Eighty-six-year-old rider, restorer, and classic bike enthusiast Peter Ewing has been given a Piaggio One electric scooter to spare him from having to give up life on two wheels.
AMS Motorcycles Wick , the most northerly motorcycle dealership in the UK, has given the bike to Ewing on a permanent loan after learning that he was considering hanging up his helmet after 70 years of riding.
“Peter’s a long-time customer and friend,” said Paul Steven, who works at his family’s business in Caithness.
“Every motorcyclist locally knows him because he potters about and does up classic bikes and repairs bikes.
“He’s been a biker for the last 70 years, and it must have been last month that he finally said, “I’m not fit to ride a bike”.
“We had a demonstrator electric scooter here… So we thought, let him have a long-term use of it so he can get back on two wheels.”
The octogenarian has been riding bikes since he was sixteen; some of his favourite bikes over the years have been his Norton Dominator 500 and a Matchless G80 500 . More recently, he bought a Heinkel Tourist 175 from AMS.
“It was a real barn find,” said Steven. “We found it in an old shed, and Peter did it up so it was like brand new.”
Ewing has also played a major role in the Caithness and Sutherland Vintage and Classic Vehicle Club, serving as Chairman and even winning the prize for best Post-War motorcycle for his beloved 1960 BSA Golden Flash at their 50 th -anniversary rally in 2019.
“I’m 86 now,” Ewing said, “and my old BSA is getting a bit heavy for me, and I’m almost afraid I’m going to drop it.”
But at 85kg, with a seat height of 770mm and a top speed of just under 30mph the electric Piaggio One is the perfect step-down.
“I think it’s great,” Ewing told MCN when asked what he thought of the new scooter.
“It’s so quiet you’d never know it’s going,” he chuckled.
This is the first electric scooter Ewing has ever tried, but that posed no issue whatsoever.
“I took to it straight away,” said Ewing. “The brakes are really good on it as well. Then it’s just twist and go, and that’s it!”
These days, Ewing predominantly uses two wheels to get to and from the shops and to zip around town.
“And just maybe going on a Sunday for a wee run, if the weather’s good,” Ewing concluded.
But he’s got no plans to give up his beloved Golden Flash, and he intends to pass it on to his son one day.
Well… What can we say? This sort of story sums up exactly why so many of us stick with motorcycling from wean to grave. There is nothing quite like the bond biking builds between people from all walks of life, and it’s wonderful to see living proof of that in this story today.
Interested in almost anything mechanical, Tommy has written about everything from bicycles to politics. He uses his Himalayan 411 for absolutely everything and hasn’t cleaned it in two years.
motorcycle tinkerer, gaffer taper and rider both on and off the tarmac