Cutdown

While the style-obsessed British mod youth subculture of the 1960s prized the glamorous, metropolitan image of scooters, many skinheads and scooterboys viewed their bikes as simply a form of transportation.

[1][2] While some scooter enthusiasts have focused on the stripped-down look, with just a bare frame and visible engine and mechanical parts, some scooterboys put back almost as much hardware as they had taken off, by adding customized chrome-plated accessories and racks.

Cutdowns are often tuned – much like a four-wheeled hot rod – by overboring the cylinders to increase engine power or adding performance exhausts, modified carburettors, or aftermarket shock absorbers.

Lambretta owners may replace existing parts with a Nikasil plated aluminium barrel with radical porting, large Dell'Orto or Mikuni carburettors and bespoke (custom-made) expansion chambers, hydraulic clutches, and modern low-profile tyres.

For races, scooters usually have to have accessories removed, such as center and side stands, mirrors, turn signals that stick out, and luggage racks.

These bikes are mostly made using Lambrettas, because when the bodywork is removed from their tubular frame they resemble smaller custom style motorcycles.