T U R I S M O   IN   L A M B R E T T A


TWO LAMBRETTA SCOOTERS
ALMOST 50 YEARS OF AGE
DISCOVER THE US:
8500 KM COAST TO COAST
AND THEN TO CANADA
THROUGH DEATH VALLEY




What an emotion to be finally able to make real one of our lifelong dreams, and one shared by every good American too, that is to travel across the United States Coast to Coast.  We even had a historical motivation for this adventure, for we linked it to the origin of the Lambretta A scooter and to its 50th birthday the following year.
Maybe not everybody knows the story. At the end of World War II Ferdinando Innocenti, in his Rome office, planned to reconvert to civil uses his badly bombed manufacturing plant in Milan-Lambrate. This was the origin of the tiny scooter - Lambretta A. Its launch largely depended on the goodwill of the US army, which at the time was controlling the Innocenti plant, considered of strategic importance. But the Lambretta A, the first motor-vehicle designed and built by Innocenti, did not meet with the success its inventor had expected, despite an advertising campaign which was very intense and innovative for the times. Thus, 2,000 pieces went unsold in Italy and were dispatched overseas to the American markets. A substantial part of the Lambretta scooters reached the United States. In fact, the design of the Lambretta had been adapted to the American taste: the "Yankee style" bent handle-bar, the leather-covered saddle, the advertising campaign with the young cowboy trying to tame this modern "bull" and, last but not least, the march tune introducing spots on the radio were clear signs of this adjustment.
Coming back to our adventure, the robustness of Lambretta scooters had already been experienced during the "raid" Milan to Cape North and back again.
After a painstaking check of the mechanics and some slight changes in the thermal group and the crankshaft, we dared a further (not irreversible) modification, which was to allow us to use a fuel-mix with 2% oil instead of 5-6%. This modification, devised by Bruno Strigini departing from the original design, was necessary in order to increase the scooter's reliability – to cover the endless American plains – and it was also essential to comply with the strict anti-pollution laws of some of the States we were to cross.
The two Lambretta scooters, a model A of 1947 and a model 150 D of 1953, were shipped to New York by container.  There, our friend Gene kindly made them ready for our departure.
We cannot hide that the idea of this new adventure was tremendously exciting to us. While traveling the first few days, however, we were terribly worried. We thought maybe we had not carried out all the necessary checks or we had left behind some important spare parts. But the easy travel gave us an increasing feeling of security and we felt more and more certain we would reach our final destination.
The departure was set for July 1rst. After the indispensable group photograph, some fellow scooter-riders accompanied us through the city. Gene went ahead with blinking lights and helped us leave the "big Apple" and take road 46th. Turning south-west,  we crossed New Jersey and Pennsylvania and arrived directly on the buttress of the Appalachian mountain chain, a region of wild beauty which divides the Atlantic coast from the central plains.
Contrary to what one usually thinks, only a few kilometers away from New York you come across huge green areas, almost impenetrable forests where wild animals find refuge and reproduce in all tranquillity. On our way, we saw many animals. Fawns crossed the road, as well as porcupines, skunks, tortoises and foxes. The only danger to them are cars, which might inadvertedly hit them.
We did not choose to pass York (Harley Davidson) and Gettysburg by chance, as the latter stands for one of the most important historical monuments in the United States. Indeed it was there that during the Civil War the two armies fought, leaving more than 50,000 dead behind.
On July 4th, the American Independence Day, "everybody goes everywhere", just as we had been told. There is intense but disciplined traffic caused by families who have decided to spent their holiday away from home with friends, in the mountains, on the lakes, simply "everywhere". There are camping vehicles of any kind, all have their little flags and many people wear stars and stripes on their shirts or in their hair. You actually feel they are proud of being American: and with good reason too, the States are great in everything...
 On our tiny scooters and with our small luggage behind, the mountains seemed even higher. When we took "route 50" to Cincinnati we realized we could do with at least another 30 hp, especially when on the serpentine mountain roads we kept hearing just behind us the noise of the radiators of the huge trucks, as big as houses, incessantly crossing the US. But drivers are extremely correct and did everything they could to overtake us without causing any problems.

The unsatisfactory performance of the Lambretta scooters on reaching the mountain peaks could be endured, since we were certain we would find an exciting road downhill  on the opposite side. Heads down on the descents, we did in fact give a hard time to the brakes and sometimes also to the frames of our scooters.

The low speed, on the other hand, allowed us to appreciate the natural scenery and the scent of woods. We crossed Lexington, with its huge ranches where some of the most famous race horses are bred, and the prairies of the Central States, St. Louis, the upland plain of Ozark and Ford Scott, frontier points of the first pioneers.

During our trip we realized that one of the favoured pastimes of Americans is cutting down the grass and the most popular motor-vehicle, after the car, is the lawn mower. You can see this by the extreme care taken of green spaces everywhere you go.
We also noted that road surfaces are not always smooth and the lack of shock absorbers forced us into the position of the young cowboy shown in the advertising for the Lambretta A. But the result was scarcely successful. In the end, we had to clench our teeth and take good hold of the handle bar in order not to be thrown off the saddle.
 

In the course of the long drives across Illinois and Missouri and through the upland plains of Kansas, we managed to drive up to 35 km with 1 liter, whereas in the mountains our average lowered to 20-25 km per liter. Refueling has never been a problem for our scooters, thanks to the great number of petrol stations and to the spare tank we carried along, just in case. The lack of ready-made fuel mix though forced us, at every refueling, to carry out the long process of oil adding, which we all know.

