It was one of the vital iconic customized scooters of the mid-80s.

Dazzle, created by revered customiser Jeremy Howlett and painter Paul Karslake, set the usual for others to aspire to when it first appeared at rallies in 1983.

Paul Hissey, identified to all as Dizzy, was one in every of many scooterists impressed by Dazzle and different customs on the scene on the time.

It led to him reworking, over 4 years from 1986 to ‘90, the considerably tatty Lambretta Li150 Particular he purchased aged 16 into the show-winning Majestic Realms.

Mellow Daze, a herb-inspired customized chopper at present being rebuilt, adopted a yr later.

Dazzle found

Dizzy has been an inveterate scooter restorer and customiser ever since, so it was no shock his curiosity was piqued in 2011 when Fb chatter indicated that Howlett had discovered Dazzle in one in every of his dad’s garages.

“Then this naked rusty body appeared on eBay,” he says, “however I knew right away what it was by the paintwork.

“I first noticed that scooter again in ‘85, and you understand what it’s like once you fall in love with one thing – I might let you know that bike from 200 miles away.

“Everybody knew Dazzle, as a result of there have been solely about 5 or 6 scooters again within the mid-80s that had been in a unique league, and that was one in every of them.”

The unique Indian GP body was marketed for £1,600 and, as soon as Dizzy discovered that the vendor was Howlett himself, he began sending messages.

“He was the messiah, the grasp himself,” he says. “To chop a protracted story brief, he phoned me up and it was like he was vetting me. He went on Fb and noticed I had different Lambrettas and was into the customized scene, so he knew I wasn’t going to destroy it. I simply assume he needed it to go to a very good house.”

Howlett agreed to shut the public sale, and Dizzy turned up in Harwich later that night – just a few days earlier than Christmas – with the agreed worth of £1,000 in money.

About two years later, Dazzle was again, with up to date Siouxsie Sioux paintings by Karslake himself, and engraving by Adi Clark and an 84-year-old Don Blocksidge, who engraved the scooter again within the ‘80s.

“I marketed it throughout Fb – ‘keep in mind Dazzle?’ Everybody’s like ‘not the Dazzle, it’s a replica isn’t it?’” says Dizzy.

‘They thought it had gone to heaven’

“They didn’t imagine it – they thought it had gone, smashed up and gone to heaven. I confirmed it on the Gravesend customized present for the primary time and it blew everybody away. Jeremy turned up – he needed to see what I’d completed, and he cherished it.”

We’ll come again to Dazzle, by the use of a detour by way of Dizzy’s scooter origin story, initially kick-started by using on the again of his dad’s Lambrettas.

“He used to have a TV175 and we used to go inventory automobile racing each Saturday evening in the summertime in Wimbledon, throughout London from Harrow,” he says. “I’d be on the again with my piss-pot corker on.

“I all the time keep in mind one Saturday evening we went previous Hammersmith Odeon roundabout and The Jam had been enjoying, they usually had been all queuing as much as get in. So two individuals going previous on a Lambretta and it was all ‘wahay’.

“We’d additionally go to the speedway at White Metropolis, and down Portobello Street for the Saturday morning boot honest. We’d have chips for lunch and I’d be carrying junk below my arms on the way in which house.”

Dizzy wasted no time in following in his father’s footsteps, paying a mere £35 for the ‘66 Li150 Particular that may go on to develop into Majestic Realms.

“I purchased it the day I left faculty in 1982 off a bloke I used to sit down subsequent to in school,” he says. “It didn’t run and my dad mentioned ‘borrow my van and go and decide it up then’.

“He knew I didn’t have a licence, however I went not far away and chucked it within the again. It was like ‘woah, I’m 16 and I’ve bought a Lambretta, have a look at this’.

“The following day, all my schoolmates got here spherical to take a look.”

Scooter beginnings

Not that his dad, who had offered his scooters as a result of they stored breaking down, was solely on board.

“He mentioned ‘what would you like that for, you possibly can have purchased a Fizzy or one thing a bit extra acceptable’,” says Dizzy. “I mentioned ‘no, I need an outdated Lambretta’, and he sighed ‘all proper’. It didn’t run, I didn’t have any keys, no log e book, nothing.

“However he bought it operating for me and we had a little bit of wasteland in the back of the backyard the place I used to journey it up and down.

“On the time it was inexperienced, lined in rust and had bits lacking. It was a slonker, however it went down the street.”

