Lambretta LD Quattrini hybrid | CUSTOM

We featured Gary Northgate’s eBay chopper project ‘Manufactured Romance’ (above) during the first lockdown and it seems like he’s got itchy fingers again and has bought another project on a whim. Here’s what he has to say about his recently completed Quattrini-powered LD.

You know how it goes, you finish your latest project, you ride it and love it and then your head is turned… 

No sooner had I run my cutdown project in, than a lazy scroll through a well-known auction site suddenly woke me up with a project described as a “Lambretta LD hybrid” with original work by Ferdy of Insane Innovations. 

The pictures showed a loosely assembled rusty and dusty Lambretta LD modified to take Series 3 forks, a hydraulic front brake and a Series 1-3 engine. The price was low (by modern standards), the provenance was good and the location was close enough for a personal pickup. Included in the deal was a box of those bits that would otherwise end up costing hundreds (badges, seats, headlight etc), a V5, a small block engine (not seized and good compression) and, most importantly, the old piece of LD frame sporting the number shown on the V5.

A few frantic bids later and I was on my way back home to Nutty Norf London for a civilised chat over tea and the handover of a very honest project – precisely as described (thanks Phil!).

Dark Arc

Before I put too much thought into what I wanted to create, I dropped the scoot over to Aubrey at Dark Arc who finished up the welding, made sure everything was straight, made a set of straight bars (never could get along with the bicycle bars of the LD), fitted a smart new solo seat (another auction bargain) and added custom brackets for electronics, speedo, horn etc.

Engine choice?

While I waited for Aubrey to weave his magic, I turned my mind to the type of ride I wanted as this would then help me narrow down styles and themes.

My first port of call was Sticky’s Lambretta Kit book and I was soon consuming reviews and dynographs for a dizzying array of cylinder kits. I changed my mind a dozen times before I turned to my own modest collection of Lambrettas to make a decision. After all, I knew precisely how each one of them actually felt to ride, what they were good at and where they were challenged – this had to be the most reliable set of personal test data – here is a precis of my thought process:

1.  Monza 225, mild tune by JB, 30mm Delly, Franspeed touring pipe, Casa close ratio gearbox. Excellent at accelerating briskly onto a motorway and sitting comfortably at relatively high speeds. Equally good at getting you into trouble as it’s difficult to keep “on pipe” on slower twisty lanes without wringing its 26BHP neck.
2.    TS1 250, TMX Carb, Taffspeed pipe, GP200 gearbox – better than the Monza around lanes and town, not quite as rapid, good top speed, very thirsty. 25BHP
3. RT195, 28mm delly, GP 200 gears, TSR Evo pipe – brilliant all-rounder, not as fast as the big blocks, but perfectly capable of touring and riding in town. 19BHP
4. Imola 186, 30mm Delly, sterling exhaust, GP200 gears – mounted in my chopper, this is a great kit for high revving, fast riding. Very similar to a TS1 but not as fast at the top end and wants to be wrung – a bit stressful for everyday trips to the shops but a lot of fun. 19BHP
5. Casa 185, 28mm Delly, clubman exhaust – just as Innocenti intended, quiet, peaceful, economic, reliable (relatively), smooth – but slow and a little dull when I want more than a bimble round the leafy lanes. 12BHP

The sensible choice

So, a great range upon which to base a decision and from these brief notes you can see that the sensible decision would be another RT195, the almost perfect all-rounder and no need to buy a new case.

Quattrini M210

Can you spot the obvious problem with this statement? You got it – if I wanted to be sensible, I wouldn’t have bought another scooter! Where is the point in buying a Ferdy scoot, commissioning Aubrey to perfect the stance and then putting in a sedate, run-of-the-mill, do it all engine? Nope, so having worked through these options, I picked up the phone to Chiselspeed and ordered the bits for a Quatrinni M210.

