Automotive Blogger

50+ Lambrettas

This weekend was the 3rd Annual all Lambretta ride here in the Bay Area. Local Lambretta enthusiast and guru John Quintos created the ride as way for Lambretta owners to get together to share their love for Lambrettas, exchange information, ideas, tuning tips, and just to meet each other. Instead of creating an exclusive club, like many marque-specific groups do, Quintos wanted to keep it really informal, that’s why he calls it the LALO-Loose Association of Lambretta Owners-ride. It’s really not a club at all, it’s just a group of people who meet up every once in awhile to ride their Lambrettas and hang out, no more no less.

As is the case with most events I had a fair amount of prep to do to my Lambretta before I could ride it. The scooter needed a new clutch, some sort of custom air filter for the bigger aftermarket carburetor I am running, and an uprated rear shock/spring so I could ride two-up (my girlfriend on the back). Once I got the clutch parts it was a relatively straight forward job, but the air cleaner and shock required a little fabrication. For the air cleaner I took an old Weiand air filter that used to be on my MGB and modified it so that it could clamp onto my scooter’s carb. I really like this setup because it provides plenty of air flow but has a nice vintage look (since it came off of a 60’s British car).

R1 shock conversion, installed on the scoot

For the shock I decide to try out a conversion that has been gaining popularity in the Lambretta community. Step one is to get a remote reservoir rear shock from a Yamaha R1 or R6 sport bike. Because the spring in this unit is setup for the much heavier bike you need to order and fit a lower ratio spring. I went with a 215 lb spring of the same height and size as the stock Yamaha spring (which is closer to 500 lbs). There is also the matter of having custom bushings made to fit the Lambretta’s shock mount. Being the cheap guy that I am, I also decide to make a spring compressor instead of buying one. I used an old car scissor jack, cut it up into pieces and welded it back together so that it could compress the new Lambretta spring and let me put it onto the new shock. Making the compressor ended up being the most time consuming part, but now I have a custom tool that works great for the job.

Vintage Weiand air cleaner from my MGB

With the new shock fitted, a new air cleaner attached and a new clutch installed (the night before the ride no less), we assembled a group of five scooters over in the east bay, loaded them into pickups and trucked across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. The ride started on the water front where over 50 Lambretta’s gathered at the beginning. In a massive cloud of two-stroke smoke we raced all over the city, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and rode through the headlands than back into the city to the final destination, the bar/club at 330 Ritch. After a beautiful ride with some amazing weather, and no break downs for me, we kicked back and enjoyed free pizza and a few beers.

After putting a lot of labor into my scooter I was happy that the bike performed flawlessly. The new shock worked great, especially with two people on board, and the clutch didn’t complain at all. Lambretta owners are a fine bunch of people, and riding around San Francisco with them on 50 vintage Italian scooters in gorgeous weather was a great way to spend a Saturday.

Here are some more pics from the ride:

-Bill Mertz

Lambretta, Vespa, Scooter, vintage, classic, motorcycle, riding, San Francisco, LALO, two stroke