ma lcol m’s mome n ts
PART
THREE
THE LAMBRETTA
An Italian scooter opens my eyes to the wonderful world of motorcycling BY MALCOLM SMITH
I
t is easily the great irony of my life…the story of me wanting that very first motorcycle to fix but not actually to ride, as I had no real interest in riding at first. Folks simply can’t believe I got into motorcycles for mechanical and not adrenaline-based reasons. It all happened one afternoon as I walked home from school and passed a house that had what looked like a 24
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST • APRIL 2022
basket-case scooter sitting next to a box of parts in the driveway. It was a Powell scooter: American-made and sorta clunky, with a four-stroke engine and centrifugal clutch…probably a collector’s item now. And so, intrigued by the idea of making that carcass actually function, I asked the guy working in the garage about it. He wanted $50, and I set about earning the money as fast as I could, mowing lawns, selling painted cattails,
