Modern Vespa

Careful if you introduce them, you run the risk of uncovering the lies of how much money is pissed away on scooters

i prefer our lass not being involved in my vesp obsession .... its just safer .... n i dont have anyone to argue wi while im on me tod wi me scoots

Hard not to leave early

worked on the orange bastard

That's all we needed to hear..

Getting itchy for pics, but do yer thing.

look in projects

I knew something didn't feel right.

sluggish, doesn't want to idle.. all symptoms of thrashed reeds.. so I put new petals in and got my fly back on.

Which bike? Those look horribly abused, watcha been doin' Mr V?

What causes them to do that? I'm clueless about reeds, etc.

Just toooo many miles.. they don't last forever.. and it's not like a dirt bike where you take it out for a day once a month.. I've got tons of miles and hours on these and they just die.. should have changed 'em a while ago.. bike was still going though.. just not really flying..

That's the one thing about a rotary motor I miss... I've got piles of thrashed reeds.. you ride hard for lots and lots of rides and miles and that's what you get.

I guess that carbon fiber isn't all that bullet proof after all.

No it's not.. and I keep my air filter nice and clean too.. just too many miles.

I need to hook up my odometer cable again and see how many miles I'm getting.. I haven't had an odometer for quite a while.

I'm sure that in some discussion Rob Hodge said that bits of reed will destroy your motor?

Well It's not coming apart right now.. I'm about to change the oil.. I'll see if there are any bits.. crank looks good as new all the way around and I've got no other problems.. hopefully those bits turned to dust..

It's do for new bearings and seals but not today.. soon though.. it's done me a lot of hard, fast miles..

I'm sure if half the reed broke off then there might be a problem... tiny bits I'm not so sure.

I have a feeling those came apart little by little over a long time.. just changed my oil.. oil looked good. no gas and no out of the ordinary bits.. some usual "dust" in it, but that's normal.

New reeds, new oil, and I'm moving on.

I almost ate shit though.. I took it down the block, goosed it going into 2nd, wheelie, where as of late, the tire wasn't jumping of the ground as it should..

After our canyon ride, it rode fine but I could tell it wasn't all there, idle had been droping causing me to up the idle screw (another symptom of bad reeds) and some spit back into the filter.. another symptom.. so out they came.. they went on the wall w/ some other ruined reeds.. some day I'll have enough to make art. Along w/ worn out xiforms..

I ordered a hi-res file of this pic from our ride last Sunday.. I've got one coming the other direction from last year.. guy takes good pics of everyone riding the canyon.

Nice pic!

Thanks G.. they just sit there all day snapping shot of everyone who rides that road.. cars, crotch rockets (mostly), harleys etc.. they usually get nice crisp pics..

Good pic V ... clever ad placement by the P.I. attorneys too!

I guess we're on anothe site too.. But this guys are all a little soft.

Th only good hi-res pics i seem to have of me driving are from the speed camera people!

you should have fought that on the basis that the ROBOT TRAFFIPAX was in violation of the first law of robotics.

sorry officer i needed to roll forward to see round that fuck off bag that dude was holding

Took the GS out for a 250 mile thrashing. Had a nice conversation with the CHP taking the freeway to the start (no ticket, no warning, just concern with me being on a road where average speed is 80mph).

Rest of the day was perfect.

repaired rear flat n put spare back gave it a wash n went for a ride .... met a lad on a 177 who nearly wet himsen when he saw the bull ..... musta seen something in it I dont anymore

Went for a little romp around North County with mr.j ... up to Highland Valley Rd. out to Ramona and back.

Brownie's pipe kept slipping off the exhaust stub, so we stopped at an Auto Zone, got a heavy duty spring and did a quick roadside fix.

Little bending, little cutting, little twisting + mr.j's spring puller & viola ... better than new!

I wondered what sort of route you took given it says 7 hours for 66miles.

Then I saw that was for a deadly treadly.

Bet the weather was a tad nicer than Melbourne is right now.

I got one of those in the mail on Saturday. Had to look it up online, but they also had a nice video of me ripping up Western Ave on my Stella coming back from the Dentist a few weeks ago.

Lucky for me, they only clocked me at 41mph. I was 50-55 through much of that stretch of the trip. That'll remind me to keep it under control when I go back for my filling in a few weeks, though.

AlanMac, oh we were definitely moving faster than the bicycles ... on one stretch we were cruising around 60mph and some smart guy on a KLR shot past us. For a little fun, mr.j opened it up and easily chased him down on his rockin ET3. Schooled him about "mopeds", lol...

those crazy moped riders.

Nice to educate every now and then. I used to have the same thing happen in my old Fiat 500. Everyone would pass me as they hated thinking they were stuck behind 500cc of, ahem, venom. Would catch em easy on corners and bends. God I miss that car. Lucky I could find a rally to replace the old ones. Can't afford a vintage 500 though!

....watched this video !!! Check it out, you won't be disappointed!!!

I know right! Crazy to think about his lack of turn radius and braking capabilities, especially when he's going by the other surfers. I'm assuming any loss of momentum would cause him to sink pretty fast.

... and I would now love to try this on a scooter! Think they make 8" paddle wheels?

Now that looks like fun and count me in, I'd love to try it!
Pretty sure I'd pass on wearing a helmet for this ride though.

I dunno, have some mixed feelings about this. Love bikes and surfing, but if I was in the water I probably wouldn't appreciate some guy on a modified dirt bike screaming through the line up in full MX gear. Definitely looks like fun though!

Always love seeing pics of your Super Vader. Although it looks better without your skinny arse sitting on it.

Thanks Bobo..

I did have to fix something else today.. when I was on that ride, the bike died.. it turned out to be an electrical connector at the CDI (a double spade connector) had vibrated and 1/2 of it snapped off.. no biggie.. some e-tape from a guy near by and I made it home.. I re-did the connector and slathered it in liquid e-tape and this morning my kill button wouldn't turn the bike off.. so I went back to the connector, snipped it off and put another on w/o the liquid e-tape and it's all better.. I'm not sure if my wire wasn't seated into the spade connector when I crimped it or if the liquid gold blocked my flow but it's all good now..

I just looked up the wiring harness I need.. the electrical on this bike is wonky at best.. everything works but it's a real rat's nest. The simple Serie Pro harness for Vespatronic worked to well on my small frame I decided to go w/ the same thing.. but running a new harness is on my list right under poking out my eyes with drill bits! we'll see.

For sure! I assume(hope) those other ppl in or on the water were OK with all this & knew it was gonna happen. If I ever did get a chance to try this, I'd want nobody in the water for 10 miles.

Well, unless voluntary & they were wearing helmets of course.

Funny Vader..when I replaced my dead pick up coil my scoot wouldn't shut down either. Just gave all the connections a jiggle and it came good.