The great debate: Which is better Vespa or Lambretta?

Let´s face it, Lambrettas are the true essence of scootering, lean and mean, while Vespas are just a little bit camp. Lambrettas may take more loving and they certainly demand far more loyalty, passion and dedication than a Vespa ever does, but isn´t that the point of owning them? They damand that you a really engage with them. You have to know every nut and bold intimately and when you do they pay you back a hundred-fold. When a Lambretta is running right it´s a thing of beauty, powerful and responsive, jumping to your every command. Not wallowing around like an overweigth hippo with its engine hanging off to one side. Lambretta are the scooters we aspire to. No scooterist thinks "When I win the lottery I´ll get a brand new PX Disc in standard factory paint". Instead, we all think about buying a beautifully restored SX 200 or building a GP 225 TS1 with a pacemaker gearbox, a huge carb that sucks harder than bitch, a monster exhaust, loads of chrome and trick paint!

No, you can´t go to the dealer and buy a brand new Lambretta, which is excellent because it means that to won and run one you have to really know your stuff. You have to know the scene, where to hunt down parts, who the dealers are that can look after you and how to look after and service it.

Vespas are practical and dull. They are like fridges, tumble dryers and other white goods - you use them for a purpose and when the job is done you throw them back in the garage and forget about them. Lambrettas are the absolute opposite, they require love and attention, but in return they inspire. They may not be the last word in practicality, but they epitomise what drew most of us to scootering in the first place. The glitz and style of a well turned out Slimstyle Lambretta is unbeatable and irresistible.

I would like to finish my defence of Lambrettas, the greatest scooters of all time. In Quadrophenia, the film that started many of our scooter careers, the ponced up, phoney Mod, played by Sting is revealed as a fake, a sham and is so far up his own arse you wouldn´t want to spend a minute in his company and he rides a Vespa. All the lads, the blokes who´d you definitely have in your club or go on a run with all ride Lambrettas. I rest my case.

Excerpts from "The Unkown Scooterist" Scootering January 2005, (pages 21 - 23)

P. S. We like and ownVespas, too! But we are not friends of people hating Lambrettas!