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Should you find yourself living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I would suggest you bid on this Rally 200 that is currently for sale on ebay. For the rest of us, I highlight this listing because it shows off a detail that only us scooter nerds would find interesting. The rear frame badge.

The Rally 200's were pretty similar throughout the 70's, but they differed in the small details. Here in the US, we got different switches and electrical systems, with at least three different versions. Maddeningly, none of them were the same as the European models, so spare parts for them are hard to find.

While the Euro models were much simpler with their electrics, they did get the (in my opinion) ugly large headlights. Sure, it is nice to see in the dark, but at what price... at what price!?

Now to the issue at hand here. The rear frame badge on this Rally is different from most of the later badges. Notice that the letters are all capital, compare that with the later badges, which have lower case letters. Also, the font is different from the later badges. I'm not sure how long these badges were used, but it must have only been the first group of the 200's that Piaggio made. I have only rarely seen these badges, and none of the US market scooters had them.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... While you may think you are looking at a mid-50's Vespa, these two scooters are actually the Soviet-made Viatkas.  The Vyatka was quite similar to the Vespa, but was heavier and slower.  It had larger wheels, and it looks like from the photo above, a grab handle at the back to pull it out of mud and snow.  All in all, the Soviets could have done a lot worse than their Vespa clone.  (The later models of Vyatka were Soviet designed.  Though they were utilitairan, they were style-less boxes on wheels) 

As far as I can tell, the Vespa-clone version of the Vyatka was made from around 1957 to 1965.  Supposedly three-hundred thousand were made.  If true, that is a pretty huge number, even compared to the real Vespa.  However, consider the harsh Russian climate, poor roads, and legendary poor build quality of Soviet vehicles... and as you can imagine, not many seem to have survived.  A handful of these have made it to the US.  Have never seen one in person, but there was actually one for sale recently in Utah.  I can't say that I would want one myself, but it is a very interesting side-note on the Vespa story.

BMW are launching a new luxury scooter this year. There was a time in the 50's when they toyed with the idea of competing with the likes of Vespa and Lambretta. They ultimately decided not to build their own scooter, but stick to motorcycles and bubble cars. It seems that the prototype BMW scooter still exists. This is it! Quite a substantial scooter. Note that you can just see the prototype Vespa peaking out from behind the BMW.

Photo from the always excellentVintagent blog.

Back in the 70's, some a guy from Southern California rode the Baja 500 on a Vespa Rally 180.  From the photos of the scooter, he didn't really do a lot to modify the scooter.  About all I could see was a legshield mounted spotlight, and a modification to the exhaust to have it go up and over the motor.  I think he also removed the front mudguard.  Needless to say, he didn't finish the race.  The only information I could find on it was that he had "carburetor problems."

Well, the Baja 500 is now the Baja 1000, and it is mainly the purview of big race trucks, and off-road motorcycles. Some guys think that they can do it on vintage Vespas. I wish them luck. The video above was about the only thing I could find on their site. I think it is the jalopy that one of the guys plans on riding. I'm guessing this is the pre-modified scooter. I wonder what he plans on doing to it!

You can find more information on their preparations here at Scootin the Baja 1000.

Robin B. is a friend who has been out of the scooter game for awhile. Recently, he decided to get another scoot. He's looked at quite a few, but settled on this really fine red 1974 Rally 200. I think he did quite well for himself with this one!

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been on vacation. I'm back for a week, then I'll be off again for another week. One of these days I'll figure out how to set posts to publish on a set date. In the mean time, it is just me pressing "publish."

Anyhow, Edward from the Philippines sent in a photo of his cool Vespa Sprint. Cool ride man!

Here's something I don't think too many vintage scooter fans have seen before: two different vintage Meyers Aircraft sidecars (Vespa models) compared side by side.

The history of steel-bodied scooter sidecars manufactured in America is kind of sketchy, but from what I've learned, a company called Meyers Aircraft in Georgia built steel-bodied sidecars for various motorscooters starting in the mid/late 1950s and into the mid 1960s. We've seen these on Vespas, Lambrettas, and Harley Toppers; they were probably available for other brands too, it's just not easy to find pictures or documentation on anything other than those three marques. The two shown here are both Vespa models; the early blue one is for 1950's widebodies, the later white one is for 1960's largeframes.

