Monthly Archives: January 2014

Jolly nice J50 for sale…

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1968 Lambretta J50 for Sale on eBayI love this little J50 I have discovered on eBay… looks like it’s in pretty good, original condition; the sign writing looks bang on, and contemporaneous with the scooter. I imagine it was originally a municipal vehicle for the Italian equivalent of the local council. Fantastic. Great patina… and no, that’s not a euphemism for “rusty as ••••” . In my opinion, the new owner would should keep this scooter exactly as it is… as a little piece of cultural history. Marvellous. all the details, and a few more pics on eBay.
eBay Link

1968 Lambretta J50 for Sale on eBay723253161_o723253177_o723253149_o723253157_o723253164_o

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Moldovan Lambretta Police

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Moldovan Police LNsSince I announced, perhaps prematurely, the demise of the Lambretta LN, and the launch of the LamSport, I’ve been sent a link to the Official Moldova Government Ministry of Internal Affairs webpage, announcing that the Police had been presented with ten Lambretta LN’s for ‘daily activity in public places’.  Further info on the LN will follow, when I discover more!Moldovan Police LN fleet

LamSport 125 – “New Lambretta” with NO Lambretta DNA.

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The “New Lambretta” saga rumbles on. Most readers of this site, I suspect, will not be particularly interested, having not taken the 2011 Lambretta LN to their hearts. Which is a shame, because, IMHO, although clearly not a classic Lambretta, it paid homage to the lines and spirit of the marque, and had a little Lambretta DNA in it’s blood. Now we have a “New Lambretta” The LamSport.

The new machine, despite being designed by the same Alessandro Tartarini behind the LN design, and who’s radical designs for the range of Caterham Motorcycles I was a big fan of, disappoints me on every level. It’s just an ok looking modern sports style scooter.  With a Lambretta badge on it.
The LN was a decent stab at reinventing a classic machine for the twenty-first century. This is badge engineering at it’s worst. The old Lambretta Motorcycles website from Motom is now down, and I suspect that that is the end of Lambretta LN, which will become an interesting side note to Lambretta history. UPDATE: Further research has found that the LN is still linked to on the Vinh Phat Group website here – so it appears to be in production alongside the the LamSport. And in twenty or thirty years time, when the LamSport is all but forgotten about there will be one or two LN’s left, commanding big prices amongst the  Lambretta collectors and completists. A real shame.6_esterno
The LamSport is being assembled and distributed by the Vinh Phat Group in Vietnam, who launched the new model in Hanoi last week. I’m sure it will do very well in the home market, at least. As far as I’m concerned, if you want a ‘modern Lambretta’ and you are in Hanoi, you would be better off with an Ebretta.EbrettaI’m sorry, I’m not going to write about this any more. This upsets me. If you want to find out more, The excellent ScooterNova blog is a good source. But don’t expect to find any more posts on the LamSport on this blog.

UPDATE: My sources tell me that it may not quite be the end of the road for the Lambretta LN, which is good news. I find myself, as a rider of an Innocenti 1960 LI150 Series 2, in the unlikely position of flag waver for the LN, but it is, from all accounts, a good, reliable and stylish modern scooter, and it definitely has my old S2 in it’s family tree. Stay tuned, for more Lambretta LN info, and nothing more about the LamSport!

’56 LD on eBay

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eBay LDSpotted this nice LD on eBay, fully restored to original condition. The last owner has had it for 48 years, an fit comes complete with the original buff logbook. It’s a ‘classified ad’ priced at £4,300 (just reduced). Current owner, Rob at Lowebourne Classic Vehicles might haggle a bit. Here’s the link.
eBay LD $(KGrHqF,!mEFHdIVvH-gBR5t3YeB7Q~~60_58 $(KGrHqFHJ!0FHTLzZ5sNBR5tz)Kz6w~~60_58 $(KGrHqJ,!pIFHHNp9SnWBR5t2)7Nmg~~60_58 $(KGrHqV,!o0FHgetelRbBR5t4Qhs-Q~~60_58 $T2eC16RHJHMFH!e-+TlUBR5tzFZ)NQ~~60_58

Ancillotti Brothers TV225 conserved restoration

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Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.20.43This is my third post about the work of The Rimini Lambretta Centre. I make no apologies for this, they produce first class work, and they are the acknowledged experts in the fine art of the “conserved restoration”. Coupled with there usually being an interesting story behind the work, and some great images, it’s a no brainer. So, on with the post, and what we have here is another fantastic job, on a small, but important piece of Lambretta history.
Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.22.20Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.23.04The owner, Marcello Taglialegne, picked up this machine, in a really sorry state, at a parts fair. Some nifty homework confirmed the sellers’ story that it was an Ancillotti original, and, although the bodywork was in a bad way, with a massive crack at the rear section of the frame, and the engine was missing, it was decide that this scooter MUST be saved! A ton of work was done. This included sourcing a NOS 200cc engine as originally used by the Ancillotti brothers, and a hand-made inlet manifold to house the unfeasibly large Dell’Orto that sticks out the side of this scoot like Satchmo’s horn. The other thing that draws your eye straight away on this unique Lambretta is the front mudguard, which looks like it’s on backwards! A point of ‘heated debate’ in the RLC workshop, it was the way Ancillotti originally did it, so it was going on like that. I kind of like it, and have certainly never seen anything like it before.Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.24.49But my favourite part of this scoot is the seat. What a seat. Original to the scooter, and recovered, it sets the whole scoot of beautifully. The first time I ever heard the word Ancillotti was in relation to scooter seats (back in the day, it was that or a “Snetterton”) and this is the daddy of all Ancillotti racing seats. I want one like that!Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.22.48Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.26.47

For the full story of all the painstaking, period correct work that was carried out, and it’s quite a saga, but a good read; see the RLC website. There’s lots more pics of this fascinating scooter on there too.

