Came across this pukka 1958 NSU Prima 150D on Gumtree. At A$3000… it’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s sale of the flipping’ century… as ever, just flagging it up not recommending, buyer beware and all that yada yada yada.
It’s in Adelaide, South Australia. Here’s the Gumtree Link.
I’ll get back to posting about real Lambretta’s soon, promise!
Enjoy riding your noisy, dirty, smelly 2stroke while you can ladies and gentlemen. It’s just a matter of time before classic scooters are consigned to “collections” and legislated out of existence… and we’ll all be sitting in our robot driven hydrogen fuel-celled Google cars… maybe. Or maybe the future is electric vehicles… we’ve already seen an Electric Lambretta… and a production scooter from a company with a heritage in classic scoots and electric vehicles is on the way. Albeit a heritage I had absolutely no idea about until yesterday.
First, a bit of history
Lohner was an Austrian company. G’day! No. Read it again. Austrian. Around 1900 they were producing electric cars… designed by a certain Ferdinand Porsche. Ahead of the curve there! After a rocky history, and diversifying into many other vehicles such as trams and aircraft… like many companies in the early fifties tried to get in on the booming scooter market. The most well known of these scooters was the Lohner 125 (pictured above). I say it was well known… but it’s a scooter that’s new to me. To my eyes… despite following the germanic “roller” style of having the large enclosed front end incorporating the legshields and mudguard… I’ve seen uglier scooters. After merging with Rotax, who made the engines, they left scooter production behind and became involved in the production of agricultural, military and commercial vehicles. Eventually they were bought by Bombardier.
Now, the future?
Well, the Lohner name, and scooter is back. From what I can gather from the website, members of the original Lohner family are still very much involved. And in looking to the future they looked to their company heritage for inspiration. What they have come up with is a “new class vehicle”… the Lohner Stroler… a radical looking e-biike – and probably of more interest to readers of this blog, the Lohner LEA. The Roller LEA is a twenty-first century reincarnation of the 1950’s original L125-Roller. 
Pretty cool, huh? It’s got that retro thing going with a hint modern hot-rod aesthetic… while giving a big nod to their heritage. A tough trick to pull off, looking funky, modern and old school all at once.
The LEA will go into production in the spring, and is a available for pre-order right now.
Find out more, including full specifications on the website.
Well, not your actual Rolls Royce motor car. But a rather nicely restored Heinkel Tourist scooter… (or motorroller as our Teutonic friends would have it… so I guess it’s a Roller of sorts) was originally marketed as the “Rolls Royce of Scooters”. Naturally, it’s not quite as “pretty” as a Lammy… but it has got a voluptuous attractiveness all of it’s own. And like the seller says “very nice machines to own and run, and they are a bit different” It’s got a classified price of a fiver under £4k, which is a lot of scooter for your buck. Check it out on eBay here.
Here’s that eBay link again.
A long overdue post for this epic event… (and I mean properly epic as my nine year old son uses it – applied to just about everything). Four days covering 1000 miles across New Zealand, on scooters. And scooters means proper scooters. Classic geared scooters, as it should. Preparations for this years ride on the 23rd – 26th April are well underway check out the website at www.motoretta.co.nz (The event is now rebranded Mottoretta NZ Motto GP due to legal reasons).
The website is very smart – I love the new branding. Check out the team names, that’ll give you a flavour of the event. if you want to take part… sorry… you’re too late, it was all booked up by September. Maybe get a team together and stick it in the diary for 2016? It’s something I’d love to do one year, but couldn’t have sone it this year anyway as I’ll be in Italy for something rather special and scooter related… watch this space!
Thanks Thornton for the heads up on this.
Andy from the Lambretta Club of South Africa sent me this pic of their Jo’berg rideout. Nice to se a couple of S1’s. He kindly informed me that it was 33°C… And although it’s not too chilly here in the UK at the moment, I’d trade a few of our Winter days for a day or two of that!
Found this very clean Lambretta Lui 75S on eBay. It looks super space age in it’s silver livery… and as it is an Italian import is still a “Lui” rather than a “Vega”. I think that’s right… I’m no expert on the Luna line! (Hmm… Louis Vega… didn’t he do “Mambo Number 5”?)
Anyway, from the pics, this is a superb example of the model… although it’s going for an eye-watering £4,500… You used to be able to pick up these little beauties for peanuts! Here’s the eBay link.
In light of The Currant Bun dropping it’s long running topless Page 3 feature… here’s a track by The Lambrettas. Any excuse, me.
T’internet’s a funny old thing isn’t it? Always something new to discover. I just stumbled across “Lambretta Vlog Time” a Video Blog about a guy and his Lambrettas. And it was episode 16. Which means I’ve missed the first 15 somehow. Oh well… some catching up to do! One of my less tiresome jobs to do this week! I probably won’t repost all 15 on here… but I will post the best, and hopefully give you a heads up when a new one pops up!
This one focuses on a nicely restored GP which is nearly finished, and looks like will be up for sale soon. Check out the rest of the vids for yourself on digger9million’s YouTube Channel, here.
Nice, tastefully modded SX200 which combines classic café racer looks with modern performance. Powered by a 34HP 265cc Readspeed engine, it is quick, smooth and reliable. And simply beautiful. Offers over £10k on eBay here
110km ride through the North of Thailand.
Bangkok – Mae Sot – Mae Sariang – Mae Hong Son – Pai – Chiang Mai.
via The Scooterist
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