Love it. Everything about it. The scooter… obviously. The riding stance… the boots… the helmet… the colour cast of the film stock… but most of all the jumper. Just love it.
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Tag Archives: Lambretta
Miss Saigon
Yasin, the guy who correctly identified the mystery scooter as a KTM Ponny, has got an interesting scooter himself… well, actually he’s got a few – a Lambretta J50, Vespa 50 N, and a “Malaguti Saigon”. And it was the Saigon that piqued my interest. Another 50cc scooter… at a quick glance it could be mistaken for a Lambretta… nice clean lines, more elegant maybe than a J-Range Lammie.
Malaguti is another marque with a proud Italian heritage. Founded in 1930 in San Lazzaro di Savena,in the province of Bologna. Starting out making bike frames, Malaguti soon diversified into mopeds and the small, lightweight, single cylinder motorcycles the Italians were so good at. So when the scooter boom started in the 50’s, the company were well placed to take advantage of this. Rather than purely focus on the domestic market, Malaguti exported the majority of it’s scooters… with over 70% of the factories production going to Vietnam… including the scooter shown… which soon gained the nickname “Saigon” …although this was never an official company name.
So, that’s the brief history of these little lightweight scoots… one of many Italian marques that diversified into scooters, but in my opinion one of the prettiest, and one that deserves a little more recognition.
Yasin kindly sent me some pics of his Saigon (below) , and I admit, I’m a little jealous of his elegant little scoot. It looks in excellent original condition… original paint and even a dealer sticker on the front mudguard. Lovely. It’s clearly not complete… but not too far off… missing the sidepanels and rear light, a front fork cover, and some horncasing trim by the look of it… so if you’ve got access to a cache of Malaguti parts, let me know and I’ll pass the details on to Yasin. It looks pretty good without the panels imho… although you’d be hard pushed to get much more than a couple of litres in that tiny fuel tank… which would limit your range a little!
Malaguti are still in business today, and still a family owned company, and, although they ceased vehicle production in 2011, they still deal with spare parts, accessories and after sales service. Unfortunately for Yasin, I think his “Siagon” may be a little too long out of production for any spare parts to still be knocking round the factory!
One final thought, I know I’ve got readers in Vietnam, and Lambrettas and Vespas are immensely popular out there… but is anyone riding a Siagon in Vietnam? Even perhaps in Siagon? And if your are, have you got any spare panels for Yasin?
Thanks to Riccardo at Malaguti for the updated information.
Blue Ashtray – the story of a Lambretta DL125 in NYC
So… the second New York post of the week… This one is a blog about the purchase and restoration of a Lambretta DL in “Mexican Ashtray Blue” in New York CIty. An image heavy blog, said images being really evocative of NYC… often shot with a twist of wry humour… it’s a great read, with great imagery. Check it out here, and added it to my growing Links page.
The Scooter Diaries
The Scooter Diaries
Great pic isn’t it?
It’s not the SLS (Special Lambretta Service)… It’s Ron Bowman, and his mate, about to set off on the journey of a lifetime.
In November of 1959, Ron Bowman quit his job as a newspaper reporter, sold his car and bought a 150cc Lambretta scooter. He intended to ride it from his hometown of Thorold, Ontario, Canada all the way to South America. As far as he knew, no one had ever made such a journey, but he was gong to try. Along the way, he proposed to his girlfriend of three weeks, and married her. This is the story of Ron and Tove Bowman and their epic adventure romance through Latin America on a motor scooter, during a time when such a journey was virtually unheard of. No crew. No support vehicles. Just two crazy Canadians in love on a Lambretta, discovering the world, discovering each other, and having the greatest adventure of their lives.
Their son, Gordon, recently found his dad’s manuscript and knew he wanted to share it with the world. He’s written a book and is planning to get it published through Kickstarter to crowd-fund it’s printing. He’s got a website with all the details, here and you can follow his progress on Facebook too. The Kickstarter page doesn’t appear to be up yet, but I’ll post a direct link to that too, when it is.
UPDATE:The Kickstarter page is now live, you can help make this book a reality HERE.
I’ve already added it to my Christmas reading list!
City transport
Following hot on the heels of that Apple Green SX outside Loftus Road, heres another lovely shot by davekpcv (Remember the Agarati Capri and the Routemaster bus?). Three guesses which team this lammie rider follows…
Didn’t know if this was Suitable…
Geddit… SUITable… oh ok, I’ll get my coat. Anyway, lets plough on… if you’ve got a posh “do” to go to, and your evening suit (or ‘Tux’ as the young folks call them, in the colonial style) is looking a little shabby, you might want to get hold of one of these fine Lambretta branded garments, from MyTuxedo.co.uk. There’s even a special package at £179.99 of Tuxedo, Shirt, Tie and Cufflinks, which is a bit of a bargain. I’ll stick to my kilt… but I’m very tempted by the Union Jack waistcoat, as, when I was a nipper, I was always a bit of a fan of the one sported by Tim Brooke-Taylor in the Goodies!
Here’s the Tuxedo link
It’s all about the composition…
Nicely set up shot by Adrian Hawkins of his lovely lammie “Lottie”, otherwise known as Crazy Banana. Taken at the Humber Bridge, (you can see a glimpse of it in the background) earlier this month. Via The Mod Generation site.
Peer Pressure
Spotted this article on the Huffington Post site, about a ‘pimped up’ TV175 parked up in reserved parking at the House of Lords. So who’s the coolest Peer of the Realm then? And are they a Lambrettista reader? Get in touch if you are M’Lord!
Stunning TV2 For Sale
There are lots of Lammies out there for sale, and a fair few TV’s, but not many like this stunner. A show-winning, magazine “cover girl” this scoot has the ‘top mod’ look down to a tee. Bedecked in just the right amount of bona fide original accessories, including the rare and lovely Carello half moons… If you know your Lambretta accessories you’ll know this is all top end, ultra rare stuff. A 190cc Harry Barlow Stage 5 tuned engine makes sure it goes as good as it looks… but if you like to keep things authentic, the original top end is included too.
A beautiful, fast scoot that will turn heads wherever you go. It’s not cheap… it’s got a classified price of £8.5k… but it wouldn’t be; would it! The full story and spec are on eBay here.
BTW, this is the 300th post on Lambrettista… so if it’s not your thing, have a scroll through the other 299… I’m sure there’s something you’ll like.
Luna Roadtest
No… I don’t speak Swedish (I’m thinking it’s Swedish, but I’m probably wrong), but I still found this little Luna roadtest rather watchable. Now, the Luna range doesn’t get much of a look in on this blog, which is a shame, because I really rather like them. They were a real back to basics scooter from Lambretta, back to the open frame principles of the original models A to D (I know there was a E and an F, but they pretty much petered out after the D). With this pared down, lightweight ethos and a space-age design from Bertone, where could they go wrong? Well, perhaps the Luna was just a bit too radical… ahead of it’s time, certainly a visual shock for aficionados of the clean curves of traditional Lambretta. But if you look at most modern small scooters, they’re a bit more Luna than GP. A superb design, a beautiful Bertone classic… born too soon?
lambrettista.net 