Modern Vespa

Are they any good??

Look quite hard…

I have not seen Greg Clauss in years but my guess is the Vespa stuff doesn't have the demand as the other stuff he is selling. Maybe he needs a certain quantity to be worthwhile producing?

Yeah, thanks for the visuals and taking us up! The Santa Paula river wash looks fairly low. I used to ride my XR500R up the river wash to Santa Paula for lunch from Oxnard sometimes. Only got chased by the cops once!

This door. Has been awhile since I prepped/painted a whole panel. Forgot how rubbery it makes my arms feel after a few hours of sanding. I can assure you that's it getting flatter. But I swear, sanding it makes it get bigger. It is now the size of Nebraska. At least it will be easier to paint than a Vespa.

I love it, Rob!

Next time I'm in SoCal, I'm making time for you to take me flying. 😃

I'm sure that's it, but it's still a bummer. I love those upper shock mounts.

Maybe it didn't sell well because people are afraid to drill holes in the frame?

Still, with the engineering and tooling work done, you'd think he would still run batches.

Might just need to get in touch with Cluass to find out if he can make some. I have two of his upper mounts one on my P225 and one on my GL no complaints. Thought I saw a copy on the market can't remember the company name but my memory is the company that makes the engine bushings in the orange color urethane.

Greg made a lens for my Vigano horn cover. I have a red and amber stashed away if I want to change. I was trying to get him to make the rubber cover for the Mickey Mouse wing nut on the gas tank cap but it never came to fruition. Still need a few.

Good Lord the GS looks great.

I'm pretty sure SIP bought all of his stock before they run out too, so maybe it wasn't a low demand issue…

Anyone holding Del'orto 24/24 injected? Been looking around with no luck...

I might have one, but if I do, it's in a motor. I think all the 24/24's on my shelf are Spaco's. I'll take a look and let you know.

Do you think there is a big difference between the two? Just an uneducated guy asking....

I mean it would be nice to have a Del'Orto. I could buy a new Spaco from SM, of course. I could also get one off Ebay, but I don't trust stuff off ebay.

From experience, the ones from Piaggio or Dell'Orto that come in a brown box and have a Dell'Orto sticker on them, although Spaco made, they are of higher quality compared to the ones that come in the blue Spaco box…

And then there are the super shitty Indian 'Spaco' with the golden bolts and black covers, etc.

Thanks for sharing that. I've read reports of bad carbs out there. At least we have a better starting point with your info. I will still dismantle a carb and check for burs and metal shavings but getting a good one from the start is way less frustrating.

Agreed. You can find one on Ebay for $30 (black top), but not me.

This is the correct plan in any case. Most carbs need at least a little bit of cleanup, and that's before you do any of the standard mods to prep it for use in a tuned bike, e.g. drilling the float passage.

I have 3 BGM's (reworked Spaco). No issues.
3 Spaco's with issues on the shelf.

A Spaco out of the box needs work:
Ultrasonic cleaning after being taken completely apart.
Blow out ALL channels with compressed air.
Inspect the needle seat with a jeweler's loupe.
Inspect the fuel pathway under the banjo. Some have casting defects there that block fuel flow.
Replace the needle with a spring-loaded Viton needle.
Check that the mixture screw fully seats -- or better, replace it with the BGM screw.
Replace the jets with Dellorto to original jetting (not 190ac/BE4 last iteration).

This is for a stock bike.
If kitted, more work needs to be done


https://www.bgm-tuning.com/en/product/bgm7305-mixture-adjustment-screw-bgm-pro-conversion-short-si20-20d-si24-24e-si24-24h-thread-m5-x-050mm-thin-tip-065mm-type-vespa-px-with-slotted-screw-used-umru/

Ray has definitely got the right experience with si carbs! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Wind therapy on the SS to alleviate my ET3 frustrations

such a beautiful machine, and good plan!

Scooter Gods have ignored my prayers for a trouble-free remainder of the season. Latest trial is a swallowed reed petal. Had what felt like a fouled plug pulling into my driveway at the end of a ride the other day. Changed plug. Scoot started right up and carried me to the end of the driveway, but died as soon I turned out onto the road. Checking for fuel and spark, noticed a lot of blowback coming out of carb. Shining flashlight (torch) down the carb with the throttle open revealed a clear view into the crankcase. Bad.

