Give me a J
This month Paul ponders the increasing popularity of Lambretta’s J Range, which now extends to the race track…
The J Range Lambretta is a little like the Vega range in that they have spent many years being unappreciated, while most other Lambrettas were very much coveted – Series 1, 2 and 3 machines especially. Funnily enough, the first Lambretta I (part) owned was a J125.
I bought it with a mate when we were 14. I don’t recall exactly where it came from, but most likely the garden or shed of some old fella round the corner. My mate Dave and I shared it, and I vaguely recall giving him a tenner from my evening teen job in a supermarket car parts concession.
It was brush-painted grey when we got it, had no lights fitted, and an exhaust that was hanging off and very noisy. I remember a brake cable being wrapped around it as the exhaust studs were broken or missing. We rode it on some fields in the summer holidays and I think it may have lasted only a few days before the exhaust totally fell off.
I don’t remember how we fixed it, whether the exhaust was replaced or welded up, but we must have done something because we repainted it metallic green with some black pin stripes. We sat in the double garage at Dave’s house masking it out and then had an argument. When I turned up one day to paint it, Dave had already done so and I wasn’t keen on the colour!
We patched up our friendship and sort of put it all back together; well as much as a couple of 14-year-olds were likely to at least. I remember it starting up and running in his garage, creating clouds of two-stroke smoke. Dave’s mum came back from work and decided she wanted to ride it around the garden, which didn’t go well as she had no idea and rode it into a brick wall after confusing throttle, brakes and gears.
She hit the brick wall at a fair pace and I don’t actually remember what happened to it after that if
I’m honest.
What prompted me to remember this? Well my old race buddy Mark Shirley has a garage full of Js and associated paraphernalia, indeed he’s become something of an authority on these humble machines. Most recently he’s built a race version which I saw for the first time in the autumn.
Mark gave the bike a run out during practice sessions for the BSEC eight-hour race, and it certainly didn’t disgrace itself. Seeing a J Range on a track for the first time brought a smile to my face. They are relatively rare and certainly weren’t a model that really ‘caught on’ in the performance stakes!
The J Range body was different from other Lambrettas and in some ways could be described as the Lambretta that thought it was a Vespa, but perhaps just not as good. However, I guess that just like the Vega range they are finding themselves becoming more popular and even a few parts are now available to improve performance. They are quirky machines and while having some design elements of other Lambrettas they are seen by some as one of the black sheep of the Lambretta family, with neither overall design nor performance as a redeeming feature. If you can pick one up you’re highly unlikely to be paying the often crazy prizes of the more desirable models.
One of endurance racing’s attractions is that almost any geared full-bodied scooter can be made to work, after all outright performance matters way less than staying together and not crashing over eight hours. I occasionally see a J Range customised but they are few and far between and I think I like that; the opportunity to own something a bit different is great. Following Mark Shirley around a racetrack on his race version I found myself smiling as I tried to get past him. The Lui line race scooters are equally fun to see on track too, and surprisingly nimble.
For now, Mr Shirley is singlehandedly putting J Ranges on track but in doing so has definitely sparked some interest. Of course with other Lambrettas having already benefited from so much development there is always the opportunity for that technology to filter down on to these niche machines.
I’m all for seeing the quirkier scooters out on the road, or even more so the racetrack; there aren’t loads of them about so we should rejoice in having these different machines in our world. Variety keeps things alive and you’ve got to love some quirkiness in our world.
I’m all for seeing the quirkier scooters out on the road, or even more so the race track...