Category Archives: News

Lambrettista… Review of the year

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I hope this is not too self indulgent, but this has been a big year for the Lambrettista blog.

Back in April, the old Posterous blog came to an end… when the Posterous blogging platform did. I looked around for a replacement platform, and WordPress seemed to be a no brainer. After a slowish start, (31 views and 22 visitors in April) the next month the viewing figures shot up to 2,664 views and 956 visitors… a definite improvement! Things have gone from strength tho strength since… Screen Shot 2013-12-31 at 04.41.20

Secondly… Reach… You might be interested in where the Lambrettista blog is read… Which is pretty much everywhere. The map below shows the reach of my blog. And, no I’m not blowing my own trumpet (well, a bit) but I’m blown away at the number of countries where people read my blog. I’ve still got to crack Mongolia, most of the continent of Africa, and a couple of countries in South America (come on Paraguay, you’re letting the side down!), but other than that the reach is pretty global. I hit the 100 countries mark a while back and am way more than that now. Wow. It’s probably more about the popularity of the World’s Finest Motor Scooter than any great blogging skill on my part, but it’s nice nonetheless.

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2014 was also the year I decided to make a Lambrettista.net Facebook page and Twitter account (@MrLambrettista) to support the blog. I set these up in November, and the Facebook page has already had 750+ ‘Likes’ and the Twitter account 250+ followers. If you haven’t checked them out, there’s more, different content on both, and I’d love to have you part of them.

And now a few favourite posts…

Favourite Lammie

My favourite Lambrettas of the year… It’s truly impossible to pick. So here’s Four of that have stuck in my mind… Firstly, Chrsitian Gentilini’s stunning SX150 S-Type Screen shot 2013-07-06 at 07.35.58

Blue Ashtray; a clean mean GP from NYCBlue Ashtray Lambretta GPThis beautiful conserved resto by the Rimini Lambretta Centre… a lovely original orange SX150 Screen Shot 2013-12-09 at 15.28.01

And to show it’s not all about perfection, I loved this rat look Series 1 that was up on eBay$T2eC16R,!w0E9szNYhFVBRzF4rgFfQ~~60_12

2013 was also a big year for new Lambretta based innovations… two scoots stand out – and while they can’t be called Lambrettas for legal reasons, they are fine machines based on the the classic lines of our favourite scooter. Firstly the Scomadi – a modern auto clad in Lambretta style bodywork,turismo-leggera-300

and then the MkII Ebretta – the most stylish electric scooter you’re ever likely to see.Ebretta

Lambretta Club of the Year

Despite the excellent work of my own Lambretta Club, (The LCGB) I’ve got to award this one to the new kid on the block, The youngest national Lambretta Club in the World… the Lambretta Club of South Africa.

Lambretta Club South Africa

Favourite Photograph

There’s been more than a few great images… here are just three of my favourites. Feel free to explore the archives to discover more for yourself!Lambretta easy rider
Girl on a scooter 1965the scooterist (104)

Oddball Scooter of the Year

This category is for any scooter that I’ve written about. Despite a strong contender in the Malaguti Saigon, and a late showing for the WFM Osa, there was only going to be one winner this year… The Tula based Scooter Caravan! 4b98f96dbc8bca7b64209244945b68d1

Lambretta Product of the Year

gp200_12

Not a Scootering product at all… or a pair of sock bearing the Lambretta logo, but this fine  piece of furniture from Iconic Designs.

 Looking forward to 2014

2014 Is looking good for shipping on both the Scomadi and the Ebretta II,  and perhaps for a fresh push on the Alessandro Tatarini designed Lambretta LN‘s …as legal battles seem to coming to some conclusion on the Lambretta brand. Or maybe not.

If you’re fairly new to the blog, you obviously like your Lammies, and I’d like to think theres a fair bit that will interest you in the archive… keep hitting the “Older posts” button at the bottom of the page to see a whole load more Lambretta-ey goodness! Oh, and please check out the Events Page (under the links menu) for a calendar of scootery things to do, all over the world, in the coming year.

