Innocenti's Lambretta Li 125 Special began its life in October 1965 with frame numbers starting from 850001. It inherited the same streamlined body styling from its older sibling the Li 150 Special, which, in turn had inherited its styling from the TV range. These variations included the octagonal headlamp bezel, shortened horn cast grill, front mudguard and side panels with aluminium flashes. The 125 Special emerged two years after the 150 Special and, although carried a smaller capacity engine, was in fact a more highly tuned machine featuring many improvements over the 150. Just one year before Innocenti introduced the sportier SX range of scooters the 125 Special represented a new level of scooter tuning, a level of tuning that would later be seen in the SX150 and SX200. This is why the 125 Special is often referred to as the SX125 even though it does not carry an 'X' badge or an SX frame number; though they do share the same larger script 'Lambretta' legshield badge.

Lambretta Li 125 Special

Tuning Improvements

The 150 Special was introduced in 1963 as a sportier alternative to the standard Li 150. The compression ratio was increased from 7:1 to 7.5:1 giving the special 8.25 bhp (6 kW) over the standard 150's 6.6 bhp (5 kW). The introduction of the 125 Special brought with it a further compression ratio increase up to 8:1 producing 7.12 bhp (5 kW) over the 5.5 bhp (4 kW) of the standard Li 125. The 125 Special along with the SX150 and SX200 featured a larger 20 mm Dell'Orto carburetor over the 18 mm carburetor found on the 150 Special. Although the 150 Special had a higher top speed the tuning improvements along with a new gearbox, which would later wind up in the DL/GP range of scooters, gave the 125 Special an advantage in acceleration. B etween 1965 and 1969 a total of 29,841 Li 125 Specials were produced and were only available in light blue metallic (paint available from Lechler, code 8061) with white internals (petrol tank, air intake box, tool box, mudguard) and grey rubber trim. There were changes to the 125 Special during its 5 years of production the first of which was a change from a white button switch to black buttons sometime during 1966.