It’s summer time 2015, and Andrew ‘Pregg’ Preston is out for a trip close to his house on the ‘62 Vespa he’s simply had reworked right into a tribute to his late father Mick.

He’s solely doing 30mph, his lights are on, and life is sweet on a heat, gentle late night, when a automotive comes roaring out of a facet street.

The subsequent few seconds would flip Pregg’s world the wrong way up and depart him completely paralysed from the waist down.

“This lad was exhibiting off to his mates,” he says at his house in Leicestershire. “He put it in first gear and floored it, and I used to be his brakes. I went flying.”

His spinal twine was severed, together with two punctured lungs, 4 damaged ribs, and a shattered left knee now held collectively by metalwork.

“My left leg was up by my head, and so they gave me fuel and air to straighten it out, then morphine, which was similar to taking paracetamol I used to be in a lot ache,” he remembers. “They mentioned to me that they didn’t anticipate me surviving the operation, and I panicked – please telephone my spouse, telephone my mum.

“I needed to wait till midnight for a health care provider to return out and prescribe ketamine, and as quickly as they gave me that it was lights out, I don’t bear in mind something.”

Ten hours of surgical procedure

Ten hours of surgical procedure adopted to position two metallic rods both facet of his backbone, held in place by screws.

On the time of the accident, Pregg had simply three scooters – the Vespa, a Lambretta GP125 referred to as Claire-Louise in honour of his late sister, and an Indian LML for “pootling across the village”.

However as soon as he was again house after about 26 weeks – together with 14 weeks within the Princess Royal Spinal Twine Accidents Centre in Sheffield – and in receipt of his insurance coverage settlement, the lure of proudly owning each scooter he ever needed proved an excessive amount of.

“Mainly I simply went mad, and I imply mad,” he says. “I couldn’t resist. I’d at all times mentioned, if I did get any cash, I’d go mad on scooters. I used to be simply obsessed, completely obsessed.

“The scooters that I’ve purchased are scooters that I’d have by no means been in a position to afford.”

We’re chatting in Pregg’s ‘man cave’, a big storage purpose-built to accommodate his assortment of greater than 40 scooters, trimmed down from greater than 80 at its peak.

“This was rammed from one finish to the opposite – you couldn’t get a fag paper between them they have been in so tight,” he says. “I’d additionally acquired a double storage on the again of the home that was rammed with primarily Vespa.

“You title it, I’d acquired the lot”

“I’d acquired 5 or 6 GSs, SSs, you title it, I’d acquired the lot. I’d additionally acquired three spherical my buddy’s bungalow – two in his spare room and one in his hallway, after which I’d nonetheless acquired two different models on the go. I’d acquired them every-bloody-where.

“There’s one other bloke who had over 100, and I needed to beat him. However then I assumed ‘there’s simply no level’, so I stored those that I actually love.”

Earlier than we delve into a few of Pregg’s treasures, let’s return to 1983 and an adolescent’s ardour for the scooters, music and magnificence of the mod revival.

“I began off as a mod due to the type – the parkas, the blazers, the inch-wide ties, the Sta-Prest trousers and all of that – I liked it,” he says. “I’d at all times seen scooters going round within the village and it’s one thing I’d at all times preferred, I’d at all times fancied.

“Then I acquired provided slightly Primavera, a 3-speed 90cc, and I used to be solely 14 on the time.”

As a accountable insurance coverage dealer, we clearly don’t condone what Pregg, now 54, says subsequent, but it surely’s a part of his story…

“I truly went to Skeggy on it – clearly I hadn’t acquired a licence or something, however once you’re sat in the course of everyone, you don’t get detected.

“The eagerness, the odor, the type”

“It simply began from that basically. This ardour, the odor, the type. Simply stunning. Aside from for 3 months within the late ‘90s, I’ve by no means been and not using a scooter since.”

He then tells the “shaggy dog story” of how he got here to purchase and insure his first authorized scooter at 17, a Lambretta Li125, additionally most likely to not be really useful…

“My mum and pa had gone on vacation with mates, multi functional automotive, so my dad had left his previous Austin Princess at house,” he says. “It was a good looking color, maroon with a beige roof on it.

“Anyway, I wanted £120 to insure my scooter, and my mate was in search of a automotive, so I bought him my dad’s automotive whereas he’d gone on vacation.

