Machines last when they are understood, not reinvented.
Goetz Neugebauer was raised around machines long before they became objects of nostalgia.
Born in Germany, shaped by Europe’s workshop culture, and now based in Australia, his relationship with the Vespa spans four decades. Not as a trend or a phase, but as a steady practice. Riding, racing, repairing, rebuilding, and reshaping what these machines can be.
His first Vespa arrived at sixteen in 1984. By the late 1980s he was racing, organising rallies across Germany, and immersed in a scooter culture that treated the Vespa as both transport and cultural artefact. In 1992 he became German Vespa Sport Champion, the same year he completed a Rally build that he still rides today.
Craft before concept
Goetz trained as a toolmaker in Germany in the early 1990s. Precision, tolerance, and mechanical honesty were not adopted later. They were the starting point.
GN Classics began in the mid-1990s as a small workshop in Mannheim, originally created to support his university studies in sociology and psychology. That background remains subtle but present. Machines matter, but so do the people who ride them, how they use them, and what they expect to feel when they do.
Custom builds followed naturally. The first appeared in 1991, long before custom work became a defined category. These were not visual exercises. They were functional responses to purpose, identity, and use.
Community and continuity
In 1996, Goetz moved to New Zealand and founded the Vespa Club New Zealand, serving as commissioner until 2013. During this period he also ran Scooter e Motion for eighteen years, growing it into one of the region’s most established scooter workshops and retail operations, working across Vespa, LML, Peugeot, TGB, and related marques.
His involvement in the global scooter community has always run alongside his workshop life. From organising European rallies in the 1980s and 1990s, to serving as tourism officer for the German Vespa Club VCVD, to long-standing membership with the Paris-based Vulcan Scooter Secte and its South Pacific chapter.
These networks are not decorative. They are working knowledge systems built on shared standards, experience, and trust.
The Work
Workshop footage showing a custom Vespa being dismantled as part of a bespoke build process, highlighting mechanical work and preparation stages.
The Result
Completed custom Vespa ridden out of the workshop and tested in the driveway, showing the finished build in motion.
Australia and now
Since relocating to Australia in 2013, Goetz has held senior technical and operational roles within the local scooter and motorcycle industry, including operations management at Vespa House and national brand work with Mojo Motorcycles, representing Kymco and Lambretta.
Alongside this, GN Classics returned to its roots. A workshop-led practice focused on resurrection, maintenance, and carefully considered custom builds. No production line. No fixed aesthetic. Each machine is shaped by its history, its future use, and the rider it belongs to.
Some projects lean toward rideable art. Others are built for touring, daily reliability, or mechanical correctness above all else. The common thread is restraint, respect, and function.
Still riding
Goetz still rides his 1992 Rally build, L’Oiseau Du Temps.
That detail matters. GN Classics is not about finished objects behind glass. It is about machines that live, age, and continue moving forward with their riders.
