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Welcome... August 2011

Actually, thinking about it I’ve probably spent more days riding in England, but it didn’t have the same ring to it. Anyway, I must mention the undertaking lanes in Ireland by the way; if something faster approaches (or you are the fast one), the slow vehicle simply moves over into this inside lane and allows Speedy Gonzales to pass by without affecting the flow of traffic. Brilliant!

Evil Bay

Anyway, despite a month passing since the last magazine, I’ve done next to bugger all on my project bike that’s meant to be ready for the Isle of Wight custom show. Oh dear. One thing I have discovered, however, is that when looking on eBay for second-hand bargains, half of your time is spent trawling through some dealer or other’s catalogue of new spares. Well, sorry folks but I don’t want to see your stock lists, I can do that by reading your advert in Scootering or your website. And if you do insist on listing every nut and bolt you have on internet auction sites, we know that a seat for a Vespa PX125EFL will also fit a PX150EFL, a 200EFL, a 125, Disc, a 150 Disc, a 200 Disc, and indeed other PX models. So please DON’T list them all individually as it’s very, very annoying when trying to find something useful. Thank you.

Low emissions

For those who don’t live in or visit London, there has been a ‘Low Emission Zone’ in place for a while now, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Reaching out towards the M25, it affects goods vehicles of a certain size and age, restricting them from entering unless they’ve fitted approved filters to their exhaust systems, making their vehicles clean. Failure to comply leads to heavy fines, the idea being the air in the London region is cleaner to breathe.

Regardless of the fact that London City Airport is right in the middle of the capital, there are three ‘London’ airports around the edges and busy flight paths cross the city, TfL is planning to extend the LEZ rules to include a wider range of vehicles from January 2012.

A press release states that the owners of around 150,000 vehicles will need to upgrade their vehicles to ensure they meet the new LEZ standards and these will include lorries, coaches, vans (Transit size) and minibuses. Owners of HGVs, buses and coaches that do not meet the required emissions standards by January 3, 2012, and who drive within Greater London will have to pay a £200 daily charge or risk a £1000 penalty, while owners of larger vans and minibuses who do not comply will have to pay a £100 daily charge or risk a £500 penalty. Only cars, motorcycles and vans weighing under 1.205 tonnes unladen are not affected by the LEZ... yet. So basically anyone who has an old Transit van and uses it from time to time to pick up a mate’s broken down scooter, will either have to buy a new van, spend a couple of grand updating his old van, or tell their friend to push the scooter outside of London.

Why do I mention it here? For the same reason we’ve written about the smoking ban in pubs and the ban on two-stroke scooters in some Italian towns; because if the LEZ works in London, it will surely spread across the country. More worryingly, once they’ve forced all the old lorries and vans off the road what will be the next vehicles they ban from our cities? Old cars? Old bikes? Old scooters?

Oaks from little acorns grow...

Andy