Modern Vespa

Hard to believe that's a rattlecan-make-it-look-decent kind of job. Looks really sharp.

Anyone here take their '66 SS180 to Limerock yesterday ? Nice MM light. I am sorry I don't carry a camera.

Nah I wasn't there. Spotted it on FB

Unfortunately, I'm about 12,000km west from you.

Any excuse! Could have said you had to mow the lawn that day...

Yeah, had to run home, left the kettle on…

Anything to avoid "what tyre pressure you running on…" dreaded question…

As a fool who has a project VeloSolex, this story made me smile:

https://www.theautopian.com/how-this-ridiculously-slow-moped-set-three-speed-records-at-bonneville-salt-flats-speed-week/

^^^I saw that… Made me smile!

Low key flex… I rode all 5 working bikes today. Pretty stoked everything is feeling pretty good.
PV to breakfast
SS180 heat cycle
Motovespa heat cycle
Shitbox for a vino run
P200 for a neighborhood cruise just to move some petrol through the carb.

The kickstart stuck, then stripped, on the GL yesterday. So today I split the cases to see what was going on. Turned out that I'd gotten some shrapnel from recent clutch issues down in the cases, among other fails.

I discovered one of the clutch cover bolt holes had stripped, so I fixed that and now I'm wondering/hoping that was causing the clutch plunger to not push squarely, causing the chaos.

While i was in there, I replaced the cruciform since I had a spare and it was looking fairly worn.

After I got everything cleaned out and back together, I stole the kickstart lever off the white Stella to get back up and running.

I'm pretty sure my timing is pretty seriously off, like five degrees too advanced, but my timing light decided to give up the ghost, so I have to see if I can find my old one, or I'll have to buy a new one.

All in all, a productive day in the workshop, even if I didn't get everything where I wanted it to be.


Metal flake oil for a metal flake bike

Cruciformin' ain't easy in my garage

clutch fail (retaining clip broke, chaos ensued). (Not the actual clutch, which is a BGM Superstrong)

And a "For a Grade A Repair" part...wasn't

Pressure plate looks like it's seen better days.

Realized an old unused air-travel plastic shampoo bottle made a near perfect 2% measuring cup for 2t oil.

Sometimes you gotta take the small victories


Space saver vs that bigass Ratio Rite cup, plus the lid keeps my glovebox from getting all oily.

Is this from the GL? Or is it the original style one?
I had one of the one peice bearing pressure plate and pusher combined destroy not ony itself, but the clutch and cover as well.
So although I have a Crimaz geared pinion thingy, I'm a bit anxious about the pressure plate, and your picture doesn't settle the nerves!

World famous in New Zealand. What kind of fruit is a Paeroa?


Little Sprint run in and decoked. Sweetness...

Clutches have not been my friend of late, to the point I can't keep what I had to do to which bike straight in my head.

I went back through this thread to reassemble a timeline of events and realized that the chewed up pressure plate was [url=-https://modernvespa.com/forum/post2636996#2636996]actually from my P200 motor[/url]. It's been doing great with the one piece plate/plunger combo since I replaced that. It's now pretty much the standard that all my bikes aspire to.

Back to the GL, I'm also pretty nervous about what's up with the clutch at this point. It was definitely making contact off-center. As a result, the SIP pressure plate lasted about a week.

I'm now running with a lightly used spare pressure plate I found in my parts hoard. We'll see how it holds up. I'm wanting to take the GL on an out of town trip next weekend, but if the clutch is still being wonky, it'll stay in the garage in favor of something else--either the Sprint or maybe the Smallie, assuming I decide I want to deafen myself and everyone around me.

Hang in there, getting the Vespa running reliably is the holy grail, but can definitely suck balls getting there.

Turn the engine over with the clutch cover off to have a look? Wondering is the clutch is spinning straight…

The sip plate looks like it exploded, the bearings have all disappeared. Hope you found all the shrapnel.

The frustrating part is that this was one of my most reliable motors for a few years. I split the cases yesterday after the kickstart froze up to both figure out what was going on as well as to to get all the shrapnel out. I'll have to see how it's behaving today.

I'm hoping that the clutch cover now holding at all three points again will have been the root cause, but I won't know until I know.

Worst part is, like I said, that I was planning on taking this bike on a 200+ mile trip next weekend, and now I'm hesitant unless I can regain confidence over the next week.

Yeah that's no fun man, especially when you have something planned coming up.

Looks like the tiny terror is being called up…

Disheartening. Hoping you get it sorted quick and easy amigo.

Those pressure plates are crap and a waste of money. The bearings in them are not designed for axial loads. They need special bearings to work safely and not explode...

Should work still. According to SKF website.

I'm using the same plate. Works so far, (famous last words…) granted sold the PX.


This is the bearing in the pressure plate.

Can take axial and radial loads. Apparently Basic dynamic load rating up to 2.34 kN.

I would have thought this style of bearing would be better?

Think so too…


Something like this…

Not so much just today...but the last 2 months I havn't done much scooter work at all. We took a trip out to Oklahoma to see family, and before and after that I've been focused on another project... a big ole large Skate Half Pipe!

The goal was to finish it by my sons birthday, which is today; but we didn't quite make it. No worries though as we are in the home stretch, and it is usable as is for now.

The half pipe / mini ramp is 12' wide, 22' long, and 3.5' rise. I originally purchased this from a local guy as an unfinished project, which was pretty much just the basic framing and support joists; and first top layer. My son and I have put in alot of work to make it structurally sound, clean looking; and super strong! This thing can now support a tank, or atleast a couple of teenagers shredding it up!

The way it sits now in these pics shows the top layer of 3/8" plywood, and on top of that will be a layer of 1/8" masonite. We get alot of moisture here in Oregon, so the main structure will be painted; and the top layer sealed. I figure the top layer of masonite will get worn, and can be easily replaced.

Next steps are to add top layer, attached the metal coping, and finish build out of the 2 top decks. Also the last missing section will be a 'roll-in' ramp, so that will be build out separately.

Its been super fun building this with my son, and I know he will use it to the full extent! Oh also, its great that we have very good insurance


Test run successfull

The view in the yard. YES- that is an old pool, which has been filled with dirt. Funny long story short - we didn't know that was here when I bought the house, as it was covered in 12" of soil and gravel over the entire yard!

Initial rough shape of the 'roll-in' section.

We added all the vertical bracing, the pressure treated framing on the ground, and much much more. Before this, the entire thing would flex when putting weight on it! Over kill much, but strong as ever

Ahhh... so may days of my mispent youth on the boards and bowls.

Rad to have a great project to do with your son Jesse.
Good stuff.

Father sun projects - the best! Good one for making this one happen.

I spend a lot of time at an abandoned pool in my youth. Good times!

I never cared for pools as I always enjoyed the ocean more. The beach had waves, women and waves. Pools make great areas to fill in and plant a garden.

Cousin's PX - Malossi - disc brake build is finally ready. I also had it detailed by a friend and found some really nice markers to do the gear numbers...

And a few photos from our National Vespa meeting's pageant. My blue P got 2nd place, 1st place went to the red P next to mine. Although a "cheaper" build in terms of engine, etc. a nicer paint job and some bling does the trick. I need to up my game for next year

Also, a really nice custom painted V50s and a watercooled T5...

Awesome event and killer pics, love the smallie w/ the Story of Vespa.

Big thanks for sharing!

Many cool scooters there.

If cutting down a T5, surely the first cut would be the square tail

blasphemy!

Safis, what's the blue headlight/handlebar?

Square light with a larger Speedo? 50special? Or is that just the angle of the photo?

Quite cool…

That's my blue P. Dan Motors square headset. Normal P speedo…

Here's that Dan Motors P150S headset in the wild, but without a chrome rim. It looks from the chipped edges like this top piece is cast aluminum... Is yours aluminum or is it plastic like other Ps? There's some discussion of this variation by ebeth here: Lets talk about P150S!




Chris, I just noticed your horncast , that thing sticks out quite a ways. What is that from? It almost kinda reminds me of this one :

Cover is plastic, managed to find one more to have on the shelf since they're unobtainium. Horncast is T5…

Headlight rims came from Ebeth, I had them chromed…

It's aluminium Terry.

I do wonder where the design came from? Was it an original DanMotors? They did do a few things that were not exactly Piaggio.

From what I gathered from the interwebs, Piaggio first designed it and they sold them as an accessory kit in Europe (bottom, top and speedo). There was a guy in Cyprus who had two NOS sets. From his set I found the OEM codes and to my surprise I found the bottom half in Athens. Giant P in the Piaggio museum rocks this headset. Motovespa also had them on their range, Brazil models had an awesome speedo. Dan Motors did some weird versions like the "super" square one you showed me…

Looks cool.

I brought a square headset when I was visiting Bangkok, Thailand… brought the lights, Speedo brackets, definitely didn't feel and look as cool as yours.

I ended up giving up on it.

A buddy stopped over today to play Pickleball and gave me this cool magazine, "Scootering in the 1960s".

"The decade where scooters were fashionable."

1) Decades are a "when," not a "where"
2) That must mean that the 1970's and on were the decades where they were *unfashionable*

There are some cool photos and lots of Lambrettas


Wait a second, is that a bodge?