Modern Vespa

Hello,

After years with 50cc's and CVT's and a move from EU to US, and after my wife's Stella, I finally got my hands on my personal "Eleanor", a P200.

This one is from 5/78, has some mild re-paint and 1600 miles on the speedo, but I suspect a few more, although the speedo works fine and looks untouched. The engine has never been opened before (see later) and most bolts have been untouched.

Very clean and well kept.





Dry on fuel but fired up on the 4th kick. A first test ride determined that the cruciform is WAY beyond dead and the clutch is FUBAR.

That did not prevent me to participate in a 4th of July parade though, hah!



The bike came with a BBQ rack but no backrest, Scooter Source hooked me up with a very nice looking one.





A giant order from Europe came in, some stuff is for friends, but most is for me.



- New SIP 2.0 Exhaust
- New cruciform and I took a gamble and ordered second and third gear. THis was a good call.
- Newfren 4 plate clutch. I always enjoyed very stiff clutches in older projects so that will be fun.
- gaskets, seals etc etc.
- SIP Race shocks
- SIP disk brake conversion
- Tubeless wheels in polished alumium (not those red ones!)

Some aesthetic stuff, including deco kit to match my wife's stella and a Yellow headlight

Then yesterday I tore into the engine.



Bad cruciform, bad gears





Someone did not know how to ride... CLUTCH, PEOPLE



clutch rebuild



Engine scrubbed down, there was some more cleaning after this.



For reference, this is what it looked before (yes yes everything was covered properly and no water got in):



Sexy shocks





Exhaust



Grand Sport magnetic drain plug



Tomorrow I will hopefully finish it up and ride it the 90mins home from the workshop.

Banging out updates like there is no tomorrow.

Spend all morning hooking up the disc brake, with no instructions, but it was pretty straight forward. Needs to be ridden, build some pressure and adjusted.









Rear hub back from powder coating, nicely fits the front now



Current state, off the bench. Can't find neutral. Worst case i fucked up the gears in the gear box. Best case I simply messed up the cables in the selector box. Let's hope for the latter, did not have time to check.

So, I did some "finger fucking" today, small adjustments to brakes and clutch and gear selector box, which I just mounted badly, because, you know, I have never done this before


-.-

Here it is currently, runs smooth as butter, with the shocks and new clutch, wheelies like a champ.





I am probably changing the orange turn signals for whites this weekend and do my vynil aswell (black with white accent) as some cleaning. Headlight needs wired. Then it is time to ride home, on Thursday we are taking this and the Stella to the Smokey Mountains.

Wow, that is a clean looking scoot! Nice gear you put on too.

Striped it up today, some more is coming tomorrow with wiring.

Am getting different turn signal glass too

You picked up a great scooter.
You ordered nice stuff.
You dug right in and looks like you fixed it right.
You have it looking like a million bucks now!

Congrats and I especially like your yellow headlite. Smoked clear turn signal lenses?

Now just polish up the legshield trim. You'll like this nice little touch.

Thank you.

It does run great and I cant wait to tackle the smokey mountains this weekend. It runs strong, yet a little too rich, fixing that tomorrow

Smoked lenses are ordered

Braking is just fantastic
Have not gotten into adjusting suspension yet as it feels pretty good two up, i have family visiting and my younger sis enjoys riding on the back.

I added a clamp on mirrot today, feels giid yet totally stupid and useless, so I love it.

Got my lghts going today, turn signals still need some love though.

Firther vynil tomorrow and reducing the main jet

Polishing the trim seems like a fantastic idea. Finding someone with a bolishong attachmentfor their drill right now

Great work!

It looks like you got the cable operated disk kit. Is it a significant improvement over the drum?

It is! as seen below!

Alright, first day of the Smoky Mts. We rode up Clingman's dome and destroyed some silly V2 folks on the way.





[img] http://i.imgur.com/SxiPuis.jpg[/img]






More to come in the next couple of days

MORE STUFF:

Cade's Cove and a very relaxed Motor Trail around the National Park (10-15mph)

We did around 100miles that day, with my wife taking my sister and I taking my mother in law on the back. Great fun, deeply in love with this bike.







We got stuck in a pourdown, were hiding in an old cabin tourist attraction thingie.



Fixing the color scheme right now:

Does your state allow the yellow headlight?
If not, have the authorities given you hell?

