Two up Lamby

Not enough scooters feature on this blog in my mind, perhaps too many in the eyes of others... To rectify here's a nice snap of a happy couple on their Lambretta. A model LD 150 if I'm not mistaken. In the background a typical family car of the forties and fifties, a Vauxhall 10 perhaps? Lovely old coach house too!

A jolly matching couple on a
Lambretta LD 150.

Salisbury Motorcycle and Light Car Club Centenary Show

Last Sunday was the SMCLCC's - http://www.salisburymotorcycleandlightcarclub.co.uk/ centenary show. Just a bit more than a centenary actually as the show had to be cancelled last year due to the pandemic. 

A nice casual, ride in ride out, donations only kind of affair and a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. Below a few pics of some of the machines that caught my eye...

Always a pleasure to see a Moto Morini 3 1/2. Really
must try one of these out some day... 

Something special right here. A Motodd Laverda
Jota endurance racer. A proper beast of a bike.

Motodd Laverda from a different angle. Very purposeful.

Looks like a well used BSA A10.

My own personal bike of the show. A recently finished
project. Apparently it took three years to complete. A
Yamaha RD350 motor squeezed into a Lambretta. Such a
neat job that you would barely notice from looking at it
apart from the twin pipes and the racket when it started
up. A really fine piece of engineering and undoubtedly a
hoot to ride.

RD350 Lambretta again...

 

Another Moto Morini. This time a Kanguro
looking like it is still used as designed for.

Something wholly different and wholly not my cup
of tea, but hey variety is the spice of life and you've
got to appreciate the work put in.

The best looking and finest of BSA
Bantams, a 1970 Bushman model.

Wonderful flat twin ABC.

Ex WD Indian 741 power plant.

Sweet line up of AMC Sunbeam, BSA
Empire Star and Indian 741.

Another nice Lambretta. A bit more
standard than the RD350 job, just lightly
modified to period scooter rally spec.

A very rare bird, Rhind-Tutt Wasp grass tracker fitted
with Wasp's very own 1000cc parallel twin motor.
Wasp are a local concern, still going strong and
manufactured just outside of Salisbury.

The Wasp powerplant. From the early
nineties and an answer to the growing
domination of Japanese fours in sidecar
grass track.

RAC Lambretta LI 150 with sidecar

Up on ebay at the moment is this very cute ex RAC LI150 series 1 combination. At time of writing there are eight days left on it and it is at £2050. It's had a makeover with a bored out 225cc TV175 motor. Seems like you can't restore a Lambretta without tuning it up. Mind, left with the standard 150cc lump in place it would be nigh on unusable on todays roads. At least when it is pushing out 16 or so bhp you could ride it around and about.

I presume these were originally supplied to the RAC as urban repair rigs. I had thought it would have been a sole survivor but digging around I found that Bonhams sold an LD150 RAC combo back in 2004 at Goodwood for £3910. The Bonhams one was restored in full RAC livery, I guess that added to its value somewhat. Picture of the Bonhams combo below and a nice posed period snap of RAC patrol girls. 

Lambretta LI150 RAC sidecar combination offered on ebay.

A Lambretta LD150 RAC sidecar rig sold by Bonhams in 2004.

RAC Patrol girls with Lambretta combos late fifties.

Postscript: it was bid all the way up to £8,000 but then was withdrawn with a day to go...

Lambretta Luga, Vega & Cometa brochure 1968

Here's the two page flyer for the futuristic Lambretta Luna, Vega and Cometa range. In my mind brilliant looking machines and hugely overlooked (having said that I haven't ridden one, just going on looks alone!)

Despite the bikinis and space age looks they were a flop for Lambretta. The design has stood the test of time though and they wouldn't look so out of place in a showroom today. Produced only from 1968 to 1970 they came out at a time of dropping two wheeler sales (though Honda et al were on the rise at that time so the market isn't the only excuse for the poor sales) and are scarecely remembered today.

Good information about them on the ilambretta pages.

Lambretta Luna, Vega & Cometa brochure page 1.

Lambretta Luna, Vega & Cometa brochure page 2.

Lambretta SX 200 brochure

Billed rather immodestly by Lambretta themselves as 'the world's finest scooter' the SX 200 was produced from 1966 to 1969. This is the British market brochure.

Lambretta SX 200 brochure page 1.

Lambretta SX 200 brochure page 2.

Lambretta SX 200 brochure page 3.

Lambretta SX 200 brochure page 4.