A couple of weeks ago, I attended yet another national scooter rally, Lambretta Jamboree. Like Amerivespa, Lambretta Jamboree, moves from city to city each year with huge support from local clubs to put on an event focused on the Lambretta enthusiast. This year it was held in Duluth, Minnesota.
Duluth South Breakwater Lights
To be honest, I didn’t know very much about Lambrettas before attending. Only that they were another type of Italian scooter and seemingly more rare and harder to come by parts for. While Lambrettas went into production only a year after Vespas initially began production in the 1940s, various issues led to the closing of the factories in the early ’70s while Vespas continued to be made.
Lambretta Parking Only
I’m still learning a lot about Lambrettas and Vespas, but in talking with people, the preference from one or the other reminds a little of Apple vs Android. It all depends on what you like, stylistically and how you want to ride.
Right to Left: Lambretta Series 3, Lambretta Series 1
I rode the white Series 1 on the right of the above picture for the weekend. I actually wound up skipping out on the two major rides that were planned. The first ride, a city ride on Friday night, turned into a ridiculous scooter-fail for me. The second ride was a long ride which probably would not have been as much fun on the Series 1 since it isn’t the fastest to go or quickest to stop.
My scooter-fail happened within the first couple of minutes of the city ride. I should mention two things first—one, downtown Duluth is kind of hilly, like a mini San Francisco; two, we had just gotten the Series 1 running for the first time in 2 years the day we left town for Duluth and not all the kinks were worked out, for instance the idle speed. The ride started up one of these rather steep hills and we got caught at a red light. And by steep, I mean it was steep enough for a bike to start sliding down the hill while on a center stand.
I was sitting there the whole time hoping I didn’t drop the clutch too soon and kill the engine when as the light finally turned green and before I had even let the clutch go, the engine went quiet. Ordinarily I would have put the bike on the center stand and tried to restart it or at least move out of the way, but aside from having to physically maneuver a heavy bike around on a steep hill, I had also pulled a muscle a couple days earlier so it was a feat just to stay standing where I was in the middle of the road holding the brakes so the bike wouldn’t start rolling backwards with me on it. I was rescued but by then, the engine had flooded and it took a good few minutes to start it again. We gave up on catching back up with the ride, but hey, we got to explore some cool shops and boutiques that night instead!
Downtown Duluth
One of the events included a time trial in which the winner was the rider who’s time was closest to the average of all the riders participating. There was also Lambretta Trivia—I’m terrible at regular trivia, so you can imagine how that went for me.
Saturday instead of going on the long ride, I did some decidedly touristy things and explored the Lakewalk and the Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace. The Lakewalk was beautiful and I managed to hit a few Pokéstops along the way. (I may have to do a PokémonGo post later). I walked back along E. Superior St., which was where all the shops were and then back to the hotel to set up my vendor booth at the Show ‘n Shine. Later that night was an awards banquet and surprise, surprise— the Mister came in first place with the absolute most average time for the Time Trial and my lambretta-for-the-weekend won “Best Series 1”!
Here’s a few more pictures I wanted to share:
