Hello all, I was looking through eBay ads last night, surprised me how reasonably priced tidy looking classic scooters seem to be, or am I missing something!?, I’ve always really liked the iconic Vespa / Lambretta styling, I quite fancy owning one, I can almost smell the Castrol R when I’m writing this ! I’d be looking to spend no more than 5k ideally, are there any models to avoid, and ones to look out for ? Obviously being two stroke am I looking at a nightmare regarding starting a classic scooter after maybe being stood for a while? Any advice would be helpful & interesting to read
It's a bit of a mine field with a lot of chancers out there. Lambrettas seem to be a bit worse as some of the rare models can be big money, so caution is needed when paying a premium. The choice is vast, so 1st I would decide on exacly which make and model you like and do your research from there. It's also a changing market as late 60's Lambrettas that were commanding a premium 2 or 3 years back have started to drop in value a little with newer models starting to strengthen. The reason is that the lads that wanted them in the late 60's or had them, were in a position a few years back to buy the nice ones once the family had grown up, so they were coveted. Those people now have them or are getting too old for them, so the market has softened. It wasn't uncommon a few years back to see a Lambretta TV200 or GP200 for £8k. Some people will still try it but the market has changed. My neighbour 2 doors down has just bought a Vespa PX125 for £1200. Like I say, the market is huge, so narrow down what you want 1st then begin to look. You'll get something nice for £5k though.
Really do your research, lambretta’s were made in Spain under the name of Serveta and easily changed to look like the original, also sil made them in India, very hard to find a totally original Italian bike, for the budget you have I would be looking for a sx, gp, and overlooking the li, lambretta club of Great Britain is a great source of information.
........Oh, and I've always done OK out of scooters. No idea why, it just seems to happen. I bought this 1980 Indian Lambretta as a box of bit from eBay from Paisley years back for £1k. The bloke described it as new and it was a mess. I complained through eBay and they gave me £500 back after he said in his mails to me "What do you expect for an old scooter", I said "I expect it to be as you described it", so it stood me £500 before I started. As is wasn't anything important historically (Indian) I did a bit of a custom job on it with discs front and rear, R1 rear shock and a load of other performance parts but without going down the expensive minefield of TS1 or RB engine kits chasing a couple of BHP. I just wanted a nice looking reliable scooter. I think I sold it for £3k I bought this Vespa Rally 200 for £1,500 from Lockerbie. I never rode the thing and the lad I bought it off rang me up 6 months later and offered me £2,000 for it as his daughter missed is. She called it Brum due to the headlight cover. It wasn't a great one with a PX200 engine and had work on the floorboards, but mostly because his daughter wanted it back, it went. Then a proper Vespa Rally 200 with original engine and no welding. It was in the back room of the local Vespa (Aprilia) dealer when I called in. I gave £3,300 for it, went to Holland on it and sold it for £5,000 a year later. Like I say. I'm not sure why I always do OK these things. Let's not forget 'White Lightening' GTS300 Bought new pre-registered for £3,500. I've had it for 10 years and it's worth nothing now, maybe <£1k. But it has a few years left in it yet after doing 33km and I regularly use it as my commuter to work for 9 months of the year. The money it saves me in toll charges is actually more than the depreciation.
I’m tempted to buy a scooter for my Daughter and for me just to scoot about on, she’ll need one for getting to the train station. Are they more reliable than I recall these days as I recall seeing a fair few ‘broken’ at the side of the road back in the early 80’s. Or was that just down to neglect and a lack on mechanical sympathy. I prefer the Lambi shape, Daughter likes the Vespa.
Buy some heavy duty locks and chains if leaving it at the train station. Even better if secure parking is available. Scroats love a little scooter to ride around and wreck.
A Servetta was actually a very well made scooter. I've a mate who's well into Lambrettas and he swears they are better than the Italian ones.
There is security at the train station as such but I think we’ll lock it in the village centre as the station itself is very out the way and quite.
I was well into the scooters in the 80’s, it was more cutdown’s and choppers then, I did build a full frame and a Vespa a few years back.
My brother once swapped a Big Bertha golf club for an old Lambretta that had been dredged up from a lake in Italy. Within 20 mins of washing all the mud and silt off it he had got it started. He spent £200 on parts and powder coating and had it looking and working like new. A local upmarket menswear shop paid him to have it in their window display for a year and then he sold it for £4000. This was probably 20 years ago.
Cheers, To be fair, I only really built the GP200, but it was literally every nut and bolt. I did nothing with the Yellow Rally before it went back to Lockerbie. The China Blue Rally 200 got tubeless rims and I changed to newer electronic ignition when the old Femsa unit started to break down. I like spinning the spanners sometimes.
I cut down a Lambretta think as I recall it was a Li150 but with a 200 later engine, hack it down to within an inch of life. Then swapped it for a ae50 having never rode it.
Definitely have a look at the German scooter shops for trick parts for Vespas or lambretta’s SIP Scooter center Scooter and service U.K. shops PM tuning or Beedspeed
Bloody hell didn’t know beedspeed were still going, they used to sponsor me back in the day , there are some great trick bits on the market now, things can start to get expensive if you go down that route.
There’s a tuning shop near me tinkers with scooters here have a linky https://www.coastaltrippers.co.uk/services
I had a 1972 Lambretta Jet200 in the late seventies when i was at college, it was a Spanish Serveta model ,i think i paid about £150 for it!...it was a mustard yellowy colour, and as i recall i had loads of problems with the gearchange cable in the left hand grip, it was prone to snapping the nipple off the end ,even using genuine innocenti ( i think? ) cables, no matter how liberally my dad greased it , i didnt appreciate or start exploring the mechanical side of things until i got into my 20's , to me at the time it was just transport. Wish i still had it though, and i too have been looking at the bay of late with a vague notion of dabbling with them again.
Most of my old mates are still into there scooters and do the rallies, one has made a business out of it, Ital scooters out Cheltenham way, @cookster ever come across him ?, trouble is they still dress the same as the did in the eighties, looks bloody stupid these days, always liked the skinets tho.
There’s loads to choose from so as others have said, do your homework first and decide what exactly you want. Lots of nammer specials around on eBay and Facebook marketplace although there are tell tale signs to the trained eye. I’ve had a few since getting into them a few years back and I’m not usually without one for very long. They take up no room in the garage which is a bonus. You can either make money or break even if you pick the right one. My current one is the baby blue Vespa smallframe.
