FEATURE - ROYAL ALLOY SCOOTERS - JUST BIKES

FEATURE - Royal Alloy scooters

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Courtesy of Royal Alloy Australia

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the Australian scooter market, you’re probably already aware of the Royal Alloy brand. If you haven’t, this British company that builds scooters in the classic Italian style has been growing its presence here in the past few years. Now, it’s about to grow even more…

It’s a somewhat convoluted story, but Royal Alloy was born from a British business that had originally started refurbishing old Lambretta scooters – adding modern running gear to original, reconditioned platforms. That business, known as Scomadi, found a ready market in scooter-mad Brits, which was big enough that the move from refurbishment to full manufacture of new scooters in the classic style was viable.

Made in China, and later Thailand, Scomadi still exists today, but disputes over who contributed what to the Scomadi design led to court action and ultimately a severing of ties between the parties. In the midst of this, Royal Alloy was born in 2016. Like Scomadi, Royal Alloy is a British company, but with all its manufacturing in Asia.

Since Royal Alloy was founded a little over seven years ago, the brand has gone from strength to strength, adding new models, but retaining that unforgettable Lambretta look. While Royal Alloy has been slowly growing its presence in Europe and North America, it’s been in South East Asian markets for years. Australia was an early adopter, too, thanks largely to one very passionate scooter aficionado.

Thanks, John

John Martinez has been the key to Royal Alloy’s presence and success in Australia. An expat Brit, John settled in Sydney 20 years ago, bringing a lifelong love of scooters - and a collection of classic Lambrettas and Vespas - with him.

“I’ve had a healthy interest in motor scooters throughout the years – mostly classic Italian Lambrettas. Some Vespas, but mostly Lambrettas,” John explained.

John was just 13 when he bought his first scooter and had a collection by the time he could legally ride one on the road. Scooters have been a constant in John’s life, but they weren’t his profession. At least not initially. A career in the IT industry in the UK was supplemented with scooter retailing as a sideline – a trend that continued when he came here.

“When I came to Australia, I rode with all the scooter clubs, then opened a couple of scooter stores. As my IT business died away, I concentrated on scooters.”

So, what started as a side gig transformed into importing scooters full time. With an eye on the scooter market both here and in the UK, John was aware of Royal Alloy from the beginning, so pitched to be the distributor for Australia and New Zealand as soon as the brand was launched.

“My real desire was to do a relaunch of the Lambretta scooter of the ’60s, but these guys [Royal Alloy] came up with the goods. They made a retro scooter that, to the untrained eye, is an old Lambretta, but slightly bigger to fit the more ‘modern-sized’ person!”

With his years of experience in the market and knowledge of scooter culture in general, John was confident that Royal Alloy could find an audience here in Australia. And he’s been proven right. In the seven years since he first offered them locally, year-on-year growth for Royal Alloy has been constant. Sales went nuts during COVID, with retailers around Australia literally selling every unit they could get and emptying the Royal Alloy warehouse.

Even now, in an Australian scooter market that has grown for the past three years and saw a hike of more than 15 per cent in 2023, John estimates Royal Alloy’s growth in the past 12 months to be closer to 30 per cent.

Party of Four

At present, Royal Alloy Australia offer four models - GT125, TV175, GP300 and TG300. All feature modern tech like disc brakes with ABS (or CBS), dual front shocks with preload adjustment, dual rear shocks and the typical scooter twist-and-go CVT, making them ideal for commuting and LAMS riders who don’t feel comfortable on a motorcycle with gears.

The GT125 is the entry-level model and features an air-cooled, Euro4 compliant 125cc single producing 7.2kW and 9.2Nm. Disc brakes front and rear are part of a Combined Braking System (CBS) that activates both brakes when the front brake lever is pulled. This is considered equivalent to the dual-channel ABS that’s now mandatory for all new motorcycles sold in Australia.

A plastic body on the GT125’s steel frame keeps the weight down to 120kg, while seat height is a manageable 780mm. Lighting combines halogen and LED elements, and there’s the typical scooter storage space in the front legshield and under the dual seat. A range of eight single and two-tone colour options are available.

Above this, the TV175 is a more recent addition to the Royal Alloy range and something of a bridging model in terms of spec and price between the GT125 and the larger larger 300cc machines.

Recycling a classic Lambretta model name, the TV175 combines a 169cc engine with the GP model's steel body and other equipment.

Of the two 300 models - the TG300 and GP300 – both are powered by a liquid-cooled 278cc single, producing 16.0kW and 23.0Nm. According to John, both can reach 140km/h, meaning they’re suitable for highway use. Dual front and rear shocks, 12-inch wheels, ABS, LED lighting (including indicators), USB charge port in the legshield storage space, pop-out pillion footpegs and an 11-litre fuel capacity are common to both, too.

