Iam Mod Again After 42 Years

[Toddy]

Lovely Colour I Take it you like your Accessories then ?

[Tractorman]

Your scooter looks good, Barrie and I bet it's faster than your previous ones! Not all scooters were 'modded' back then, by the way.

[Rich Oswald]

Lovely colour

[pacemaker]

Enjoy you are only 60 once so get out and feel 18 again! nice scoot!

[68Sxandy]

Bit of a rarity on here, but good to see someone still going the Mod route. Nice scooter- well done.

[peejay]

keep up the good work Barrie

some of us love bling

[Paulnobodyimportant]

Looks great Barrie and good to see a bit of chrome. My last scooter was a
SX225 which I seized many times after the 're bore, probably because I didn't even consider jetting. Anyway sold in 1972 and I was 're born in 2007 with a golden special that I decorated with chrome, sort of 're creating my teenage life. However during the following 3 or 4 years the chrome has come off. Partly due to peer pressure but mainly for practicality and an appreciation for the plain lambretta styling. But have a great experience with your new hobby.

[Les McLean]

What a lovely looking scooter, and bravo for sticking to your preferred mod style

Like you it took me 40 years between my first and present Lambretta, and boy, it's one of the best things I've done in my life ever, it's so much fun it should be made illegal.

I know the 'modded' look is frowned upon in some quarters, but the way I look at it, I was a mod in the late 60's with a fully modded scooter, there's no reason why I shouldn't have one now.

What spurred me to get my present Lambretta was a few years ago I went to a 60's weekend in Haworth, and the local Scooter club turned out, and the sight of those classic Lambrettas, most fully modded, coming down the cobbled main street was a revelation, and from that minute, gave me a determination to get my own.

So after 4 years of ownership, I still get so much pleasure tootling around the Yorkshire Dales on my 1964 Li150

[STREETSLEEPER]

Pics seem to have disappeared....

[johnnyXS]

its a beaut Barrie ! same year as my special too. All those accessories reminds me of all the chrome and lights my mates used to hang off their scoots whilst I was busy stipping everything off of mine . It made it easier to do the weekly maintenance and probably I was too lazy to keep bolting it all back on .
I used to run my Li150 S3 with no front guard or rear floor strips or side panels . Every few weeks I'd hand paint my horn casting headset and tanks a different colour with small tins of enamel paint ...mauve red ,purple, yellow crikey it must have looked a right mess

The only thing that I added to mine was a huge 10'0" tank aerial which I mail ordered from Exchange & Mart ...what a pita that was !

You're right about that first taste of freedom...you never forget that tremendous feeling of independance you get with your first scooter bike or car.Like a mental orgasm. Its strange how you still feel some of that elation, when you take your first ride again after a gap of 45 years !
Like you I was 5 stone lighter back in 68.... its a wonder my present 150 can cope with the weight to be honest.

[johnnyXS]

dads eh !

When I was 16 my Dad heard that I wanted a scooter and brought home a non running LD150 ! aghhhh what a dog I flatly refused to have anything to do with it and I'm not sure now what happened to it . I probably left it in the back of the garage along with my series 2 and series 3 Li150's when I abandoned the lot in 1969 .....god if I had the key to that garage now eh

Like you I'd worked over the summer gardening and saved the princely sum of £25.00 with which I bought a used multicoloured series 2 from Eddy Grimsteads .The mutts nuts!
Not having any insurance licence or anything else I made my Father ride it home for me

I used to do my own maintainence when it stopped working but never had the tools or expertise to build new engines back then .
Your Special must fly with that engine
Great memories eh !

[johnnyXS]

ouch ! thats only fractionally more than the quoted bhp for a bog standard TV200
it sure is an expensive business upgrading a Lambretta engine it seems.
Call me an old cynic but it seems to me that everyone connected with supplying the classic vehicle trade is out to fleece you for as much as they think they can get away with these days .

I'm heartedly fed up with it to be honest. Its really taking the edge off my enjoyment of owning and restoring classic vehicles.

Have you had a good read of the technical articles over on the MB site yet? It might give you a different perspective and it will certainly give you some other avenues to explore.There are loads of articles about exhaust tuning which is possibly the best place to start looking for power increases

[johnnyXS]

talking about reliability Barrie I reckon we are probably both remembering only the good times

I have a vague recollection that I spent many an unhappy hour kicking my dead scooter over trying to start it and then pushing it for endless miles

[weeks]

Hi Johnnysx
I must have really been wearing rose tinted glasses or perhaps it was those funny smelling fags my mates kept smoking, or then I again I was very lucky. In all of the five years that I had lambretta the only problems I experienced was rear flat tyre and a broken throttle cable.

Barrie

Forum section : Show your ride ............. Lets get back into "why we do what we do"

Like everything else I guess it depends on the whole picture .............. What did you use your scoot for , how was it used, and how far did you travel on it in those 5 years (any pictures of it ?)

Ive got one Lambretta that hasn't cost me a penny in maintenance in over 8 years (rare beast) and another that's gone through 3 rear tyres in a year amongst other bits n pieces ............. Reason being one has been sat in the naughty corner of the garage because I dropped it on a LCGB Coast to Coast 8 years ago and damaged it, the other is well used and manage to transport me to the LEJOG / Switzerland and other events last year

Naughty corner (before damage) .............. Unused but cheap



Well used and more expensive, but a whole lot of fun

[lambypolo]

Reason being one has been sat in the naughty corner of the garage because I dropped it on a LCGB Coast to Coast 8 years ago and damaged it, the other is well used and manage to transport me to the LEJOG / Switzerland and other events last year

Naughty corner (before damage) .............. Unused but cheap

I've got a photo of you on your way through Pickering on that coast to coast - William was in his pushchair waving at the scooters. Probably the last photo of it before you dropped it. I'll try and dig it out.

[weeks]

I've got a photo of you on your way through Pickering on that coast to coast - William was in his pushchair waving at the scooters. Probably the last photo of it before you dropped it. I'll try and dig it out.

It was the last pic Ian ................... and you kindly sent it to me years ago, ive actually just looked at it and wept a little

Remember seeing you take it as Im waving on the pic

Cheers

[parky]

Lovely scoot Barrie and nice to see a bit of mod on this forum. I am with you all the way with the look of a modded scoot. I get a bit bored with all the plain scoots I see (nice though they are) seeing a bit of mod puts a smile on my face. Do you go up to the Fino lounge on a Thursday evening with the Old Skool scooter club?

[xenia1]

Nice to see one in the original apple green, the best colour for that model imo..

Andy

[911hillclimber]

I had an Li 150 Ser 2 when 15, the elation when 16 and a driver's provisional and utter freedom was indeed 'awsome' and I left school too and had a real apprenticeship and went to college where there were many scooters, few in the Mod manner as we all had no money.
It never failed me every day.
Moved to a TV3 with a 225cc conversion and 'wildcat' and 'S' badges on it after I passed my bike test (3 questions, a ride round the block and an emergency stop). Bought seized and pushed part of the way home. Got fed up of pushing so jumped hard on the kick start and rode it home.
Never went wrong bar one rear puncture. That was 1969/70 so the TV was only 6 years old.

Those fond free years left a big impression on me and is why I'm resorting my TV3 today, sadly not my '225', but bog standard 175.

Never got close to the mod bit, only wanted to go faster, and still had no money, so the TV got a flyscreen and a rear carrier for a spare (guess who had no spare when I got a puncture).

Fell off the TV to often (limited talent and common sense) and sold it and bought a Triumph Herald 12/50, my first car.

Mind you, I had a self painted Union Jack helmet, fish tail parker, cords and desert boots, so does that count?