Finally, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Thank you, Gracias, Merci, Danke, 谢谢, ขอขอบคุณคุณ, dank u (love the Dutch), Tack, Dankon. I appreciate your support. And keep reading, sharing, liking, following and commenting, it really makes my day when you do. And stay tuned… there’s plenty more to come in 2014.

Happy New Year, when it comes. Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy. Safe and Prosperous One. Big Love… Jock.

Ebretta Mk2

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EbrettaI first wrote about the Ebretta back in May 2012… a classic Lambretta with an electric power train. Well, now Siagon Scooter Centre, the guys behind the Ebretta and the Vespa Styled version the Vtronic have released  a Mk2 version. On the surface, not a lot has changed, and that’s a good thing. It still looks like a classic lammy. But under the skin, there are numerous improvements. The battery system now includes an integrated PMC, and the cells are smaller and more powerful. There’s a new SevCon digital display unit, and a DC converter so that standard lighting can be used… although LED lighting comes as part of the package.

It’s nice to see a project as visionary as this is still being pursued and developed. And that a company realises there is a market for classic scooter looks with state of the art internals. Of course, if an electric scoot doesn’t float your boat, you could have a look at the Scomadi.

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As before, for more information, contact the Siagon Scooter Centre.

The darkside. Your chance to vote.

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Vespas
This is a first. I generally don’t post pictures of Vespas. I’ve got nothing against them, other than a general low-level bitterness that out of the two GREAT Italian scooter marques, Piaggio’s Vespa survived and the clearly superior Lambretta didn’t. And I’m not a “scootist”. Some of my best friends ride Vespas. In fact, Vespas are (probably) my second favourite scooter marque. But they are all over the web, and there’s some great sites covering both (try Scooternova) or that cater to the poor deluded souls who actually prefer Italy’s second best scooter  (my personal favourite, being this one; Vespamore). And, much as I may have huge gaps in my Lambretta knowledge (I literally learn something new nearly every day), I am a complete ignoramus when it comes to the Vespa. I’ve never owned one*, and I’ve never even ridden one. So I can’t really write abut them.

Anyway, this long, unfocused and rambling diatribe is needs to get back on track. Here we go. I generally don’t post pictures of Vespas. But occasionally, I come across a picture so good it’s hard to resist the urge to post it. Above is one such shot.

So… here’s the deal. Should I post the occasional pics of a Vespa, or are they truly off limits on a Lambretta site. This is your chance to vote, below.

*I nearly bought a GS160 before I saw my current Lambretta – this would have been a very different blog!

Free Nelson Mandela

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MandelaI’d never heard of Nelson Mandela, until I heard this song (video below). I don’t think most of my peer group had either. At the time words like ‘terrorist’ were being used about him, although initially he was a follower of the non-violent school of protest, he became a the militant. But who wouldn’t be, against a regime as oppressive as that of the South African one. Anyway, because of Jerry Dammers, and the Special AKA, I read deeper than the stories in the Daily Express, and found another side to the story. On a side note, whenever I walked past South Africa House, in Trafalgar Square, back in the day… (as I did last night too), I was never asked by the demonstrators to sign their petition… I assume because of my close cropped hair, Flight jacket, and polished cherry red DMs. But stop and sign I always did, despite their prejudices.

Anyway. Enough of that. This is about Mr Mandela… and how he helped transform South Africa from a racist, aparteid regime into a rainbow nation. Without the “bloodbath” that was not only predicted, but seemed to be a forgone conclusion. Are things perfect in South Africa? Probably not. But they are certainly better that what the majority of the world thought was going to happen. How much of this was down to Jerry Dammers and the Specials? I suspect more that we think. After this song everybody knew the name Nelson Mandela in the UK, and the UK played a huge role in leading world opinion. The song went on to be known and sung around the world. Can ‘pop music’ change the world? Not very often. But sometimes, sometimes it can. RIP Mr Mandela, thank you Mr Dammers.JerryDammers

If you’ve just found the Lambrettista blog, this is a far from typical post. Normal service will be resumed ASAP

New Twitter Handle!