“I’ll always remember it, as a result of when he got here again from vacation I used to be so blase about it, I wasn’t bothered. I used to be simply hell-bent on getting that scooter legally on the street.

“My dad walked in the home, ‘how have you ever coped?’ ‘Yeah, yeah, all proper’.

“He got here by way of the home and he cocked his head out of the facet, and his phrases have been ‘the place the f*ck’s the automotive gone?’ As I’m attempting to elucidate, there was this large skid, and as you regarded out, my mate got here bombing down the street, him and his missus on this Princess, ripped the handbrake up and did an extended skid.

“Effectively, my dad went mad.”

Pregg wanted to purchase the automotive again, however his ‘mate’ determined he needed £250 for it.

“My dad paid the £250, which was some huge cash again then, and I needed to work it off,” he says. “However I acquired my scooter on the street.”

After the Li125 got here a minimize down Lambretta SX150 because the scooterboy scene took maintain within the ‘80s.

“Improbable occasions”

“They have been implausible occasions,” he says. “Personally, I feel the ‘80s was the most effective period – the garments, all of the camo, the pilot jackets, Doc Marten boots.

“The scene was implausible – the music, the folks. I might by no means do the northern soul dancing, however to observe them was simply wonderful.”

Into the ‘90s, and one other scooter comeback due to the Britpop scene, with the likes of Modfather Paul Weller and scooter-loving bands like Oasis and Blur.

“It was then that I acquired married and had youngsters, after which it stopped for me,” says Pregg. “Though I’d acquired a scooter, I couldn’t simply drop all the things and go on weekend rallies. Lots of people did, however at that time my household meant extra.”

For years, Pregg loved his scooters nearer to house, a spare time activity as household life curtailed the wanderlust related to the rallies everywhere in the nation of his youth.

“We used to go to the pub within the subsequent village when it was bikers evening,” he says. “We’d pull into the automotive park and all the things would cease, such as you’ve pressed pause in your video. However after about half an hour everybody was chatting – we have been all on two wheels, all of us had a shared curiosity.”

However then, the accident modified all the things.

Of the three scooters he had on the time, solely the LML has gone – the ‘Claire-Louise’ Lambretta stays, as does the Vespa that was badly broken within the crash.

“It must be two”

Each scooters imply quite a bit to him, and when requested which one of many 40 or so in his assortment he’d preserve if he was compelled to promote the remaining, he says: “I couldn’t do one, it must be two.

“My sister was solely 21 when she was killed in an accident, in order that one must keep, and the Vespa.

“If I’d had the accident on the LML, I don’t assume I’d have bothered getting it rebuilt, however I needed to as a result of it was that one. I’d had a great deal of images of my dad lacquered onto it, and I used to be actually gutted as a result of one of many leg shields and one facet was all smashed in.

“My mate Dick organised it, and I paid for it to be rebuilt.”

These two have since been joined by nearly each kind of Lambretta and Vespa possible, from scooters from Quadrophenia to award-winning customs and mint situation rarities.

In the back of the storage are two of probably the most recognisable scooters wherever on the planet, immortalised in Quadrophenia – a reproduction of ‘Ace Face’ Sting’s Vespa GS (truly a Rally 200 in disguise), and Jimmy’s Lambretta Li150 signed by actor Phil Daniels.

Each have been purchased from famend scooter-builder David Wyburn, as was the white GS subsequent door – a reproduction of the scooter used on the album cowl of The Who’s Quadrophenia rock opera double album of 1973.

Dave Wyburn scooters

“I put an advert on Fb asking if anybody is aware of anybody who makes Jimmy replicas,” says Pregg. “Somebody mentioned ‘strive Dave Wyburn’, so I contacted him and he mentioned ‘effectively, I’ve acquired one which I’m constructing on the minute’.

“This bloke in America was shopping for it however he was brief arising with the deposit, so I requested him how a lot it was. He advised me and I mentioned ‘give me two minutes and I’ll ship the whole thing to you’.

“When he advised me he was constructing a GS (Sting’s scooter), I assumed ‘when you’ve acquired one you’ve acquired to have the opposite – it’s impolite to not’.