Not yet.

Ohio allws "adverse weather lamps" to be yellow, not headlights.

However, with so much in this my reasoning is: "Really...?"

It looks good, and it was this ways on many cars in France in the 1970's

Consider it "historical". I will happily take this risk

I like the yellow light...
I just know if I had one, they'd stop me immediately, around here...

Maybe I'll get one and see how long I can go/talk my way out of it...

You can just get headlight foil, stretch it over, under 10$

Done, for now

Although I have a 16mm Radial master cylinder on the way...

Small update

Good stuff!

Great read, I'm glad this post came back up. Awesome work and the P200 is a solid ride.

Part 2

The conclusion to my series on Pinasco shocks and rims.

Hope you all enjoyed!

My P200E engine needed a quick revision so I decided to take the time and fiddle with it as well as talk a little about the mods done to it so far.

Enjoy!

Enjoying your videos!

You mention the GSF dyno, is that the Micro-Dyno app? I played with it some time ago but was never able to get repeatable results. Would love to see how you yourself go about using it.

Would also like to see your setup for the GSF Dyno. I have built the small circuit to get the signal from the stator, recorded the runs with a digital voice recorder and downloaded them to my PC. But I always get weird graphs and crazy PS on the dyno analysis...

Good point. I will make a video about it I suppose !

Thanks!!

Small update:

Now with Pinasco 225 and lowered front end.





Right now in the midst of doing final adjustments and mounting a JL right hand for initial tests, then going to mess with the exhaust port. [/img]

Love it! Front end looks great. I have P200 envy, miss my old 79.

All done now, had a gearbox issue that needed resolved, ported the exhaust to 182 (182/125 now) and mounted a Vforce reed block

Runs preeeetty good.

A project two years in the making. Well done. Looks fantastic!

Just out of curiosity, what part of the restore/modernization was the most difficult, and which part(s) most difficult to find?

Congrats.

Nuh uh! You forgot to put the shifter box cover back on. But forgivable because the rest really is outstanding.

Great video and terrific job on the 200. Have enjoyed following this thread.

What's next?

Working on a VNB on 10" with 225cc engine (Oldschool Polini 208 with 62mm crank)
A 70cc 1982 Yamaha CA50
A reeaaaaaaaaaally dumb Allstate
And most recently my very own SS180

Ever find time to sleep?

Hey all.

So some things changed. for the way better. I had some engine issues so I tore into it days before leaving for the biggest rally of the year, Amerivespa 2019. ThatScooterThing (my social media platform) was a sponsor, I co-built the most gorgeous raffle bike i have seen in a long time.

Anyway, I tore the engine apart, found a busted seal and threw it back together. But not just like that. The cylinder has been reworked to 133/193degree timings with 62mm stroke (originally 57) now making an aqss-whooping 232cc. The intake now takes Tassinari VForce reeds and the biggest carb I found in my living room. A PWK 38mm carb. But there was no space... with the help of good friend we made it work, at a 90deg angle and to fit with the shroud. Then a day before leaving to Amerivespa I had to make it fit under the cowl. So I didn't. I cut a hole in it. (See pictures). I also had to run the throttle outside the cowl, but i really dig this idea. It works fine, I only need to take the slide off when trying to remove the cowl. Added 45secs. Although it still runs rich this thing is... beyond sanity. What a fantastic bike with power and sound that runs chills down your spine... Combined with aaaaaaaall the other things done to this, for the combined package of functionality and thought, I took home the overall big award of Amerivespa 2019, "Best Custom" (for all the bike categories). I also did scare a small tourist walking by my bike when I fired it up. if by a huge coincidence you are reading this: I am (not really) sorry. I will get it on point, on a dyno and onto the 1/8th mile dragstrip soon.

I also finally named this bike. "Phteve" after Steve Austin, the Bionically enhanced Six Million Dollar Man. And because, you know.. it's a P







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Ha! That's insane. I rode that thing at Whiskey Dick before this iteration and it was crazy then.. must be out of control now!

Great stuff as usual! keep it up.

Also can't wait to see the dyno of that, and footage of it running 0-60 and top speed!

Interesting carb mounting, I saw it somewhere else and the first thing I wondered was how does the air get to the cylinder from the fan, with a big hole and carb in the way? Does it get hot on the freeway?

Thats a really awesome ride.