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Mr Lambrettsita Twitter AvatarI’ve got a new Twitter handle (why handle? Is it only used on Twitter and CB radio? How weird!) It’s  @MrLambrettista and, if you do the Twitter thing I’d love you to follow me their. This is going to be 100% (well maybe 95%) scooter and scooter lifestyle related. Once I’ve got a bit of critical mass, I’ll start deleting the scootering links from my other twitter account (@crocodilejock) and just use that for my art, graphic design, typography, brand and marketing related posts (my day job). If that sort of stuff interests you, I’d love to keep you as followers here. Sorry if this all seems a little convoluted, but it will all start getting confusing if I leave it much longer. It also makes sense to link up the blog, the Facebook page and the twitter account under one ‘brand’.

So the long and short of it is, I’d love you to follow me on @MrLambrettista and a big thank you to the 68 people that have followed me already!

Lambrettista. Now with added Facebookyness.

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Lambrettista-FacebookHeaderIn exciting developments today*, it was announced that the Lambrettista blog (this one) was getting it’s own Facebook page. It’s here. So you can follow, like, Share and do all that stuff there, too. The WordPress blog  aint going anywhere, and it’s where most of the detail will be… but I was getting a hell of a lot of traffic from Facebook, (Especailly when the nice people at Scomadi and The Rimini Lambretta Centre linked to my posts on their FB pages) it’s silly not too.

Pop over and “Like” me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/LambrettistaBlog

*I know, it’s not exciting to anyone. Except me. A bit.

eTropolis Reload, Q electric scooter and other oddities from EICMA

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Spoiler alert. There’s NO Lambrettas in this post. Even the “new Lambrettas” are conspicuous by their absence from this years EICMA Motorcycle Showcase. And I don’t like modern scooters. With some very few exceptions. Sounding like a grumpy old man watching Top of the Pops (that ages me), where “It all sounds the same” They all pretty much look the same to me. All angles and plastic. Nah. I’ll stick to something classic and geared. But every now and then something comes along and makes me look twice. Last time it happened it was the Vespa 946. A stunner. Before that it was the back to basics charm of the Honda Zoomer, or Ruckus as the colonials would have it. And this years EICMA has thrown up a couple of interesting little oddities.

First is the all electric etropolis Reload… now metropolis (and the lower case “e” is deliberate btw), are a German company that make some distinctly average looking electric scooters. Which is probably not a bad thing for etropolis, or people that like modern scooters. Just for old farts like me that like proper scooters.ETROPOLIS-RELOAD-Laterale

But their new Reload takes the biscuit… and dunks it. It looks like someone has taken a modern scooter and hacksawed the arse off it… and then sawn any other extraneous bits of plastic off too. And as a result it looks, we’ll… rather good actually. In an awkward, ugly kind of way.

It’s electric, so the performance and range are going to be pretty appalling, but at least it looks, well, different. I like it. Until of course Etropolis go and load it up with more carriers and shopping baskets than a Tescos carpark. Oh well.RELOAD-BAULETTO-PORTA-MERCI-Laterale

Worse, for me than a generic modern scooter is a modern scooter trying to pass itself off as a retro classic. Vespa have managed to pull it off, just about (he says through gritted teeth), and are even improving. The new 946 and Primavera are very pretty scooters. The recent reinvented “Lambretta” LN, LJ and LT made a decent enough fist of it, capturing some of the spirit of the original Lambrettas… but unfortunately, despite good reviews, it appears they haven’t been able to challenge the likes of Piaggio. Peugeot Django peugeot-django-2014-20-8764-1383648863

Likely to be more successful, unfortunately, are these ‘neo-retro’ monstrosities  from Peugeot… just horrible, bloated and obese looking machines. In my opinion of course. Which is a shame, because they made some decent looking scooters back in the day… well the arse end looks ok, don’t think much of that fugly fender…Peugeot S57

