Scooterotica

Anyone ever come across an Li Series 1 that's been converted to a "Series 2" by changing the headset?

I've seen a few S1's that have had the S2 headset added

MightyGem wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 8:56 pm Anyone ever come across an Li Series 1 that's been converted to a "Series 2" by changing the headset?

Yep,my mate bought a 'series 2',got it home,took the panels off,and low and behold.....a framebreather

Yep,my mate bought a 'series 2',got it home,took the panels off,and low and behold.....a framebreather

Shouldn't the intake behind the rear seat have been a bit of a give away.

In my case I bought it in 1970, when I was 16. I was told it was a Series 2 and it looked like a Series 2, but I later discovered that it had a Series 1 cylinder and piston. I never gave it much thought at the time, but a few years ago I came across The Lambretta Bible in google books. It stated that Series 2 came into production in October 1959. Well, my original logbook said that it was first registered in April 1959, 6 months before that. So, I sent a query to the club I belong to, the VMSC, and they came back and confirmed that the frame number indicated that it was, in fact, a Series 1 frame.

So it seems that it started life as a Series 1 machine and at some stage was “converted” to Series 2 by changing the headset. It would have been after mid 1960 as it has the oval horn grill and the larger rear light, both of which were introduced then.

Converting a series 1 or 2 frame into a series 3 was often done in the late 60's and 70's. I did one for my first combo back in 1970.

MightyGem wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:59 pm

Yep,my mate bought a 'series 2',got it home,took the panels off,and low and behold.....a framebreather

Shouldn't the intake behind the rear seat have been a bit of a give away.

It was his first scooter,plus it had the big flat rear carrier and spare wheel fitted.

I own a 1959 Series 2. There appears to be a bunch of small things about the frame and the center stand that made me think at the time of purchase that it was originally a S2. But later I learned that the early S2 were like that.