Lambretta Pato commercial

A TV commercial for the European-market “Lambretta” Pato (aka the Lance Milan, ZNen ZN151T-F, Flyscooter LaVie, etc.), not to be confused with the Lambretta International Uno and Due sold in the U.S., or an actual Lambretta. The only thing sadder than a Chinese Lambretta is putting end credits on a commercial on YouTube. (Via motoblog.it.)

Quad mod rods on display in UK

Gordon “Sting” “Ace Face” Sumner’s Vespa “GS” and Phil “Jimmy” “Parklife” Daniels’ Lambretta are the highlights of a Quadrophenia exhibition at Littledean Jail in near Gloucester, England. Quadrophenia director Franc Roddam is calling it: “This is the best collection of Quadrophenia memorabilia I have ever seen.” Book your flight now, and cue ten angry comments questioning the authenticity of the bikes and/or reminding us that there were six GSes made for the movie and none of them were GSes.

Lamponi Scooter Lamps (new site)

Those scooter-headset lamps that we posted about last year have been turning up on other scooter and gadget sites ever since. Designer Maurizio Lamponi Leopardi has a new well-designed site with more photos. The site is written in English and includes information about ordering the lamps, though they’re surely pretty expensive, and chances are, if you’re a 2SB reader, you a) can’t afford one, and b) have everything you need in your garage to build your own. Also keep in mind that scooter headsets make great wall sconces.

“La Lambretta Cinese”

Motoblog is calling this thing the “chinese Lambretta.” I can’t read italian, so I’m not sure if it was meant as a joke. Aside from there already being a (at-least-half-)chinese Lambretta, they can call it whatever they want, it’ll always be a Zhejiang Zhongneng Gas Scooter ZN151T-F to me. It’s not the most hideous-looking thing out there (once you strip off the corkboard paint job), and it might even look more like a Lambretta than the rebadged Adlys, but I’m not buying one.

News chunks 10/8/07

  • Like many economy-minded Americans, a rural-Illinois journalist buys a $2000 Honda Metropolitan to save (by my calculations) $50 a year on gas.
  • The Moped Army gets a story in their hometown paper, with a shout-out to the Jedi Knights SC.
  • As the entire Bajaj family continues to feud, merge, and demerge, Bajaj Auto is still closing their historic Akurdi plant. Or maybe not. But probably. Whatever happens, it will take eons to sort it out with the unions. Of course, motorcycle sales are down and scooter sales are up, even Suzuki Motors India, one of the smaller players, is hoping to sell 125,000 scooters this year (and a 500cc Hayabusa, which in India might as well be two million crore cubic lakh-o-meters). So as soon as the dust settles and the plant closes at the peak of the scooter boom, look for our long-predicted announcement of the retro “new” Chetak, and the reopening of Akurdi, just as the scooter market tanks again.
  • Did you know: They have scooters in Arkansas now. (For the uninitiated, Arkansas is a southern American unincorporated rural province where newspaper editors use “apostrophe-s” to pluralize word’s.) It is, however, always great to see a club doing charity work. In other Arkansas scooter news, 20 University of Arkansas football players are riding scooters, which seems to be a trend among college football players lately, though I can’t find any more info right now to back that up.
  • Speaking of charity, a bunch of pub regulars in Birmingham, England are raffling a Lambretta painted in Aston Villa colors to raise money for a local childrens’ home. Meanwhile, the childrens’ home is selling candy to raise money for football lessons for Gareth Barry. (That was a little soccer joke there.)
  • Scooters India, Ltd., the most recent manufacturers of the metal-bodied 4-speed 2-stroke Lambretta GP, is investing 186 million rupees ($US 8.79) to upgrade facilities. Don’t get excited, they’ve produced only three-wheelers since 1997.
  • This thing has been garnering schloads of press in the last week, even though it’s basically an enclosed mobility scooter that would fall over if it got hit by a tennis ball.
  • Scooter parking is getting harder in Taiwan, just like everywhere else.
  • Only the Cincinnati Enquirer would publish a photo of a scooter thief in retro prisonwear with a smashed up face, then offer to sell you the photo.

