Spanner’s Lambretta Manual – Edition 4 Q&A with Sticky | Interview

If you have more than a passing interest in Lambretta scooters, there is only one book you really need to buy. Well, that’s a lie because THAT book is now onto its fourth edition.

Sticky’s Complete Spanner’s Lambretta Manual has become the bible for thousands of enthusiasts and is also used by the majority of professionals who work on Lambrettas for a living. The third edition sold out a while back and Sticky has been busy updating the whole book. It’s been completely revised, and there are an extra 48 pages of new information – that’s a lot of new stuff.

What’s new in edition 4?

The Complete Spanner’s Manual of Responsible Parenting was not a big seller, but ‘Little Sam’ is now bigger than his dad, so he did something right…

Q&A

We thought it was a good idea to have a chat with the man himself and see if we could get some behind-the-scenes info about this series of Lambretta manuals.

What year did the first edition of your Spanner’s Lambretta manual get released?

It was July 2004.

Stuart Lanning sold Scootering to Mortons in 2003. I did three issues as Editor – after being Assistant Editor since the early 90s – but hated working on the payroll, so I packed that in and set about doing the book, as well as freelancing again to get by.

Calling in favours for promo in national papers inevitably resulted in cliché-tastic coverage, like this in the Daily Star.

Why did you call it The Complete Spanner’s Manual?

I was thinking along the lines of the ‘Idiot’s Guide’ books, which were really popular at the time. A ‘Complete Spanner’ is a British slang term of a similar meaning.

Sadly, that whole concept is flawed. There’s no such thing as idiot-proof for a sufficiently talented idiot. They see it as a challenge. The best you can aim for is idiot-resistant.

How many copies have you sold over the first three books?

I think it was 40,000, plus the Italian translation of edition 3 that Dean Orton published.

Looking back, did you ever expect Spanner’s to sell over 40,000 copies?

I was fairly confident that we’d sell the first edition (15,000 copies IIRC) but I had no idea how long it would take to do that. If you think back to 2004, this was a period when many Lambretta imports were coming from Vietnam, India, Spain, and Italy.

The Lambretta scene has always been massive in the UK. We have the world’s biggest national Lambretta Club in the LCGB, and so many experts in the marque come from here too.

When you think about it, that’s both odd and unique for any foreign-made vehicle.

Market effect

What I wasn’t prepared for was the effect on the market. Dealers who specialised in building and restoring Series 3 scooters now found less demand for those services, but conversely more demand for quality parts via mail-order. There was certainly a period of readjustment.

One thing only a few people know is that Haynes Publishing enquired about buying the rights to the book. In the end we couldn’t agree a deal so instead they had a crack at a Lambretta manual. I think readers can tell the difference between a book written by an enthusiast who knows what other scooterists need to know, versus those for whom it is merely a commercial proposition.

I also had someone enquire about making a translation that I turned down, but that was probably a less wise decision really.

Surely not much has changed since the last manual. Why has it taken so long to get this one finished?

Well, firstly, we had to wait for the first one to sell out, but that was almost a year and a half ago now. I’ve seen lots of demand for the old edition: people listing them for ridiculous sums and books selling for double what they were new in 2018.

Loads has changed in the eight years since the third edition, much of it to do with the improving quality of parts and evolving tools and techniques. If you think back to the first edition, there was no mention of leak-down pressure testing an engine and very little on dry-building. Both of these techniques can now be viewed as ‘doing the job properly’, even if they weren’t done in the factory.

Things are changing a lot in the spare parts market. Casa Lambretta have upped their game with Vittorio Tessera replacing some of the early Casa parts, which were bought off the general market, with high-quality parts made closer to the original design. You can’t imagine how many different product lines he makes or how much he invests in tooling in trying to supply every part for every model of Lambretta.

Alongside Casa Lambretta, you had companies like Scootopia, BGM, SIP and Tutto Lambretta making an increasing number of parts for Lambretta models. The big development this year has been Carlos from Swiss Tony’s Lambretta Spares buying out Valla from Tutto Lambretta. Many of the old Italian-made Tutto Lambretta products – which weren’t so well known in the UK but were often of decent quality – are now going to be available to the trade under the ‘Swiss Tonys Italia’ brand.

It’s good for the Lambretta scene to have more than one source of important parts to ensure a continuous supply and also to keep the manufacturers on their toes as regards product quality.

Is the book worth buying if you already have other versions of the manual?

Absolutely. But I would say that, so you’ll have to make up your own mind. What people will notice first is that the layout has been completely revised. Most of the new sections are flagged as ‘New Advice’ and highlighted in yellow so you don’t need to read it all again to find the latest info.