Dizzy’s dad had already removed his scooters as a result of they stored breaking down and he believed getting elements was nigh-on unattainable.

“He mentioned to me ‘you received’t get any bits, you’re by yourself, you’ve bought to make your stuff’,” he remembers. “So with that in the back of my thoughts, and never figuring out anybody else who had a Lambretta, I needed to make this, weld that up, make a bracket right here, make a bracket there. I used push bike cables as replacements as a result of I assumed nothing was out there.”

That every one modified someday when Dizzy was exterior the native chip store and noticed somebody journey by on a Lambretta, an opportunity encounter that threw him headlong into the scooter scene.

“I waved him down and mentioned ‘I can’t get this or that’ and he mentioned ‘effectively, there’s a store down there’,” he laughs. “I used to be a bit inexperienced…he took me to this store and I began shopping for just a few fine details, and he mentioned ‘we’re all going to Clacton – do you wish to come? There’ll be 1000’s there’.

“I believed ‘all proper, we’ll have a few of that’. So we went in a single day to Clacton – a inexperienced spotty teenager at 16. I couldn’t imagine it bought me all the way in which to Clacton, and we sat in a bus cease till it bought gentle. The following factor, there have been tons of or 1000’s of scooters all over the place. I believed ‘that is all good’.

“Somebody mentioned ‘we’re all going as much as the location’, and I had no concept what that was. Turned out it was a campsite, however I didn’t have a tent so I actually lumbered all of it weekend. However I met so many individuals that had been in the identical boat as me – we didn’t have a lot cash, however we had a scooter, and we’d simply began work as apprentices.

“They’re your loved ones, your pals”

“You bought to know individuals, and also you noticed them each month – hastily they’re your loved ones now, they’re your pals, they usually’re in the identical boat as you, not some huge cash, let’s simply go and luxuriate in ourselves.”

It was on the rallies that Dizzy not solely earned his nickname but additionally bought to see what different scooterists had been doing to their machines, from choppers to chop downs, paintjobs to engraving.

“Dizzy got here from doing Northern Soul dancing when drunk,” he laughs. “I’d usually fall over, and it caught from about ‘83 or ‘84 onwards.

“It appeared to me what individuals might do with a Lambretta was countless. I didn’t wish to lower mine down or strip it, however I’d assume ‘I like that little bit of chrome, I like that fancy paintwork’.

“There have been lots of people from Yorkshire coming down, they usually had higher sprayers than London. Among the paintwork was like ‘wow, have a look at that, it’s beautiful, who did this for you?’ and earlier than I knew it I used to be pondering I might spend a bit of cash and get it trying good.”

Cash, nevertheless, was a little bit of an issue again in 1986 when Dizzy took his tentative first steps into customisation.

“The very first thing I did was get the again gentle engraved and completed in gold, which solely price me £20,” he says. “I used Don Blocksidge up in Droitwich for the engraving, and after I bought it again and put it on the bike I believed ‘wow, have a look at that’, and after that I simply stored sending extra bits to him.

“I used to be getting extra bits again and on the bike, however by 1988 the paintwork was actually garbage, and I used to be trying round for a pleasant paint job.

“Depraved” fantasy artwork

“I all the time appreciated fantasy artwork, Dungeons and Dragons and all that, and my mate had an outdated calendar that appeared depraved.

“I needed to discover a sprayer and everybody mentioned to me ‘Brian Shepherd fantasy bike artwork’, so I went all the way down to Salisbury to see him with this calendar.

“He mentioned ‘I can work with that, however I’m not simply going to repeat the images – I’m going to tug bits out of it and make it my very own’.”

Six months later and £1,000 lighter, and Majestic Realms was full, with Shepherd’s paintings showcased on a silver blue iridescent background.

“It received a great deal of trophies, and I’ve by no means had the paint touched since,” says Dizzy, now 58. “I had one other scooter for work, and used that one on the rallies as an announcement.

“The response was psychological. Folks wouldn’t depart me alone – ‘the place did you get that completed and many others’.”

Quick ahead to 2011, and the day Dizzy found that Dazzle – or at the very least elements of it – was on the market.

“I used to be midway by way of constructing one other one, however I sidelined that after which flogged it to get some greenback collectively,” he says.

So how a lot of the unique Dazzle, which began off blue earlier than a spill and a respray within the inexperienced it grew to become identified for, does Dizzy have?

