Alwaysbreakdownwhenyou’reonyourown...Brilliant, now Icould
thrash my Lambretta
around the country, safe in
the knowledge that if it blew
up Iwould still get recovery
back home. Brilliant!Riding to rallys with pals is always fun,unless you are the only one keepingthem on the road!T
he problem with owning a
Lambretta was nomatter how
competentamechanic you
were, anythingcould go
wrongand at anygiven time.
Even ifeverythingseemed okayonce out
on theopen road,if apartwanted to fail
it would. Usuallyit was going to do so
withoutanypriornotice .One benefit,
though, wasthatyou could often do a
roadside repair or bodge to keep the
thinggoing.Justenough perhapsto limp
home.There were times though, when it
would be terminalandthat's when the
real issues started.
For years the major breakdown
organisations lookeduponthe Lambretta
asaloss-makingexercise.Ifthey
provided recovery to someone
owningascooter, whowas a
member, then more than likely
itwouldcostthemalotof
money in the long run... given
the numberoft imes itwould
probably need picking up and
recoveringhome.Itdidn'thelp
when, in the1980s, many
scooter ridershad, shall we
say,‘self-i nflicted’a
breakdown.Thistogetafree
ridehomeinapick-uptruckrather than
ridethe sc ooterhundreds of miles aftera
heavy weekendatarally .The bi gtwo, the
RACandtheAA,hadpicked uponthe
fact andwere no longer offeringfree
recovery,and certainly nottosomeone
owningavintage Lambretta.Int hatcase,
whatwas th epoint injoining?It seemed
stupidtopay an annualmembership that
was, in reality,worthless. If youcould fix
it yourself,you would. If youcouldn't,you
could haveamechaniccome outand
agree withyou but still leaveyou stranded
in th emiddle of nowhere. Pointless.
So, forseveral yearsIhad got by with
not beingamembe rofamotoring
organisation, even thoughsometimesit
hadbeentouchand gowhether I’dget
my ‘faithful’Lambrettabackhome.It
seemedby the early1990sthoug h, the
AA hadbegunto change theirattitude
towardsscooters. Perhaps theywere
strugglingfor members.Who knows,but
now there wasanincenti ve tojoin. They
wereofferingayear'smembershipwith
up to four freerecoveries within that
period.More importantly,this now
includedanyone withavintage vehicle,
evenaLambretta!
Brilliant,now Icould thrash my
Lambrettaaroun dthe country,safe in
theknowledgethatifitblewup,Iwould
still getrecoveryback h ome. Brilliant! If
it wa ssomethingsimplelikeasnapped
throttlecable thenfair enough,Iwould
fixit.Butfromnowon,anyrepairthat
neededmajor roadside surgery, even if it
couldbesorted, was goingtobedone
back home. Therewasastrict clause,meaning onceyou hadbeen given four
recoveries within the 12-month
subscription periodyou wouldhaveto
payfrom then on.Let's faceit th ough,
even withbad luck, at best itwasonlya
coupleof times each rallyseasonthat
thei rservices would be needed.
After years working on LambrettasI
hadmadethemfairl yreliable, even the
tunedones. Without hesitation,Isigned
up andhanded over75 quid to give
me peaceofmindwhenitc ameto
going on rallies.
As it tr anspired,mymembership
arrivedtwo days beforethe big rally of
theyear downinDevon. Fiveofuswere
travellingtogether on threeLambrettas,
andthoughit wa s200-odd miles away,
it seemedafairly routine journey.Itwas
exactly that,andwith al lofusjust
takingiteasy we gradually clocked themilesup. Th en in an instant,ita ll
began to unravel.The first sign that
thingsweregoingwrongbegantoshow
when thelead Lambrettasee med much
lowerinheight, andthenswerved
violently.Not surprising really ,asatthe
sametimeitspewedoutthecontentsof
its shockabsorber down theroad. The
fact thatall of us were looking slightly
worriedbecame evenmore apparentas
ittranspiredthatonlyIwasamember
of th eAAorany otherbreakdown
company.So, fo rnow,that had become
my Lambretta asIrang for assistance.
The mechanic, also realising it was
terminal, offered recovery home.We
wanted to get to the rallythough, so he
agreed to take it toascooter shopafew
miles away.With ashock absorber
bought and fitted, we were once
againback ontheroad.
For about 20 minutes all seemed
good until the next breakdown, a
blown head gasket. Again it was a
repeat of the same process, with
me ringing up for assistance and
recovery back to the same shop.
Within an hourIhad become the
owner ofasecond Lambretta as far
as the AA was concerned. This
repair took much longer,but by late in the
afternoon we finally made it to the rally.
Great, apart from the fact that two days
into my membershipIhad used half of my
free recoveries for the year.Onthe way
home it got worse, as this time both of the
other Lambrettas suffered terminal
failures. Though it involvedalot of name
swapping to convince the AA that it was
me who kept breaking down on two
different vehicles, we somehow managed
to blag it. By the timeIgot myself home
(incidentally,onatuned Lambretta that
ran perfectly the whole journey)Ihad used
all of my free recoveries for the year,in
less thanaweek!
Trying to work out how the hell that had
happened, there was only one conclusion.
From now on, go toarally without anyone
else and break down on your own. It's far
easier that way!