Jumping back to electric scooters, and another honourable mention goes to another back to basics design the “Q” , a dutch design that is all about the frame. It kind of reminds me of the FIDO concept, I posted on my original “CrocodileJock” blog, way back.  Q Electric scooter

But what really caught my eye at EICMA this year wasn’t a scooter at all. It was a brace of bikes from someone who traditionally doesn’t even make bikes. British Car firm (and there’s not too many of those about) Caterham, (yes THAT Caterham) have launched their first ever motorcycles. And they are stunning. Really eye-catching radical designs… with three very different models, the beefy Brutus 750, (which can operate as a street bike, off road machine or even a SNOWMOBILE!!!) the “Classic E bike” an electric bike that harks back to the earliest days of motorcycling for it’s design inspiration, and the “Carbon E bike” another e-bike, but rather than looking like it’s come from some reimagined steampunk past, this one is straight from a science fiction future. Find out more, here. And there is a Lambretta link, of sorts… the designer behind the brute that is the Brutus is Alessandro Tatarini. If that name rings a bell, it may be because you recognise it from the Lambretta LN launch… yes, he was the designer behind that, too.  caterham-brutus-750caterham-classic-e-bike-03caterham-carbon-e-bike-01

I think they are absolutley stunning designs…  and while there not going to be everybody’s cup of Tetley, that’s kind of the point of them. An alternative two wheeler for people who “Think Different” and the stars of the show for me. That and the Scomadi’s of course.

Manchester Lyons 60th Anniversary Trailer

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In June next year, The Manchester Lyons Scooter Club will be 60 years old. Woodsy, who’s work I have featured on here before, has had exclusive access to period footage to make in to a Diamond Anniversary movie to be shown at our 60th do in June. And here’s the trailer. Brilliant stuff, as you’d expect from Woodsy.

So, June 2014… That’s one for the next years diary…  get on your scooter and get up to Manchester. Follow The Lyons on Twitter for more details @LyonsSC

New Lambretta Lookalike Scomadi’s in 50cc, 125cc and 300cc Variants…

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turismo-leggera-300I’ve written about Scomadi’s before, (check out the previous post, here) the “modern classic” scooter based upon the classic GP styling beloved of so many. A true classic Lambretta profile, albeit with 21st century technology, reliability and functionality. A complete win/win surely. Intially, the Scomadi scooter was a rare beast, available hand built  only to the lucky few with pockets deep enough. An initial ‘limited edition’ production run of ten 250cc machines proved that the concept worked, with reports of a smooth, fast, reliable and very rideable scooter.  Demand was such that Lambretta Innovations, the team behind the Scomadi marque (consisting of an alliance between Scooter Innovations and PM Tuning), put together another 30 machines. Lightweight but super strong carbon fibre panels coupled with the proven Piaggio power unit made the “Turismo Leggera” a modern scooter as good as anything else on sale today, and ten times better looking.

turismo-leggera-300

Now Scomadi are ramping up production with 50 and 125cc variants… launched at EICMA 2013 in Milan, and hitting the sweet spot for many first time scooter buyers. For the more demanding rider there is the flagship 300cc, 22HP TL300. Pricing is yet to be confirmed, but I doubt that they will be cheap! Turismo Leggera Brochure Page

To find out more, including specs, check out the Scomadi website, here: www.scomadi.co.uk or their Facebook page (which generally has the most up to date stuff) here.

Found via the excellent SooterNova blog.

Back On Target?

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Remember On Target, the independent scooter magazine from a few years ago? I must admit, it was never on my radar, but some of you will know it. Well here’s a video to fill you in on it… and the reason I’m posting it, is I’ve heard on the grapevine that there’s the possibility of a relaunch in 2014. While I think Scootering and Classic Scooterist Scene do a good job, on the whole, I’m all for a bit of competition in the magazine market, so good luck to the fellas. I’ll keep you posted if I find out more.