Modern Vespa

Here's the Skinny. I've been thinking of getting a not-modern, but not vintage scooter for in-between my two existing scooters, or a tweener. With disc brakes and 10" tires. That leaves me with a PX150 or a Stella.

So I've been casually perusing Craigslist and Facebook marketplace (casually perusing, yeah right!) looking at what exists.

A PX150 popped up in Bellevue but the owner has some life changes happening and is super difficult to get ahold of, as in, not contacting me back.

Then this sweet green machine shows up on CL, looks nice, a 2008 Stella. A phone call, a few texts, some extra pictures sent to me, and my buddy Chris is pulling a Denver James for me. BTW, a very cool owner who was clear and precise with the ad, and super clean communication. The perfect person to do a long distance transaction with.

This all happened within a couple of days. He rolled yesterday to pick it up, sent me vids, took it for a drive, and gave me the thumbs up. I went over to Springfield to get it from him today.

It was stumbling down low and I had to keep up the revs. The gas smelled OK but it looks a little varnished in the tank. So we gave it "an Italian Tuneup", as Phil from Cleveland calls it. This means we flog the piss out of it until it clears up....or dies....

Well, good news - about 10 miles through our ride, it started running clean and no hiccups down low, and also no extra smoke. I have no idea what oil is in it at the moment, and the gas is probably old and full of ethanol, and it still ran fantastic, and kept up with Feebs, the P200 just fine. We were both surprised how well it ran, and how much power it had. Of course, we swapped bikes a bunch of times to note the differences and see how the scooter was doing from driving, and watching from behind.

It's not perfect, but what it needs is nothing extraordinary, just basic stuff. I'll get to that next post. But now, PICTURES! I'm so stoked!

Wait, before the pics, a HUGE THANKS to Chris for picking it up for me! Muchas Gracias my friend


Yup, that's Olive, the 2008 Stella. And me...







Olive is loaded up in the minivan turned scooter hauler with Chris on the left and me on the right. We're both a little hopped up on coffee and the good fortune of riding this sweet machine.

It's nice how a scooter fits just perfectly in the van, with tie downs in the floor and everything. Bonus!

She's on the lift and awaiting "the list"

Nice move buddy, you will like it and all that surprising 5 port reed valve power. It sure looks better than some Stellas and when you get done with it....

I'm rude enuff, how much? That one is worth a premium looks and rides like!

I have the same 10" motor, wrong in my new 8" Super and oddly enuff, the same damn bike, same lovely hue right here w/ 'wrong' motor and fork in it!



abracadabra

Congrats on finding a “modern” vintage bike. That color is great! I’m sure the widescreen will come in handy this fall and winter.

PS I have the authentic Stella badge offa mine in good nick if you want it.

Thanks V - I paid $1,400. A bit more than I wanted, but also it's a bit more than I expected, so it's all good. And YES - I'd love to get the Stella badge. Thanks man! A previous owner must've removed the emblems. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

And thanks WhoDat! I'm stoked. I was surprised how much my helmet was getting buffeted by the windscreen. But the rain is coming...

Congrats, qa! That thing looks showroom-new!

I think you'll like the Stella, and if the speed bug bites you, those LML reeded motors can be tuned like crazy!

WOW qascooter that is an awesome scoot! Always thought Stella's were underappreciated.

Score!

Thanks guys. I am surprised how well it actually did. 5 port? I remember my old PX-150 was a bit more anemic, like a fair amount, but I don't have them side by side to compare, so....memory is a funny thing.....

Performance wise, I'm thinking a Polini pipe and that's pretty much it. Until it isn't. It's got Zippy's on it, which is fantastic.

So first things first.

1) Center stand is out of whack. Gotta take that off and see what's what with it. Currently, you cannot kick it over with the stand up, and it leans to the right...Also put on some new boots

2) New battery. The current one broke it's strap and shorted against the cowl. I'm going to replace it with a 12v 8ah sealed medical battery, with spade connectors. So I'll be modifying the current end of the wires for the spade connection.

3) Check electrical system. If it shorted, who knows what won't work because of that.

4) Pull tank, replace fuel and oil line, clean and inspect, check for leaks.

5) Clean Carb - for good measure.

6) The air baffle needs to be replaced, and I need to inspect everything to see what other rubber needs to be replaced before I place an order.

7) Polish the body, clean everywhere, pressure wash the engine.

Ride like the wind! Dadadada...da...da...daa.daaaa

9) Oh, and it's got some cowl guards and they might look pretty good on it. I'll play with them after everything else is sorted.

