Modern Vespa

That's some impressive wood. Your saws are surgical clean. I love your roof rack retention system.

I finished burning my neighbor's tree I cut down for him last year. Some species from Australia. It was some seriously hard wood. Best burning stuff ever.

It's warmed up to 80 this week so no need for more wood. Had a maintenance flight and just wanted to share how nice the Channel Islands look this year. The water was very clear too.

That is so awesome!

Today I.....

Came across this for sale advert

https://ebay.us/m/jCxqdw

And it made me ponder the following.

Can it still be called a lambretta engine if nothing "innocenti" is there? "Lambretta like" or compatible or other such term would be a truer definition surely?

Example BFA engine

A point for philosophical discussion methinks

Re: Power Outages

Post hurricane, summer causes a level of misery even with a generator, that's hard to surpass. But, not a huge risk to life and limb. Albeit, sanity sure gets a work out.

Winter… seems much more dangerous for sure. But, with a generator can be cozy and quite tolerable.

Push

Reminds me of both the Scotland and the NZ. Where's that?

Just West offshore of the California Coast.

Hec

I was thinking the same about NZ with the greenery. These Islands by me are usually a light brown color from the the dried up grass. We had enough rain to turn it all green. The dry streams are all flowing with water. It doesn't happen every year but the wildflowers will be amazing this season. Flying over gives these Islands a completely different perspective than I usually see from my boat. It's another world when you get up next to them. Like they were forgotten in time.

My irritation is that the M10 in-head RunLeader, et al. is that the sensor has more than enough capability, but then they'll pot it into the brass with something that melts at 300F.

This is part of why I've now gone to using the m4.5 sensor like the Koso or yours, and just drilling+tapping for that. It works at least as well, btw.
---
Also, saying "I prefer the cold over the heat" doesn't count if you then immediately show how you're not materially impacted by the cold. If you have a few cords of wood or a generator and gas-forced air HVAC, that's a cop-out.

Do a few weeks in bitter cold with NO heating options. Compared to that, I'd rather suffer the heat (and I have). Less likely to lose toes, if nothing else. My heater (and most of my appliances) got knocked out for a few weeks by lightning hitting my house for the pit of winter last year. That fucking sucked. Way worse than dealing with the heat, IMO.

I'd ordered a few parts for the Kawi since the seller accepted my initial offer and I had a bit of budget. First items were based on first impressions; I saw no keys, a torn seat, no battery, a missing kickstart lever and noticed the throttle was stuck closed. From the last observation, I ordered an engine gasket set, seal set and a carb rebuild kit.

So which part arrives first? The repop seat cover.

I was running by my machinist's shop to pick up a tool I'd had made for installing Vino 125 rocker shafts, so I pulled the seat of the Kawi. I was going to the upholstery shop the next day to check on my Majesty pillion seat and backrest, after running to the former office so I thought I'd just drop the Kawi stuff off so he could get to it whenever.

It was ready for pickup the next day! Dude never works that fast, but it looks and feels great.

Now I have a minty seat for a dirty turd that I haven't even been able to do a compression test on yet. This feels like doing an engine rebuild through the tailpipe.

For the record, the replacement keys arrived next. The switch worked after blowing the dirt out and shooting a dab of Kroil in. Then the gasket set showed up. Kickstart lever and battery arrived today. I may bring a plug wrench and my borescope by next week to see if I need to go straight to rebuild when time permits.

Cool find! Wonder if there's an extension cable readily available.

Koso cables and temp probes interchange. The kit I bought included the extension cable. The Amazon kit shows the extension cable in the last pic with all the kit parts.

Like the BFA, the basic parameters of the original are there. Not like an RD350 conversion in a Lambretta for example. Fits an original frame I guess is another way of putting it.
One day maybe people will wonder why we modified all these original priceless scooters, currently I'm enjoying the incredible range of options and power available, even if I can't afford most of them. Chandlerman, sounds like that $1400 generator is not an option where you live, it's a lifeline. Not a cop-out to be prepared for the worst case - which it sounds like you've been through so far. Please stay safe mate.

The new generator would be an upgrade over the current one, which is old and puts out dirty power. It's kept me and the pipes in our house safe through the worst of this storm. I have a couple of clubmates who have been told they shouldn't expect their power to come back until the 8th. Years of inadequate line maintenance and low staffing has really come back to bite Nashville Electric's customers in the ass.

Personally, I already bit the bullet for the necessary wiring and fittings to install a proper interlock (versus my wildcat backfeed that got me through this crisis) so I can plug in to the main junction box and safely drop off 240V. All of that has arrived, but now I just need it to warm up a little so my fingers don't freeze to the metal while I'm installing it.

