Last month I got a chance to join up with other Lambrettisti on the annual LALO rally in San Francisco. LALO is the "Loose Association of Lambretta Owners," which really isn't an actual group, but just a few guys that organize this ride every year. It is Lambretta only. I think I've been on every one they have hosted. Usually I truck over from Oakland, but this year I rode over the Bay Bridge with my pal Pelayo.
The San Francisco area has a high concentration of classic scooters, and a ton of Lambrettas are among them. I guess that there were about 40 scooters on the ride this year. Some years have seen huge turnouts.
The weather, which can be quite chilly in San Francisco during our classic "summer," was actually fantastic this year. T-shirts and half helmets were out in full force.
We met up at the Orbit Room cafe, but alas it was not open!
There were a lot of cool scooters out, from fully restored, to moded out, to rat scoots.
David L. has been working on perfecting his Series I for a couple of years, and boy is it nice!
This scooter had a lot of trick performance modifications. It was the first Lambretta I have seen in the flesh that had the new 5-speed gearbox fitted. Respect!
There were loads of SX200's out for the ride. I think I counted 8 of them, with a few TV200's in the mix as well. I rode mine over the bridge, and it performed like a champ.
The LALO is one of my favorite rides of the year. Not so much for the ride itself, which is not nearly long enough for my tastes, but for the sheer joy of seeing so many great scooters in one place. It is really nice to re-connect with folks that I don't get to talk to very often. Tip of the hat to John Quintos for keeping it going!