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What a cool sidecar rig. This photo was taken at Vespa World Days 2010 by Hugojcardoso.

Kristi, a friend of the site, sent us this great photo of her, a cute doggie, and a nice red Allstate Vespa. Thanks Kristi! She's involved with www.Americanpinups.tv, which you may want to check out. The photographer was Rene Soliz with Soliz Images photography. Rene did a great job, don't you think!

This Lambretta used to be owned by my friend Scott V. He sold it probably 10 years ago. I have no idea who owns it now, or who took this photo. It still looks pretty much how it did when Scott was riding it around San Francisco. This was originally a police scooter in New Jersey. There were just a handful of these D.L.'s sold in the U.S., and from what I can tell they were only sold to municipalities.

Here is one that I've never seen before. This is a Moto Guzzi scooter. I'm thinking that this was a prototype, and never actually went into production. It is a more fully formed scooter than the one that Guzzi is known for, the Galetto. This scooter is located at the Moto Guzzi museum in Italy. Does anyone know the story on this scoot? What is it? Was it ever actually put into production?

Photos by Scott Burton

I had to spend some time digging around in my storage a few weeks ago. I had to move a bunch of stuff out to get to something tucked in the back of the storage. This is my 90SS. I found it when I was living in Germany in the mid-90's, and shipped it back with me when I returned to the US. It has been living in my storage for a long time. Shuffling things around, I had to pull the 90SS out of where it was squeezed between a motorcycle and a scooter. It has not seen the light of day in at least 5 years. It is one of those scooters that I have on the "list" to do a full restoration. You know the old saying "when you have the time, you have no money... when you have the money, you have no time." Well, that is the case with this thing. I've been planning to restore this scooter for at least 15 years now... someday I'll get to it...

Gary from the Isle of Wight emailed us with photos of his Lambretta LD 150 Avv. He just rescued it from a friend's shed. Just in time, from the looks of it. The Avv is a bit of an odd duck. Innocenti decided that they wanted to make a bit of a "luxury" scooter, and adapted the LD. The Avv added electric start to the LD, along with 12 volt electrics. Gary's scooter has the accessory clock, but I'm not sure if that came standard on the Avv. What I am certain of is that the Avv was very expensive when it was new. It cost about as much as the hot rod TV 175 Series I. Consequently, very few were sold. I've seen a few for sale around the US, but not more than a handful. I sure would love to own one!

See a few more photos of Gary's scooter here on the main site.

Gary sent me some photos of his really nice Lambretta TV200. It took a bit of work to get it to the condition that you see here. He didn't do a full-on restoration on the scooter, but rather, did what I would call a "refresh". He painted some of it, but kept other parts original. You can see evidence of that with the old stickers that are still on the headset and tail light housing. Gary mentioned that it took a bit of fettling to get the motor dialed in, but that it is quite fast now. You can see a bunch of pictures on the main site here.

My friend Richard has owned quite a few really nice Lambrettas. Several were restored, but he was an early adherent to the concept that original condition scooters were the best to have. One of the really nice original condition scoots that he owns is this GP125. It really is in fabulous un-restored condition. You can see more shots of it on the main site here.

Friend of the site, Horacio, from Argentina, sent us this photo of his Siambretta LD. It sure looks nice! Siambrettas were Lambrettas built under license in Argentina. They built LD's, Series II's, and their own version of a TV175 Series III that looks very different from the standard Italian TV. The Siambrettas were never sold in the US, so I've never seen one in person.

Feel free to send us your photo, we love seeing scooters!

Friend of the site, Paul in North Carolina, emailed me awhile back when he found a Sears smallframe 125. He ended up buying in, and got it going with a little tinkering. As you can see in the photo above, the Sears 125 has some unique features. It was a one-year only model for Sears, and was sold the last year that they sold Vespas. It has the "mickey mouse" tail light that was produced by Siem to comply with US regulations for that year only. All in all, it was a great find, and you can follow Paul's adventures riding it on his blog.

