Funky Mopeds!: The 1970s Sports Moped Phenomenon

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Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, The Move’s frontman and drummer, shared Lynne’s misgivings, and ELO was born. Described in New Musical Express, as “a 10-piece mini orchestra”, their self-titled debut album was trailed by a UK hit, 10538 Overture. An unimpressed Lynne later called the LP “a self-indulgent non-event”.

Here was a song that used everything Jeff Lynne learned from dissecting other people’s records, but given the ELO spin. Evil Woman’s piano intro briefly echoed Fats Domino’s B_lueberry Hill_; the strings could have come off a Philly soul hit; the line ‘ There’s a hole in my head where the rain comes in’ was a tribute to The Beatles’ Fixin’ A Hole; and there was even a hint of disco in the rhythm. Evil Woman was a perfect pop record. “And the fastest song I ever wrote,” said Lynne, who composed it in just six minutes.

Physically bigger than the Niu, it should carry two people comfortably. With a 4kW rear hub motor delivering 171Nm, it tops out at 56mph and has a claimed range of 44 miles, or 87 miles for the optional twin-battery set up. Keep to a steady 25mph and Super Soco claims you can ride up to 112 miles, but maybe not in the real world.

Buying advice Just like Aprilia motorcycles, this scooter is very nicely put together. It’s built to be abused by 16 year olds, so rest assured it has Tonka Toy durability. Our latest electric scooter review is the retro Čezeta 506/02. What to look for when buying a 50cc motorbike If you like faux-Vespa styling then you'll love the Artisan. The cognoscenti will notice that the bodywork is plastic (not metal, like a genuine Vespa) and that there's a bit too much chrome, but it does come in a wide choice of colours (for the seat as well as the bodywork). This is a moped-class scooter, so it's limited to 28mph, which can feel vulnerable on a busy road, but that's endemic to all mopeds, whether electric or 50cc petrols.BUYING ADVICE Peugeot quality and reliability has always been among the best in the scooter class and the new Speedfight maintains that tradition. They’re generally robust, refined, and well built. Just look out for the obvious signs of abuse or previous accidents. APA style: Funky mopeds.. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Nov 25 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Funky+mopeds.-a0131045055 It’s pretty much impossible to thrash a 50cc machine as the engines are designed to be redlined most of the time so as long as the servicing has been completed then reliability should be ok for recognised manufacturers. So what's available? Until recently there was nothing between a few feeble electric mopeds aimed at the likes of Uber Eats delivery riders, and BMW's full-power CE 04. But the last couple of years has seen a new generation of smarter e-bikes arrive, capable of zipping silently up to 50 or 60mph, with bigger batteries for a better range and a tad more sophistication.

Touring with ELO was like running an old-age pensioners’ club,” complained Sharon Osbourne, who accompanied them on several jaunts. “All they wanted to do was sit in their rooms doing their knitting. I was so bored I would drink to amuse myself.” ELO’s journey to world supremacy came via three albums – Eldorado, Face The Music and A New World Record– that forged Jeff Lynne’s reputation as a studio magus and musical perfectionist. But clues were there even in childhood. So at 16 you were mobile, with still a year before you could learn to drive a car. The Garelli gave me unprecedented personal mobility; my bicycle gave me a radius of about two miles from home, the moped 20 - pubs, the city centre, country villages, Julia Brown's house... And I was 18 miles further away from parental influence. Artisan is one pioneer electric scooters, available in the UK since 2016 and starting out with a low price and low tech lead-acid batteries. It has since progressed to the industry standard lithium-ion cells and the price has gone up, but it's still one of the cheaper options. Artisan also offers a tilting three-wheel moped aimed at fast food deliveries. ELO celebrated the only way they knew how – with another gruelling American tour, playing 65 shows in 76 days. Don Arden had listened to Sharon’s criticism and accepted that ELO – ostensibly seven blokes with long hair and varying degrees of facial hair – were not showmen. Arden shelled out for some lasers to dazzle the audience in the downtime between McDowell flinging his cello in the air and Gale blowing his up. “The lasers were there to compensate for us,” admitted Lynne.In August ’75 they landed a UK Top 5 hit – sort of – with somebody else’s song. Lynne, Bevan and Tandy played on the novelty single *Funky Moped *by Bevan’s old school friend, comedian Jasper Carrot. Once again, things could only get better. The pattern started on A New World Record, which contained several of what the group punningly called “bad salads” (sad ballads), including Above The Clouds and Telephone Line, the latter about the perils of a long-distance love affair. “ Telephone Line was the saddest of them all,” said Lynne, who was inspired to write it after calling his American girlfriend and getting no reply. Lynne’s voice sounds truly desperate when he croaks the opening line, ‘ Hello, how are you?’ This was the heartache of Roy Orbison’s Crying reconfigured for Top Of The Pops and Britain’s tank top-wearing, Chopper bike-riding youth. Buying advice Piaggio build quality is fairly basic: finish is cheap, the paint rubs through, alloy parts corrode and steel parts rust, so you’ll need to find one that’s been looked after. ELO were selling records and filling venues, but there was a down side. “Touring played havoc with relationships and anything like that,” said their leader. Lynne’s schoolteacher wife, Rosemary, agreed. Soon after, he left her for a new American girlfriend, future second wife Sandi. In reality there was Lynne and his trusty wingmen Bev Bevan and Richard Tandy in one camp and everybody else in another. Eventually there would just be Lynne in one camp and everybody else in another. But not just yet.