Steve's Model B

Many, many moving parts...

Steve has entrusted Scooter Surgery in the complete restoration of his beloved Model B.  

The first step is to strip the engine... a thoroughly documented inventory will aid the rebuild.

Scootering in London is free.. but for how long?

Until now, we’ve taken riding through central London on our Lambretta’s for granted… we don’t have to think about congestion charge do we? But if Boris Johnson and his cronies have their way ALL motorcycles may have to pay in the future and vintage/classic machines may be banned entirely!  If you are in London or ever want to ride your scooter in the capital? Read on.

This morning we received an email from our friend Andy telling us about the possibility of motorcycles being charged congestion charge. Motorcyclist already have to pay to park in much of central London.

Andy tells us:

"You should go on the TFL website and fill in this survey. Oppose the proposed charge for motorcycles entering the zone. This is just an earner for Boris under the guise of "emissions’" and means riders would to have to pay £12.50 per day and older bikes could be prevented from entering central London completely?!"

TfL invites you to provide views on all the proposals by completing this online questionnaire at: 

 https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/environment/ultra-low-emission-zone/consultation/intro/view

We have added our opposition and are asking all our customers at Scooter Surgery to follow our lead. There is a box for comments - so please state exactly why you oppose this charge (keep it clean!).

Thank you 

Patrick and Maude

J Range Spares and Restorations

Casa Lambetta Agent

Listed below are the stainless kits we are making to help with the restoration of your J Range Lambretta.

J1   - Wheel nuts

J2   - Side Case fixing

J3   - Front Mudguard fixings

J4   - Stand Bolts

J5   - Light Housing & Switch fixing

J6   - Headlight rim fixings

J7   - Horn fixings

J8   - Exhaust Fixings

J9   - Rear frame bracket

J10 - External mount fixings

We have also recently received into stock from Casa Lambretta a selection of spares for the J range.  

Give us a call on 020 8748 0882 
or email: info@scootersurgery.co.uk

All in the family

Lined up in front of my beautiful shop wall (still to be finished) are these Lambretta's which belong to Patrick, his son and myself.

John's LI Series 1 & 3

John's two Lambretta's look beautiful and are painted to a very high standard. They've been at Scooter Surgery for some attention to their engines - it's no good having a scooter with the looks, if they don't perform equally well!

Camber Sands

Here is Sean Francois, the designer of our fabulous shop wall mural.

Just a reminder. We are at Camber Sands this weekend.  Come and talk to us for all your Lambretta needs.

Vega or Luna?

The finished piece with model in foreground

Here is the artist.

Putting a face to the name

Jean-Francois 3 & 4

Wall 3

Wall 4

The wall's coming to life...

Our friend Jean-Francois has begun painting the wall opposite the Scooter Surgery parts shop.  We're really excited with the prospect of having something other than a brick wall to gaze upon as we greet our customers and pack up orders... 

I'll continue posting pictures as the artwork unfolds. Maude x

John's Series 1

Here's John collecting his beautiful Series 1 from the workshop, following some thorough work to her engine. She's now a lovely little runner and even pulls up hills!

Patch tells John that his scooter will now fly... but only so high.

Jean-François

Here's a treat for you. What a fabulous photo. Anyone want to paint a picture like this on my shop wall? Pretty please...

2014 Season

Here’s a small selection of the scooters we’ve seen here at Scooter Surgery over the past year or so… some with their proud owners. We work on all Lambretta’s from Model A to TS1.

This year we’ll be at the following events and will be happy to do all we can to assist in keeping these wonderful machines on the road.

31st May

Hayling Island Scooter Rally - Mill Rythe Holiday Park, 16 Havant Rd, Hayling Island PO11 0PB

13th/15th June

Santa Pod Speedway - Wellingborough, Bedford NN29 7JQ

28th June

Cambersands Scooter Rally - New Lydd Road, Camber, East Sussex TN31 7RT

20th July

Sunday Best -Bullsmoor Ln, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 4RQ

1st/3rd August

‘Big 7’ Paddock Wood Hop Farm – Maidstone Road, Paddock Wood, TN12 6PY

22nd/25th August

Isle of Wight Scooter Rally - Quay Road, Ryde, Isle Of Wight, PO33 2HH

29th/31st August

Mersea Island Scooter Rally - East Mersea Youth Camp Rewsalls Lane, Colchester, Essex CO58SX

A Dream

Li. Series 1 - 150
Roberto has had this beautiful Li. Sr.1 - 150 for thirty years unridden and stored in his shed. He's now preparing her for the road again. Let's all drool with envy.

