Stan's MotoVespa 150s

Back in the day, one of the scooters Stan Pennington owned was a Messerschmitt-Vespa GS 150 and since then he’s always had a hankering to purchase another one and restore it himself – but things don’t always quite work out as planned…

- Mau

As a teenager in the late 1950s Stan purchased his first scooter,a Lambretta LD 150, which he and his dad hand-painted. This was to be Stan’s first opportunity to get out and about riding with his pals.

During the 1960s, Stan lived with his parents and their house was within walking distance of Eddy Grimstead’s shop in the Beckton Road. Initially the shop just dealt with bicycles, but then it started selling scooters and one day while looking in the shop window, Stan spotted a TV 175 Series 2 with just about every ‘extra’ imaginable on it including crashbars, front/rear carriers, two spare wheels, leopard skin covers. Not only did it have all the accessories, but it was also fitted with a Hepolite piston, so Stan made the decision right there and then that he was ‘aving that’. But he was only 16 years old at the time – too young to take out a hire purchase agreement himself – so he went home to speak to his mum and dad.

His dad didn’t want to know but eventually Stan’s mum persuaded him to change his mind. He stipulated that as long at Stan could pay for it, he could have it and he, Stan’s dad, would sign the HP agreement. The deposit was £70 (a lot of money back then), but Stan managed to raise it by getting a job in a local pub working Friday night, Saturday dinnertime, Saturday night, and Sunday night. A week later, he was riding down the street on it. “You should have seen my face,” said Stan. “Even better, my mates’ faces – I can still picture it now.”