So that's the gameplan. Am I missing anything? Does anybody have any other suggestions while we're getting to know each other?

Paint on that looks great. Stella's notorious for crappy paint and if you look at it wrong you'll get a scratch or chip on it!

Enjoy.

I expect you'll find pretty much all the rubber is fairly rotten. Indian rubber doesn't seem to age well but rather than just hardening, it gets crumbly.

I'd also expect to start suffering intermittent shorts and outages in the wiring pretty quickly, especially in the headset and neck as you ride it. I've wound up replacing most of that wiring in my Stella over the years and the wiring that's left is pretty stiff, but sits in places in the bike where that's not a big deal.

New rubber is good. Some new shocks would probably also make a big difference.

Other than that, I'd continue the Italian Tuneup (LOL!) by throwing some Seafoam in the tank to clean out any varnish and just ride it until a seal starts to leak

Good to know Swiss - thanks! Time to put a good coat of wax on her... Excellent CM, much appreciated. I'll keep an eye on the wiring, and inspect the rubber. I did notice right off the rubber grommet around the key is split and cracking. I'll soak all the rubber with 303 and see how it goes for the time being. And start a list of rubber bits I need....

you can buy replacement rubber sets from Scooterworks, but I don't know if they're the same crappy rubber or not.

Dunno why, but that late avocado green seems pretty tuff on mine. Maybe ~1/3 of mine still has original paint and has been thru a LOT of abuse without scratching easy or chipping. Hint, Rustoleum self etching primer kinda matches the color for small out of sight repairs and rust prevention after Ospho.

(and shoot me a list of the rubber bits you need)


Not same color, but still hard to tell where original and etching primer meet except for the gloss. And yes, I know the bag hook is upside down!

Last edited by V oodoo on Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:38 am; edited 1 time in total

Very tunable the LML. Probably too nice to be taking to pieces and cutting lumps out of.

So Scott, what's it like having a hydro disc brake again?

That is so cool qascooter!... Nice score.

I bought a Rubber Kit for about $36 bucks from Scooter Mercato and it had just about everything I needed but a condom. Mine was for my P200 but I expect that most parts will work on your Stella.

Thanks CM - I had a chance to do a bit of work looking it over and the rubber is indeed in bad shape. And since it doesn't look like the oil tank is leaking, Seafoam it is - until I decide (and have the time) to pull the tank and replace the fuel and oil line.

Voodoo - you're ride is sweet! Nice cut down, but no, I'm not doing that to this anytime soon. Ha! True - maybe sometime in the future.... Twitchy as all getout. The first time I squeezed the lever, I thought, holy shit, it's gonna skid - AWESOME! They are so very nice. Which reminds me, fluid change needs to be added to the list. Thanks LuckyBear - Next time you're in town you've got something to ride

Nice scoot and a great "middle of the road" between the modern and vintage. Can't wait to see what you have in store for the avocado.

Love that color.
One of my faves.
Gives it a touch of class(ic) appeal.
Very nice find for your herd.

Today I managed to get the center stand taken care of. It was bent and twisted. One of the bolts was incorrect, and it needed new boots. I took Ruby's new boots and put them on Olive. Sorry Ruby...

While I had the center stand off, I cleaned the bottom and put a coat of wax on it, and also on the center stand, cleaned the bolt threads, then put it all back together with clean grease. Now it's level and you can kick start it with the center stand up.

Also, I didn't see any leakage onto the floorboards, but lots of fresh drippage from the bottom of the carb box down the back of the engine. I'll get to that soon enough.


Notice the left leg is bent out pretty far.

And it's twisted. I put it in a vice and took a cheater bar to it and straightened it out

That's better

Not too bad under there

Much better now!

Before the fix. It's leaning to the right, and the kickstart would interfere with the center stand leg if it was up.

That's better - sitting up straight, and the kick start clears the center stand leg.

Well, it has a performance box exhaust on it...any chance that there's a DR kit hiding out under the shroud that you don't know about as well?

The mod bug is a slippery slope. I picked up a 2005 Stella as a pandemic diversion this spring. Wasn't long before I installed a Polini box and now I'm dialing in a Malossi 177 kit.

You already have some kind of performance box exhaust. If I was you, I'd wait for that one to start falling apart before getting another.

Has the air filter been upgraded?

That's cheap from where I'm at. I have yet to see one go for under $1500 in worse shape than your new one. Nice find.

