Adventures of a Scooter Newbie - Luci (the Li150) and me Pt1
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:00 am
This is just a short series of posts highlighting my little Scooter Odyssey in the hope it can give some pointers to others.
So my very first scooter. I knew I wanted a Lambretta, I just didn't know which one, except I preferred 60's Italian style. I'm not a mechanic, but I've tinkered with old VWs before, so I enjoy messing around with vehicles. That engine is just so.... accessible!
Buying
I trawled the ad sites (avoid the Trade-IT ones!) and found lots of scams (if it looks too good to be true...) but persevered and unearthed a couple af decent-priced nice ones. I asked a few questions on here and found the people very accommodating to my bleatings (thanks esp to Chris aka Bristolmod!). Newsnow classifieds (www.newsnow.co.uk) is a good aggregator, but typically ebay and to a lesser degree, gumtree plus this nice little facebook group; https://www.facebook.com/LambrettaScoot ... le?fref=ts which pulls all the adverts together with the added bonus of a couple of comments from those "in the know" so as to speak (just qualifies that the adverts appear true).
Was lucky enough to hit jackpot with a nice Li150 not too far away from me. It was on eBay and I really didn't want to get into a bidding war, so I called the guy up and offered. I asked him to send me some high res pics of the areas pointed out on this forum and others and again had some great advice. All the numbers matched, I was going in for this one!
Even if the auction is still running, show willing and offer over the phone - then just turn up with the readies. Few people will want the hassles of continuing an auction versus a buyer with cash at their front door. Offer accepted I legged it down there and did the deal before he could see that ebay price creeping too high!
Do take full advantage of the expertise on offer on this forum. There are a lot of people on here who will gladly (and freely!) help guide you through the ins and outs of what's right and what's not.
One word of warning: There are a LOT of scams out there and nobody is giving anything away. If something does not feel right and the seller does not want to meet you face-to-face at their address (with all the documents) then walk.
The Legal Stuff
Two weeks later and a nice new MOT is in place together with my CBT (I should have done my bike test years ago, but there you go). As I mentioned I am a total newb to scooters, but I did have a geared bike as a teenager. I was totally underwhelmed by the CBT on the day, (mainly because the bloke taking it was a complete tool) I didn't learn much, but it's done. My insurance is with Adrian Flux (I used them with my old VWs) on a 2000-mile pa policy @ £85 including a no-proof needed agreed valuation with salvage buy-back. Happy with that and the free tax.
Riding
My old bike was the traditional foot-operated gears, what on earth is all this "passing through neutral" thing all about with the left hand?
Actually its a lot easier than I thought. I "practiced" the somewhat alien grip-mounted gear shifts in a quiet area of business-park-type streets, early evening (I did some youtube research and found some great pointers for beginners which probably saved my clutch cable!). Once I'd sorted my rev-happy engine at idle, things were sweet.
Hand signalling however has been a bit trickier to master (I had forgotten all about lack of indicators!). Not least because the time you can safely take your mitts off the handlebars is massively limited (by braking, throttling, gear shifting or just keeping an even keel!). I've found turning right on a roundabout to be the trickiest, as you need your right hand to throttle up slightly when entering the roundabout, but need to signal right at the same time!
At least my balance is improving. I've clocked up over 150 miles in my first week or so. Feeling like a little kid again.
More to come...
Andy
So my very first scooter. I knew I wanted a Lambretta, I just didn't know which one, except I preferred 60's Italian style. I'm not a mechanic, but I've tinkered with old VWs before, so I enjoy messing around with vehicles. That engine is just so.... accessible!
Buying
I trawled the ad sites (avoid the Trade-IT ones!) and found lots of scams (if it looks too good to be true...) but persevered and unearthed a couple af decent-priced nice ones. I asked a few questions on here and found the people very accommodating to my bleatings (thanks esp to Chris aka Bristolmod!). Newsnow classifieds (www.newsnow.co.uk) is a good aggregator, but typically ebay and to a lesser degree, gumtree plus this nice little facebook group; https://www.facebook.com/LambrettaScoot ... le?fref=ts which pulls all the adverts together with the added bonus of a couple of comments from those "in the know" so as to speak (just qualifies that the adverts appear true).
Was lucky enough to hit jackpot with a nice Li150 not too far away from me. It was on eBay and I really didn't want to get into a bidding war, so I called the guy up and offered. I asked him to send me some high res pics of the areas pointed out on this forum and others and again had some great advice. All the numbers matched, I was going in for this one!
Even if the auction is still running, show willing and offer over the phone - then just turn up with the readies. Few people will want the hassles of continuing an auction versus a buyer with cash at their front door. Offer accepted I legged it down there and did the deal before he could see that ebay price creeping too high!
Do take full advantage of the expertise on offer on this forum. There are a lot of people on here who will gladly (and freely!) help guide you through the ins and outs of what's right and what's not.
One word of warning: There are a LOT of scams out there and nobody is giving anything away. If something does not feel right and the seller does not want to meet you face-to-face at their address (with all the documents) then walk.
The Legal Stuff
Two weeks later and a nice new MOT is in place together with my CBT (I should have done my bike test years ago, but there you go). As I mentioned I am a total newb to scooters, but I did have a geared bike as a teenager. I was totally underwhelmed by the CBT on the day, (mainly because the bloke taking it was a complete tool) I didn't learn much, but it's done. My insurance is with Adrian Flux (I used them with my old VWs) on a 2000-mile pa policy @ £85 including a no-proof needed agreed valuation with salvage buy-back. Happy with that and the free tax.
Riding
My old bike was the traditional foot-operated gears, what on earth is all this "passing through neutral" thing all about with the left hand?
Actually its a lot easier than I thought. I "practiced" the somewhat alien grip-mounted gear shifts in a quiet area of business-park-type streets, early evening (I did some youtube research and found some great pointers for beginners which probably saved my clutch cable!). Once I'd sorted my rev-happy engine at idle, things were sweet.
Hand signalling however has been a bit trickier to master (I had forgotten all about lack of indicators!). Not least because the time you can safely take your mitts off the handlebars is massively limited (by braking, throttling, gear shifting or just keeping an even keel!). I've found turning right on a roundabout to be the trickiest, as you need your right hand to throttle up slightly when entering the roundabout, but need to signal right at the same time!
At least my balance is improving. I've clocked up over 150 miles in my first week or so. Feeling like a little kid again.
More to come...
Andy
.....oh and start saving for the new engine kit, exhaust larger carb etc.....you'll soon be doing over 2,000 miles but as the speedo is likely to break it won't effect your insurance.... 
......ps nice looking scoot..