The Tones

Following our post last week that featured a young scooterist who was into old scooters and (fairly)
old music - here’s some news about a young band playing new music, that we think may appeal to a few of you old scooterists?

We give you...  The Tones

Support young bloods!

Justin is 17 years old and loves Oasis... so he's named his first Lambretta after their song "D’you Know What I mean?"  He's been sourcing parts for her restoration over the past three years and she's finally finished. Justin designed the scheme of his 1971 GP/TS1 himself and was proud to ride from Essex to Coventry on Sunday and to enter her in the Custom Show.

All of us - scooterists, dealers, organizers of custom shows etc... need to support the young people getting involved in the Lambretta scene. We were all young once!

For all Oasis lovers out there, you can get nostalgic with the video below...

Superb Racing Model D.

This Racing Model D was at Modrapheniacs and was a treat to see. 

Everything about her was so pristine and precise.

Here's the story of how she got to these shores.

Enjoy. I certainly did.

MOT and Service

Here she is, after the 'service' which turned out to be a major piece of work. She is running and proves to be (in Patch's words) a nice little runner. She's MOT'd and home now.

The Duke is alive and well

Having not seen him for a number of years he arrived on his 'Babe' on Saturday. It was lovely to see him.

continued... Only in for a Service and MOT

This carb is stuck solid...



















 

and the strut is broken clean in two...

The headset and forks had to be removed - fork links, springs and buffers are bound to be shot!

Only in for a Service and MOT?

This little lady has come in for a service and MOT. She is intact, everything is in the right place and all the parts are right, but she has been left standing outside at the mercy of the English elements. The following pictures illustrate what happens when moving parts are not maintained properly.

the stainless steel hub nut is more weather-proof...

the engine casing is covered in a white mildew.

At this point it's hard to say what the engine's like inside? The 'service' has begun at the front end, a recovery like this needs to be systematic! 

Returned from the grave...

Cameron's LD is nothing short of a miracle! 
The point of posting her on this Blog is to show you how pretty she is, how good to look at. She looks no different to when Cameron bought her at auction - but is a testiment to how NOT to be tempted by shiny paint! It was only Patrick's expertise, determination and a little bit of luck that's brought this scooter back from the Lambretta grave in the sky.

She has had to have a complete engine rebuild and it's been a real challenge to get the engine to even run. The engine was only the beginning, everything was wrong with her.

It's not known how the Vietnamese 'restorers' got hold of her or what her history is.  They clearly had a ‘donor’ machine to which they added many 'hand-made parts'... tin cans, bits of scrap metal and other machines (not Lambretta) - just anything to produce something to sell, that would run, although if it did... it was only briefly. 
 Buyers often fall for these restorations because superficially the scooter looks 'restored' but in reality it's often superficial! the paint work hides a nightmare.

I asked Patrick why he agreed to do her when she was so bad? Essentially he didn't realise the magnitude of the problems until he started to take her apart, once he had, he just had to keep going.  Patrick's now riding her and when he drove up this morning she sounded sweet!  She is back in the workshop for adjustments - everything in her is new and has to be run in. 

It's a miracle that she's been saved! Thanks to a lot of luck Patrick was able to source the various parts that are no longer remade.

 A video of her running will follow soon.

Chelmsford Joe

A fast little number

Patrick recalled this lovely little LD150 to Scooter Surgery for a medical examination of her engine which he rebuilt. She is not sick, quite the reverse, on being rebuilt she, for some unknown reason ran faster than an Ld is meant to the surprise of us all, including her keenness to see a hill and run up it, again unusual for an Ld.

The deal is that during the winter Patrick will take her in and investigate this phenomenon. The question is how did she achieve 55/60mph?

If it is possible to decipher the reasons the findings will be shared here.