I saw this on the local news and thought of you! I think the lady got lucky she didn't get CO poisoning running the generator so close to the house. She had to have that front door cracked open to run all the extension cords through! The HOA was insult to injury during an ICE Storm.

https://www.wowt.com/2026/01/29/family-says-hoa-told-them-they-couldnt-use-their-generator-during-ice-storm-blackout-its-unbearable/


Hec

the townhome scenario is a little trickier, I'll admit, given that it's assuming risk on the part of their neighbors. There's also the question of how they were using the generator--it sounds like they were just plugging stuff into it, but people doing improper backfeed connections is a serious issue, with both fire safety and electrical/lineworker safety risks.

So I'm sympathetic to the HOA's initial position, but I also strongly suspect that neither party was qualified to have a meaningful conversation about extenuating circumstances or how the risks were being effectively managed. As a result, both sides came away unhappy.

Finally finished with the Rally's fork. The Crimaz kit as beautiful as it is, it's also a pain in the nine assholes. First off, he ships it assembled and then you have to take everything apart to have the hub painted, installing the caliper before the brake disc, etc. Had 5 of the 10 small 5x10mm bolts snap in the hub and collar since they were torqued with red thread locker and for some unknown reason 3 of them were also corroded. And of course, Cristian as a true and genuine Italian, he provides no instructions (not even in Italian)...

At least they had some threadlocker in it....


I've bought aftermarket and "genuine" stuff I could take apart with my fingers

Tapped the mudguard crest to M5 to make it more secure. Owner had the rims for a long time, they're 2.50x10" so they're offset. New 3.50x10" Michelins (City Grip Saver). Fork's in...

That is a thing of beauty

Is the stripe grey, silver or black? Looks different in every pic.

It's graphite grey, his previous color combo. We'll be doing the stripes in black too...

Free puppy Scarabeo runs. Needs some carb fine tuning, but I'll wait for daylight since you need to pull the battery and battery box to get to the carb when installed.

SaFiS and greasy125 did warn me that Scarabeos are a pain in all nine assholes. I'd build on that sentiment by hypothesizing that the smaller the displacement, the worse they are to work on.

🙈

At last!!

Wait...I'm confused...what kind of obscure free-as-in-puppy bike is that?

Dave!!!!

Looks to mw like a 150 super on 8" wheels......

Fewer jobs are more crappy than pulling and reinstalling a GT 160 tank. (Ok… the early 70s autolube, all metal tanks are worse by a tit hair.)
But that was today's quest.

Gt160 tank is basically a small frame tank and the prescribed hose length gives you almost zero room to fiddle with. Defo a challenge.

Glad that's done.

Getting there. Had to drill and tap the brake lever since Crimaz ships the BMC with a shortie lever so it wouldn't match the other side. Thankfully I had send both the old levers for powder coating. Engine's in, rear brake done, tail light installed and seat's on...

Really diggin' that Rally, SaFiS!

I like the graphite stripes with the color, just adds that much more visual interest.

Also keen to hear about the Crimaz kit in action.

Which version of M/C are you using Safis?

It's the v2.0…

Ginch, the "Norxi" temp gauge seems to work decently, with one annoyance.

The annoyance is that it flashes the display once the measured temp exceeds 248F. It'll stop flashing when temps come back down.

I did check the plug ring temps with my IR temp gun and the readings were pretty close. Response rate is decent for the price. Just wish the temp alert threshold could be configured

Interested to hear your install experience. I have one for the smallframe, one day I'll get to it. Thanks! That does sound a bit annoying, especially as you really just want to quickly glance at the gauge.
The TTO I used to have would flash the high temp every 10 seconds or so? I found that really useful, and it wasn't often enough to be annoying.

Routed the brake hose. Needed length: 1250mm...

Any installation issues?

I love the routing at the wheel. That looks absolutely perfect.

To further your confusion, here's a "reverse free puppy". As in, I'm giving it away, with a small catch.

A friend with an AK550 and a Tiger 1200 wanted a smaller scoot that he could learn to wrench on and eventually hot rod. He kept looking at Genuine Buddies ( PGO Bubu / Ligero for our international colleagues).

So I decided to give him this one. Got it dirt-cheap off my local dealer (customer abandon) with title. It has 20K on the clock so the engine could go another 20K if cared for. The catch was that he has to come over and get his hands dirty while we do catch-up maintenance to see if it'll run.

When he's ready to build it up as a 161cc, I'll walk him through the job, but he'll be holding the tools.

Once he understands the fundamentals of how this works and has achieved some success, we'll look at one of the Stellas at the shop.

Lookin good … gonna be a tight fit in the headset with the throttle and speedo!

I'm digging this plan.