Went to uni in 63 with a Lambretta courtesy of a generous uncle. Boy, was I king of the road! Met my wife because of this wonderful machine. Drove it to Italy and I swear it started purring as we neared its homeland. Never broke down in four years.
My first scooter as a 17 year old in the UK in 1970 was a Lambretta J125 Starstream which I had for 2 years prior to car ownership. I knew nothing about mechanics and had no one to turn to as my dad had died a month before I got it. I put on 8000 miles open that scooter in 2 years and I can honestly say it never let me down once. I consider myself to have been very fortunate. Moving on I returned to scootering with brand new scooters being a 2008 Vespa GTV 125 and a 2012 Vespa GTS Supersport 125. Many thanks for your channel which I have on subscription.
Very interesting piece. I bought my first ever scooter at 16 years old in 1971- a TV175 series 2. it was always breaking down so i bought a 1967 SX150 in 1972 which proved to be a lot more reliable but i wanted a GP200 which i bought but it let me down a couple times . It was shortly after this in 1980 that i became aware of the Vespa P Range. i managed to buy a P200E that had 1,913 miles on the clock and i put nearly 40,000 miles on it and it never let me down once. I would never buy anything else now and i managed to aquire a 1981 P200E last year that has been totally rebuilt and resprayed and i love it. Can't wait to put some miles on it this summer and do a few rallies.
I have a couple of P series Vespas and a Genuine Stella. I would like to get into the older '60s Vespas, but don't really know what to look for to find a decent one. There are so many scammers out there selling '60s Vespas. The P series is about as reliable as a vintage Vespa gets, but they don't have the beautiful look of the '60s models.
Only Lambretta for me and they can be very reliable even when tuned. I rode 2,000 miles over a long weekend to Euro Lambretta and I can't imagine doing that on anything else. The tuning possibilities available and the ride it gives cannot be beat. The scooters that I've seen breaking down on rideouts here in Califorina have nearly all been Vespas, lol. Most of the rides I have attended here in California are majority Lambretta. That's probably more due to Sticky's workshop manuals which have enabled most Lambretta owners to do their own maintenance and rebuilds and restorations, but that may change now that he's just published his new manual on Vespa wideframes.
Very interesting. So different to a modern scooter. Where I live I see people on Lambretta all the time. Even in all the cold and salted roads. It's nice to see.
Back in the 70's these were very popular in the UK and I actually owned several lambretta scooters including the SX 200 but me being a teenager preferred the lambretta over the vespa but only because to me they looked better and were very reliable. Great video to bring back some memories.
We have 1000's here in UK. I've got a Vespa PX , Lambretta GP and Li150. Lambretta look better and if looked after are reliable. I love both Vespa and Lambretta, but in the UK Lambretta are seen as the quintessential Italian scooter. Great channel Regards from England.
Not soo common in the u.s then? Across the pond here in england they're all over the place! Infact i have 3 in the shop at the moment in for repair. 😁 Great work as always robot.👍
15+ years ago in the Northeast US they was about 1:10 Lammy Vs Vintage vespa out there on the second hand market. I know as I bought fixed and sold over 130 of them. I havent seen a Lammy locally for sale in over 5 years. And I scrub my local classifieds weekly.
In Argentina we had Lambretta, the Argentinian made Siambretta which was a copy. The Vespa and even a three wheeled motocart, which was something for deliveries or work, which was half a scooter and a box for loading, the engine running the rear wheels thru a diff.
In the heyday of Scooters, that is in the 60s, Vespas rather than Lambrettas were much more abundant and popular everywhere in Europe except in the UK. Reason being Vespas were manufactured under license by the British motorcycle firm Douglas, who only produced a model based on the Vespa GS (with headlight fixed on the leg-shield!). Lambrettas on the other hand were imported direct from Italy, which afforded a much greater variety of models to chose from, which made them more popular.
I had the exact same problem happen to my brothers Li150 back in 83 or so, shortly after picking it up for him. We were looking at it and wondering what to do next when some guy on a vespa pulled up and said he knew someone working on these, and handed my brother the guy's number. This was how we met Walter and got to know the batcave in san francisco, I worked on many scooters there while restoring my own motorcycles, and eventually moved to the city and started my own underground motorcycle repair shop. So weird to see the insides of a 'Bretta again.
@@VespaMotorsport One reason I started looking at scooter videos is I'm picking up a virtually new Stella 4T with 14 miles on it, it's been upstairs in the shop I work at since new. I'm looking foreword to getting started on it, if I can ever find time to get it down from the attic!
An unexpected film Robot and I really enjoyed it. A real blast from the past. Back in the early 1970's I had an SX150 and then a GP200. Both where reliable and great fun as well as a fashion accessory in those days. I never heard of anyone having reliability problems in those days except maybe not replacing the plug soon enough and engine flooding. Now the original Lambretta's are around sixty years old and unless you replace the whole motor with a new one from someone like Cassa you are always going to have running problems. I think the fact that so many are still running in Britain is testament to the build quality in the 1960's. I ride a newish Vespa GTS300 now. I don't want to spend my time tinkering, just ridding. The new Lambretta just doesn't do it for me, so rev up your Vespa's as Scotty Kilmer might say if he rode one Lol!
Great video. I'm in the UK where Lambretta's are fairly common, for vintage scooters anyway. My Dad has a Lambretta GP and although I prefer the ride of my Vespa smallfrane I have to say his Lambretta is much more reliable. It definitely bucks the stereotype.
Kickstart spring snapped, I did this job, but needs a vice to wind back spring so you can put the kickstart on, it goes on casing before fitting case to the engine.
The shifter in Lambretta is more like the sliding dog shifter on a small frame Vespa, not cruciform like. Six-legged design rather than 4-legged. Weird how I just got notification of this video some three months later. Been watching your videos for years.
Awesome content as always. Bit of normality during this plandemic. I think here in the UK Lambretta scooters out number the vespas during the 60s and maybe 70s
You should have a fake Haynes Manual in display, called "proper care and feeding of your Lambretta Hamster" 😜 training that little bugger to run on the wheel is such an art form (just teasing I like lammys)
@Peter Peter Are you saying Lambrettas are banned in London? If so that's not correct though they are subject to the ULEZ unless they have historic vehicle status (I have a GP200 that achieves that status on 1 April so no more tax, MoT optional, and no congestion or ULEZ charges).
😎 Great video, love the work you guys do! If anyone is interested in the bits you didn't show (the gearbox) they can see it here in our latest video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ThqgAJkeDfw.html
don't know if you've seen quadropiena a film by the rock band the who but there's a line in it where a rocker rides by on on his motorcycle and says love your hairdryer on wheels