Then when you can't get what you want, you get a P200 modd'd motor and stick it in. 😅

Thanks CM2 - I'm pretty excited, and I'm sure it's gonna fit right in! SCORE! It didn't even register. I figured the Stellas came with nice pipes. And you never know. It doesn't have that lift the front tire off the ground power like the 62 Allstate 177 kit, but that may be the 8s. I'll get to pulling the shroud soon enough. Thanks for pointing this out John! Now that I know I've got a performance pipe on, I won't be changing it Thanks for the air filter info. I haven't even opened the carb box yet. I'll hopefully get to it today. I need to pull the carb and see how tight the carb box is. There is a leak up there somewhere... Thanks FM! I probably could've haggled, but it was worth it to me, and I'm sure I'll get lots of enjoyment out of it. No sense mucking all that up with a bad taste of haggling for the PO, or myself. Karma and all that Dooohhhh!!

Stellas came with catalytic converters. Worst. Exhaust. Ever.

Congrats Scott! She's a beaut!

>>>Thanks FM! I probably could've haggled, but it was worth it to me, and I'm sure I'll get lots of enjoyment out of it. No sense mucking all that up with a bad taste of haggling for the PO, or myself. Karma and all that <<<


I feel you there, I'm anti haggling. Name the price and if it's worth it to me cool if not no biggie. I'm also an introvert so that probably plays into it quite a bit!

Great looking scoot at a very good price. I saw it sitting on Craigslist and was very tempted myself--even though it would be the last thing I need. Glad it found a good home.

Thanks GM, FM & TL!

Today I pulled the carb, and carb box....and found the wrong gasket underneath the box! This looks like where the oil was leaking from. The channel in the gasket is way too close to the side to keep the oil in.

I'm actually really excited about finding this, because if this is the problem, well, it's easily remedied!

And somebody has been in there because the fuel and oil line were changed out.

Also, the air filter has this funky white layer inside it?!? Anybody know what's up with that? I'm thinking of extracting the inside white layer. and making it like the air filters that I've seen before.

It looks like the box is attached via the carb. There doesn't seem to be an extra bolt to hold it down like on the P. Probably because of the reed valve scene. Is this correct?

So now I'm cleaning up under there and awaiting a new gasket. Oh, and the air box lid didn't have a rubber gasket on it. I've got an extra, and I'm hunting around for my old baffle off one of the other scoots for this one. That rubber really is lousy.

Tomorrow I'll clean the carb and possibly take the back tire off and clean up underneath, while I'm rehydrating the sealed lead acid battery.


White layer in the filter? Say what???

I guess whoever did this didn't have the gasket, and couldn't wait for the proper one to be sent. Napa probably doesn't carry it. :)

That air filter is the lml one which is more restrictive. That's why people switch to the piaggio one. It's at least got the heart drilled out on the Uber side, which is another cheap upgrade.

While you have it open, a simple and cheap upgrade is to replace the metal reed pedals with carbon fiber. Something like boyesen reeds.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GZOSMA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_bhgHJWAoQU6n2

Great find Scott!

Couple of easy things you can do - drill the heart in the air filter and upjet. And replace the stainless steel reed with carbon. I bought the 'GGR Hot Reeds' years ago and they're still good. Or there's a Boysen reed that will fit pretty much straight in... can find the number if you're interested.

Thanks Swiss and Ginch!

Swiss - is that the correct Boysen reed number?

Ginch - Yes please - could you look up the number? That way I'll make sure I get the right ones...

Thanks guys! If I can get them quicker than the gaskets, I'll put them in, otherwise it'll wait for another time.

Yes that is the correct boyesen number. I have them on my Stella. You get two sets so you have a spare. They should be preemptively replaced every 2-3000 miles because they will fray eventually and you don't want to get that in your engine. I haven't seen them fray yet, just been told to change them on regular schedule by that scooter thing. I replace mine once a year.

Can't speak to ggr hot reeds, maybe ginch can offer info on how long they last.

I just ordered the Boysen Reeds. Thanks Swiss. I should have them on or before the gasket that ScootNewb is sending me. By Friday. I better get to cleaning things up under there...

Might as well cut out the center support bar in the reed block, and blend the the intake path to smooth things out.

Dangit - slippery slope indeed. I'll pull the reed block tomorrow and see what's going on. It's obvious everybody else has done this. Would you happen to have a thread you'd know offhand that I could check out? Thanks man! If not, I'll start searching...

UPDATE: I'm finding all kinds of good threads on MV pertaining to LML engine mods, and that includes the reed block.

Last edited by qascooter on Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

Sorry Swiss, your message wasn't there when I was composing the message... and yes, I am a slow typist!

No worries ginch. I am wondering though how long the ggr hot reeds last and what they cost?