Put on a Trojan

Jen points out that Heritage Helmets now offers Trojan Records helmets to go along with their Consortium-approved Lambretta helmets. They even offer one with both Trojan and Lambretta logos, which is kind of surreal. Beautiful stuff, but, once again, they totally forgot the part that covers your chin and face. If you can afford an extra helmet for parades and photo shoots, pony up!

“The Lambretta is back…”

…so says lambrettaweb.com (via scooter-infos.) Sorry to get your hopes up, ha. I’ve stopped guessing (and caring) which of the dozen fighting parties is behind which models or which hype, or if any of it will ever see the light of day, but maybe you’re still holding out hope that something good will come of all this.

New Series I-esqe Lambretta Design

Scootermercato shared an Italian language article about a new Lambretta design. I like the color and the headlight has been moved to the front of the leg-shield. The angle of the headset and light position likely taunt those passionate Lambrettisti who adore the the first series of LI model scooters that followed the LD with enclosed bodywork. The photo looks great because the scale would be perfect if those would be 10″ wheels. But they are 12″ and if placed alongside other models it’s lack of proper proportion would be more apparent.

If you are interested in the Lambretta Saga, check out the Lambretta.com site. It is now mostly a posting of legal actions the supposed true copyright holders are taking against everyone involved in anything tangentially related. Tartarini the younger designed this new bike. They should have just done these bikes under a name of a different Lombardy river or maybe just the Italjet founder surname.

Not So Innocenti…

Our first Britney Spears-inspired headline heralds the (maybe? sorta?) return of famed Lambretta maker Innocenti in a story that hasn’t garnered any media coverage, but once we blow it out of proportion here, it may send a few Austrian IP attorneys into a tizzy.
Jeb (of FIDO fame) spotted an interesting badge on the electric car shown at 4:28 in this video collage of electric vehicle photos from EICMA:
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Vintage Lambrettisti Can Love This New Lambretta Video

From the Lambretta Motorcycles Facebook page, here is a video that even the exclusive vintage Lambretta lover could enjoy. Maybe a common enemy can be the tie that binds? Doubtful.

The Last Grand Prix Motorcycle Race & The Ghosts of Lambretta

The British rider Danny Webb has put the Mahindra Motors Racing 125cc Grand Prix motorcycle on Pole Position for the final round of the 2011 Championship at Valencia, Spain. This is significant on several levels.

Mahindra Motors acquired the Italian firm Engines Engineering prior to the 2011 season in an effort to go racing. Engines Engineering had be entering machines in Grand Prix racing before, but it was under the Lambretta name in 2010 with Marco Ravailoli and a raft of temporary guest riders. While the young Italian and his teammates made valiant efforts under the Lambretta Reparto Corse banner, the switch to Mahindra racing colors and new riders, Danny Webb and Marcel Schrotter, has resulted in a better points placement this season. German and British hands seem to be able to get old Lambrettas going a bit quicker.

The Lambretta to Mahindra conversion also mirrors an Indian continuation of the Lambretta efforts. Interestingly, Scooters India Limited (SIL), the company that took over producing Lambretta models in the subcontinent, is up for sale. Piaggio, Atul Auto and Mahindra have all thought about acquiring the state-run factory, but have reconsidered in recent months. If they had bought the currently money losing company it would have made for a very tidy story!

The saddest and most important part of this event is that it is the last time two-stroke machines will compete at the top level of World-Class racing. It’s not that four-stroke 125s haven’t raced before and been magnificent. But for the last 40 years two stroke machines have dominated at least one class of Grand Prix racing and now it comes to an end. Not by lack of competitiveness, but by simple rule change. Manufacturer goals have changed and that sweet 2 Stroke Buzz plays no role in these aims. The new class will be single-cylinder four-stroke engines and Mahindra and others including Honda and KTM will field machines. But it certainly won’t be the same. Not the same noise, the same smell, the same simple beauty of the two-stroke steeds.

