Modern Vespa

Tuesday scooter p0rn... 🔞🔞🔞

Decided on a different route for the front wheel of my PK project. New style SIP tubeless rims (called MY) and a new SIP centre hub, almost a third of the price of the PLC Corse (and also better made / more robust). I will combine it with an ET4 disc carrier...

Today a friend of mine sent me the below pictures

So I've been testing my brain and seeing if I can count the different models of scooter that went into building it....

So far I count maybe 4

Can you do any better and name them

😀

Looks like it came with an engineer

Today I spent the day back and forth to the local recycling centre, when one of the neighbours who owns a Royal Alloy that has suffered the usual rubber Rot on the engine bushings collared me...

Looks like now i have space in the garage I will be doing work on his RA.. and also going to the workshop to recover my impact gun for the belts and rollers while I'm at it

I cleaned out my trashed engine cases, rotted body panels, old dead shocks, and other bits I know I'll never use.

Worst part is that the workshop looks no different than it did.

Now I need to list a bunch of tractor seats and racks on scootnet2.net that I also know I'll never use.

Found me one more NOS UTAH / Polini smallframe spoiler...

I had a burner on the stovetop go crazy and become super hot.

Decided to check out the dual infinite switch before I dropped cash on a new one.

Took it out, sanded the points, put it back together.

It's working again! So far, so good. I'll keep an eye on it while I'm cooking....

Nice work! Take one attaboy from petty cash
I love it when things get fixed instead of being trashed!

No matter how much I organize, clean up and get rid of stuff, it's always the same old mess. Even though my parts storage has improved, the labeled containers are the last place I look because I just assume I left whatever in a rusty coffee can.

Two Truths:

Expenditures rise to meet income

Junk expands to fill available garage space

And a third:
If you buy a bigger house, you collect more "junk" to fill it as full as the house you left. (I can vouch for that one!)

And a forth- No matter how thorough you plan a parts order, there will be another..... and another......

You haven't really done a vintage project until you've had at least three orders shipping simultaneously.

You rip your only case gasket when closing up the engine.

Smart!

Or you close the engine, (without ripping the gasket), but realize you forgot the kickstart wheel.

Bonus points for not realizing it until *after* a successful pressure test.

Of course

Helped a neighbour work on his Royal Alloy. Had to remove the front wheel and also replace an engine silent block

Silent block was easy enough.

Front wheel not so much, by the time I got across to help him, the wheel was halfway out and he was taking the disk off to get the wheel out, this proceeded to stripping the hex head fastener bolts in the quest to remove the disk to replace.... out came the cobalt drills to remove the head off the bolts only to find that it was now necessary to drill out the actual stud.....which in turn meant his drill went off centre and now his wheel is toast and we are looking for a new one.

RA spares aren't the easiest find especially front wheels.

The lesson to the story is.... always put stuff together with anti seize compound or copper grease

Out of nowhere I started to get some serious judder on the front brake of the Motovespa. No handling issues. I pulled the wheel and the brake linings and drum are as nice as can be. Then noticed the culprit.. It's odd (to me) that the ring is not more hour-glassed and can just slide off the bushing. I'm going to try to bind this back together somehow. CA?

Yep - that'll do it!

I had the same thing happen with a Carbone damper. It went in the bin, I started running BGM's and haven't had an issue since. You could try adding a shoulder washer on the outside to contain the rubber, I guess.

Yes , could put a washer on there. It would have to seat against the collar I think. I found the perfect size presser and got it back together and worked some CA in between the metal and rubber and I'll keep an eye on it. It's funny that it is in plain sight and was obviously off but I was thinking brakes and didn't notice.

I had the exact same experience with mine. Dunno why that bit of rubber is so invisible.

I think that CA will separate from the rubber pretty quickly since it's hard once set. Something more flexible, like Shoe Goo or a little bit of Butyl Tape, might be more effective since they will withstand stretching and pulling better.

I don't understand why it worked itself apart as the force is perpendicular and the top is located so well. I think the CA will work as there really shouldn't be any movement between the rubber and the metal and it should all be within the rubber itself. Time will tell.....

Yeah, I never quite understood why mine worked itself loose, either. I assumed that it wasn't truly perpendicular and thus worked its way loose.

