Modern Vespa

Coming from California, the whole don't need a license, registration or insurance thing for 50cc Scooters and Mopeds here was a lot of fun until it got very hard to find 2 Stroke Minarelli based Scooters. When I started selling them, there were a lot of Chinese 2 strokes that you could have fun with, and still be out of pocket less than $2000. Now, they are few and far between, and we've gone from 90-10% two to four stroke sales, to about 90-10% four to two stroke sales. So there aren't a lot of chances to make little missiles out of someone's $900 scooter, and most of the clientele can't pop for the few two strokes that still come in.
Fortune smiled upon me yesterday, and I bought this 2007 Tomos LX Moped. It's got less than 1000 miles on it, and was in great condition until the owner wanted to show me that it starts, the throttle locked open and he rode it straight up in the air and then back down on the giant Chinese trunk that had been wired into the electrical system so it lit up. Fortunately, it damaged the trunk, and gave him more impetus to sell the bike.
So now comes the dilemma. Do I sell it, or make it unrideably fast? With drum brakes front and rear, that bar's not very high. It's quick, but runs out of gears at about 30 mph. And it's fun to ride. Trying to start it yesterday, before we cleaned the carb and replaced the plug, showed me just how out of shape I am, because you have to stand on the pedals on the center stand and peddle backwards, and I do resemble a circus bear with a balance problem when attempting to fire it up. There is a lot of aftermarket performance support and it might be fun to see if I can get it to keep up with 45 mph traffic. I would give it to the girls to ride, but neither of them really liked the Velosolex when I took it home, and I think this would end up equally neglected.
I guess I'm going to start pricing Big Bore Kits. And what good's a big bore kit without a pipe?

The minarelli is a workhorse, for sure. That looks like a fun bike to tweek. I think 45mph is a very reasonable goal.

and enjoy it.

If you find it gets neglected there's always someone out there just waiting for something like that.