Local Skegness scooterist on why her passion for two-wheels upset her parents but led her to love
Getting on the road is an important milestone for any teenager but, when one woman from Skegness was 16, she was given an intriguing offer from her parents.
Sam Gee has spent over three decades riding scooters and the culture that comes with that has definitely shaped her life but, if she had made one decision differently, that may not have been the case.
When she was 14, Mrs Gee was invited to a friend’s house to watch Quadrophenia.
“He said ‘My brother’s just got a Lambretta’, so I went round and we had a really good day,” she told Bikesure.
“I don’t remember an actual Lambretta being there, but I do remember lots of bits and him going ‘I need to get rid of this crap, do you want it?’ So I had a massive Lambretta wheel as my ashtray for probably 10 years, and also a headset top or something ridiculous.
“I got a little bit hooked then.”
Spending time with mods while on holiday with her parents, scooters would continue to entice Mrs Gee.
“When I was about 15, I got together with a lad from there who had a scooter,” she explained.
“I remember we were riding back from a pub in Wellingborough and he stopped at traffic lights. He decided to give it some beans and the next thing I know I’m sitting on the floor in the middle of the road. His mate came back and picked me up.”
“But the whole thing really sparked my interest.”
Her parents began to notice her new obsession and weren’t as enthusiastic.
As her 16th birthday approached in 1988, her parents would make her pick between a brand new car a year later when she got her licence, or a “crappy scooter” then and there.
“I think they thought ‘we’ve got her’, but I turned round and said ‘a scooter’,” she revealed.
“I think they were really disappointed. But on my birthday I still have visions of them coming over to me with this really sh*tty Vespa PK50 and going ‘There you go’.”
Mrs Gee was thrilled but, two weeks later, the Vespa packed in. This didn’t deter her.
“My mum had the work done on the PK, and went back to the guy in High Wycombe she’d bought it off and told him he could knock the money for the rebore off the price of a new scooter,” she recalled.
“So a few weeks later I had a brand spanking new little PK50 XL delivered, and I absolutely loved it. It did its job and it was a fabulous little scooter.”
On being part of the scooterist community, she said; “It was a fairly male-oriented scene and I’d almost felt like a hanger on in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I found it quite difficult back then but it was something I loved.”
Joining Aylesbury Scooter Club, she would then meet her future husband.
“This guy put her in touch with Simon’s brother, Colin, and then Simon came along and I remember thinking ‘you are an arrogant so and so, stay away from me’,” she joked.
“It wasn’t long after that I got together with Simon. He won me over.”
Three children and lifetime later, Mrs Gee and her husband still ride on their scooters together when they can. They even managed to get all their children on holiday to the Isle of Wight scooter rally.
“We were sitting in Ryde and the kids were like ‘wow, I’ve never seen so many scooters’, and arguing over which of our scooters they wanted to go on,” she said.
“They were brilliant, they loved it, so from that point on we thought we would involve them wherever we could. It was quite a pivotal holiday. From then on they went everywhere with us.”
Even when she’s not on her scooter, she’s staying active in the community. She’s been the secretary for the Red Kites Scooter Club and an admin for the ‘Female Scooterists’ Facebook page.
When she moved to Skegness in 2019, she began riding with the Skegness Outcast Scooterists and even found a surprise cousin in the group.
“I’ve no intention of giving up,” she said.
“Our group might change over the years, but once me and Simon got together in ‘88, we had this common interest and we did everything together.”.
“We just seemed to want to do the same things, go to the same places, share the same experiences. The one time we did a rally each apart, it was horrendous, neither of us liked it. We decided we’re never doing that again.”
“The one thing that always grabbed me about scooters, there’s not one that’s ever the same, there’s always something different about them.”
“Every one that’s been altered, it’s somebody’s personality and love that has gone into it.”