Modern Vespa

Downloaded a bunch of manuals from www.pdfmotomanual.com

Good to have for reference...for free too!

Pulled my p200 engine

Looking forward to this one John!

Went full on Vader style and cleaned my garage...followed by several G&T's.



Bought myself one of those TSR Cafe Racer seats too, Bitz!

Next on my list of shit to do is cut some new boards for my inspection pit / slave hole.

Them seats are the shit ...... I'm looking for another low sports seat

You doing a rebuild for September?

Just completed a nearly 400 mile weekend on the p going to and from the 7 Hills SC Dog wood rally. Ran perfectly, saw 62 mph while trying to out run a storm, trekked through 40 degree fog on top of Skyline Drive in VA and then got home and snuggled with the dog. 8)

it was already planned, Malossi sport 210. Hopefully will be the ride of choice assuming all goes well.

Worked on a mirror bracket design for the super/rally type headsets.

Those brackets are much better than what's usually available & I have several different ones.
Yours put the mirror point where I want it finally.

Awaiting developments

Yes! They need to be short stems to avoid vibration. What will you make them out of?

I've made some in the past out of 1/4in aluminum sheet that put the mirror in the same spot and didn't have any more issue with vibration than any mirror on a vespa. These attempt to improve on fit by building in the offset height of the mounting bolts and shifting the angle of the bracket so it follows the bottom of the headset.

I was thinking I'd make them from aluminum, the flat part is 8mm thick.

had a look in an lml headset ...... why didnt vespa do the same .... a nice plastic ring around the top of the frame under head to stop wires n cables rubbing n nylon shims round the bars so its not metal on metal .... makes for a smoother ride n throttle returns properly


also saw a black vespa that wasnt ... factory paint was missing the cheeky cnuts had just cleared over the black primer ... the inside of the toolbox n under the panels were matt like when ya buy bits ready to spray

I'd be interested in a pair - although not sure if my master cylinder bracket would play nicely with it? Such a good idea, and cheap to replace when they wear out.

Finally got my scooter set up to be able to use my hitch hauler to take it places. I live about forty or so miles from my club mates and riding all the way down there was wearing me out and putting many unneeded miles on. And would take about two and a half hours.

Now I just put my scooter up on the rack, tie it down, and hit the road.

Nice and your scoot seems well secured. I have something similar, but no tilt ramp like I think you have. Riding from Everett, thru Seattle and halfway to Tacoma so you can then go riding.... Yeah, I know what you mean

I would be totally worn out, and then I'd ride back home. Now it's much better. On Sunday I drove to near Seward Park, then we rode to the car show in Georgetown, then rode to Des Moines, then back to Tukwila, then back to Seward Park. Much more enjoyable when you don't have six hours of additional riding on top of that.

One thing I've changed to my tie up style is to run a strap through the front rim around the rack. There's a small gap enough for a web strap. It doesn't need to be more than hand tight so I just tie a double knot on it. I learned the hard way what happens when you take a hard right and it's only secured up high. Scoot goes left and falls back scaring every car behind you.

People will give you shit for carrying your scoot to a ride Championstuff... usually the same people who like to meet at a cafe near their house. I'm in the same situation and always have to justify it.

Yeah but you're soft Michael. You only ride 1600km in a weekend.

Don't tell anyone Bob but it was a weekend plus a couple of days...
Plan is to ride up to Brisbane for the Mille this year. Should be fun!

Oh I wouldn't take it like that to a big ride or rally. I'd leave my car at a friends house and ride the scooter to the starting point.

Yep. I have my favourite parking places depending on which side of the city we are meeting up.

Let me know if you need somewhere to crash in Sydney.

Cheers Bob! Are you coming for the rally?

Nah.

Started working on a flyscreen for the the Rally. Trying to learn a bit from the GS.

I was on my way home on the P last week and noticed the clutch beginning to feel a little "crunchy". See, I'm cheap and I've been making my own clutch cables. I have a spool of cable, and for the lever end I've just been smashing a crimp connector on. It kind of fits in the lever and lasts for months, but there's definitely a pinch point where the cable eventually wears out.

I also realized that I wasn't carrying a spare.

I decided that it would be a good idea to have a spare already made up and on the bike every time I ride. Duh. A local bike shop carries stainless Bontrager bike cables the right size with a nice barrel end already on them for around six bucks. I picked up two, swapped out the bad ... oh, wait. It wasn't bad. It didn't need to be changed at all.

Now I have two spares.

Patrick did you get any further on the 8" brake disc idea?

Far enough to know that it can be done with an off the shelf caliper and a custom disc. I'd put the cost at ~3K+ and since I don't have an 8in wheel bike that's where it will likely stay unless I win the lottery.

3k? So where is the money in this? Would certainly be interested in your findings.

Finished swapping out the motors in my Stella.

The motor that SoCalGuy helped me buy is now in and running strong after a quick once-over, replacing the LML ignition with a P200 Stator & Flywheel, Ducati CDI, and a few other things fixed.


Some of the cleaner wiring I've done, even if the CDI bracket was fabbed from an old license plate and then attached with zip ties. I have a boot for the CDI somewhere, but couldn't find it in a quick search, so I just left that bare for the moment since this motor will probably only be in the bike for a few weeks.

I know it doesn't get a lot of love around here, but I still love the wide power band on the DR along with a nice kick when it gets up on the Redacted JL Knockoff Pipe.

After I get the other motor rebuilt, I'm thinking I'm going to convert it to 8", properly port it out, then put it in the VBB. Riding it over the past few days has felt pretty painful as compared to what I'm used to. Too bad that Patrick's 8" front disc brake investigation didn't pan out as a later phase of that project.

Now, I can start cleaning up and tearing down this beast...


so I can make it awesome again.

That worked out nicely.

Indeed, it did

Thanks again, Mike!

Came out this morning to take the Stella to work and noticed a little fuel underneath it.

I had to disable the fuel pump with the swapped motor and spilled some fuel into the frame, which I had mostly mopped up, so I just shrugged and went to start it up.

Turned on the fuel tap and gas began pouring out of the frame. Clearly, I somehow managed to pull the fuel line off the fuel tap, so I took the VBB to the train instead.

Meh.

Installed the KyTronik Smart Booster 2016 set to curve 7. Engine transformed. Quicker response and smoother acceleration. It also eliminated a bit of 4 stroking I had when I closed the throttle. Bought it on a 15% discount currently running on the site...

OOps.

On my ride home from the BBQ joint last night around 11;30pm the stupid exhaust stub backed off the cylinder again. At 55mph. In the dark. While my whole neighborhood was asleep.

Had to hit the kill switch as I got to the flat and down hill in the village and let it coast home for the last 1/3 mile.

I'm thinking the Sito realllllly wants off the bike.

Until the new one turns up...

dya think a http://modcharger.co.uk/ will run a horn ..... one better than the duck quack ..... wouldnt be charging me phone that much

No battery?

The Modcharger (it's so you Bitza! ) doesn't have power output info but it does say it will run an air mattress inflator. I only found one that nominated the power consumption, which was 40 watts.
Most horns I found also didn't nominate power consumption, except a pair of Hella horns designed for trucks and buses, 120mm diameter... but same design type as a motorcycle horn. It said consumption for the pair was 66 watts.
So looks like it could work.

I have a DC horn and a DC supply. I can't get it to work properly as I think it's earthing via the (original) switch. Think it needs to be isolated from the frame a bit better.