If you’d like to see the event, you can watch live from MotoGP.com for a price. The race starts at 4:00 AM CST on Sunday (tomorrow) morning. Less than an hour later will be a distinct end of an era.

Lingotto Special Follow-Up

Just what Brooke was hoping for: Motoblog’s report (and great photos) from the Lingotto Special event from Motoblog. I didn’t realize how unique the Lingotto test track is, that must have been an incredible experience!

Red Bull Lingotto Special

If you happen to be in Turin Sunday, you won’t want to miss the Red Bull Lingotto Special, a vintage Vespa/Lambretta race at Fiat’s Lingotto test track. I especially dig the creepy neofuturist poster.

Oh, for Fuck’s Sake

Holy Hell, will this never end?

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Lambretta LN Video

PR agency Life Longari & Loman’s nicely done glamour reel of the new Lambretta LN, with narration in Italian (and confirmation that Alessandro Tartarini designed it).
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Lambretta LN 125 “Il Arrive”

Scooter Infos (Pictures) and Scooter Station report the new Lambretta LN 125 was unveiled in Paris this morning, and will be on sale in France in August. They confirm it’s built by SYM (with a SYM Fiddle engine and some Italian parts) which is good news, quality-wise, but probably bad news, U.S.-distribution-wise. The European distributor is Mooof in Belgium.

The design is as good as could be hoped for, it’s pretty swoonworthy, to be honest. Let’s hope the quality and service are there to back up the looks, especially for a 125cc bike priced at US$5345. (Note: that’s the EU price converted to dollars, there always seems to be a substantial markup for the U.S. market.)

Larry Crowne Electric Scooter, Photo.

As you may have noticed around scooter blogs, it’s Larry Crowne mania. You may recall the 2SB post about the Lambretta outfitted by Route 66 Scooters with an electronic conversion kit from Soundspeed Scooters. The person behind that kit is also behind the Fido electric scooter concept also reported on earlier. Now we have photographic evidence of the machine in action. The photo shows the clearly un-two stroke drive train. For some continuity, they even throw in a kick start lever! While I haven’t seen the film yet, I’ll likely check it out while it’s in first run. In the mean time, can anyone chime in with a description of how this scooter plays a role in the film? Is it really passed off as a stink wheel with a sound effect? Or is it embraced for the Lithium Ion powered machine that it is?

(photo from Zimbio)

Major Lambretta Parts Distro Merger

Besides the hot topic in the Facebook world asking Lambretta owners where they buy their goods, there was an announcement today of a merger between two of the major Lambretta outlets in America. Jet200.com and Casa Lambretta USA have merged and will soon be operating under the Jet200 name. The same services of both companies will continue as before. So don’t fret, DCD. The shop will still be serving you at it’s Mile High location, though it will now be a purely Innocenti snob shop, excluding Vespa work for the benefit of focusing on, to put it politely, those who need the most help. (My words, not theirs!) Hopefully this will benefit all involved and make owning a beautiful scooter all the more tolerable.

Lambretta Helmets

It’s Lambretta day here at 2strokebuzz… Heritage Helmets in the UK are offering a handsome new range of vintage-inspired three-quarter Lambretta helmets in the anglo-italo-mod vein. The St. George Cross version (pictured left) is our fave. The lineup also features goggles and several more modern designs with a shorter profile (shall we call them “three-fifths helmets?”). The casques are manufactured in Italy by Project. We recommend and wear full-face helmets here at 2sb, and rarely even mention anything else, but these might be irresistible to a certain subset of our readers. I of course nagged the nice PR lady about the scooters themselves, she tells us there will be an unveiling next month, which matches the timeline in our earlier story.

Lambretta Jamboree 2011

While we’re on the subject, Lambretta Club USA’s Lambretta Jamboree 2011 is in Portland, OR, July 8-10. Preregistration is open through June 5th.

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