Thanks for the tip, Cy.

Thanks for the tip, Matt, and best of luck to Ian and the new shop!

• There’s the Piaggio-engined, British-built Scomadi that was formerly backed by the Khurana family and CMSI (and which was known previously as the “Series IV,” the “L-series” and a few other long-forgotten names)
• There’s the Lambretta Uno and Due, rebadged Adly scooters sold in the U.S. by the Khuranas after they left the Scomadi project. The Khuranas licensed the name from SIL, and hope to eventually convince SIL to fire up the Indian Lambretta GP production line again, but I’ll believe that when I see it.
• There’s whatever those things are at the top of the “Official website of Lambretta International” (the “Cigno?” “Cygnus?”)
• There’s the European-market Lambretta Pato, which is a rebadged Chinese bike sold under at least 50 brand names around the world…
• …and the new version from the same company, called the Pato 125n, which was unveiled at EICMA 2009 and looks like a Fiberglas carnival ride body stuck on top of a chinese motor.
• And please don’t forget the electric “GP200″ allegedly under development for the U.S. by Chinese electric car importer Wheego.

There was also a bicycle in the works, and I believe a go-ped style electric Lambretta pushscooter or two, but I still feel like I’m forgetting some. Some are intriguing, some are embarrassing, but they all share one desire: to capitalize on the reputation of an iconic Italian scooter marque that hasn’t been made for 30 years.

Believe it or not, Lambretta brand-name licensing is finally starting to make sense to me, but that still seems like way too many things competing for the title of “New Lambretta.”

UPDATE: I take it all back, with the news of “Lambrettas” racing in MotoGP 125 this season, nothing makes sense anymore.

PS: Scomadi, you need a title tag in the header on your website. Right now, your site is listed in search engines as a blank space!

* Italjet, not Haiti, I’m not Pat Robertson, geez.
** Italian for “League of 250 Scum, on Tour”.

(Isle of Man) regulations stated that “works” teams weren’t allowed, so the guys formed their own team christened “Team S Equipe.” Unknown at the time was the fact that “Equipe” in French means “Team…”

A must-read account of the Arthur Francis S-Type Lambrettas and the men who raced them, with loads of truly awesome photos and memorabilia.

(Thanks for the link, Matt, and thanks to David Hardy at TeamSEquipe.com for the use of this fantastic photo of Neville Frost )

NOTE: I’m bouncing this back to the top of 2strokebuzz, because David was kind enough to let us add a photo from his collection. Anyone who enjoys vintage scooters must spend an hour poking around this site. It’s rare to find such great site design, solid writing, and fantastic (large!) photos all preserving the history of one specific subject.

What’s with all the Lambretta news this week?

The link redirects to Wheego.net, which features absolutely no info on the scooter. Wheego is an electric car company that like most electric car companies seems to have already hyped their vehicles profusely, then missed a few self-imposed deadlines. Wheego is apparently backed by EarthLink founder (and ex-Mobil-exec) Mike McQuary, whom I will never forgive for the hour-plus I spent on the phone cancelling my EarthLink account, but my distrust of this endeavor goes beyond that experience.

The ad brashly states “Brilliance or Sacrilege? We welcome input from the scooter community.” Well, here it is (and I’m sure you’ll find more in the comments):

• Don’t overpromise and underdeliver, which was the point of my rant yesterday. If you show a picture of a vintage Lambretta GP with a Photoshopped Wheego logo on the horncast, the final product better look just like that, or better. Don’t shit on Nuccio Bertone’s grave.
• If you’re working with Scooters India Limited, that’s great, say so. They’re not Innocenti, but scooterists would love to see them back to full-scale retro Lambretta biz. If not, you better be sure you’re going to be able to score both the name and the bodywork before using a phrase like “Coming Soon.” If you haven’t already staggered through the maddening world of international Lambretta name rights and don’t already have the body-panel presses, nothing is “Coming Soon.”
• Back to the name “Lambretta:” are you even aware there’s already a company selling rebadged Adlys under that name here? And that the licensing deals worldwide are so complicated that some supposed licenseholders later learned they bought rights from people that didn’t hold them? And that there have been several failed attempts by other scooter manufacturers to acquire the name? Again, if you’re not working with SIL, we’ve got very little faith of this ever happening, and if you are, it’s only marginally more promising.
• 200GP? 200 what? Volts? unless the electric motor is powering a 200cc cylinder, why would you call it a 200?
• Do you have any idea how much a metal Lambretta GP frame weighs? Lambretta’s tube frame with mounted bodywork make it a good platform for modern engines, but the weight of the bodywork plus the batteries seems problematic for a proportionally-sized electric motor. And if you’re using plastic panels, don’t show a vintage Lambretta in the photo.
• That clutch lever and shifting mechanism on the left grip are going to need to be redesigned.
• As far as your “Whip” electric car, for all the glowing hype you’ve built in the U.S. auto press, it sure looks like a Shuanghuan Automobile e-Noble, a rebadged Chinese electric Smart FourTwo knockoff, and I’m guessing both Smart’s US legal department and China’s ineptitude are slowing you down. If this scooter is also something a Chinese manufacturer pitched to you, just walk away now.

