Llamberger

In all my time nothing prepared me for the call I received a few weeks ago from a fellow Taff named Andy from Bangor in North-west Wales and a request to help him get a rare motorcycle running.

you see Andy has put a 2002 FE400e engine in a Lambretta Scooter. I would have just called it a Lamberger but as he's from North wales see boyo - it's got to be Llamberger!



Andy came down on Friday and we listened to the dreadful din it made when he finally got it running. We knew it was the cam chain completely shot so we let Andy get to grips with ripping the engine out. You see, Andy has welded a neat little support arm that is perfect for supporting the kickstart. this unfortunately doesn't facilitate removing the sidecover so it was an engine out job.



he made up this front cowl for the radiator out of something he found in the kitchen and on the front face the fairing has 100 neat little holes in it for it to ventilate.



we discovered that there were some loose nuts in there and he was lucky it was still running so we did a complete engine strip and replaced as much as we could with used parts, sometimes with no wear and other times when his was so badly worn it that we had better in the rubbish! But the work he has put in has to be seen. for three years his wife hasn't even seen him! 8O 8O 8O



the underside shows a custom exhaust that comes down neatly behind the riders legs, goes forwards and then back, also you'll see a power shifter for changing gear that he's fitted. gearing is 16 x 28 which he says it won't quite pull but I'm hoping that all the neat engine work will make it work better.



we left Andy at the end of the day with a rebuilt engine and a 250 mile drive home at 8pm. he'd got up at 4am to come down....

so can I ask you all to give glowing praise to this guy and say a bloody well done to him!

I'll write more as we go....but for now have a look at the work he's done!

regards

Taffy

Nice

This must be one powerful scoot. :cheers:

Andy initially showed me how he started it as the leccy boot isn't interested. He unclipped this kickstart arm he'd got clipped to the underside of the seat and held in by little rubber 'O' rings:



he then swung into action by fitting it and duly starting the bike up:



later on when we had to have the engine out he explained how he had welded the Husaberg frame STRAIGHT ONTO THE LAMBRETTA FRAME!!!!



the swingarm then mounts as ours would but at a very steep angle so he has to have a tensioner roller to stop the chain flopping around on the back run.



gearchanging is done as said by using a power shifter at the left bar which he says works great! simply pull in the clutch and tap the correct button!



At 8pm we had only done the engine and Andy was invited to stay overnight and we'd start again Saturday but he'd had enough of my jokes and insisted he couldna take no more and left with the engine ready to be fitted again.



confession time: sorry i didn't take more photos of the platform, the front, and even the whole bike but Andy has said he'll possibly join us and I hope he'll add those finishing photos.

regards

Taffy

That's a bad a$$ set-up! Nice job! :cheers:

That is some Lamby. I had several Lambrettas in the late 70's & we used to mess about tuning the standard GP200 engine up to a massive 225cc. There was areally good racing specialist in Watford (Arthur Francis) I think it was called who could supply all the trick bits but man - nothing like that.

The standard Lambretta engine was laid flat - in line with the back wheel and the clutch / gearbox / chain & transmission was all in an enclosed elongated casing that ended up with the rear wheel hub. The single shock was also mounted onto this engine casing and a thick spine frame Mono tube) went up by the seat and over the back on top of the lump; so what this chap has done is amazing - new custom swing arm & everything.

Love to see some finished pics, see it on a track & most of all listem to it..

Well done.

Is this site healthy?

or maybe people are just blase?

:| :|

Taffy

Insper friggin ational is the first thing that pops into mind. They must have some serious drugs in Andys town. The bloke could almost be a Kiwi with such inginuity. Not sure them little wheels would be overly stable when hitting the rev limiter in top (wild as speeds with a 1.75 gear ratio).
The amount of time and effort that would have to have gone into the body work alone is more than most would ever consider putting in.
Good on you and well done to Taffy for wrenching that man a motor to fulfill his dream. The motorcycle industry world wide needs more people of his ilk, but so many in the industry only look at the short term $.
Keep up the good work gentlmen, your an inspration.( and somebody give that man Andy a job as he obviously has too much time on his hands)
L8a's... DSJ.

from this photo you can see that the fuel tank is handmade and hugs the engine. also note the footboards hug the shape of the engine - all made by Andy.



I need to get full photos of the whole completed bike because I can only think some people can't grasp what a job he's done until they see it 'blinged' up (sorry froggy!).

regards

Taffy

The Lambretta is a work of art, I would love to ride that to the local coffee shop Bloody well done Andy!!
I couldn't help but think of Crispin's bleeding leg when I saw that Kick Start thingy Andy has made though.

BERGBRO said:

The bloke could almost be a Kiwi with such inginuity.

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Bergbro, we talking Burt Munro KIWI ingenuity with the Lambretta full noise down Bonneville salt flats?

Taffy said:

Is this site healthy?
or maybe people are just blase?
:| :|
Taffy

Click to expand...

Don't know about "Blase" but I am getting a touch of déjà vu :lol:
From memory I think the site is healthy but that other post went off on a few snake, thirsty lizard (or bottle opener) and flying regina tangents so I am not sure.
Json might have said the "server" is unhealthy cause the auto login doesn't work. Maybe that is where the confusion is? Server unhealthy not site unhealthy.
Lineweaver is still here so that is a plus.
You did a freaken marvelous job on the Doco. Another plus.
You took a cheap shot with your comment in Looki's post "great video! no need for a 570 then i take it? :twisted: " So that's a sign of a healthy site when we can take the piss out of each other. :lol:
Seemed like a healthy bunch of donations last month so that is a another plus.
Even Tuts popped his head into UHE this week.

I like it Taffy

be great if more people built their own stuff like this

the kickstarter is very cool

fantastic work,but i would have to agree with bergbro,if you would go any faster than 40mph...i think it would like looking down the barrel of a gun.
admiring the design of those things are safer than riding them.

last coupla shots that are different enough:
this first one shows how Andy welded the two frames together and also note all the electrics on a post with a huge hinge at the top. as with all the rebuilds I do, Andy no longer has the kickstart or manual decomps so it will be a little simpler to work around the bike now.


here is one of the electrics from another angle. note also the sheer bloody width of that centre stand, the breather on top of the engine, the electrics in the black box for the shifter mechanism. That's Fraser from UHE in the background...wishes it was his in pink i reckon... :twisted: :twisted:



regards

Taffy

Taffy said:

That's Fraser from UHE in the background...wishes it was his in pink i reckon... :twisted: :twisted:

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Plumbbob Fraser is one of "Blase" people who never commented on the Lambretta. Give him a good ol fashioned bollocking while you have him in your sights. :lol:

popup said:

fantastic work,but i would have to agree with bergbro,if you would go any faster than 40mph...i think it would like looking down the barrel of a gun.
admiring the design of those things are safer than riding them.

Click to expand...

As I mentioned earlier - Arthur Francis Racing used to tune lambrettas and there was a proper racing class. Speeds up to about 90mph on the track - mental. Even I at 18 used to get about 80 out of mine on the road (straight line mind) - 40mm dell-orto down draft bell end / skimmed head / big bore cylinder / polished ports / racing front sprockets. Some used to put fuel injectors (off old lorries) on them.

I did a couple of total strip down versions with knobblies on for dirt biking in the gravel pits / no panels at all, just the tube frame / wheels & engines - no bloody travel though..lol. Had loads more fun than my mates on their standard Yamaha RD250's.