into the frame and various components of the scooter. It didn’t run when I got it and the previous owner said it […]

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Vespa PK 100 update 3

  The little PK smallframe has been a battle at times but I’m getting to like it for what it is. As is always the case, I’ve ended up spending more than the scooter is worth but it has been good to use parts from manufacturers that aren’t so well […]

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Vespa PK100 update 2

The PK came with a standard fork and front drum brake. These forks are reasonably sought after as they can fit into a lot of vespa frames without too much modification and you can add a disc brake assembly from a PX or an aftermarket Crimaz unit to them. You […]

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Vespa PK100 update 1

  The PK was always going to be a project and become a good smallframe learning platform. While I have had 2 smallframes over the years, I hadn’t worked on them much and didn’t know a lot about them, other than general maintenance that applies to most vespa scooters. It […]

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Vespa PK100

I recently acquired this Vespa PK100 S in a TM auction. The seller had purchased it from the previous owner who had supplied the following information with it: Vespacross PK130s dirt scoot A little different to your normal vespa. I built this thing for racing small bikes where they shouldnt […]

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Canscoot March Hare

Another great ride up through Central Otago to meet up with the Canscoot brigade and then to Dunedin to see the OVC ones. Friday Warm, not much wind and a 200km ride to Alexandra to collect Phillip on his Vespa PX200. Both PX200’s running well but the Trojan isn’t quite […]

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Burt Munro 2023

The Burt Munro 2023 event, started badly with a washout for us on the Wednesday for the Southland Honda track day. The track was very wet and it was blowing – not a good combination for 10″ wheeled, vintage scooters with crappy brakes. For the first time, there were supposed […]

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2023 Events

Burt Munro The best motor racing event in New Zealand. 8th – 12th February https://www.burtmunrochallenge.co.nz/home   Canscoot March Hare run 3rd March – 5th March The team from Christchurch are coming south for a scooter shindig.  http://www.canscoot.co.nz/   Syds Moped Run An annual moped-scooter-stepthru-clipon run since 1995. Held on the […]

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81 LML 150

    81 LML 150 originally came from Dunedin. It didn’t run but the rego was on hold and it was a good price. It had a PX engine in it and some aftermarket performance parts. The frame was in good condition and had good tyres and shocks. The engine […]

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Curling at Naseby

    Naseby is a small town, formerly a borough, in the Maniototo area of Central Otago, New Zealand. It is named after a village in Northamptonshire, England. Canscoot were organising a ride down the west coast and had put forward a Curling challenge for interested scooter riders. This was […]

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2022 New Years Ride

Having lived in Southland most of my life, I had never heard of this and looked it up online. Run by the Clutha Valley Tuapeka Heritage Trust this service has been going since 1896. Some 25 punts used to operate on the Clutha River but now there is only the […]

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Lake Ferry 2021

One of the Auckland guys had organised a ride to Raglan. A group of us from Wellington were keen to go there, but covid 19 put the mockers on that for the top half of the North Island. Some of the team had been to Lake Ferry before and suggested […]

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Brass Monkey 2021

Brass Monkey 2021 40 years on and the “last” one is finally done. Phillip, a local scooterist, has done 39 of them. A pretty good effort, all things considered and on all sorts of bikes, but this one, on a Vespa PX200. The last time I was here, there was […]

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Burt Munro 2021

As we are local, going to “The Burt” is a no brainer. The event still just seems to get bigger every year. It’s a real boost to the Southland economy and there are very few problems. A well known NZ scooterist usually races at the Burt – 2016 event and […]

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