For the CA, please let us know how it does.

And since we're talking about Vape's and timing, SIP now have a drop-in unit for the Vape with pre-programmed and custom ignition curve programming.

It sits between the ignition and the CDI, so I assume you'd need a fixed CDI to go with it, but it's still pretty cool. Read the installation docs for more details.

"Drop-in" sounds a little like "plug and play" which it rarely is in my experience!
This is a version of the Overrev adjustable ignition for Vape, with the addition of being programmable by the user via USB which is very cool.

Yes it needs a different cdi, this one has single terminal - https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/ignition-coil-sip-performance-by-vape-for-ignition-sip-performance-race-touring-for-vespa-50-125-pv-et3-pk50-125-s-125-v15-33-vm-vn-vna-vnb-gt-gtr-super-ts-150-vl-vb-acma-gs-vba-vbb-t4-gl-sprint-super-200-rally-2-px80-200-pe-lusso-cosa-t5-classic_51008700

And a different flywheel! https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/flywheel-sip-performance-by-vape-race-12v-for-vespa-pk50-125-s-xl-xl2-ets-125-gtr-2-ts-2-150-sprint-v-2-super-2-200-rally-2-px80-200-pe-lusso-cosa_51007160
Interestingly, the reason you have to buy a different flywheel is that this version is 149 degrees different to a normal Vape one. However, as you can see in the screenshot from a FB post, Overrev say that "all you have to do is twist the ignition on any Vape stator". How difficult that is in real life I don't know!

Here in the pic at the bottom are the 16 curves that come with the Overrev unit. The codes on the unit are pretty much the same so I imagine they are similar to the one from SIP.

Well I finished The Scooter Cops book. Thanks BN, great read.

Made an improvement to my detail/curve legshield pliers. I really like this pair and will be modding mine soon. This pair of Vise Grip pliers has been all up and down the Baja Peninsula and was paramount in getting me back on the road after my clutch cable snapped. It has just enough rust on it to be a very useful Vespa tool.

As promised, this one will be on it's way to Birdsnest hopefully on Monday. Enjoy.

Would anyone be willing to make me one or those?

Postage and packing gladly paid to the UK

So far I have been using a ball hammer to do mine and it's not easy hammering into a soft block then using a harder block to finish... that looks like it would be a boatload easier

It would be cheaper to take a picture of it to a local fabricator and get it done locally. But I doubt it would be easy to match the quality of what Bajarob can produce!

Got a good start on the bus nose. I'll be happy to get done with what I started prepping before we leave for our trip at the end of June.

Nose panel had an oil can in it. It used to have a spare time mounted on the front which put a big crease in it. After a few rounds with a stud gun and a slide panel I got the oil can out and close enough for filler. Can't really get behind the panel so it was the best I could do. Trying to get it closer risks having it all go out of shape.

New ball joints are in.
Replaced a transmission o-ring and stopped a messy ATF leak.

Going to look sweet when you are done. Spot shrinking with a torch does a lot for oil-canning. You don't really want it doing that with filler on but I am sure you got it close enough to be good.

I usually use an attachment for a MIG welder, a torch or shrinking disc. The stud gun will also spot shrink without welding a stud. It always adds a little shrink when welding on a stud and sometimes that's enough. Shrinking isn't always the solution to an oil can. It depends on what caused it.

In this case, I needed to stretch out a low spot that I couldn't back up with a dolly. I got it close enough to stop the oil canning but couldn't completely remove the low spot. Many more hours might have gotten it a little closer and required a little less filler, but there is always the risk of creating another problem.

Gotcha. I like the stud gun idea. I've used one quite a but but never for that.

Figured out a p series can safely handle a paint run.

Insert paint run line here :

And if you say it will buff out I'll kick you in the shin.

And... arrived. Man, thank you. Not only a bad ass and useful tool. I am equally impressed that it was done on an old Patterson (Made in USA) vice grip. Swoon. My wife did not understand why I kept talking about, and drooling over this thing. Thanks Rob. It's killer and will be put to good use!

Finally got time to look after my own crap. It's only been a month since SuperSunday.

This is a peek at the stuff you didn't see in the garage door repair posts.

Found some wayward parts, drained Eldritch fuel, made repair plans.