The film title says Hong Kong Teddy Boys… but they’re not quite Teds as I remember them. Seriously cool scooters, whatever they are… can anybody Id them (the scooters, not the actors!)?
Form HK Rockers on Vimeo
The film title says Hong Kong Teddy Boys… but they’re not quite Teds as I remember them. Seriously cool scooters, whatever they are… can anybody Id them (the scooters, not the actors!)?
Form HK Rockers on Vimeo
Remember the rather tasty modern incarnation of the Lambretta GP, The Scomadi, that I wrote about way back in November last year, here?Well there’s an update on the ScooterNova site. At the recent Morecambe Pre-Season Rally, PM Tuning held an open day at their shop, where a couple of Scomadi’s were on display, including a prototype of the forthcoming 50cc Turismo Leggera production model.
Scomadi are now transitioning from making a few one offs, to full scale production… with manufacturing in Asia. Regualr reader and Lambrettista corespondent Ian pointed me in the direction of this site… Hanway Motors, who are either producing the Scomadi for Lambretta Innovations, or ripping them off…
Anyway, it’s all good in my humble opinion, and I’m a classic Innocenti man. The Scomadi is a modern version of the Italian original, in the same way as a modern Vespa, and the modern Vespa clones (LML etc) encapsulate the spirit of older classic Vespas. Alongside the LN, it can only be good for the whole Lambretta scene.
Scomadi pricing and delivery to finalised. Keep up to date on their website, or Facebook page.
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:Regular 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.
Anyway. 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.
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.The Yue Long Lambretta factory produced scooters in a huge plant. Rows of scooters have been completed, waiting for shipping.
Various 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!
Dominican Vice President Gao Yi Ge also visited…and apparently personally test rode the Lambrettas. Well, who could blame him?
Taiwan’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!
Wow. Since moving my blog over from Posterous to WordPress I’ve been able to see a lot more data about who’s visiting, and where from. And it just goes to show that interest in Lambrettas is truly global. I kind of expected some readers from the UK and Italy, as well as Spain and the US… but it would be easier to say where the blog isn’t read! (Come on Africa, China and the Middle East – you’re letting the side down!) I got my first reader in Egypt yesterday, so I’ve got a little bit of a nibble into Africa…
So a big thank you to all my vistors. It makes this little personal project well worth while.
If you check out my links page you’ll see there are Lambretta Clubs in over 30 countries. If I’ve missed where you live, apologies, let me know and I’ll post a link.
EDIT: We’re past 50 Countries now… and going strong! FURTHER EDIT: Make that 60 Countries. From the Aland Islands to Uruguay!
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