Apparently there’s a lamby population in the city of Delhi. Not the run down and battered ones, but the ones in pristine condition and still able and runs around the countryside.
For those not in the knowledge, lambretta, owned by the Innocenti family, begun its life in much the same way as Piaggio did after the 2nd world war. With Italy suffering massive infrastructure harm, these two companies, Piaggio and Innocenti, having their own industries to defend, Piaggio was, and still is, an aircraft manufacturer and Innocenti seamless steel tube producers, invented what we all acknowledge and love today, the new scooter.
Though of dissimilar designs, these two scoots, the vespa and the lambretta ruled the European continent and in the long run disseminated to the India. I’ve no idea when the lambretta was introduced in the country also as who the distributor was, but judging from the respective photos I’ve seen there were rather a bit of those lambretta running around the streets of the India.
Unfortunately as destiny would have it, the Innocenti company closed shop in 1972 thereby signaling the death knell for the lambretta. Scooter India ltd. bought the engineering of Innocenti and started producing their own 2 wheeled scooters a small amount of years after that. S. I. L. ceased formulating 2 wheeled scooters in 1998.
Through all that adversity, the lambretta has pulled through with the passion and patience of their owners. The sleek and sexy design is actually something you can’t miss on the route. Narrow and long, the lambretta is a picture of elegance on the road.
Being a vespa rider myself, I’ve a particular affinity for the lambretta. These two scoots were rivals of the most eminent degree, outdoing one another with the release of every new model. This rivalry helped push the envelope of scooter design and engineering to what it’s today.
These scooters are restored to their pristine beauty to day by vespabretta of New Delhi India, in their better equipped workshop and able service staff.
So to the scooteristas on the route, when you see a lambretta on the road, regardless what the condition, give it a short honk as sign of the esteem it is worthy and deserving.
blaufraustein is a freelance writer