“Then he got here up with the opposite GS from the album, so I assumed ‘I’ve acquired to have that’.”

Amongst different memorabilia from the movie in Pregg’s assortment is a blue-zip parka from the set, a leather-based jacket and swimsuit.

Then there’s the purple Vespa GS from the duvet of Alan Fletcher’s Quadrophenia novel, introduced out as a companion to the movie in 1979, and the Li150 Jimmy duplicate utilized in Devlin Crow’s brief movie Being.

Among the many customs are Vlad the Impaler, primarily based on an SX150 body; serial trophy-winner Rat Fink; a Carry On Scootering Lambretta with art work of the actors; the Absinthe Lambretta with a paint job that value £4,500; and a Skelly Lambretta sprayed in canary yellow.

Different notable scooters embody Lambretta Silver and Gold Specials, a cream Lambretta TV175 collection I, a TV200 Collection III, and the open-frame, 75cc Lambretta Vega.

Pregg, who has the Lambretta brand tattooed on his chest with the phrase ‘hoarder’ beneath, could not be capable to trip any of those scooters, however they’ve performed a key position in his restoration from the accident.

“It retains you sane”

“I are available in right here, put a little bit of music on, take a look spherical at what I’ve acquired, and it type of retains you sane – it’s simply very therapeutic,” he says, his storage additionally proving one thing of a social hub for fellow scooterists.

“All of the lads come up on a Friday evening, 4 or 5 of us, and we sit in right here. A few weeks in the past, Dick and his spouse Sharon mentioned ‘why don’t we do one thing right here’? Brian Ford, of the All or Nothing Scooter Membership in Coventry got here down with a few of his lads, plus some from the Leicester Phoenix Scooter Membership. They’re right here for about three hours and it was wonderful.

“We put photos on Fb and there have been that many individuals saying ‘the place was my invite?’ So subsequent time it’ll be totally different – there’ll be loads of scooters.”

And earlier than lengthy, Pregg hopes to hitch them on the street on a really particular three-wheeled Lambretta GP created for him by Scott Stevens of SP Developments in Barwell.

After experimenting with a Piaggio Nippy, Pregg noticed the machine on the market on eBay.

“The Nippy was extra like slightly chariot than a correct scooter, and I solely used it as soon as – the primary time I went on the street I practically shat myself it had been so lengthy,” he says. “Then I noticed this, a correct scooter that had been modified to tow a coffin trailer for mod funerals.

“It was all black with a towbar on the again – it was nothing like this. I purchased it off the cuff, but it surely had a typical seat on it, no electrics, nothing.

“We took it as much as Scott, and the person is an absolute genius. He’s so educated it’s simply unbelievable.”

The Lambretta was stripped all the way down to its naked bones, and you may see the entire construct course of on the SP Developments web site.

In addition to the bespoke, liquid-cooled engine, Scott grafted a wheelchair seat onto a specifically made body, added two-into-one brakes, a customized ECU and electronics, customized rear suspension and gas tank, a stereo system, handmade exhaust, Minilite rear wheels, foot holders, and a rear rack to hold Pregg’s wheelchair. A reverse gear will make the trike simpler to manoeuvre.

“The work has value about £25,000,” he says. “There’s over 1,000 hours gone into that. There have been some teething issues, however nothing main – it simply wants a correct run.

“The important thing for me is that it’s a correct scooter – it’s nonetheless recognisably acquired the form.”

Ready for the all-clear

Pregg is ready for the all-clear from docs in Sheffield to make use of a slide-board to mount the scooter – in the intervening time, he makes use of a ceiling hoist to get off the bed, the place he has to spend 16 hours out of each 24 to keep away from the stress sores that dogged him in 2022 and resulted in an extended keep in hospital.

“I can’t afford to enter hospital once more, so I don’t wish to begin slide-boarding till I’ve acquired the OK,” he says. “However I can’t wait to get out on it.”

Eight years since his life was placed on maintain within the horrific accident that shattered his physique, Pregg is able to hit the street once more and resume the lifestyle he thought had gone endlessly.

Images by Simon Finlay.

Scooter tales is a collection of articles exploring the lives and experiences of various kinds of scooter riders and collectors. Extra tales will likely be added within the coming months. Click on on the Scooter Tales class hyperlink to learn extra.