What you’ll only spot through reading and comparing is that every chapter has been reworked and added-to, sometimes in subtle ways. For instance, the torque settings table has been adjusted and extended – covering all the torque settings for the additional fasteners on various kits. Again, this information is available nowhere else.

It’s taken a couple of years to get to this point but it always takes much longer than you imagine.

Go To Scooter. In Thailand, the classic Lambretta scene is booming. (Photo Viriya Ngurnsombat)

Will there be an Italian version?

I’m not sure about that. There’s still a shit-ton of work in doing a translated version, and smaller print runs are much more expensive to produce, so the sales would need to justify it.

To be honest, the major growth area of interest in classic Lambretta now seems to be East Asia and specifically Thailand. Where once dealers hoovered up scooters and parts to go to the UK, Germany and Japan, nowadays the flow of containers full of used scooters seems to be heading to Thailand. The scene there seems younger and more enthusiastic. I’m wondering if a Thai-language version makes more sense as it won’t just be a new edition for them. It would be the first Lambretta manual in their local tongue.

If you could pick just one thing you’ve learned about Lambrettas whilst researching the latest book, what would it be?

Here’s a good one, which is a source of some embarrassment. I show in the book a perfectly valid method for checking the alignment of the front tyre versus the centre line of the forks. I readjusted my front wheel shimming on the basis of the photos shown above.

More recently, I took the forks out again to fit a set of Casa Performance taper roller steering bearings. While the forks were out, I realised that someone at Innocenti had actually welded the forged section for the steering column on the piss onto my forks. You can see that in the photo below. Look at the machining around the bearing. In reality, I was measuring against an off-centre part of the fork, so while the idea was sound, in this instance, it was a waste of time. I’ve since centralised the wheel again back where it originally was, by measuring from the tyre to fork leg.

…until you find out that the forging was welded on pissed in the factory. No more vino at lunchtime for you Mario.

This is just a useful reminder that while some people treat Lambrettas as perfect works of art, in reality, they were mass-produced by humans. As such, they contain flaws, bodges and newer models were increasingly cheaply made.

From an engineering, aesthetic and quality point of view, the TV175 Series 3 was one of Innocenti’s high points.

What do you consider the most exciting new bit of Lambretta information in volume 4?

There are quite a few new sections: for instance, fitting 5-speed gearboxes and a whole load about aligning endplates, which is increasingly important with motors being built using parts from disparate sources.

Gearbox endplate

The revelation that I liked best was learning that there are now ways to save old casings that you previously may have scrapped because interference fits were worn out, where the main bearing, rear hub bearing or engine mounts were replaced without using sufficient heat. There are now oversized versions of all these items available, so you can reuse damaged casings.

Did you ever envision we’d be able to buy 40-odd-horsepower off-the-shelf engines back then?

I’ve always followed scooter racing and tuning. I did the first-ever dyno tests in a scooter magazine at Allgear Tools in Coventry in the early 1990s with the Frankland brothers from Taffspeed and also with Mark Broadhurst. Back then, it took a shit-load of tuning, almost always of a TS1 kit, to get beyond 30hp.

I think the first race-winning Group 4 Lambretta I ever tried – Rob Miller’s – was around 25hp in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, people are regularly getting that out of lightly-tuned RT225s fitted with box exhausts. That’s how far tuning has come on.

As for the exotic engines like the Targa twin, GT300, SSR and SST; no, I never imagined we’d reach where we are now. All those engines are mentioned in the new book, but really, you need The Complete Spanner’s Lambretta Kit Book if you want to know more about those.

Which job do you hate the most on a Lammy?

I’m essentially someone who hates repetitive and pointless tasks, and when one annoys me sufficiently, I’ll put effort into making sure I don’t have to do it again. The first was fecking about taking off the bridge-piece nuts in order to access the exhaust or take off the side casing. That frustration is what lead to the development of the SLUK Clips ‘no drilling’ bridge piece fitting kit.

Eccentric scooterist

It was the same sort of frustration that drove the development of the Eccentric Brake Pins. Trying to get a decent back brake on a Lambretta has always been a pain. On some scooters they work fine, and on others they never seem to work. Eccentric Brake Pins allow you to improve the positioning of the shoes on dodgy casings. The feedback I’ve been getting from buyers of these kits has been very encouraging.

Phone mounts

The days of having a full-sized sat nav have pretty much ended but Lambretta riders want a neat solution for mounting their mobile phone. Sticky came up with this solution, and it’s been one of his best-selling items recently. Not all inventions/solutions have to be complicated.

