Just a quick, preliminary post, mainly to say what a great event this was. There was a really good turn out, at least a couple of hundred Lambrettas… and Dean and the gang from the RLC made sure everyone was looked after properly. As I type this a lot of the attendees will be sipping the odd cold beverage or throwing some shapes on the dance floor. Unfortunately, I had to get back to Bologna, as I’ve booked a flight home early doors. Pretty poor planning on my part that. Anyway boys and girls enjoy your evening, and thank you, very much for asking me to come out. If you can’t wait for my words and pictures, check out the event’s Facebook Page, here. Buonanotte!
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Barn Find LI
Found this great looking unrestored 1960 LI online… I wish I’d found it in a barn!
It’s up for auction at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire on the 15th of April, with a guide price of £1,000 – £1,500 (which seems about right). It would benefit from a sensitive, “conserved restoration”. It comes with some nice original period accessories… and you can use that white top box to keep some bits in, in your garage. Or bin it. If you’re interested, you can find out more here.
Mellow Restoration LD
Loving this. Cracking little LD on eBay that was restored back in the 80’s… that has mellowed nicely. Sometimes a newly restored scooter can look fantastic, but to my eyes a little too “new”. And while I increasingly like a bit of ‘patina’ (we used to call it rust, back in the day) a nice, clean machine is hard to beat. I think you get the best of both worlds with this scoot. Not so pristine you’d be scared to ride her, nice enough to want to wash and wax at the weekend!
She comes with some great period accessories, which lift the scoot from stock; the whitewalls, sidepanel stars (I’m not always keen on these, but they just “work” on this scoot) alloy airscoops, hub and fork trim, original NSU clock and original speedo. All things that add to the appeal of the scooter, rather than spoiling the lovely lines. Very nice. If I had any room in the garage, or money in the bank, Id be putting a bid in on her! If you feel the same way you can put a bid in on eBay here.
Commercial Break – or “Loving the Lambro”
A wise man once said that true wisdom is knowing how little you actually know. Or something like that. I thought I knew a little bit about Lambrettas, but the more I find out, the more I realise how much my ‘knowledge’ is just scraping the surface. Thats why I always appreciate being put right if I’ve made an error. Sometimes, I know I’ve made a mistake, because it’s glaringly obvious. On other occasions it’s a real eye-opener. Either way, not a problem I’ve learnt something. Anyway, the point of this long and rambling preamble is that I know next to nothing about Lambros. I’ve seen a few course, and pictures of many of them. They come up for sale occasionally on eBay (there’s some up at the moment… more on them later). And while I have posted about Willam microcars, and even the dinky Minky, I’ve only posted a couple of links to Lambro’s I’ve spotted for sale… and not written about them much on the site.
About all I know about these wonderfully characterful little vehicles is, that A) they were extremely adaptable, with variants ranging from simple pickups and delivery vans, to cement mixers and fire engines… or tipper trucks, like the one pictured. B) They were the Lambretta equivalent of the Vespa Ape C) they were named after the Lambro river that ran outside the Innocenti factory and D) I quite fancy one.
When compiling my “websites, forums, mags & blogs” links page (check it out if you haven’t already) I came across a couple of Lambro specific sites. One, lambro.plus.com has sadly not been updated for a while, although there is a lot of useful info on there. The second one, TheLambro.com is more well maintained, and also has wealth of useful information. It is also the online presence for the UK’s only dedicated Lambro workshop, where they offer everything from full restorations to servicing and MOT work. They often seem to have a couple for sale, and also have a varied stock of parts for most models.
With prices of even the more humbler Lambretta models climbing ever higher, the humble Lambro remains remarkably affordable. OK, it’s not as stylish, and you’ll never blaat about on one (although, funnily enough I have seen Vespa Ape racing). But they’re a pretty cool, quirky vehicle, especially if you have a small business to promote. And you get a roof. The one pictured in this post is available on eBay for a classified price of £2,695. She needs a bit of work to get her back on the road, but is a pretty rare model, and an easy resto. Here’s the eBay link