It was at Scarborough Scooter Rally over the Easter Bank Holiday back in 2017 that we launched ScooterNova magazine to the public for the first time. Wow, doesn’t time fly! We hit the ground running and eight years later we’ve still not taken our hand off the throttle!
I first began working on scooter magazines owned by friend and fellow scooterist Stuart Lanning back in the 1990s, but by the 2010s I found myself employed by a large publisher whose interest in a classic scooter magazine was just for revenue. However I have owned and ridden scooters constantly since the 1980s and I wasn’t going to let anyone ruin that passion. So after serving as the title’s longest serving editor, I resigned and spent 2016 enjoying my scooters without any deadlines. All I did was a little marketing work to fund my addiction to classic 2-strokes!
The trouble is I enjoyed producing scooter magazines – and so did Stuart! So we hatched a plan to produce a new publication that, like his Scooter Scene magazine of the 1980s, was focused on quality articles on quality paper, produced by scooter riding enthusiasts. We deserve a good quality magazine. ScooterNova magazine was born.
With the Easter launch date in mind, we set about marketing the new magazine by distributing postcards with what was to be the cover of edition 1 on the front. As you can see from the slideshow gallery above, before we had even printed the first magazine, people were eager to learn more and sent us photographs from all over the UK and Europe of ScooterNova postcards!
From the beginning our ethos proved a hit with the major scooter businesses such as AF Rayspeed, VE UK, Lexham insurance, Disco Dez Scooters, JB Tuning, Mike Phoenix, Scooter Surgery and Crusader who, along with event organisers VFM, supported ScooterNova with advertising from edition 1 and continue to do so today. Other companies such as Rimini Lambretta Centre, Scootopia, Totally Scooters, Wildcat, Retrospective, London Scooter Bodyshop and Colchester DVLC were in at the beginning, as were national clubs the LCGB, VCB and VMSC, most of whom continue to support ScooterNova today in one form or another. We also promoted SLUK on the pages of ScooterNova, for whom I had contributed articles to during 2016. Iggy reciprocated with an article celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Vespa P-Range.
The launch at Scarborough back in 2017 was celebrated with glasses of bubbly, some Easter eggs and a crowd around the ScooterNova magazine stall that hardly dissipated all day long. That followed with a network of scooter shops both in the UK and abroad stocking and selling ScooterNova magazine. Again, many of those who started from edition 1 are still working with us today.
The feedback from readers was immediately positive. You loved the quality and design of the physical magazine, the variety of in-depth articles and the subject matter which varied from classic to custom, technical to touring that you told us were informative and interesting. Since then we have strived to improve this standard where possible, thanks in no small part to our network of contributors and access to some fascinating archives. Much of this can be credited to many years of friendships with people that share our dedication and enthusiasm of classic scooters that we have built over decades of riding on small wheels.
We are proud to have some of the most knowledgeable and passionate scooter enthusiasts writing exclusively for ScooterNova and I for one know that I learn something new every time I read an article they have submitted to ScooterNova. The fact that we also adore, cherish, fix and ride the same classic scooters as you is important to us all as well. Something else that harks back to the days when Sticky and I would travel down from London to Weston-super-Mare, with Carfy’s, Mungo’s and Gary’s scooters already parked in the street outside the office when we arrived.
By the way, I didn’t just take the quality of paper from Stuart’s old scooter magazines from the 1980s, but also having a feature scooter on the back cover. I know I wasn’t the only one to cut those off and stick them up on a wall or in the shed!!
So as we enter our ninth year, we are proud to be planning our next edition which is number 50. But before then, edition 49 is hitting the streets at Scarborough scooter rally once again, with both Stuart Lanning and Carfy from those old days in Weston contributing to the content, as is Iggy from SLUK – you just can’t keep creative scooter-riders down, right!
The ScooterNova stall will once again be in the Spa complex during the Trade & Custom Show on Saturday and you’ll find us alongside the Crusader stall where the rally patches will be for sale. We will have the brand new magazine for sale along with some freebie stickers with all purchases, some Easter eggs and we will also no doubt be raising a glass or two to toast ScooterNova magazine’s anniversary too. Cheers!
So come and say hello. We know some of you have been readers and subscribers since edition 1 and we are forever grateful for your support and of course glad that you still enjoy reading ScooterNova magazine. The readership has steadily increased since 2017 and with high street branches of WH Smith along with their travel stores at airports and train stations also now stocking ScooterNova, we are proud to report that it continues to do so.
If you cannot make it to Scarborough, fear not. Along with the aforementioned scooter shop stockists in the UK and abroad (click here) and high street shops in the UK, you can also subscribe or buy individual magazines from our online shop and have ScooterNova delivered to your home.
