There was a time when the USA was number 1 in about everything, and that time was from the early 1950s up to the late 1960s when we put a man on the Moon, literally. At the same time, there was a store in the good old USA where you could get about everything you need, and that store was SEARS. One of the items SEARS sold from late 1952 until 1967 were Italian Vespa scooters, marketed as ALLSTATE models. You could buy one from SEARS by mail order and have it delivered to the most remote corner of the country.
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SEARS' competitor was Montgomery Wards, and Montgomery Wards' house brand was Riverside. So after years of selling scooters, in mid-1962, Montgomery Wards finally followed SEARS' example and sold a motorscooter under the Riverside name. It was a stock Lambretta 125Li with 3 Riverside badges added. The standard model -- without as much as a speedometer -- sold for $369, whereas the Deluxe model, luxuriously equipped with not only a speedometer but a passenger seat and rear-mounted spare wheel as well, sold for a meager $415. That was roughly 10 to 12 percent what you had to pay for a pretty standard passenger car back in the day. Yet the love affair lasted only about a year, for the duration of the 1963 model year, and consequently, few of the 1963 Lambretta Riverside models were sold. Click on the image to the left for an XXL-sized view |
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Of those few sold, only a fraction survived the ravages of time, the abuse and neglect of an item that was never intended to survive half a century to begin with. These scooters were ridden hard and put away wet. They were abused by teenagers and then pushed into a corner of the garage, or, worse, left to rot under a tree in the back yard.
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But not this one. This one is special. It's an "all original" 1963 Lambretta Li125 Riverside, so original that it still has some of the original air in the original tubes that are inside the original tires! VIN *125LI3071724* was found in a blacksmith shop in Nebraska in early 2012, with only 400 miles on the odometer. Consequently purchased by a long-time scooter collector from Paso Robles, Calif., it had never been registered until I was able to purchase it from him at age 70, when he developed a medical condition and realized that his scooter days were over. Now with slightly over 500 miles on the clock, I am experiencing the joy of riding an almost new Lambretta, 50 years after it was manufactured! Click on the image to the left for an XXL-sized view |
No other than now legendary sex symbol Jane Mansfield was hired to promote the 1963 model line of Lambrettas, now nicknamed "Slimstyle" as they were indeed slimmer now than ever before.
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Click on any of the above images for a full-size view
If you are ready to be amused, enlarge the above pages of the factory brochure and get amazed about how horribly they failed to translate the Italian brochure into English. It's outright hilarious!
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Unlike a Vespa, which has a unibody, a Riverside features an actual frame. Vespa fans point out that a Vespa is lighter and easier to throw around, whereas Lambretta fans claim that a Lambretta is more solid, sturdier, and has more class. Compare a Ferrari to a Lamborghini and you'll get a similar response.
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Only available in one unique color, beautifully named "Blue Sky Iseo," the '63 Lambretta Riverside exibits the typical Sixties' charme of Italy's la dolce vita. To keep production costs down, even the aluminum horn cover and handlebar controls are dipped in blue paint, whereas these items come beautifully polished on less pedestrian models. Tires and tubes are the long obsolete, original italian CEATs. For safety's sake I have taken them off and put in storage; a set of new PIRELLI SC30 tires with vintage profile is now being used for riding duties.
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Removing the side covers is a matter of moving one lever per side. Visible to the right is the ignition coil, the single shock, as well as the primary drive and the large kick starter; visible to the left is the carburetor with air filter and the fan housing. The big box in front is the glovebox, the one in the back is the fuel tank. Nope, there is no battery here as it's simply not needed. A magneto produces all the electicity for the 6-volt ignition system and lights, once the engine is running.
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The Lambretta sits two adults comfortably, but with only 5.2 horses on tap, it's not a freeway flyer by anyone's standard. Riding solo it accelerates . . . um . . . okay, and the top speed is about 45mph. Should the engine ever need work, I may consider a sensible upgrade to a 150cc or even 175cc top end that will improve acceleration considerably, without being detectible to anybody but an expert having a very close look at the engine itself. Notice the old California black license plate. Yep, it's assigned to this scooter, and for me having a black plate is an essential item. Click on the image to the left for an XXL-sized view |
What turns me on even more is the incredible aroma. Since I run the 2-stroke engine with castor oil in the fuel, you not only see me coming, but you'll smell me from a distance. Made from castor beans, castor oil is 100% natural and a great laxative, as pilots in WWII found out first hand. It has such a unique smell that I went to the auto races as a young lad, in large part to get my intoxicating fix!
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Having ridden my Lambretta for several hundred miles now, I can't believe that I waited so long to revive my youth. Back in 1974 and '75, I had a similar scooter, and riding this one now reminds me of the good old days!
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Click on any of the above images for a full-size view
Last edited on Monday, March 3, 2014.