Look, It’s not sacrilege you need to worry about, it’s reality. If you can produce a thoroughly-vintage-looking DOT/EPA legal Lambretta with metal bodywork and an electric engine that can actually propel it over 45mph, people are going to be thrilled, even if it costs ten grand. But forgive us for being cynical- you’re showing us a stock photo of a vintage bike and promising a product “soon!” and it’s very likely just a figment of your imagination. Unlike many scooter ventures, it sounds like you’ve got some real money behind the idea, and that’s great, but do some more homework, pretend this ad never happened, and when it gets closer to reality, get back to us.

(Thanks to Matt for the heads-up and the photo of the ad)

Artist: Rancid
Song: “Salvation”
Album: Let’s Go (1994)
Scooter(s): Several vintage Vespas and Lambrettas
Scooter content: about 15 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 1:22, 2:08

After a few weeks of VVV, we start to see a pattern develop: when you need some subbacultcha cred, just call the local club and have ‘em show up for the video shoot. In this case (my favorite Rancid song, if you care), the boys are on the run from the suits, and they get chased through an alley full of scooters, which later join in the chase. Good footage, the scooters dont’ seem too extraneous, and it’s a good song. I bet this video sent a lot of punker kids to the classifieds looking for scooters.

VVV listmaster David Smith says there’s a scooter in the video for Rancid’s biggest hit, Time Bomb, but I’m not seeing it. Maybe at 1:16? (Sorry, can’t embed that video. Amazingly, the YouTube videos linked from Rancid’s site were removed by their label, and some of the ones that remain have embedding blocked)

Artist: Rancid
Song: “Red Hot Moon”
Album: Indestructible (2003)
Scooter(s): 4 vintage Vespas
Scooter content: 3 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 0:00

Rancid hasn’t gone away, they pop up with a new album every few years (the latest came out a couple months ago). This video is for a lesser known track from 2003, but it’s a good one. It appears to be shot in and around the historic New York City club CBGB (which sadly closed last year), and the opening shots feature a group of mods and rockers parked in front of the club. From there, the video goes all over the place, with some live footage, and a couple different storylines, and we don’t see the scooters again, but if David’s right (I’m sure the comments will be full of people telling me how blind I am), that makes three videos with scooters from one well-known and famously uncompromising band, two of them fairly big hits. That’s going to be hard to top.

Eric runs Modern Buddy, and even if you hate Twitter, follow his “Scooterism” on RSS, it’s always great stuff.

Speaking of comics, Eric (OTHER Eric) at Chicago Scooter Club recently posted a roundup of scooter comics, including Chynna Clugston-Major’s “Blue Monday” and “Scooter Girl” series and a new “Mods and Rockers” comic. And don’t forget Ed Brubaker’s Deadenders and The Originals by Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame.

Artist: JDiggz
Song: “Make It Hot”
Album: Memoirs of a Playbwoy (2007)
Scooter(s): Series 1 Lambretta, Vespa P-series
Scooter content: about 30 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 1:11, 1:42, 4:08

Canadian rapper JDiggz’ tune doesn’t do much for me, but it’s at least innocuous. The fact that the video is so totally incongruous to the song kinda makes it better, and the fact that they steered clear of the obvious gang-war motif buys them some points, too. It’s very nicely shot, and fun. JDiggz looks totally slick, and his posse of mods and hot-pantsed bootie chicks is somehow funny and believable.

The La Dolce Vita-esque intro is funny, but doesn’t really fit with the Quadrophenia thing. Though it appears to be a TV175, the Series-1 Lambretta predates the mods-and-rockers era, and the P-series Vespa is even more out of place. Of course JDiggz fans could care less about that. It’s obviously shot in Toronto on a leftover Jackie Chan movie set, which doesn’t really evoke London or Brighton, but JDiggz looks just about as wobbly and uncomfortable on a scooter as Phil Daniels.

Remember that time we had an idea for a regular feature and only kept it up for three weeks? Check back next week and see if we can break our record!