Vespa GL & 90SS vs. Lambretta SX200 & GP200

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Lightweight, and factually incorrect (90mph from a 90SS – really? 90kph surely! – and it’s 90SS, not SS90…) piece on the now defunct Men & Motors Freesat channel. Francesca Robinson takes 4 classic scooters for a test drive, and sorry to mislead you in the title but it isn’t a straight shootout between the Vespas and the Lammies… but a cursory run through of each model. Some nice scoots, especially the SX “commonly known in the scooter world as Sex Appleal”, er, no, that was just an averting slogan. Despite all my carping on, I’ve seen worse, and although you won’t learn anything new, it’s worth a watch.

Made in Taiwan

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The following is thanks to my online pal Corey, of Ottawa, Ontario’s ScooterFix, who originally got material from the equally excellent British Lambretta Archive:9102_10151735002568901_1010994108_nRegular readers of the Lambrettista blog will know I like an exotic Lambretta. The original Italian Innocenti’s are something special, obviously, and over recent years Indian machines have become first acceptable, then desirable in Lambretta circles. France still has a huge amount of French manufactured LC’s & LD’s on the road and the German NSU Lambretta’s have their aficionados. I’ve written about Brazilian Lambrettas before, and briefly on the Argentinian Siambretta when I posted about this amazing Model D twin. What I didn’t know a lot about, until I read Corey’s original post a while back was the Chinese connection. Well, Taiwan, but this little Island off of the People’s Republic of China still officially calls itself The Republic of China. Although, perhaps wisely considering the size and power of their neighbour, The ROC has not made the retaking of mainland China (which it still considers it’s sovereign territory), a political goal since 1992. 971776_10151735002443901_506253119_nAnyway. Back to the Lambrettas. In 1962 a technical agreement had been signed between Innocenti and the Yue Long Motor Co Ltd, of Taipei. It is not known if Yue Long manufactured complete scooters or just put together component parts. It is known that the Series 3 TV 175 were made by Yue Long and these came with a chrome ring. As with the Italian models, these were available with both Li and Special style panels. The frame numbers are distinctive in that they start with the prefix YLL, a dash then 175TV3 another dash – and then an 8 digit frame number. In terms of paint schemes we have seen photos of the Li panelled TVs in white with contrast colours on the horn cast and side panels and the Special panelled TV’s in silver.

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No, it’s not a swastika with a missing leg – Yue Long stamped their products with a three legged symbol – similar to the Manx three legged symbol inside a circle.1098147_10151735002438901_2116505521_nThe Yue Long Lambretta factory produced scooters in a huge plant. Rows of scooters have been completed, waiting for shipping.968875_10151735002588901_395370195_nVarious publicity shots show visiting foreign dignitary’s being shown around the factory,  Including The Central African Republic President Bo Kasa. History doesn’t record whether he took the Yue Long Lambretta Cento back to Africa with him!59619_10151735002663901_382444167_nDominican Vice President Gao Yi Ge also visited…and apparently personally test rode the Lambrettas. Well, who could blame him?547127_10151735102018901_1920120817_nTaiwan’s postmen were some of the coolest around, riding a fleet of green liveried TV’s!

So, are you a resident of Taiwan? I know they blog has readers in the ROC (132 views from Taiwan before this post)! Are there still any Yue Long Lambrettas still around? If there are…or if your mum or dad had a Lambretta (maybe he was a postman!) get in touch and show me, and the Lambretta world, the pics!

UPDATE: I have found this Facebook Group for all Lambretta scooter enthusiasts in Taiwan and their friends, and for owners of Lambrettas that were manufactured in Taiwan. Some great pics on there!

Lambretta. Not a ‘Kronenbourg’

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SX150-PostcardViz’s “Roger’s Profanisaurus” (Surely one of the finest, most creative works in the english language) defines a Kroneburg (sic) thus ” A lady who appears from behind to be about ’16’, but reveals herself to be about ’64’ when she turns around “. Gentlemen, we’ve all been there. Well, there are scooters like that. Look ok from the back, look pants from the front (Peugeot S57 / Terrot VMS1 you know I’m talking about you), or vice-versa.

Luckily, riding a Lambretta, it’s something you don’t have to worry about. As this publicity shot shows. Ok, it’s an SX, but all Lambrettas look equally as good from the front and rear.

Bonus tip; to make your arse look slimmer  if you’ve put on a pound or two over the years… is to go for one of the more voluptuous models, like a S1 or 2. Works for me.