Tag Archives: auto

The Triumph T10 – The prettiest British Scooter?

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s-l1600-1Spotted this pretty little Triumph on eBay. Lovely clean lines for a scooter that doesn’t originate in Italy! Dare I say, it’s prettier than a J? Dare I? Nah, not on here. But’s it’s close. It apparently “drives very nice” and “everything works as it should” (Buyers words, so do your own checks). It’s listed at a pretty reasonable £1,950, but he’s open to offers, as he’s not sure how much it’s worth. I’d say he’s pitched it about right?

It comes with a load of paperwork. Which is always nice! Here’s the eBay link

The Triumph T10 – also known as the Triumph Tina – was the lightweight sister scooter to the better known Triumph Tigress. Made between 1962 and 1970 it was marketed at women, in a campaign fronted by Peter Pan of Pop Cliff Richard (I’d love to see some original publicity material if anybody’s got any – I’ve tried finding some online to no avail!). Technically the Tina was quite advanced – an early ‘auto’ using a continuously variable transmission system with a centrifugal clutch. There were even plans, and actual prototypes for a three-wheeler version – predating Piaggio’s MP3 by decades!

Lots more info about the Tina / T10 and her big sis the Tigress on the TriumphScooters website.

Czech this out!

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Cezeta1The Cezeta is back – and it hasn’t changed a bit (apart from being electric!). The distinctive Czech scooter has returned in a design virtually unchanged from the original models produced in the ’50s and ’60s. And it’s all the better for it. You’d be hard pushed to spot any difference between these new models and the originals – in fact, you’d be on a hiding to nothing as the prototypes shown are originals, modified to fit the new power unit.

cezeta-home-02-1200That’s the one BIG change. As mentioned… she’s electric! Some will mourn the passing of the original 175cc 2-stroke engine, but this is the 20-teens and an electric power unit is the way forward. She’s got a top end of 50mph and a range of 60 miles (extendable to 120m). That’s plenty to commute in style.

Regarding the styling… it’s certainly unique. I’ve been less than kind to the Cezeta in the past, but I’m warming to the Cezeta’s idiosyncratic looks. Perhaps is years of conditioning so my brain thinks a Lambretta is the way a scooter should look.  There’s something quite hipster (in a good way) about them, and they’re far more attractive (and authentic) than the majority of modern attempts to create a retro scoot.

Although by nature I’m a bit of a traditionalist, I’m also firmly in the EV (Electric Vehicle) camp. I think this scoot marries the best of both. Retro styling, with a modern, clean power unit. There was talk of an Electric Scomadi a while back, (last I heard it they are still “working on it”)  and, although unlikely, maybe – just maybe we’ll see an electric version of the “new Lambretta” the L70 on launch (more of that later!).

There’s a ton of more information, including a road test and an interview with one of the guys behind the revitalised Cezeta brand (brit Neil Smith) over on the ScooterLab site.

It’s great to see these ‘lesser known’ (in the UK anyway) scooter marques making a comeback, with Cezeta joining the likes of Lohner and Cushman. Find out more at the Cezeta website, where you can reserve yours today, or pop over to Prague and visit their shop.

The video’s worth a watch too…

Deus Derny

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Retro Style custom scooter style build
from Deus Ex Machina

LEDERNY_STUDIO-17I’ve followed the Deus Ex Machina guys for a while, loving their café racer style motorcycle builds. To my knowledge, this is the first time they’ve done a scooter.
Ostensibly as a bike support vehicle, but a pretty cool build in its own right.

It’s based on the retro-styled Peugeot Django, and influenced by the Peugeot’s S57 from the fifties*, and, I would suggest, a large dose of classic Lambretta styling. They’ve (wisely in my opinion) ignored the rather er, ‘functional’ (ok, ugly) front end of the S57 and gone for something more traditionally scooter like. And they’ve come up with something rather wonderful. Read more on the Deus site.

LEDERNY_STUDIO-14When choosing a scoot, I’d always go for a classic geared Lammie, but as modern scooters go, I think this (and I know is not a fair comparison, a custom build against a production scooter) gives Scomadi a run for it’s money.

*Funnily enough, as these things work out, there’s a Peugeot S57 for sale (it bits) over on eBay at the moment, if you fancy a bit of a challenge. Here's the link.

The future (and the past) of classic scootering?

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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_125_h

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?

IMG_162417654

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. IMG_158960635 IMG_159260635 IMG_160317654 IMG_168117654 IMG_168717654

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.

