Two leading independent scooter publications have recently celebrated anniversaries. Digitally based classic and modern scooter magazine, ScooterLab.UK (also known as SLUK) celebrated its ninth year in business in March, while ScooterNova magazine has just turned eight.
ScooterLab is run by Ian ‘Iggy’ Grainger, whilst Andy Gillard runs ScooterNova. They’re both lifelong scooter fanatics with plenty of miles beneath their small wheels. They travel the length and breadth of the country, and have ridden as far as Poland, Croatia, and Scandinavia, as well as through the sunnier climates of Spain and Italy.
Both publications are owned and run independently of each other, but Iggy and Andy often collaborate on features. In the past, they have worked together on product reviews, testing multiple sets of waterproof clothing, etc. Most recently, they ran an in-depth interview with scootering celebrity Ray Kemp, the well-known Lambretta specialist at AF Rayspeed in North Yorkshire. ScooterLab concentrated on the video side of things for the feature and showcased new products, whilst ScooterNova did the written interview. “Working together on features like this gives fantastic exposure for the business involved and helps to strengthen our respective titles”, says Gillard. The pair have also collaborated in the past to run ScooterExpo, a scooter custom and trade show.
Online only
ScooterLab was set up in March 2016 by Iggy and Martin ‘Sticky’ Round, although Sticky left pretty quickly to pursue book writing and the less stressful freelance lifestyle he’d been used to. Previously, Iggy had been writing for scooter magazines and many bike mags for more than a decade. Much of his work was for Mortons’ Scootering magazine, which was recently sold, along with Mortons’ other titles, to Kelsey Media. After editing Used Bike Guide and Motorcycle Monthly for a while, he’d become disillusioned with freelancing and decided to start something new.
ScooterLab was groundbreaking when it launched, and quickly grew a large following thanks to its product and news-based format, technical features, road tests and reviews of the latest scooters. ScooterLab is the only total scooter website that caters for both retro and modern scooters. The website is read by more than 400,000 unique users a year and also gets 600,000 views a year on YouTube. Not bad numbers for a scooter-only title.
ScooterLab is free to read online. It’s funded through advertising and by an online shop. “We quickly realised we needed to diversify if we wanted to make a living from ScooterLab”, said Iggy. “People won’t pay to read stuff on the internet, and advertising alone wasn’t going to pay the bills.” They set up an online shop to sell ScooterLab merchandise. “We soon found a niche and now make more than 75 different SLUK plastic products. We sell to the trade, as well as our readers.” All SLUK plastics are made in the UK and designed by Iggy and plastic supremo Nigel Staley, an artisan craftsman in Leicestershire. The best-selling items are a front mudguard extender, the “SLUK Guard”, for the Vespa GTS and the classically styled XL5 screens for Lambretta and Vespa scooters. The shop also sells selected brands, mainly on a drop-ship basis and is always expanding.
Asked if he’d change anything about ScooterLab, Iggy said: “It’s been great to have the support of some big-name advertisers, like Yamaha, Lexham Insurance and Piaggio, but I’d like to see more of the big players supporting what is essentially, their own virtual shop window to thousands of scooter fans.”
Classy in print
Andy Gillard started writing for Scootering magazine back in the 1990s when Stuart Lanning independently owned it, and he has test-ridden hundreds of classic and modern scooters over the years. Gillard became Scootering’s longest-serving editor after it was sold to Mortons, coincidentally giving Iggy his first job in 2003, which involved the two of them carrying a 125cc Aprilia scooter down the fire escape at a Channel 5 TV studio in London before Iggy could ride it back to Manchester! However, by 2015, Gillard too became disillusioned with Mortons and left.
After a year or so of freelance PR, marketing and contributions to SLUK, he teamed up again with Stuart Lanning to launch the scooter magazine he had envisioned – a coffee table-style publication focusing mainly on classic scooters. Issue one of ScooterNova hit the shelves in March 2017.
“Many scooterists told us they no longer had a magazine to enjoy or be proud of,” explained Gillard. “I felt strongly that scooterists deserved a quality publication, both with regard to content and paper stock, and so I pulled together some of the most knowledgeable people to contribute to ScooterNova, which is produced on top quality paper, putting some bookazines to shame.”
Lambretta and Vespa scooters feature heavily in the pages of ScooterNova but so do lesser-known marques such as DKR, Ducati, Maico and Moto Rumi. While the collaboration with SLUK works well for adding video content to an article, you still can’t beat quality printed pages to truly appreciate rare archive images and stunning photography.
Sold through scooter shops, at scooter rallies and events, and by mail order, the magazine quickly grew a healthy following and has built up a respectable subscription base over the past eight years. The bi-monthly magazine is now up to issue 49 and, in 2024, was put on the shelves at WH Smith, with selected WHS travel outlets added in 2025. Advertisers range from insurance companies to scooter shops and specialist services such as chrome-plating and engineering.
ScooterNova uses the tagline “The Rider’s Choice”, and Gillard and his wife, Ann, certainly put in the miles on their vintage Lambretta and Vespa scooters, attending a variety of events from scooter rallies to the ACU National Road Rally. The products the magazine reviews are the result of thousands of miles of riding, something that ScooterNova readers seem to appreciate and trust.
In a world where physical print products are disappearing, it’s good to see passionate and enthusiastic people producing the kind of magazine you’d be happy to have on your coffee table. ScooterNova fills that slot very well.
If you’d like to know more, you can get in touch with Iggy at [email protected] or Andy at [email protected].