Once upon a time there was a 16 year old school kid who was waiting patiently to buy a Morris Mini when he was 17 years old, which is when he would be allowed to drive legally. But it was a bit of a chore cycling to school for three miles and back every day, so when he saw some of his mates getting scooters he decided that would be a brilliant idea and saved up all his money and bought a 1961 Lambretta TV175...

This is how my scooter history started. With a bit of hard work, and after teaching myself the basics of two-stroke tuning and paint spraying, I was able to create the colourful monsters you see on this site.

It was due to be a temporary arrangement until I was 17 but I enjoyed them so much that I was not to use a car on a daily basis for another 4 years. I had a best friend with a Vespa who taught me to ride and from that day on I was hooked.

While I was at school I was very short of money and so I started restoring and spraying scooters so that I could sell them at a profit, thereby keeping my costs down to the petrol alone. Although I lived in a flat with my mother, I had a great relationship with my father as well so he allowed me to restore and re-spray my bikes in his garage. Unfortunately (for him) I also decorated the inside of his garage in psychodelic scooter colours - random patches of various shades spread around the walls and floor. Still that's what parents are for, isn't it.

I haven't got a photograph of my first bike, which has made it very difficult to remember any details. Similarly, I have only one photogarph of my second scooter, Lucifer Sam, which was almost certainly sprayed orange, but may have been sprayed red. I say that because bright cherry red is one of my favourite colours and I didn't use it for any of the other bikes you see on this site. Perhaps I'll look inside my Dad's garage, take note of all the colours I sprayed around the walls, floor and ceiling, and work it out by a process of elimination! Kids eh, who'd have 'em.

The very first bike I had was a very unreliable Series II TV175 registered around the year 1961. It had been tuned (badly) and had been tarted up with various bits to sell it to a gullible 16 year old teenager. That teenager was me!

I went along to view it and was very impressed with the chrome sidepanels and the 200cc engine. I didn't notice that it was a complete botch job - well you don't at that age - or the tell-tale signs of engine problems. It was flash and went like stink. In all fairness it was quick, but it was to be the first and last time that I was to be ripped off when buying a vehicle. But, at the same time, it was the very best thing that I could have done.

"You're joking!" you may well say.

But the reason, with hindsight, why it was a Good Thing was that the bike was so bad that I had to learn all about scooter mechanics - and quickly. Either that or I had to revert to a bicycle. This scooter was a total wreck although it had some good chromework, and the chrome sidepanels were very nice.

Although I had found out 'the hard way' all about Lambretta mechanics it did not dent my enthusiasm for the machines and I quickly progressed to building machines from scratch and spraying them fancy colours.

Unfortunately, I have only very vague memories about my first two bikes. In fact I am not entirely sure how many bikes preceeded Lucifer Sam 2. Because I used to buy bikes so that I could 'cannibalise' them, I was never very sure when buying a write-off whether I would strip it or put it back on the road.

This was the first bike that was really 'me'. I can't remember where I bought it from but I used, and abused, my father's spray gun to give it some nice orange stripes over a white background.

This bike was, I believe, an early 1963 TV175 although it could have been registered in 1962. The number plate has no extra letter which came into existence during 1963. The photograph just shows the broad white stripe of the sidepanel across an orange background, with the hint of a white letter above the stripe.

Here are my bikes in order of ownership. These are only the ones that I registered in my name and used on the road. All the scooters were Series III 'Slimstyle' Lambrettas, except the first one which was a series II. I owned some other bikes, in various states of repair, which were used for spare parts but never made roadworthy.

When I was younger I belonged to Cardiff Swimming Club, and here I had a close friend Steve who graduated, like me, from being a keen cyclist to being a keen scooterist. I believe that he was the first of our gang to put a name on his scooter. I am not totally sure, but I'm happy to admit a bit of plagiarising. He called his bike (an immaculate Li150) 'Arkinsaw Grappler'. I was never sure if he could not spell Arkansas, or whether he spelt it like that to force people to pronounce it correctly! Either way he had a great bike which he kept in superb condition until he crashed into the back of a milk float.

His next bike was called 'Witchfinder General' I believe. When I had Lucifer Sam 2 he named his bike Lucifer Sam 3, so naturally my next bike became Lucifer Sam 4. These bikes can be seen next to each other on the Lucifer Sam 4 page.

Steve only had two or three bikes in the time that I knew him, but he enjoyed stripping his bike down and respraying it completely. If I didn't see him for a complete weekend it would mean a secret re-spray job was in progress. Very often he would create the 'negative' of the previous respray. Having loads of paint left meant that he would merely change colours around. What was maroon and yellow would become yellow and maroon. The next re-spray would be a colour change, perhaps. Then a subtle change of stripes. Steve was very imaginative and wouldn't leave his bike untouched for more than a month or so.

Steve had a trademark which he used on all his resprays - a narrow triple stripe on the front mudguard, which he sometimes continued onto the sidepanel. I think it looked great, but I never copied him because that wouldn't have been right somehow. This didn't matter much - if you look carefully at my bikes you will find that there is quite a variation in stripes. The mudguards, sidepanels, and legshields were varied from bike to bike. At first glance it looks as if Blue & Yellow had the least front mudguard stripes, but if you look carefully you will see that the single top stripe has been turned in a thin double stripe for this bike. I tried to start each new bike with a fresh scheme even though the resulting differences appeared quite subtle at times.

This photo shows an example of Steve's front mudguard triple stripe.

During the year that I created Interstellar Aubergine I attended the local technical college. Here I met a group of guys who also owned scooters. Eventually a couple of them became my flatmates and most of them painted scooters in a similar style to mine. We used to meet regularly to listen to music, visit pubs, and go for trips around South Wales.

Some of my friends sprayed their bikes fancy colours and added lots of chrome bits, but others like Lawrence kept their bikes relatively standard. I think Lawrence must have been too grown-up.

The following bike was originally called Polaris, but it had a new name when it changed hands from one of my flatmates to another.