1980s
Despite government legislation, teens managed to get their sports moped fix into the ’80s by using devilish cunning and high-performance mods. Jim Moore tells it how it was
If politicians thought that restricting 50cc machines to 30mph would make moped-riding kids more responsible, they were wrong. Rules are meant to be broken. For youngsters zipping about on ’peds in the ’80s, sticking two fingers up to draconian legislation was all part of the fun – and perfect schooling for the generation who would become loons on LCs, RGs and GSX-Rs...
While our ’peds were slower by design than FS1-Es, AP50s and Garellis, they oozed kerb appeal, borrowing styling cues, chassis tech and even model names from bigger bikes we aspired to own. Doing away with bicycle pedals was a big win, too. And with kids being cunning to the core, it didn’t take long to figure out how to make our artificially-restricted machine way faster than the suits in parliament wanted them to be.
This second wave of sports mopeds hit showrooms in the late 1970s. Yamaha and Suzuki led the charge, launching roadsters and trailies based on already popular models. Suzuki gave us the GT50 and TS50 (later to become the GT50 X1 and TS50ER), Yamaha the RD50M and DT50M (which in ’81 evolved into the RD50MX and DT50MX).
By the beginning of the 1980s a flourishing aftermarket scene selling expansion chambers, racing reeds, foam filters and big-bore kits was hoovering up pocket money from 16-year-olds desperate to make their ’peds faster. Once fitted properly, these goodies could boost the top speed of formerly restricted ‘slow-peds’ to the realms of 50mph-plus.
Large packs of ’ped-mounted youths spent their evenings and weekends buzzing around high streets, housing estates and between favoured meeting spots in every town and village – a trail of two-stroke fumes following in their wake. A revolving door of fresh faces would pass through these groups, as older pack members turned 17 and moved onto 125s or into cars, only to be replaced by the next batch of sixteeners eager to take their place.