Differences between the two include a colour digital instrument display on the TG300 that the GP300 doesn’t have, while the GP300 is fractionally lighter, but mainly comes down to style. The TG300 is based on a Series 2 Lambretta and the GP300 is based on the Series 3. If that means nothing to you, the TG300 has a round headlight and the GP300’s is hexagonal. Overall, bodywork is sharper and more angular on the GP300, too, compared to the rounded forms on the TG300.

As good as the existing range is, John is more excited about an all-new addition to the Royal Alloy family that’s due in Australia very soon.

Party of Three

As long as scooters have been a part of John’s life, he’s had a connection (no pun intended) to sidecars for even longer. From John’s birth until he was 9, the Martinez family transport was a sidecar outfit, while John’s first motorcycle was a BSA 350 with an AA (think RACV, RACQ or NRMA) service box sidecar.

Until now, new sidecar options in Australia have pretty much been limited to Ural and the odd Chang Jiang outfit. These have their merits, but are large, heavy machines, so the imminent arrival of a light, nimble and oh-so cute Royal Alloy sidecar outfit is one that John is confident will have a lot of appeal.

“It’s a beautifully made piece of kit,” John said. “I saw it at the product launch last year and immediately wanted to bring them over to this country.”

Getting them here required clearing a few hurdles, specifically regarding our ADRs. While the scooters needed nothing to be road legal here, the sidecar outfit falls under a different category, so requires a mechanical handbrake to be fitted. The reason for this is that a scooter outfit can’t be left in gear when parked on a slope like a motorcycle can. As such, something was needed to prevent the outfit from rolling away. John explained that the handbrake needed to be incorporated into the scooter’s rear wheel, as trying to add this to the front wheel or sidecar wheel presents its own problems. That’s now been sorted and the handbrake is part of a ‘dual action’ system that works on the existing rear brake caliper, but can also be operated independently for secure parking on hills.

The only other addition to the base scooter is a steering damper, while the existing leading-link front suspension already lends itself to sidecar application.

Onto the sidecar itself, the fibreglass body is mounted on a steel frame and incorporates an outside step and inside a grab rail for easier access. The sidecar wheel has a disc brake that links to the CBS system and an angled monoshock.

The seat is well-padded, there’s a lap-style seat belt for safety and enough space to hold anyone up to about 6’ comfortably. Quilted vinyl on the sides and full carpet on the floor gives the sidecar a quality look and feel, too. There’s also a stylish windscreen, LED lighting (indicators, front and tail/stop lights), USB port and 30-litre lockable rear storage that’ll easily swallow a pair of full-face helmets with room to spare.

A 125 and Fido

For now, the sidecar is only available on the Royal Alloy GP125, which is a variation of the GT125, featuring a liquid-cooled engine and not available here as a solo. Incorporating the chair with the GP300 and TG300 will take some more work through ADRs. But like the changes made to the GP125 outfit, this will primarily involve incorporating a mechanical handbrake. John expects a 300 outfit to be available within the next 12 months.

At time of writing, pre-orders for the GP125 sidecar outfit have been strong, including many who have a very specific purpose in mind – dog transportation!

“Over the years, I’ve had more people enquiring about sidecars because they want to put their dogs in them,” John explained. “So I really think the big market for the sidecar version is dog owners.

“It's an interesting concept. There’s a huge market there and I think it’s going to outstrip my scooter sales.”

Of course, there are other sidecar options out there for taking man’s best friend on adventures with you, but as John puts it, they’re not what you want to put your little white doggy in on a Sunday morning!

John’s ridden the only example of the Royal Alloy GP125 outfit currently registered and on the road in Australia, which appears in some of the photos shown here.

“I had a blast running it around. I went over the Blue Mountains, tore it around Sydney and it handled perfectly, as it comes with a fantastic steering damper on the front.”

Royal Expansion

Adding the sidecar is part of a general expansion of Royal Alloy’s presence in Australia that includes new dealerships coming on board, including Highlands Classics in Cowra. This business has connections to the sidecar fraternity, too, so it’s helping spread the word about the new Royal Alloy sidecar addition.

Highlands Classics joins Royal Alloy dealerships in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Tasmania. The latter is freshly established and an agent, so doesn’t have a shopfront as yet. While John would like to see dealerships in northern Queensland and the NT, he’s not actively seeking new retailers at the moment. That may change as the sidecar takes off the way John expects it to, based on very strong pre-sales.

“We’re growing at around 30 per cent annually with our current range. With the sidecars, I’m expecting substantial increases over that,” John said, adding that he believes the sidecars could potentially account for more than half of Royal Alloy’s Australian sales in the future.