Chris, a good friend at work, has a whole garage full of machines including two scooters, a super moto and a Rocket 3.
He’s doing some serious research/heart searching on adding to the garage by buying a minor conversion for a “classic” Lambretta.
The minor conversion is an uprated Labretta transmission with a KTM top half engine grafted on. (Almost any single cylinder KTM motor can be used.)
Doesn’t stop there. New, fully adjustable front and rear suspension, uprated brakes with ex bike calipers and braided lines, special wheels with Michelin super sticky tires on uprate, billet machined hubs, HDI lights and the list goes on.
Apparently, the guy that supplies all this stuff admits he’s never had the b*lls to find out the top speed, bottling out at 86 m.p.h. with a gear to go. Oh, 86 was not at max RPM. He had a couple of thousand revs in hand.
O.K., we have to admit this is a bit special, but is it a bike or a scooter once converted?
Sounds like a death trap to me. Imagine KTM power in a Lambretta frame. That’s essentially a design from the late 1940s or early 50s isn’t it? It’ll turn weaving into a new sport. Complete madness … I like it!!
When I had my first proper bike, a friend of mine was building a skeleton over-bored, tuned Lambretta, with lots of bits chromed and murals on the painted bits (including bike tank). He won competitions and had it featured in magazines. I never rode it, but I was led to understand that it was pretty “hairy” to ride.