It is not clear whether this is an original Vespa racer, or a re-creation. In either case, it is an amazing scooter!

Via: Team Vespa Barcelona

This is a photo of the prototype Lambretta twin cylinder motorcycle built in the early 1950's. This motorcycle was never actually put into production. One or two of the prototypes were made. At least one has survived, and is in a private collection in Italy. It was 250cc v-twin motor with a set-up like a Moto Guzzi. I believe that the bike was raced at some point.

This photo comes from Thomas in Sweden, a friend of the site.  He's showing off his very rare Svalan scooter.  The Swedes make all kinds of good stuff from solid Volvos, quirky Saabs, wonderful wood furniture, and neat objects with great design.  The Husqvarna motorcycle is known worldwide, and up until the 80's (I think), they were made in Sweden.  It is not surprising that someone up there decided at one point to try their hand at making a scooter.  From the bits of information on the internet, Svalan was a Swedish motorcycle manufacturer that used imported motors with home-built frames and other components.  Though they appear to have used imported motors for their motorcycles, they used Swedish motors for their scooter and moped.

You can see a nice scan of the inside of the 1955 brochure above, including the Svalan scooter, if you click here.   Would this goofy picture on the cover of the brochure entice you to buy one of their motorcycles?

Here is one that you just don't see very often, it is a Motobi scooter.  Just like the scooter boom of today, back in the late 50's/early 60's it seems that every motorcycle manufacturer tried to dip their toe into the scooter waters.  They saw the number of scooters that Vespa and Lambretta were selling, and wanted to get in on the action.  However, virtually none of these motorcycle manufacturers were particularly successful (with the possible exception of the Moto Guzzi Galletto). 

In the day, Motobi made some very fine motorcycles.  Like many Italian manufacturers, they focused on small displacement lightweight bikes.  It appears that they made two different models of scooters - the smaller "Picnic", which came in 75 and 125cc versions, and the Catria shown here.  I assume this came with the same 175cc motor in Motobi's Catria motorcycle.  I belive that the Catria motorcycle motor was four stroke.  That would make this scooter quite fast as well as quiet, and give less vibration than at two stroke. 

The scooter appears to have an earles fork set-up on the front, which would make braking quite a bit more stable than on a Vespa or Lambretta.  I'm guessing that this scooter was aimed clearly at the Lambretta TV175 Series I.  I'd sure be curios to ride this scooter to compare.  With its motorcycle-derived motor, I'm sure it was smooth and powerful.

Friend of the site, Olivier from Belgium sent in a few photos of his beautiful '51 ACMA Vespa.  The ACMA's were Vespas which were built under license in France.  As with almost all of the licensed Vespas, the ACMA's were technically somewhat behind the Italian made Vespas.  They had frames and motors from the older model Vespas.  (That may have been later because this one looks pretty similar to a '51 Italian Vespa). The ACMA's sourced some of the ancillary systems from French manufacturers.  So things like the electrical components, carburetor, and tires were French-made.  One of the most obvious differences on the ACMA's is the headlight, which was bolted onto the handlebars.  On the Italian Vespas, the light was on the front fender.  Though not aesthetically pleasing to my eye, I'm sure the technical function of the headlight on the ACMA was superior to that on the Italian Vespa of the same year.  I'm not sure if the typical French yellow light bulb helped any though!

More photos of Olivier's scooter below the jump.

This is the first in a new series for the Scooterlounge blog, the "Scooter Profile". I'll use this space to highlight interesting scooters that the Scooterlounge crew come across, both in person, and over the internet. We expect that many of these posts in the future will be photos that readers of the blog will email to us. I guess only time will tell.

The subject of our first feature is a very clean and original Lambretta TV 175 Series III owned by friend of the site, Gary C. He told us that he recently bought it from the original owner! You just don't see too many original owner Lambrettas any more, that's for sure. This one was certainly well loved, and it is in stunning condition.

More pictures below the jump