We have some good news for all you Lambretta purists out there. The electric Lambretta that recently did a 1000-mile (Turn left at Dublin) trip around Ireland is back belching out two-stroke fumes into the London ULEZ zones.
The scooter is owned by Retrospective Scooters mechanic, Gianfranco (pictured left, with Retrospective boss, Niall) and was temporarily converted to electric just for the charity ride.
Avoiding the London charges
Whilst the engine was out it was rebuilt and upgraded, ready to become Gianfranco’s daily ride. Living and working in the smoke means the only way to avoid paying the daily congestion charge is to walk, cycle, use public transport, or ride around town (motorcycles are exempt). However, avoiding the recently expanded ULEZ charge means your chosen transport either has to be green enough to be exempt, or classed as historic. Riding a classic scooter makes you a double winner and you’ll also look cooler than most.
Reversible conversion
The Retrospective Scooters electric conversions are 100% reversible and no body parts have to be cut or welded to fit them. That means if you want to put the scooter back to standard it’s fairly easy. You simply have to remove the battery and tray from the frame loop, take out the control panel and wiring then remove the swinging arm, complete with rear wheel and hub motor.
Then you can refit your original engine, cable it up and ride off into the sunset. You can see the process in the quick timelapse video above. It’s a happy ending for us two-stroke addicts.
What can be converted?
Retrospective Scooters have converted most of the popular Lambretta models to electric. From Series 1 to 3, as well as most Vespa models, including smallframe, large frame and wide frame. They’ve also converted many of the less popular classic scooter marques, built a two-wheel drive Piaggio Ciao and are currently working on Lambretta open-frame models. If you want a scooter converting to electric (or back again) there’s every chance Retrospective can do it.
