Modern Vespa

Greetings to all!
If someone is interested - this is the story of my first Vespa.

I found and bought this baby in August 2017. it took us 23 hours by car to go pick up and bring her to a new home. Bought it for $175.

The previous owner and I


It was very dirty - in a mixture of dust, chicken shit and two-stroke oil. But it started and I could even ride a little.
The gears did not switch normally, the clutch practically did not work, the front brake lever was broken off ... You yourself can see in the photo.

looks like a nice scooter

Very nice 8) 8)

Nice find! Love the yellow, and the square headlight.

congrats 8)

You got a great deal! Looks to be a solid foundation for a sweet little scooter. And I like all the detailed pics so we can really see what you got, thanks.

So I left Vespa in my garage and did not touch for a couple of months.


Then winter came and I began to slowly disassemble. Almost all the parts were in place. With varying degrees of wear, but many are good.

Seems need to some welding

Looks organized

Handlebar fixed.




And I continue to disassemble the scooter. It turned out that there is already a Polini 75cc.








There was almost no oil in the gearbox.
Homemade engine stand

Nice working fixing the headset! Looks good as new

GeekLion tnanx, but anyway the welder overdid it a bit and rounded off the edge off the handlebar

I assembled wheels: Michelin S1, SIP Rims and SIP inner tubes.

And got the gearbox RMS, 3.72 ratio.

Well move on. The crankshaft looks good, but the upper of the conrod needs a new bushing.


Here it its

Recived some new parts

Some parts return from painting.






Assembled fork.



And pulled the seat with a new cover.

A few little parts for ignition.



I have not so much photos about engine assembly, but I think every one knows how it looks and how it made






Rear brake is ready and fork with new fender and wheel in place.




Some new rubbers

Well, the engine is in place, like most other parts.

love the look! pipe and wheels/tires look very nice. how fast is it?

Scruffy bike w/ finely tuned motor fitted, sharp wheels, foxy shox, tricky pipe and proper new stockish seat?

Love it, what could go wrong?

Whatever, you'll just fix it

I'm glad you like it guys.
It's not very fast - max. speed is near 74 km/h But that's almost enough for town use.
The scooter has on board:
Polini 75cc
Standard crank
Sport clutch
16.10 carb
Standard air filter
Serie Pro Sport Replica Exhaust
Stainless SIP sport exhaust stub
3.72 Gear box

This my first classic Vespa and I've never driven them before. I was just so surprised at the feeling she gave me from driving.
This is love from the first kilometers away.

Everything is going well, the scooter runs and makes me happy.


Just a few days after assembly, I caught the car in the bumper - not yet used to weaker brakes. And lose the new mudguard crest(but find it in the same place next day)


And here is another incident - the Scarabeo fell on one scooter and everyone fell in turn.




Oil is also leaking from the gearbox selector - I forgot to replace the o-ring when I disassembled the engine

Love that last pic. Whole bike came out great.

And 5% tragedy, 95% bullet dodged looks like from this:

Thanx Voodoo)
I wasn't really upset because of the mudguard, especially when I found mudguard crest)))

Buy new locks. Now I feel safely


In my country classic Vespes are very rare.
And find at a local flea market 19.19 carb with all parts for installation it's a huuuge luck.
Installed it and saw that it was a very good decision. It really gives a lot of power to my Special. My joy knew no bounds, again

And the day came when my Vespa let me down.
In the morning I arrived at work about 15km an everything was fine.
But in the evening it refused to start.
Found that the airbox Polini didn't stay in place, constantly slipping, and on the adapter there were small cracks. I could not fix it in any way and therefore I went home by bus.



I replaced the spark plug and played with the jets and found out that without the airbox the engine starts, but if I open the throttle, it immediately dies.
My friend gave me the original PIaggio airbox and everything worked again as it should. I need to use smaller idle jet and main jet. But all runs great.

Glad to hear u manage to fix the problems mate

thanx buddy

And next trouble.
Roads in Ukraine is terrible. I was returning home at night and hit the hard pothole. My speed was near 70 km/h.
I didn't even have time to see it. There is no street lights on the sides of the road. And my 6V headlamp is very weak...
I felt a strong punch, I was almost thrown out of the scooter and the rear wheel blocked, engine stalled.
I try to kick it and it starts easyli. When I get to the gas station I see that rear rim is bended and rubs hard the clutch cover. I swapped the front and rear wheels and slowly continued my way home.

Time to change the rims with a better one, try the alloy forged as they have better look although steel split rims is always more strong

It was in august 2018.
I had one more rim from LML in my garage. U can see it on front wheel at this photo.


I also bought new aluminum boots for central stand

it looks like the Polini filter was defective and did not want to stay in place, I decided to replace it with Malossi E4.


Few new optic details


Also installed DR 102cc and new exhaust.

The original seat was too soft and wobbly like jelly... No control...
Change it with Nisa sport seat. At first it seemed too hard, but after riding a day I fell in love with this seat.
The scooter runs nice, a very noticeable difference with old exhaust and barrel, but I also see that the primary is very short for this cylinder

I really like the yellow with black parts, looks great 👍
I could also picture this smallframe in bare metal look...

I had nothing but trouble with the Sip rims you fitted. They felt really cheap and weak and were really never straight. I had also bigger problems with the smallframe SIP branded 3.00 X 10 tyres. They were too tight on the rims and were never any good. Never again.
So i learnt never save money on rims and tyres.
I then bought Pinasco Alloy Rims with Heidenau tubeless tyres...
Like night and day...

Sometimes I think about bare metal too)
And I cant say something bad about SIP split rims. Сonsidering their price of $12 per pcs.

The scooter ran well but not for long.
I was driving at 80 km / h at a distance of about 2 km, it was full throttle, and the revs were crazy, then hard seize and the rear wheel was blocked and I could hardly keep the scooter on the road. It's good that the road was empty

My opinion - due to too short primary gear, the revs were constantly too high and the original crankshaft simply did not cope with the load.

Did you jet the carburetor you're using for that motor? The main jet mat have been a little small, causing the motor to run hot and melt then seize.

Yes. Carb was properly jetted and run on this set up near 2000km the plug was good chocolate color.

So I decided to rebuild engine.
New bearings, new seals, kicMazzucchelli racing crank, DRT Cobra 19/60 primary, DRT push rod, new XL2 clutch and other bits.

Wow - glad you were OK with the back tire locking up at speed! And the rebuild is looking very, very nice!

Thanks mate! That was really scary)

When I ended up engine it turned out than new XL2 clutch is rubs hard on DRT basket. Annoying but nothing to be done and I left the old clutch with new frictions plates and reinforced Polini spring.

The engine was assembled and installed. Very pleased with how it runs.
Also put ET3 central floor mat and speedometer. And new clutch/brake levers with cable adjust.

Year gone and Vespa got some upgrades.
- Sip tubeless rims with Dunlop ScootSmart tires
- GPS speedo
- PK XL fork(lot of thanks to SaFiS)
- PK XL hubs
- Vape Road ignition
- New clutch/brake levers
- New steering column bearings