There’s the body, clearly, plus the entrance mudguard and the headset, however each had been too badly broken for use.

Afterward, a buddy of Howlett’s contacted Dizzy and offered him the unique engraved head and flywheel cowlings, the chaincase, and rear hub, all of which at the moment are on the scooter.

Dazzle, section three

In all, he estimates he used about 35% of the unique scooter – and its engraving – within the rebuild.

After constructing the third section of Dazzle’s life in primer and becoming an engine to get it street authorized, he examined it on the street for a number of months to iron out any points – and “then stripped the entire thing into bits”.

“I’d already spoken to the unique painter Paul Karslake, and he was bang up for portray it for a 3rd time,” he says. “The bottom paint is identical, however the photos of Siouxsie are extra updated.

“It took over a yr, however it turned out actually particular, with some unimaginable particulars.”

For the engraving, Dizzy began off utilizing Adi Clark earlier than contacting Don Blocksidge, who labored on the bike initially.

“I mentioned to him I needed it roughly the identical because it was within the ‘80s, and he mentioned ‘I don’t want drawings, I can do it off the highest of my head, and he did’,” he says.

“He then grew to become in poor health and I bought in contact with one in every of my outdated mates from the ‘80s, Jason Lock, who completed off the engraving. He needed one in every of my scooters as half fee – and once you’ve bought a group of 10 scooters you’ll be able to afford to half with one in every of them.”

Then Dizzy began trying round for a polisher and, after a few false dawns with London-based companies, he discovered Johnny Walklate of JL Sprucing on Fb.

“I despatched him some take a look at items, and I believed ‘I’ve by no means seen work like this’,” he says. “He had all of it circled inside six months and the workmanship was unbelievable.”

Subsequent got here the chroming, and Dizzy had some work completed in London, however the costs began to escalate, so he discovered Marque Restore Chrome Plating, of Coventry, by way of Google.

“Attractive” chroming

“I went by way of their web site and actually appreciated what they had been doing, loads of it on high-end stuff like Bentley and Ferrari,” he says. “I despatched them some take a look at bits and it was beautiful.”

Subsequent got here the hunt for a Dave Webster DJ exhaust, ultimately achieved when a mate from Watford pointed him within the route of “an outdated boy” who makes exhausts.

“That took a few yr as effectively, however I bought a model new reproduction for £100,” says Dizzy, who handmade the twisted aspect stand himself, and likewise utterly hid the wiring loom contained in the body.

The unique Dazzle was powered by a one-off Dave Webster DJ240 engine, “which flew”.

“As Dave has now sadly handed, I went for a fast 225 arrange – not as fast, however dependable,” says Dizzy.

“It’s bought sufficient so I can overtake a lorry on that and really feel assured.”

Evidently, all this price a good amount of money – the paintwork alone was £8,000 – however Dizzy has a manner of coping with the ache.

“Once you’re constructing one thing like that, you’ve bought to change off from the figures,” he says. “You’re trying on the ending line, not at half manner by way of. It’s no good pondering half manner by way of since you’re going to bottle out and be caught with a load of bits, so I mentioned ‘I’ll have a look at the payments when it’s completed’. Within the meantime I’d offered three scooters to fund it – they usually had price me peanuts.”

Again to 12 Lambrettas

In any case, he’s now again as much as 12 Lambrettas, together with a GP200 used for work, collection 1 and a pair of Li150s, and a uncommon, Yamaha-powered Rossa 350.

They’re saved in a transport container in Kent, which additionally serves as a workshop for Dizzy’s restorations.

“I work in there till midnight with the genny going,” he says. “You’ve bought to have some escapism.”

Though Dizzy’s scooter rally days aren’t solely behind him – he was at Mersea Island earlier in September with Dazzle and Majestic Realms – they’re much less frequent than within the ‘80s heyday.

“I used to go quite a bit however not a lot now,” he says, “partly as a result of I’m usually engaged on a Saturday.

“It’s additionally gone from leaping on the scooter with £10 in your pocket, which might final till Wednesday the next week, to being a way more costly weekend.”

Earlier than we go, one last query: if he might solely maintain one scooter, which would it not be?

“Oooh, I might maintain Majestic Realms,” he says, “as a result of I purchased it on the day I left faculty, and we had so many laughs on that.”

Scooter tales is a collection of articles exploring the lives and experiences of various kinds of scooter riders and collectors. Click on on the Scooter Tales class hyperlink to learn extra.