Vespa Lexington

The film Quadrophenia just turned a whopping 30 years old, and Telegraph writer Adrian Bridge set out to relive the “mod dream” and of course a Vespa scooter and a military parka were involved. The Telegraph article is fantastic and is accompanied by a great video. Check out the full article here.

A couple of my favorite passages from the article along with the video are below.

“Over the next 20 minutes, I experienced something that can only be described as thrilling. As we set off in convoy along Brighton’s sea front, the distinctive throaty/rasping sound of the scooters was accompanied by a cacophony of excited hooting and, in my mind at least, some of the great music of The Who. Curious onlookers cheered, waved and snapped photos; the streets were ours. Like many of those riding, I’m no spring chicken, but suddenly I felt as though I was 18 again – and the year was 1964.”

“Luckily, riding a scooter is a very simple affair, so although it was my first time, I soon got the hang of it. And within minutes of setting off I was weaving in and out of the London traffic and wondering why I hadn’t tried this form of transport years ago.”