A great idea

If I had to doff my cap to anyone else for a similar solution, it would be whoever first came up with the bolt-on side-panel bracket conversion for Series 1 and 2s.

Who the hell at Innocenti thought it was acceptable that you needed to deflate your spare wheel in order to fit it onto the scooter? So, you’ve taken off your flat rear wheel, and now you’ve fitted another flat wheel in its place. Which genius came up with that?

Thankfully, there is now a relatively easy solution. Chapeau sir!

What part would you like to see improved?

Most of the old Achilles heels (weedy clutches, twisting cranks, etc.) have been dealt with, but there is still one Lambretta weakness that I think can be bettered. However, that’s a forthcoming project, so I’m keeping those cards close to my chest for the moment.

Which part causes most Lambretta breakdowns?

Ignitions, I reckon.

The biggest and most welcome change since the last edition has been the new ignition systems. Finally, with the reliability of the Vape and Ducati Casatronic, I’m confident enough that I can set off for Europe without a spare stator plate in my bag. The old Ducati-based 6-pole ignitions (SIL, AF, BGM, etc., etc.) could last for years, or the stators could pack in suddenly with no warning. The IDM-based 4-pole ignitions were better, but the lights were weak at low revs. It was always a compromise.

The new edition recognises that lots of people have switched to Vape and Ducati Casatronic as the best options currently available. I’ve concentrated on supplying information on fitting and fault-finding these ignitions that’s not available anywhere else.

Entering Hungary from Romania by overloaded SX200.

If you could choose just one scooter to own forever, what would it be and why?

I’ve no plans to get rid of my trusty SX that I rode to Ukraine and all around Europe in 2015. If I remember correctly, that was a bare frame an old clubmate gave me for my 21^st birthday in the late 80s. Values have shifted quite a lot since then!

How about your own choice of engine for hard road use?

Much to my wife’s chagrin, I took the TS1 off her GP and fitted an RT225 because it’s better suited to the way she rides, and it’s simpler and more reliable. The RT will do 70mph+ on the motorway and use 30% less fuel and oil. However, she still would prefer the TS1 because it was more fun. Her other Lammy has a Quattrini 210 motor and that offers the rideability of the RT with the power of the TS1, even with a prototype Casa Performance box exhaust.

For newbie Spanner’s readers and less experienced Lambretta owners, what advice would you give them about looking after their scooters?

The classic 2-stroke top-tip would be to ride with a hand over the clutch at all times, and to listen to your engine. If you can learn how it behaves when it’s running well, then it’s much easier to spot when something isn’t right. It’s always better to stop and intervene than to carry on when the engine is unhappy and risk damaging it.

The other thing I’d suggest for newbies is to take your Lambretta for an MoT test, even if it isn’t legally required. An old scooter really needs checking over once a year as a minimum, and a routine MoT test will highlight problems with the tyres, brakes or lights that might otherwise be overlooked.

What would you say is the most controversial topic when it comes to Lambretta engines?

2-stroke oil mix ratio is a hot topic on every forum. I’ve updated the advice this time, not based on hearsay about which oils people like, but with evidence from people who actually take Lambretta crankshafts apart to check them. The difference in wear due to different oil qualities is hard to argue against, but there are those who will still swear by budget stuff. I wouldn’t trust Exol to lubricate a squeaky gate hinge, let alone an expensive scooter engine.

Has running E10 fuel been looked at in the latest book?

Yes it has. I’ve quoted advice from current 2-stroke engine manufacturers about use of ethanol fuels. My conclusion is that running on 10% ethanol fuel isn’t the greatest problem we face. You can make Lambrettas run ok on it for sure. A bigger problem is what happens to unused fuel and oil mixture in the petrol tank when the scooter is left for long periods.

What’s the most fun thing you’ve ever done on a scooter?

There’s loads. Winning two UK endurance races with the SLUK Racing team on an SS90 we built and riding with yourself (Iggy), Shaun and my son Sam is pretty high up there. Once could be a fluke, twice proves it wasn’t.

Riding Ferran’s PX in the Sahara during Vespa Raid Morocco was ace. There have been so many rallies and events with great friends that I wouldn’t change the life we’ve lived for any other. The scooter scene has been good to us. Normal people do not have as many friends or connections across the planet.

What’s next in the pipeline for Sticky?

Vespa Largeframe is next on the menu for a manual. In the meantime, I’m keeping my eye out for other scooter products that need making. Not pointless accessories, but solutions to real problems.

If it saves me time and effort then it will do the same for other scooterists.