My call corresponded with the release of the new Chiselspeed “Powerbox” and so the plan was hatched to build a street sleeper that had all the outward signs of a sedate, standard, 50s LD – but with a rip-roaring engine that would be both fun and capable.

Time is money

Having time on one’s hands when building a scooter is rarely a good thing and as I scratched around looking for things to do, I hit upon “Ceracote” – a process by which intricate parts such as guns and exhausts can receive a colourful, hard wearing, heat resistant ceramic coating – perfect, and there was a local expert!! Now, if the coat performs as well as it looks then £80 quid to prolong the life of a £400 quid exhaust seems like a good move – time will tell.

The engine went away to my motor maestro, Bob Allayne who soon had a well-sealed engine looking for a frame which had now gone off to the powder coater.

In terms of colour, while at Aubrey’s I had marvelled at a beautiful vintage motorcycle that was mid-build. Particularly striking was the yellow and grey colourway.

These colours were clean and cheerful and yet retained the 50s retro look that I thought would be perfect for a street sleeper.

As cheap and hard-wearing as powder coating is, the preparation can be a pain as you can’t use filler and so you have to rely on filling imperfections with weld and then filing them down. In this case, the result was very pleasing, not show quality, but that’s not what I was after and for £250 quid, I was delighted. If you look closely at the toolbox door in the picture, you can see precisely what I mean about imperfections – once blasted clean, the weld was pitted. That said, the solution was simple, I just rubbed it down, filled it, smoothed it, rattle canned it and then painted a “Frankenstein” mural on it – illustrating that this was two scoots cut and shut together!

Takeaway paint shop

A chance encounter with the owner of a local café revealed that he was also the owner of a paint shop. A couple of weeks later and my panels, tank and sundry pieces were dropped off for Gav to do his thing. I’ve heard horror stories about waiting for painters, but in this case, the project was sorted within eight weeks and the result, for a very reasonable £550, was brilliant.

Rebuild time

Having picked up the painted parts, I had all I needed for assembly and so it began. The box of assorted parts that I secured as part of the deal turned out to be a veritable treasure chest with everything from lights, rubbers, cables, choke, levers and taps all included. That’s not to say I didn’t have to order a myriad of other small parts and fasteners, but I probably had £350 of essentials pre-provided.  Things were soon coming together, although we still had the odd curve ball when panels now refused to fit and when trying to rig up the in-line rear brake switch etc. The final humiliation was a leaking fuel tap that only surfaced when we were filling the tank for its first start!

Start her up

With the finishing line tantalisingly close, she started on the third kick and what a glorious sound! I’ve heard plenty of Quatrinni kits singing through expansion pipes and they tend to make a racket, I was therefore very happy with the relatively quiet notes coming from the box pipe.

The dialling in of the carb was entrusted to Stu at SG Engineering in Norfolk and as difficult it was for me to hear him wring its neck, the figures for an out-of-the-box kit running a standard-looking box pipe were pretty impressive. A nice wide spread of power and very healthy torque from relatively low revs. The set-up is nice and rich for running in and reflects the fact that I won’t be sitting at high speeds for prolonged periods of time just yet.

Proof of the pudding

The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the riding and I am well pleased!! It pulls really well from low down and just keeps going, I can see precisely why these kits are becoming so popular, it’s just so easy and seems happy in every gear. That said, the handling needs a little work, the seat bottoms out (needs some taller springs) and I think the slim style BGM dampers I’ve just fitted will hopefully provide a softer landing on braking. They’ve certainly finished the front end off nicely.

On reflection, I can’t think why for the life of me I went with yellow….but I’m glad I did. I think it sits well with the age of the scooter. I’m still considering whether or not to add a little sign writing, but I’m leaning to the clean look, at least for a while.

Overall the costs have been relatively low, although the engine components ran to a couple of thousand and were by far the largest extravagance, that said, I’ve certainly got change from £5k and I reckon that’s pretty good for a custom machine touched by masters of their trade.

Words and photos: Gary Norgate