Originally Posted by
khatfull
Funny, I'm new here for the most part and understood Lotus to be a very off beat brand, yet, very recently there seems to have been a lot of posts, questions, and finds related to Lotus bikes. Coincidence?
There is very little conclusive information about Lotus online, other than a couple of catalogs scanned online. Lots of threads here with anecdotes about Lotus bikes and their owners' experiences, but mostly speculation and good memories. There was a thread on my bikesite that ran for several years; at one point the daughter of the Starr family that owned Lotus chimed in with some good info. Then there's the oft-repeated myth that a cargo ship carrying a shipment of Lotus bikes sank in the ocean, and that the company never recovered from the loss; that one was recently disproven by a C&V enthusiast on this forum. Apparently Lotus topped a Consumer Reports comparison back in ~85, and this helped popularize the brand in the mid-late 80s.
T-Mar has put together a list of Lotus models and a hierarchy of the Lotus lineup (I will send the serial number soon), helping shed some light on this brand. But no, there is not much conclusive info beyond that. Mainly it's just us Japanese bike fiends fanning the legend and drooling over old pictures.
