Modern Vespa

Bearing markup is nothing. Start buying your seals and o-rings by parts spec if you want to see some crazy markups. Like 20x in some cases.

I've still got more to go but she's got flames again!!!

Howdy All,

Today I checked the weather report. It looks like today is the only day not forecasted for rain until Saturday. So I will have another opportunity today for a a ride.
However, I am currently in an odd situation finding myself hoping for sunny days for more rides on the scoot, so that I can continue the jetting process. On the other hand I live on a lake that has had extremely low water levels since last fall. So I am also hoping for rain! A lot of rain! The lake needs to come up another foot! The low lake levels have impacted boating as many homeowners can't get their boats on or off their boat lifts. Myself included. Pontoon boat and Jetski are in the driveway. I may try to get the Jetski on it's lift this weekend as it's lift is in deeper water.

Mother Nature if your reading this, I need lots of rain during the work week and sunshine on the weekends! See what you can do!

Hec

You are not alone Hec. We are 13" below drought conditions. All the boats ramps around here are closed. We got a total of 3" of rain last week and it helped, but not enough. Luckily for me, I own a couple of kayaks and can launch anywhere.

Back when I lived near Lake Sinclair I knew some guys that would get out there in a jon boat and comb the exposed mud around the banks when Georgia Power dropped the lake levels. They found all manner of stuff. Lots of fishing rods but even outboard motors and such.

How dows one lose an outboard motor?

Fishing rods i get....

but losing an outboard would make for getting home a chore and a half!

My guess would be either thieves/vandals or people too useless to dispose of them properly.

Hell, I found an empty filing cabinet randomly in the Oconee River once. I'm assuming it was dumped upstream somewhere and managed to drift a few miles before becoming waterlogged enough to sink.

Changed the tires of my friend's V50s and PX and I installed the front radial kit on my GTS...

^Beautiful!!!

I actually was in a boat when the outboard motor was almost lost! What happened is motor got out of adjustment and while trying to adjust it back after loosening the brackets and lifting it, the motor slid up on the wet sides too quickly. When that happened, the weight of the motor caused it to pitch forward towards the water when it got loose from the boat brackets. The guy had to hold on for dear life and almost fell overboard with it but managed to hold on and drag it back on the brackets...very close call!!!

I done it now! Mother Nature must of read my post! Now we are under a flood watch! I'll still take it!

Hec

Today I......


Got the parts back from the powder coaters and reassembled the Bitubo shock absorbers.. so easy to work on!!

You know, I kinda hate that the only fully black shocks available nowadays are SIP 2.0 racing set. Other known names are either in red, or silver, or shoddy model, or shoddy brand...

But you seemed to have found the solution. Ever done it before? How long will the coating last on the springs?

It's standard powder coating so should last quite a long time on the springs. The cast aluminium is wet painted

Ibe done it before and its pretty durable

Is there much involved in rebuilding a Bitubo? Is it just a matter of replacing seals or are there valves or something as well?

They look good!

Finished the paint. For now at least.

I've had lots of different coil spring powdercoated over the years. They all still look in excellent shape.

Went to do a grocery run, on my way back out of the store the security guard came up and started asking question about Bluey. He rides dirt bikes but thought the old girl was a beaut. Then he went inside and a guy pulls up next to me as I'm getting ready to go. Stops and talks for a bit, he lives near by and has a few Vespas and Lammy's.
I'm such an idiot all I got was his name. Didn't even occur till I left that we should have exchanged numbers, since like he even said you don't see many of these machines out.

#imanindiot

what a great meetcute.
yeah, that was me. let's ride sometime.

Either all the oil from my oil tank is in the body and on the ground or the oil line is stopped up somehow. Either way I have to pull the top end now and see what the carnage is.

Omg! Definitely. I was hopeful maybe someone here would know who I met.

Because I don't hate myself enough.

It was $500 and the primary problem is that it's out of DOT4 in the tilt lock mechanism. Not mine, my buddy nabbed this pig.

I love the seat cover. 😉

Todsy I...

Had a scooter turn up that the owner said was a bit wobbly on the front...

This bearing was all that eas left of any bearings in tbe front hub. Everything else was a fine metallic powder.

New bearing on the right is how it should look

The other day, I saw a pretty rare sight: a blinkerless P125X that was only available on the market here for a year and a half ('77-'78).

Some of the rust "patina" patches were legit, but many others were painted all over, including on the plastic horncast & headset cover Pretty convincing job.

Not sure if you're joking or not, so I tread lightly.
I can see where the caps were welded onto the legshield. Maybe it's just pronounced case of pareidolia, dunno 😁

Tbh my first reaction was to expect obvious signs of patching, but looking up close, it all seemed smooth and the paint "left" seemed consistent with the rest of the body. The mechanic confirmed it all seemed legit from the inside as well. Dunno what to believe anymore.

. Here's a little tutorial for dummies; the official one by Bitubo not being the most straightforward. I also compiled a parts list for a French forum. Some #s differ from one generation to another, so checking first what you have is advised...

Getting closer with the VBB legshield. Tried out the shrinking disc with mixed results. I don't really have the hang of it yet. At this stage, it's a lot of planishing, which takes a long time by hand.

This thing is really growing on me and might turn into a full resto. I wasn't that excited about it for awhile. It came with a running VBC engine as well as the original. The internals were in really bad shape. I managed to salvage it. I like the whole matching engine case idea even though I have a nice 187cc P engine for it that I ran for awhile in my Stella.

The rest of the sheet metal isn't too bad and it's remarkably rust free. Not bad for a $1500 farm bodge.

That's awesome. Thanks so much, really appreciate it!

Looks amazing. Will be a keeper for sure. We look forward to your membership in the 60/8's club.

Ha!

Your body work skills have come a long way! Love the round tail. Gonna be a beautiful scoot

Wow I'm impressed, that is excellent work on the VBB legshield!!! Agreed, going to be beautiful!!!!

=======

The custom sticker I ordered has arrived...wife was so cute when I mentioned I got it to replace the naked Vespa lady sticker, pretending she didn't know what I was talking about...she sees everything and definitely knows LMAO

Thank you! I was browsing your thread recently and had forgotten that your sidecar build is a '62 VBB round tail.

I wasn't very excited about it because I was under the impression that the 8" wheels would limit it as a road going scooter…and I already have 2 roadworthy scooters. But really, it's perfect for the kind of riding I do. And it has such nice lines.

Shhhh, don't tell the yellow beast.

… and don't tell the shitbox either.

I've never felt particularly limited on my 8"s, and I probably should sometimes.

It's like anything else on these bikes...gotta be willing to pay for the performance you need, and then it's more-or-less fine. If the road is unsafe for 8"s at a given speed and setup, it's going to be unsafe for 10"s at that speed, too.

Today I.....

Started another GPS conversion to a dead mechanical speedo... this time witjlh Rev counter in place of the fuel gauge... haven't het worked pit where I can slap a temperature gauge..

That's awesome. You need to document your speedo builds as a thread. So I can copy them.

Yeah, that's a myth

Actually I think I will this time round.

Only reason I haven't before now is because i thought everyone on here preferred SIP stuff 😀