Modern Vespa

Here we say "horse shit" and it is not horse shit. There will be pictures when I feel better. This past weekend was painful and put a new meaning to being violently ill. Have you read the latest outrageous news about my survival of the deadliest Vespa apocalypse yet? I AM the poster child of steampunk.

I had to go have a read. Wow! But congratulations on the Red Devil scooter. (He made you do it.) Looks really good.

I really like seeing the steampunk clothes and accessories. They are a hoot. Show us, please, when you feel up to it?

Thought I would update you as to how it's going. I've been fixing numerous small and not so small things. I had to rewire the hack. Verry shoddy work. Had to remove and clean the rear brake switch contacts. Then it took me almost an hour to figure out how to get the switch back together. I noticed that the inside of the rear wheel was covered with oil and I thought "Great,a leaking hub oil seal." Turns out someone filled the gearbox to the top with ATF. When I removed the fill plug about a quart of fluid came out. The excess must have been comming out the vent. Anyway I've ridden it about 50 miles and it seems basically OK.

name your scooter 7-Up because of the lemon lime stripes and "7-up Yours"

Isn't living in Witchita apocalyptic enough?!

Nah!... it is heavenly.

don't bet on Whitey.

Took it on the highway today. Tops out at about 50 which is OK but I feel like it could go faster if the gearing were lower. I can't quite get into the power band in fourth. Scooterworks has a clutch pack with a 20 tooth gear instead of the stock 21. Does anybody have experience with this?

The name will not be Whitey.

Yes, I have experience with this.

You either want to ride at 60 MPH or want a side car. You won't get both. Get to swapping out those parts so you can hit higher speed and you'll lose the ability to drive away with the rig.

Pick one.

EDIT: I believe the P200 models that came with side cars had P125/150 gear box installed. If you decide to change it, you'll need to change the whole transmission including the primary and the clutch gear.

[quote="SFvsr"] +1

My 150 with a New engine and loaded down for my trip would get to 55 mph, thats 55 going down the rockies, across the flat lands of Kansas with even the slightest head wind, 40 tops, Over all I averaged 35 mph for a 4000 miles trip. I had hours of riding in 3rd or even 2nd if the wind was head on.

The differance between the 150 and the 200 is negated by the transmission gearing. (my opinion only)

Slow down, enjoy the ride!

On edited I should add that the speeds are GPS true NOT speedometer indicated.

I don't want to sound greedy. 50 is fine.

***waiting in nail-biting anticipation for the official announcement to be made***

I read that when setting up a hack that the bike should lean a few degrees into the car. It certainly does on this one. It's not adjustable but you can see, if viewed from the rear that it does lean. I took a little time naming partly because I wanted to be sure of the gender. Definitly female. I get the impression that she is also a Republican (spits). Hence I have decided on the name Eilene Wright. Prounounced I lean right. Eilene informally.

After I got My rig I read everything I could find on setup. The cozy has a few adjustments the California sidecar doesn't. As you said the Californa is a simple bolt and run setup, The cozy not so much.

After playing around with the set up on the cozy more than I would care to own up to I finally settled on just taking the rig out on the road, letting go of the grips and adjusting for neutral. This took many tries but in the end, steering, tire wear, cornering are at or as near neutral as I can get too. There is very little lean on the scoot and I not sure if thats good or bad.

My California sidecar had the mounting holes drilled out at some point in its past. For whatever reason only three of the four holes were drilled out oblong. I assume this was done for adjustments, but mounting the rig up to my scoot for a short test run everything was setup to neutral without the need for the holes being drilled out.

All the above leads to something a friend told me and appears to have a good amount of truth.


"setting up of a sidecar is a black art taken on only by the Few"

Well Played, nice name!

Matt, you are not selling already are you, or is this another White P200 with side car in Wichita? http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=39219

Not me. It does look a lot like mine. Actually a little better shape and the shield is different.