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As the summer of 1996 made way for fall, Arne headed back to study in the United States. But this time, another member of the Aboriginal S.C. was on his way with him: Boz, known to some people as the maker of the steepest drop bars ever to be spotted on a Vespa.
(I think some drop bars would make this Vespa look a lot nicer... What's up, dude?)
Here are the Lawrence Kick Back guys (with two Aboriginals that snuck in) that made it to the run. I know, even though Aboriginal and Kick Back forces were joined in the fun games, we managed to loose every single event. Hard Luck beat us through shear man power, they have more quantity than quality. But the Aboriginal S.C. was destined to have their vengeance 9 months later, at the Kick Back and Relax scooter run in Lawrence, Kansas. Read that report for more information on how the Hard Luck S.C. had some hard times trying to keep up with the mighty Aboriginal S.C. Neu-Ulm. To round it up, all European Vespa guys should try to make it to an American run at least once. The cover of $20 inlcuded food, beer and everything else offered on this run in unlimited quantities. Come on you Europeans, try to beat that! |
Unlike Europe, America is a pretty spread out place. It was out of the question to get to the run on a bike. So we had to rip the bike apart and push it into the back of our big nice American hoopty. We lovingly call it The Wagoon (Biff, do you know why?). This picture shows how Arne is getting ready to remove the fuel tank and fix some drop bars onto the P200. The P is in pretty bad shape, but still we fitted a Pinasco cyl and a Taffspeed exhaust.
They set up a ramp somewhere in the fields of the place (which I believe used to be a hippy camp or something, there were some old hippies around that enjoyed watching these mods and scooterboys playing around with toys from their generation). Everyone who felt that their bike was ratty enough tried jumping. Even though Vespas were designed by Mr. Piaggio, who used to work for the airplane industry, it is a well known fact that Vespas can't fly. This maniac tries to proove us wrong.
It was doomed to be destroyed on the run. It had some weird moto cross up-and-over exhaust fitted to it, and the hills in the surrounding invited everyone for a spin through the outback. The noise this piece of shit produced was incredible. The poor thing wasn't able to stand all the high revs and assaults to the clutch, and soon ceased to supply its service. Fortunately an Aboriginal master mechanic was around to fix the problem.
But Mark of the hard Luck S.C. demonstrated his watercooled P. We were impressed (less though later on, when the bike broke down and the engine case showed major problems).Arne