The Scomadi’s are coming…

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10406830_10152713158068545_8173392206311166508_nFull production of the eagerly awaited Scomadi Scooter range – the modern auto with classic Lambretta good looks – is well under way. Dealers are being appointed around the country and the range is being showcased at the prestigous INTERMOT Köln Motorcycle Show. Perhaps even more interesting in the long run are rumours of an Electric Scomadi doing the rounds, with a prototype on display at London Fashion Week. Keep up to date on the Scomadi Facebook page.
10177231_10152693640678545_4717761484055189522_n 10427236_10152474752773545_3127952374208184753_n  10622706_10152685052268545_2113261253642206811_n  10659185_10152713158453545_3406801683047247114_n  10685776_10152713158448545_6361431978608469727_n10620726_10152702565863545_8305357953004541529_n10646983_10152702565653545_4073799129473171_n

DonGo Bare Bones Scoot

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dongo_01I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I’m not really a “modern scooter” person. But, and again, I’ve mentioned this before, there are some exceptions. The most notable is probably the Honda Ruckus, or Zoomer as it is known in he UK. In the same vein, The DonGo is a back to basics, stripped down scoot that is easy to build, customise, maintain and repair.dongo_06 dongo_05 dongo_02 dongo_04 dongo_03 The idea is that you buy it “flat pack” like Ikea furniture, and put it together yourself. You can spec either a petrol or electric engine. At the moment, I it’s just a concept, at prototype stage… in need of investment to turn into a scoot you can actually buy. If I was a “Dragon” I’d be saying “I’m in” to designer Otto Polefko. I’d love to see this on sale.dongo_10 via YankoDesign. More on the Otto’s Behance page, here.

Scomadi 300 – Lambretta Innovations #22 For Sale

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For Sale on eBay
Scomadi 300 LI22If you want a Scomadi 300, and can’t wait for the production models to come online… there is a solution. You could buy one of the development models. Over at eBay, there’s  Scomadi “Number 22” for sale. Built by Frank Sanderson at Lambretta Innovations; it’s “smooth, powerful and reliable” and has head-turning custom paint by Fast Eddie at FEP.LambrettaInnovations22-1-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-2-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-3-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-4-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-5-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-6-22-7-2014 LambrettaInnovations22-7-22-7-2014
Check it out here, on eBay.

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.

Lambretta LN ‘Pure Smithy’ Dealer Special

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I haven’t posted anything about the LN or it’s sibling modern Lambrettas* recently, as they’re not really my bag… and there hasn’t been anything new to report. I don’t know how they are selling, and I certainly haven’t seen one on the road, but I wish them well. If the marketing department at Motom* had any imagination, they’d sign up a Lambretta blogger, and let him (or her) have one for an extended test drive. Say six months. By the way… on the last count The Lambrettista blog is read in more than 70 countries. Just saying.

Lambretta LN Pure Smithy media-2 media-3 media media-4Anyway… at  but I thought this was quite interesting. Had to look twice at this LN on eBay. I thought it was an official Paul Smith licensed product, but it’s clearly a fairly clever knock off. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Mr Smith had been involved, as he was allegedly a mod as a young man, and his work retains a certain ‘mod aesthetic’… but if he had it would have been all over the papers. Another marketing opportunity missed? There I go, off on a tangent again. Back to the original point of this post, which was, that the LN is now starting to appear in different incarnations, customised, much as dealers would customise ‘proper’ Lambrettas back in the day… I’ve no particular opinion on whether this is a good, or bad thing… it’s just interesting. Mildly. Well, I thought so. If it floats your boat, and you’ve got a spare £3k knocking around, you can get one here. And they’ll give you a fiver change. It’s being sold by the Pure Group, in Harrogate if you don’t do eBay.

Lambretta LN Union Flag $T2eC16F,!yME9s5qE+8bBRwI(Z6J+g~~_12 $(KGrHqNHJFYFG99q-4lfBRwI(,VRi!~~_12And if the Paul Smith look isn’t up your strasse… there’s a distressed union jack version. A bit ‘comedy mod’ for me, that one, I’m afraid.

*Motom Electronics Group are one of the claimants of the Lambretta name. There’s a trademark/license document here that explains it all in legalese. My thoughts can be found on this site if you stick Lambretta LN into the “handy searchbar” (that’s one for the “stuffyoushouldknow” podcast listeners).