Category: Scooter News

Is the “Lambretta” name alive in Sri Lanka?

Following worldwide scooter news, I’ve occasionally seen stories from Sri Lanka, usually in business news or stock reports, mentioning “Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd.” or “Lambretta Motors.” From what I can tell, Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd. once manufactured Lambretta scooters in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), but was acquired in 2000 by a dairy company. It appears that company was renamed “Kotmale Holdings Ltd” in 2005, but I still see financial reports referring to “Lambretta Motors.” Surely there’s not an assembly line in Colombo secretly churning out SX200s, but I’d appreciate any information regarding Lambretta (Ceylon) Ltd and/or Lambretta Motors, if only because I’m curious about the name, whether they’re the same company or two separate companies, and what they’re doing these days.

Indian government demands justification for LML lockout

From the Hindustani Times, who always delete their stories from the server a few hours after posting them, for some reason, so I’ll just post the whole thing:

LABOUR MINISTER Waqar Ahmad Shah on Monday issued notice to the LML management seeking explanation why not lock-out at its Panki unit should be declared illegal. The minister also sought an explanation from the management why the plant was closed.

The notice, which was issued on Saturday, has solicited an explanation from the LML management within a week. “If the management fails to give any satisfactory reply by Friday then the lock-out will be declared illegal.”

Talking to Hindustan Times on telephone, the labour minister said, “The extreme step of sending notice has been taken after undue delay by the LML management in re-opening its unit.”

He added that earlier the LML management had informed about the efforts being made by it for the re-opening of the plant, therefore some grace period was given to the management.

But, even after passage of the adequate time, no convincing reply had come from the management about ending the lockout, added Shah.
“Notice has been issued to the LML management on Saturday last and if no convincing reply is given then action will be taken by the State Government as per law,” asserted Shah.

The minister also said that on Sunday last a delegation of the LML Employees’ Union had come to meet him. “I assured members of the delegation that all due care will be taken about the welfare of employees. I also assured then about the payment of their pending dues,” added Shah.

However, company director RK Srivastav said that the company had not received any notice from the minister. “If any notice is served to the company then its reply will be sent, added Srivastav.

He added that the LML management wanted to restart the unit and a meeting with vendors of the company had also taken place on October 22 last.

So what does that mean for LML and the Star/Stella/Belladonna? Who knows. Probably not much, but we’ll watch closely for more news on Sunday.

OMG WTF a scooter, golly!

I often wonder what kind of freak, in this day and age, writes to “Personality Parade” and then waits three months to maybe find out “what Catherine Oxenburg has been up to lately.” It’s even more bizarre when a newspaper columnist, presumably writing his story on a computer with internet access, rants on a subject without bothering to do any research at all, imploring his readers to “help him out,” rather than do ten seconds of clicking and typing. I guess that trick helped Bob Greene spew out five columns a week for one hundred years without ever once saying anything interesting.

Vectrix to debut in Milan, manufacture in Poland

It seems like ages (and it has) since we last heard about the Vectrix, the electric scooter with the power of a 400cc gas scooter. Now, Treehugger reports Vectrix’ first production model will be on display at the Milan show and available soon. Vectrix has built 50 units at their Massachussets plant (capacity 12,000 units/year) and is preparing their facility in Wroclaw, Poland (capacity 38,000 units/year) to start production before the end of the year. (Thanks to Mr. Maddox.)

Questionable Content’s VespAvenger

The VespAvenger

Aside from the glorious Achewood, to which you should surely be addicted, I’ve never become too engrossed in web comics. But Cy just hepped me to Questionable Content, in which the current plotline features robots, the VespAvenger, librarian jokes, Death Cab for Cutie references, and assorted cute indie rock lesbians. I think the hook is set.

Watch out Piaggio, here come the Americans

University of Minnesota researchers led by Rajesh Rajamani (a man who wrote the book on Vehicle Dynamics and Control— or at least a book) are working on a three-wheeler of their own. While giving a nod to unnamed “companies in Europe” the scientists claim to be special in that their research is unique for efforts based in the US. As Piaggio touts their age-old tilting wheel technology this group also uses this approach with computer-controlled regulation of wheel angle in turns. Dr. Rajamani also mentions “the perception of safety,” an aspect of the MP3 that its marketers are counting on to be a big draw. Dr. Rajamani refers to the perception of small vehicles being less safe but it is admirable that he at least mentions the concern.

As tilting at 3 wheels is now the official academic and industry focus, one wonders how the old non-tilting two-wheels-in-front trikes of the past were deficient. Micro car enthusiasts may defend the old designs and modern versions can claim they’ve been at the forefront of the market but they both lack in that 2-wheel feel.  Now this new effort seems to bridge the gap with a tilting recumbent.  Check out the video.  The clip is not as slick as the Piaggio marketing videos of their MP3, but the background suggests that the vehicles of the future are being tested a stones throw away from Scooterville in Minneapolis.