These are the Boyesen 2-stage reeds on a Stella reed block. Only been in for a year and maybe 2,000 miles. Somewhere I read that you do not need the reed stop for this setup, so was running without it. As you can see, one of the smaller petals broke clean off. Can't say for sure if this was mechanical damage, but the scuffing on the large petal is very suspicious. Went with the reed stop this time around.

Good news is motor seems to have digested the petal like Joey Chestnut digests a hotdog. Reed stop does not seem to affect performance around town, but haven't been out on the freeway yet.

New customer. Some TLC on a PX workhorse with 73k Kms on the clock. Engine's never been split. Oil line had finally disintegrated, frame got full of 2T oil dripping all over the place and engine soft seized while the owner was bringing it to me (if it wasn't for the oil leak he wouldn't bring it in). New fuel and oil lines, new sight glass, new brake shoes and cables front and back, carb was rebuilt, new set of gaskets for the carb tub, oil pump cog was really worn and replaced with a nearly new, but used one (200 cogs are discontinued by Piaggio), new battery, new starter relay (starter would stay engaged even with the main switch to OFF), new flasher relay (rear turn signals would occasionally work), speedo cable and worm gear, engine oil, spark plug, the works...

He will bring it again in the winter to dismantle / prepare it for a respray...

Drain plug repair on a PX. It was already tapped to M10 by a previous shop. Machined a 7/16 bolt to accept an M8 drain bolt. The 7/16 bolt is permanently installed on the cases with Permatex Cold Weld, an o-ring washer and the M8 drain bolt does the rest...

That's outstanding! I'm adding that to my trick collection. I've had to repair Harley primary case drain plugs by drilling and tapping with 1/4 inch pipe thread from a damaged original 1/8 inch pipe thread plug with excellent results. Seems people love to over tighten them.

Well done Sir

I just did something similar with the horn cover screws on the Lammy. They were completely corroded in place (steel vs. aluminum), so I drilled out the screws to get the horncast off, then ground them flat, drilled, and re-tapped.

Worked like a charm.

And I now have a loud-ass freeway blaster horn, to boot.

Very slick Safis!

First off, I only see stuff like that on marine engines (outboards mostly)! Well done Sir. No easy task to drill that out and still have meat left to get a new screw in. Something for me to look forward to if a Lammy shows up? I love loud horns, especially when nobody knows they're there!😂

To follow-up, got out on the freeway and I am going to say there is a very tiny loss of max horsepower with the reed stop in place. Still topping out at a little over 70 mph (gps) in 4th, but not with quite as much authority as before. Suspect this has more to do with the reed stop itself blocking intake flow rather than any restriction on how far the reeds can open.

Will be interested to see how long this set of Boyesens lasts. I am considering the possibility that the thinner fiberglass material used for the small petals is just too fragile for my setup. It is my understanding that the single-stage GGR Hot Reeds are Polini carbon fiber material precut for the Stella reed block. Is anyone running those without the reed stop?

I ran the GGR's with a cutout center bar and no stop for a while, but that was a long time ago, so I don't recall how many miles I might have put on them. They were still holding up when I put them on the shelf, though.

You know what we call "Harley tight", right? Snug it down until the head snaps off, then back it off an eighth.

I thought that was only for airplanes!😂

Yep, before I learned as a young lad of the wonders of Loctite.

While I have no doubt there are those who don't, I use a torque wrench for pretty much everything on the airplane. It's why I have several of them... even the little Park Tool 1/4 drive for AN3/AN4 bolts. It's actually made me much more aware of what I'm doing on cars and bikes as well.

Another potential benefit of using a torque wrench whenever you can is that you develop a good idea of how much force is "enough," even when you don't have a torque spec or torque wrench.

I wonder if it has something to do with the reeds being at 90 degrees to the flow? I guess most reed setups are at much less of an angle than that.

Finally noticed that I got a new name in my profile after like a month… doh! But I like it!

That's how you know you've really arrived.

As opposed to getting your own custom icons, which is how you know you've really blown up.

Repurposed my scooter paint rack as a bus door hanger. The best money I never spent. Craptastic paint booth is still operational. Sanded the backside last night and stripped the hardware. Changed my mind about painting outside; rain, wind, kamakaze bugs. Also the possibility of sharing my summer of citrus with the neighbors' cars, houses and pets.