NEW OLD STOCK LAMBRETTA?
It’s not very often you come across a New Old Stock Lambretta 200!
Okay I know its Spanish but it does count, Spain were the last European Lambretta manufacturers to shut down some 16 years after Innocenti. This is a real Lambretta and not a made up plastic thing and it’s not a restored one. Okay it does have some plastic on it and it does have some fibreglass, thats late Spanish models for you! But it is European and it is a 2 stroke!
This is a very late Orbar Spanish Lince 200 from 1988. It’s only got 5km on from the factory, around 3km was factory testing and the rest is from been pushed around workshops.
I came across it by a chance meeting last year at the Maico weekend in Derbyshire where I met up with my old mate Perry Lewis and over dinner he asked if I was interested in it. At the time I wasn’t, my collection had out grown its self and I was in the selling mood not buying.
Then in one week out of the Blue two people asked me for Lambretta legshield badges for a Series 3 Spanish 150 from the mid 1960’s where the holes are different. With rubbings from both customers we looked into it and couldn’t find anything to fit. This reminded me of a very nice limited edition Spanish book which was kindly sent to me years ago. After reading it I didn’t get the badge answer but looked at how many Spanish bikes were built in the last years and it was very little.
Back to Perry – a bit of Spanish expert and collector and he still had it, the deal was done and he delivered it as well.
Now my first Scooter was a Spanish 72 Li150. I wouldn’t say Im mad about Spanish bikes. But I do like them, they are so different and nearly everyone you see is different to the next. It’s the same with Indian bikes, it’s why I still have my Pushpak possibly the first to come into the country many years ago! They are all different and I would stop to look at a genuine old Indian or Spanish over the hundreds of White Tv/Sx/Gp 200 replicas or AF S types that mean nothing to me – seen one – seen them all.
Further reading found in 88 there was only 245, 200 bikes produced – making it one of the most rarest of rare Lambrettas!
But what do you do with a NOS bike? Some over the years have turned up I’ve worked on them! But these have been put on the road and then used. Then they are not NOS! Its the same with cars and bikes – what do you do with them, most agree they are museum pieces and thats what I’ve done, Ive added it in our show room collection for everyone to see.
Having read the history of Spanish manufacturing its turns out at some point they got involved with Honda, now it just so happened I had a Japanese import 4×4 Honda Acty micro pick up van – our delivery van – a plan came together!
The Scooter had been covered in wax oil at one point. Neil set about with the degreaser and hot air gun to clean it all off and get everything back to how it left the factory. There was obviously some war wounds, a few scratches which we blended in, a couple of small dints which we got out, the paint was faded, so was polished and some small rust spots where cleaned up. But nothing else was done, apart from panels we didn’t remove one part to do it which all adds to its history!
This one was found in a closed down Lambretta shop in Madrid, exported to the UK to a collector then onto Perry then me.
What makes this one so special is it comes with all the paperwork from the delivery from the factory with photos of it in the shop.
It includes paperwork for the shop selling it and paperwork for the customer to fill in. It also includes the manual, 8 keys – 2 for each lock – ignition, steering, toolbox and seat. It’s even got the NOS tool roll and left hand extend mirror. We added the later type fly screen to make it a bit more special.
After this article was on Facebook we found a NOS 200 in Kent and another in the Canary Isle – making this is a rare beast!
Any comments email mark@mbscooters.co.uk
