March 2010 Archives

Here we have a really great (or really horrible, depending on how you look at it) example of the sort of "restored" Lambretta one sees coming from Vietnam.  It has all of the really bad problems that you often see, but not so often see all in the same scooter. 

The most obvious things are the seat, the chrome do-dads, and the rear tire rack.  Not that you don't ever see chrome on an Italian scooter, but you virtually always see over the top chrome on a Nam bike.  Then there is the legshield glovebox, which was not stock on Italian Lambrettas, but always present on the Vietnam bikes.  Then you have the cowls.  All I can say is wow.  Someone really spent some time hand forming these things.  They are the TV style, but the middle flash is way too far towards the back... definitely wrong.  Then there is the GP style louvers in the middle of the cowl - I have no idea what they were going for with that, other than finding a way to add more chrome.  My guess is that they started with GP cowls, and modified them to look more like TV cowls, but who knows...  You also have the legshields, which look like they are from a shorter GP model, yet they fit, hmmmm.  Coupled with that, we have what appears to be a "chrome ring" frame, which would be a lot longer at the fork than the GP.  How do the legshields fit?  Did the saw the frame and re-weld it to make it shorter?  Did they somehow attach the chrome ring to a GP frame?  You could find the answer to these questions out if the frame cracks in half while you are riding down the road!  That is, if the scooter actually ran, which it doesn't.  I would not take this scooter if someone paid me money to haul it away.  

I'm not sure that there was ever a time when anyone got overly excited about socks... however, if it did happen, you can bet it was during the 50's.  Let's face it, even I could probably get excited about some "clean white socks" if I had a pipe in my mouth, a brand new Lambretta, and a cute lady in formal wear and bouffant hair on the back!

This hearkens from a time when Innocenti actually had some competent people running their US operations.  In the late 50's, Lambrettas sold well in the US, and they had creative Americans running their operations.  One of the things they did was get Lambrettas into the hands of lots of Madison Avenue advertising firms for use in photo shoots.  At some point around 1960, they sacked the Americans, and sent over a bunch of Italians for a plum assignment to live in New York.  The Italians promptly ran the US distributor into the ground, and Piaggio ate them for lunch.  Sad.

I've been working on scooters for a lot of years, but I recently attempted my first speedometer repair last weekend.  It wasn't that I felt I couldn't do it before, but I just never had occasion to.  Normally, I just don't care if the speedometer was working or not.  Since this was a friend's scooter, I figured I'd try to delve into the speedo to get it working correctly.  No time like the present!

So this particular speedometer exhibited some of the typical speedo problems that you see on old scooters.  It was sort of working, but was making a loud screeching noise, and sometimes the needle would bounce around wildly.  That is the death spiral for a speedometer.  Normally after doing that for awhile, the needle stops working entirely.  I decided to try to fix this one before it imploded...

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I've been out of town, and out of interwebz access for about a week. I'm back now, and postings will resume this week. For the time being, I'll leave you with this wonder of a scooter.

Yes indeed, the unfortunately named Dayton "Albatross". I have no idea what genius decided to name a scooter after an ungangly bird, but it somehow got through. Still when you look at the horrible styling, I guess the name starts to make more sense. As you may have guessed, this scooter did not sell well. Let's face it, if you had to choose between this monstrosity, and an elegant Italian model... the choice makes itself.

While putting around the interwebz looking for something else, I came across this photo of a US military airman on the Air Force base in Okinawa Japan circa 1956.  A lot of scooters moved around the world with US servicemen.  It seems that scooters were a convenient way to get around the base, and were also easily portable with personal effects.  Many an odd-ball scooter made it back to the US this way.  Check out the site to get a glimpse of what like was life was like in the military in the golden years just before Vietnam.

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"Alan Otter, a patrolman with the Royal Automobile Club, on patrol in London with the scooter sidecar combination he has been given for coping with congested streets."

This sidehack was created by the RAC (equivalent to the AAA in the US) to assist troubled motorists.  I can't imagine that it was much easier to get around on than a small car like a Mini.  It sure can't have been fun riding around on it all day, every day, in the London winter...

From: Corbis

I have to say, SIP in Germany are totally maniacal about pushing the edge with creating amazing products for our wacky Italian put puts.  This has got to be the best thing they've made so far, or at least the most broadly useful.

(I would put a picture of the speedo in here, but SIP don't want anyone to use their pictures)

As those of us who have 70's Vespas (and any year Italian scooter) know, the Italian speedometers leave a lot to be desired.  They mostly don't work.  And when they do work, the needle position is more to be used as a general guide to your approximate speed.  Coupled with the noise from the motor, my speedo's needle usually indicates "going slow", "going a bit faster", and "that's about all she's got"... rather than telling me the exact MPH at any given moment. 

Well,friends, that era is pretty much over.  This thing has got a digital speedometer, trip meter, driving time, average speed... and what is really really cool... an integrated cylinder head temp gauge AND a tachometer.  Oh Nelly!  The complete package! 

The only down side I see is that it needs 12v power to operate.  So you need to have a P motor in your jalopy , or figure out some other power source. 

This is so cool.  I need to figure out what I can mount this puppy on...

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This picture is all kinds of awesome.  It is certainly from the 60's, just look at her outfit, and the scooter itself looks brand new.  The fact that the flyscreen has her name on it tells you it is her scooter, and not one she just posed on.  Wow, she must have really gotten the scooter guys ga-ga in '66!  Well played Jane, well played...

Found on Flickr.

This is a fun poster which was forwarded to one of the scooter forums I visit.  I have no idea where it came from, or who made it.  However, it sure is fun!

Now if you are in San Francisco, and want to get some coffee, you should go to one of the "Lambretta Cafes". Some well known local scooterists have set up several coffee shops/stands throughout the city, and all have a Lambretta theme. If that were not enough to entice you, I can tell you from personal experience that the coffee is excellent. Get a cup, and support some good people!

Vintage scooter prices have had their ups and downs in the last ten years, but one segment of the scooter market that has gone up, and stayed up, has been the 200cc Lambrettas.  I could postulate several reasons why (they are fairly rare, the English are ga-ga for them, etc.), but I will simply observe that prices for these scooters are far out of line with that for similar Vespas, or even other Lambrettas. 

The case we have before us here is a TV200, which is for sale right now on Ebay out of Santa Cruz, California.  This scooter is still in its original paint, but clearly is well used and somewhat beat up.  On the other hand, the TV200 is really the gold standard of Lambrettas, and is likely the most desirable model.  They are fast and pretty, and their rather short production run means that there is a fairly limited supply. 

This scooter was previously for sale on Ebay, but somehow didn't sell.  I'm thinking the seller was just trying to gauge interest, either that, or the buyer bailed.  In any case, it is back on now, and has an opening bid of $8500, and a buy it now of $9200.  No doubt that the TV200 in general is worth a lot, and I've seen them change hands for $10,000 before.  However, this one is just in really poor shape cosmetically.  If the owner wants to get that kind of money, he should just take the 3 months and restore the thing.  Otherwise, he needs to get real, and drop the price.  Given the market that I have seen, I think this is probably a $5,000 scooter in this condition (original, complete, tatty, but running well).  What he's aiming for is probably what it is worth when totally restored to a high standard.  I guess we'll get to see if someone bites at this price, but my guess is there will be no takers.

Boy, this sure makes me regret selling my TV200 in similar condition for $2500 ten years ago!