Surely Scott’s bad name is a case of the only news is bad news. A reasonably sorted Scott should give no more trouble than any other make. In my experience the weakest link on a Scott is the magneto although admittedly my main experience has been ownership of only one machine for thirty odd years. This machine is now 77 yrs old and it has just completed over 2000 miles in 8 days touring the Western Highlands of Scotland, finishing with an over 40 mph trip average for the last 400 odd miles on the homeward journey on as little motorway as possible. (Figures courtesy of a bicycle speedo recently fitted due to fear of being Gatsoed) The only items needing attention was one gearbox top-up and an adjustment of the front brake. That is what I call trouble free motorcycling!
The majority of the bikes on the Scottish trip had little trouble and the bikes ranged from a mid-20’s 2-speeder to 50’s machines. Roger’s magneto was slowly dying in the first part of the week but a transplant revived his machine( courtesy of Colin Pinder). As far as I know it was only Ian Young’s machine that gave a lot of trouble. This might have been averted if the cause had been discovered earlier even though his radiator had definately seen better days. It developed more and more leaks until it was found that the vent pipe was blocked pressurising the system. In a truly pioneer spirit the bike was kept on the road for the whole week by the valiant efforts of Don Payne who worked tirelessly to keep Ian riding. He certainly was the Man of the Week in my book.
The cost of ownership is very much a personal thing. If you require the machine to win concours events rather than just a machine ridden for pleasure there will be a vast difference in the bottom line figures. My machine is by no means cossetted and has cost very little to keep on the road once the initial rebuild was done. It has since repaid me a thousand fold in the sheer enjoyment that I have had back from it. In my ownership has done two End to End runs( one two up), numerous MCC long distance trials, grass hillclimbs and a trip to Switzerland. Admittedly on the trip to Switzerland it failed to get us back home but that was my own fault for not leaving well alone. As we were going two up I thought 600cc has got to be better than 500 on the mountain passes and swapped barrels for a recently aquired one which was our undoing. It is with the original barrel back in place that the recent Scottish trip was completed. Just goes to show that the old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” has some truth in it.
Perhaps we need a basic common ailments or a “what to look for and how to fix” item on the website or booklet for the newcomer. Needs someone to collate it that has wide experience of different types of Scott. I readily admit my experience is limited to a machine that was only produced for a few years and had changes in every year of production as far as I know. Any other ideas?
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