Modern Vespa

I'm not trying to throw gasoline on the fire, but.....

It's not easy to depend on a 30+ year old machine as your daily driver. Doesn't matter if it's a Honda Civic, CB350, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Triumph TR6, or anything else.... time takes its toll on an older machine, especially if it lived some of its life being infrequently used.

I have a 16 year old Honda Civic (as does my Mom), and mine is dying a slow and somewhat expensive death... actually it probably has many years and miles left in it, but I refuse to pay for the repairs that are now needed. Mom is kind of in the same boat, although she has 1/3 of the miles I have on my car.

The point is, older machines need more maintenance. You can farm it out, or do it yourself... but be prepared for repairs that are off the beaten track. After all this time and miles, some things that are usually rock solid can and will fail.

My P200 has been very dependable for me, only failed me 2 times in 3 seasons of riding. One time it was out of gas... duh. Another time one of the jets in the carb got clogged, and made it hard to ride. But then, I only ride when it's sunny, and when I have time. And now I see some maintenance that needs to be done, and with a New England winter coming, it's the perfect time to take care of some of the things that need minding. I could probably squeeze one more season in before doing an engine rebuild, but it needs seals, a cruciform, and maybe a stator/battery, so I might as well do it all at once, and get me a good solid ride ready for April.

I got into this knowing I had to do SOME work to keep this going, and I'm not looking to rack up tons of miles....

Back to the OP, I have one opinion... if I had to do it all over again, I might have held out for a 2005 PX150, which would have gotten me the disc brake as opposed to the P200 drum. That's the one upgrade the PX has that I would love to have, and no, I don't want to tear my scoot apart and spend that kind of $$$ to retrofit a PX disc brake to my P200.

Haha, my daily driver is an Alfa. Maybe we're just gluttons for punishment.

I grew up in a family with Fiats and Lancias as daily drivers !!!

OK, you win

If it's a daily driver- let everyone know about it. Slap one of these stickers on.

My Dad was meticulously anal with preventative maintenance. Hence they were reliable when everyone else who owned one was bitching about unreliability etc. Never had many issues. We had a Lancia HPE that was driven to Nicaragua and back and many more miles here.

Ive been commuting every day on my px200 for slightly over 2 years. In that time the only real mechanical fails have been 2 or 3 snapped clutch cables.

I have smashed 2 gears on separate occasions due to a highly tuned engine and trying to change gear too quickly.
Also I have killed 1 cylinder due to a screw falling out of my vernturi and in to the cylinder. Neither of these things were the scoots fault and as far as I am concerned its ultra reliable despite being modified to have double its original HP

cheers

the thing about the "well, old scoots need maintenance" - I absolutely agree. But... when we say "I need to replace my stator", we aren't talking a flaw in design or poor reliability of the machine. We are talking a part that lasted 35 years. Same with CDIs and the like. Yes, odds are if you buy a 1980 P200 right now you might have to worry about a number of these things going. Some might even go out in a short time period of one another, giving some impression of "what's the deal with this POS!?!", but the reality is they are things that you replace once every tonsofyears. So, I'd still maintain that, barring time taking its own toll, very little maintenance is needed on a regular basis for normal wear parts.

For example, in direct refutation to Beefy's assertions, my scooter has gone - wait for it - 10,000 miles since I rebuilt it with no maintenance except I think two clutch cables and replacement of things that I broke through an unfortunate accident and modification (which comes with all manner of risks). Dude acts like parts are falling off the things as they clatter down the road on square wheels

In the 10,000 km I've done on mine the only maintenance I've done is a couple of oil changes, a de-coke, new tyres and spark plug and some quick, general lubing of cables, etc. The only failures I've had have been a pick up coil and snapped mirror bolts.

To answer the original poster question, I'd just keep everything stock except maybe get an SIP road pipe if you really want a small increase in power.

Everything else I would leave alone, standard shocks are strong and even a P200 front drum is nice when it's setup and bedded in.

To answer the split pin guy's claim that Vespas are unreliable and not daily commuters....weeeeelll....

I've been commuting every day on scooters since 1999 (I was 17 then)
Vespa got the design right from the beginning, the engine is so simple and really doesn't have much to break.
This summer I've been all over the place on my 1957 Douglas Vespa and would really have no worries about calling it into action if my daily rider Bajaj was off the road.
I've commuted on Lambrettas, Smallframes, PXs, T5s, Spanish 150s plus a bunch of autos and ironically it was only a fairly modern GT200 which has ever left me stranded.

A Vespa by it's very design is so simple that it is reliable by it's very design, very few moving parts and a low stress engine, they really wouldn't be so popular if they were unreliable.

Problems arise when owners try to make them go faster or don't keep up with the very basic maintenance.

The fact that you have a spare wheel with a Vespa is awesome for commuters, there's no other two wheeler out there now with a spare wheel (ok, Lambrettas can carry one )

So basically I can vouch here and now that any Vespa is an awesome tool for commuting on, cheap on fuel, easy to maintain, no getting stuck in traffic and tons of storage capability.

They might not be the quickest or best handling things in the world but almost everything else is a positive.

As others have mentioned, skip the Sito+. I would go for a BGM BigBox.

I have that BGM clutch and it is amazing. It's a bit overkill for your needs, especially since you are not going to upgrade your topend.

I also have that LML fork and it's a great deal. You'll have to grind out some material in the fork where the column lock is to get the column lock to work on your older P. You'll also need to either buy an adapter kit for the master cylinder OR get a Stella or newer PX lower headset with a mount already in place for it. You'll also need to get a brake line and drill a hole in the fender to feed the brake line through. And you'll need to grind some material out of the headset top so the brake line can be fed through.

And I agree with whoever suggested getting better shocks.

If it were me with your current setup with no plans of ever upgrading the top end, I would do this:

Better shocks
Better exhaust
Replace engine bushings with some Clauss Studio bushings
New clutch cork plates, steel plates, and springs. You can buy springs in different stiffnesses.

If you DO have plans of upgrading the top end (i.e. producing a lot more revs), then go for the BGM SuperStrong clutch.

Best of luck!

everything you pointed is right on. Except the Clauss mounts. My experience is that it does sharpen the steering, but it will kill any smoothness. Mine feel like my teeth are going to rattle out. The Jockeys Boxenstop mounts will keep smooth and improve handling.

Really appreciate all your inputs!

I will look at the different options you guys suggested, and see what seems reasonable price/performance.

Then i'm going to make a list of all the things i need to buy, and get at it

Ohh btw. i know i typed in daily driver in the headline. But i am not going to drive the Vespa EVERYDAY. I live in Copenhagen - main transport here is my bike. Its the fastest, easiest and cheapest.

So the Vespa will be for those sunny days, where im not that much in a hurry and for fun rides in the weekends and after work.

I just wanna make it a perfect ride for those kind of trips, and not have to tune it, since i want to keep it as realiable as possible.

Thanks again!

You have them fitted? I'm a bit underwhelmed by the Clauss mounts.

Apologies OP!

Not yet. But they claim they are better and I hate the vibration of the Clauss.

Yeah. Me too.

Who let this guy on the vespa forum telling everyone to buy a honda?!

It was three years ago, but I betcha the Vespa is still running. The Honda? Maybe.........

Not to mention a 4-wheeled Honda.

A travesty.