In this way, howevever, we managed to adjust the percentage of oil to the kind of road we were to take. A bit more when we had steep climbs ahead, a bit less for roads crossing plains.
Petrol stations are open around the clock (great!) and are also equipped with shops where you can find all kinds of soft drinks, biscuits, fruits and even adhesive tape, mirrors, postcards, every type of lubricant and fuel additives. We often had a quick breakfast or  some tasty hot dogs. You can have ice and cool water as much as you wish and all this is a great help to travelers like us.
 

Our aim to reach San Francisco and Vancouver did not prevent us from frequently stopping to get to know more of this great country. Indeed there are signboards everywhere clearly indicating places of historic or natural interest, and we followed their instructions for our cultural breaks, which also granted some rest to our engines and – to our spines. At every stop, we checked whether our luggage was stored safely and everything else in good order. In the evening, we checked bolts, pressure and state of the tyres, brake cables and lights. Oil levels were not controlled so frequently, as we never noted any leakage.

Driving west we came upon the high plains of Kansas, a perfect setting for the heroic conquest of new territories. There, you can still breathe the scent of past times. Dodge City, Cimarron, Fort Garland, Alamos, the Great Plains with their villages and the people, all of it reminding us of the famous stories of Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, Sitting Bull...

In Colorado, one of the most popular holiday States, we discovered the Rocky Mountains, the Great Sand Dunes and the National Forest with the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen. Our Lambretta scooters had to overcome this impressive natural bulwark, once used as a natural defense by the Indians ambushing the pioneers traveling to California.

The visitor at first sees Death Valley from the top of the mountain chain which encompasses it. It has to be surmounted, only to rush headlong downhill on the other side, along an endless descent, followed by a vast expanse of blinding salt with dry zones and sand dunes. There are remains of prehistoric settlements and of a borax mine. Just think the mineral had to be transported by a draught of 15 mules! The area is easy to cross in an air-conditioned 4x4, but on board a scooter the trip becomes unbearably hot. Even if there is a breath of air, it is extremely hot: our helmets, clothes and everything it touched was white-hot. With the experience acquired in the Sahara, we knew we had to make some extra stops in order to cool off the scooters and wet our faces and clothes with the small supply of water we had with us. Despite the hostile environment, we have to admit that the emotional drive was strong enough to make us bear a temperature nearly reaching 47°C (in the shade).
The scarce cooling of the Lambretta A caused signs of mechanical seizure and it seemed advisable to rest during the hottest hours of the day and to continue at dusk, when temperatures go down to more human levels. Thus we left Death Valley conscious of having asked too much of our Lambretta scooters, even if the final destination, Vancouver, seemed within reach.
 

Only the Sierra Nevada now separated us from San Francisco and we arrived there in just two days and a half, including a trip across the Yosemite National Park, where at a height of 3000 meters we admired an alpine scenery of incredible beauty.
It has to be mentioned that during the whole trip we never encountered any other scooters and the vast majority of vehicles on two wheels were large motorbikes. This is easy to understand if you think of the huge distances and consider the fact that the low speed of scooters makes them an obstacle to traffic. This is the home of the Harley Davidson bikes and the bikers who ride them are like any Italian Harley Davidson fan would like to be. However, contrary to Italy, in the States everybody greets each other, and they all have their license plates in the right place, while the fashion trend of the blue light is practically unknown.
 

If you are parked on the side of the road, people stop and ask whether they can help you, they keep telling you that they would be happy to ride a Ducati and they consider you one of their kind, once they find out that you are doing all this for the love of your Lambretta!

We reached San Francisco only 20 days after leaving New York and we consider this a real achievement, especially because our Lambrettas did not show any signs of "weariness". After a quick cleaning of our vehicles, we allowed ourselves a visit of the city including the steep Lombard Street, Chinatown and the Italian district of North Beach.

Leaving San Francisco via the Golden Gate bridge, we took north along the coastline. Marvelous beaches, splendid natural scenery, both protected and respected, serpentine roads, undulating between age-old eucalyptus woods. All the place seemed to have been created for two-wheels – in short, a paradise for scooter drivers. Whole colonies of seals and sea lions live undisturbed on the coast and attract numerous tourists.
At Legget we felt almost obliged to cross the "Chandelier Tree", a giant sequoia tree with a 6-meter diameter trunk and a tunnel in the middle large enough for a car – or two Lambretta scooters at the same time. We then took the "Road of Giants" and admired some of the biggest trees on earth, a few of them more than 60 meters tall. We continued along the coastal dunes of Oregon, the green State of Washington, Seattle, and at last we reached the Canadian frontier and Vancouver.
 

25 days after having left New York our mileometers marked 8480 km!
Finally we could hug our old friends Mike and Elyssa, who had anxiously followed our adventure through the phone calls we made every now and then along the road. As guests of our friends, we relaxed for a brief fishing holiday in British Columbia, on a lake among woods where you easily meet bears.
 

In Vancouver we left our Lambretta scooters in goods hands, feeling a little melancholy. After having meticulously cleaned and checked them, they were ready for the long trip back through Canada to New York, which meant another 6500 km.
Maybe not even its inventor could have imagined that this tiny vehicle, conceived for short trips, would be capable of similar achievements!
 

We have certainly never thought that a Lambretta scooter was the ideal vehicle for crossing the United States with just the strictly necessary luggage for a month of roaming, but we have ascertained that a sound mechanical preparation, a little experience and lots of enthusiasm are the basis for the success of this kind of enterprise.

Thank you, Lambretta – and all our thanks to our friends Carlo, Dante and Bruno, who  contributed to the engine tuning of the two scooters.
We will be pleased to give any information resulting from our experiences and  concerning the mechanical preparation of these scooters for long raids.

Tino and Nadia Sacchi