Disc bragging rights: Laverda 1, Lambretta 0

It has been claimed that the Lambretta motorscooter was a pioneering machine by having been the first production two-wheeled vehicle to have a disc brake. While I believe the Lambretta model C to be the distilled essence of what a scooter is all about, the typical Lambrettista has very high smugness-to-running-scooter ratio. It is possible that Lambretta’s reputation for pushing boundaries lends some fuel to this imbalanced view of the vintage small displacement world. So to help bring balance to the world, we present evidence to refute this oft-repeated claim to a technological first. Continue reading “Disc bragging rights: Laverda 1, Lambretta 0”

The new new new new new new “Lambretta”

These are due out the same day as the CMSI “L”series “Lambretta” and the Khurana/SIP metal-bodied 4-speed Lambretta GP. And they will all have an anti-gravity device that will allow you to fly them to your unicorn farm at 300 miles an hour, in time for your date with Scarlett Johanssen. The domain is registered to someone in the Netherlands. Someone with a vivid imagination and a pirated copy of Lightwave 3D. Go ahead, anyone, prove me wrong.

ScootRSS

Say what you will about ScootRS (please don’t, actually, I’ve heard it all), Randall’s always been kind to me (though, to be honest, I wouldn’t buy a scooter from anyone without seeing it in person first). They’ve recently expanded their facility in Ho Chi Minh City (a funny story in that post, though “Where do some people get their hatred of Asia from?” is an easy question to answer). But the real point of this post is that ScootRS now has an “item of the day” RSS feed and whether you’re down with the eastern hemisphere or not, it’s a neat way to familiarize yourself with random vintage scooter parts, I look forward to playing “Identify that Part” every morning.

Vintage Lambretta Service films

innovideo.jpg

Amazing vintage scooter videos continue to surface on YouTube. This time, scootr99 deserves the credit for unleashing two English-dubbed films released by Innocenti in the sixties. The first is a complete Lambretta Li150 Series III stripdown (parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). The second is even more interesting, a guide to opening and setting up an offical Lambretta sales and service facility (parts 1, 2, and 3). Most scooter dealers could learn a thing or two from both videos. (Thanks for the links, ajuda.scooterpt.com)

Ryan rides the Adly Lambretta

Ryan The Rhino, (who I don’t know, but he shares my birthday, likes TSOL, and knows Orin, so he’s probably OK, ha) got a chance to test ride the new Adly Lambretta (I still can’t bring myself to call it a “Lambretta” without qualification). Here are his comments from the original post (punctuation edited):

OK, I finally got to test ride [the Lambretta Due 150] last week after some scheduling (and laziness on my part) and I have to say that I really liked it.

The seat height is a lot taller than any of my scooters, and that took a little bit to get used to, but since it is taller you can lean a lot farther into turns without dragging the kick stand (which i do a lot on my scooters) and i did not get too crazy because it only had 21 miles on it when i started. (got it to 50 on a side street behind the new Lambretta office)… I did notice a lot more power than I expected (its a GY6 with a 4 valve head)

I don’t have any complaints (well, the kilometers are the primary numbers on the speedo but that is not that big of a deal…). The paint looks fantastic (I rode a red one) and I like the fact they did not go overboard with stripes or lettering, just one simple “Lambretta� on it they did spend a few extra bucks for some upgrades (michelin tires, improved battery, upgrated wheels, better-quality paint, etc). The underseat storage would not quite fit my helmet but I have a big melon and wore my huge helmet (it does not fit any scooter i have been on).

I did not test drive the 50 because, well, its a 50 (just a personal thing)… but the one with the funny front end looks pretty cool i have to say

As for the price, that was the deciding factor for me, $2699 for the 150 (and I think about two grand for the 50). So the price is great, the scooter rides great, it looks great… So i have no complaints.

Now Ryan may be on Khurana payroll, or he may be insane, but the scariest part is that he may be right. What if it’s a reasonably-decent-quality Taiwanese scooter upgraded and rebadged for the US market a la Genuine’s PGO models? What if it’s very competitively priced vs. comparable but less-distinctive scooters? I have to admit I’m amazed they haven’t doubled the price to accomodate the Lambretta name. This still says nothing about the Khuranas’ (and Adly’s) dealer support (that’s definitely a wait-and-see, though they seem to do well in other markets) and it still, to a small but vocal army of Lambretta loyalists, is really going to hurt to see the Lambretta name on Adly scooters. But maybe that doesn’t matter to the people who are selling and buying them. I’m at a loss for words, maybe seeing one in person at Amerivespa (and hopefully meeting Ryan and Orin) will enlighten me.