Small Piaggio badge on a Rally

Yes, it's obviously a Vespa Rally 200. But what about the small badge on top of the tail light. What's it from? Someone has styled the Rally sometimes, the current owner hasn't got a clue.
Any of you who knows better?

Sausage with Vespa flavour

This is really the wurst I have seen. A Swedish "meat company" has a sausage called "Santoreggia" on the market. Seasoned with chili, citrus and savory (?).

Testing of a Vespa U

Vespa 125 U, 1953.

Nice scooter! Sorry 'bout the bloke...
Picture taken last year during overhaul of newly discovered and purchased Vespa 125 U.
Note cramped left hand trying to make silent gearchange.

Douglas and Lambretta

From the 1951-1952 Swedish parade of motorcycles. A large colour leaflet presenting the new models on the market. Of my interest is the scooter section.

Just wondering why there is a picture of an English Douglas Vespa instead of an italian Vespa? The first Vespas in Sweden about 1949-1950 were italian, sold through the Ford cars dealership. My own 1951 Vespa 125 were sold by the Ford dealer in Piteå, very north of Stockholm, approx 250 km´s below the Arctic circle. The Douglas Vespas were never officially imported to Sweden.

The importer of  the Lambretta 125 C was the firm "Bil & Truck" in Gothenburg.

The clip below is from a Swedish newspaper, about 1948-1949, and it tells us that although there are plenty of Lambrettas in Italy, no one has reached Sweden yet. A nice 125m (A).

Svalan Scooter third in a race!

  

The line-up from left Svalan Scooter 1954, Jim on Maraton 1950,
Björn on Speed 1950 and Göran on NV 1950.

 There was a hard race last weekend. A battle between four twowheelers sharing the same engine, the sturdy Swedish-built JB 128 cc delievering a whopping 4,5 bhp. One scooter, my own Svalan from 1954, was up against three Swedish motorcycles, all from 1950. Basically a NV from Nymans Verkstäder that was badge-engineered into Maraton and Speed.
Göran on the NV was fastest over two stretches of 201 meters (due to crap brakes we didn't dare go 402 meters). Jim on Maraton ended up second, although I had the chance to overtake him the second time. A missed gearchange ruined it!
Well, I was third just ahead of Björn on his Speed.
Maybe we'll do it again, hopefully with more contestants!
Why a scooter from 1954 against three motorcycles from 1950? Why the time gap? Well, the 128 cc-engine was considered dated in 1954. But the engine-maker firm of John Benson convinced two manufacturers that this engine was excellent for scooters...

Here I'm about to overtake Jim, but it was ruined by bad gearchanging.

The winner Göran is praised after his victory. Ref Rickard owns the Luna.

Lambretta as kid's bicycle

This really cool children's bicycle was built by the french firm MFA in 1960. It's featured in a new book by bicycle collector Michael Embacher and photographer Bernard Angerer. The wittingly named book, "Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bicycle Design", is published by Chronicle Books.
This little Lambretta has a gigantic "want"-factor. Note the little aeroplane on the front mudguard (an original Biemme!), the spare wheel and the ornamentation over the air intakes.

Rain didn't stop the Mods!

Actually, it's a Police Porsche in the background.

Today's veteran exhibition in Stockholm suffered some heavy rain.
Among the particpants were Stockholm Mods Scooter Club, with 7-8 scooters. One Lambretta and the rest Vespas. They arrived during a light drizzle and left in downpour. All the parkases (?) had changed colour, from light to dark green.
There were also two members from Vespa Club Stockholm present.
Now it's only four weeks to Mods & Rockers here in Stockholm.

La mostra d'Epoca oggi in Stoccolma aveva molto pioggia. Ma Stoccolma Mod Scooter Club partecipato nonostante tutti.

Wet, Wet, Wet, the Mods changed their music taste.

Heavy rain, but the Mods don't care.

Mike's Lambretta TV 175.