Modern Vespa

This is what I fully expected to see, not realising you had changed subject...

Optima (Magentis in the rest of the world)

That's hilarious! Reminds me of shag carpeting. 🤣😂

Yep. Hot surface igniter will get you every time.

Hood?!?
Hey corn dog…. How 'bout you grab a helmet?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19VVuMa9tD/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Today (yesterday) I was teaching a 5-year old how to safely watch the solar eclipse...

Bucket list item: ✅

AMAZING

I was in Carbondale, IL for the total eclipse of the heart sun.

If it's not on your bucket list, it definitely should be.

Did you turn around Bright Eyed?

Hec

Oh no I looked at the pic without those special "They Live" glasses, now I see spots all over the place

That being said I was buying stuff at the store yesterday, and the cashier (wearing dark shades indoors for some reason) was discussing the eclipse with his colleague. The other dude was asking him if he'd bought the special 3D glasses (his words), and Stevie Wonder said "nah, I got my shades on..". Not sure either was kidding.

Today I installed a wall-mounted mini cabinet with drawers in the garage to create some order in the general chaos. Haven't yet decided what'll go in there, but I'm thinking little specialized parts like speedo worm gears and the little bolts and parts that go around there, the fork nuts, hose clamps and miscellaneous stuff like that that's usually all over the place but that you can't find when you need ...

Thats some BOSS level chaos shelf ya got there. Way to go getting a handle on it. My OCD is triggered…time to go clean my shop

Today I learned the hard way how many miles Bluey gets on reserve…

Ran out right behind a guy who was getting into his car so I asked him if he happened to have any gas I could have, only needed like 2 cups probably. I was 1.5 miles from home but there's a hill in the way. Before the just push it suggestions come flying in, I've got fake hips and shoulders and am just waiting for my knees (my issue showed up in an X-ray so just a matter of how long I can hold out). So no pushing up this hill. Guy doesn't have any but runs across to his neighbor and asks him but he also didn't have any. So I make my way by sitting on the bike and pushing with one leg till I get to the base of said hill.

Just my luck! There's a landscaping crew working at a house by the light so I sit and push my way over and explain what happened and they were stoked to help me out. Talked about the bike for a bit but I had to hurry home as I had butter and was going back home to make pancakes for the kids.


12 measly miles on reserve. Live and learn. Now I know!

Now you know. I carry a 30 oz MSR bottle of fuel on all my bikes. Have used it once. Not life or death, but really good to have.

OFG

I had something similar happen a few months ago. I ran out of gas half a block from our club meetup.

I pushed my scoot up to the bar, where my club mates all began giving me crap. A couple good ol' boys came over and offered me not just gas, but premix. They were literally excited to give away their boss' gas, especially to fuel up a vintage scoot!

Reserve light is the answer. Can be installed on Vespa, Lambretta, and basically any bike with similar fuel taps. Light turns on: you have X miles left. I've pushed it a few times when the light turned on just as I'd passed a gas station, but never enough to actually find out what's left after the light turns on, nor to have to actually push the scooter. But it's more than 20km, which would be 12 miles.

I'd say it's the single most useful aftermarket part for old scooters without fuel gauges.

Working on a different sort of reed-valve single.


Dayton Speedaire 1Z943B. Thankfully, you can get parts for them still. I got a set of reeds, top end gaskets and a set of rings. I may crack open the bottom end too and do a health check. He had it run through an engine shop parts washer first. Nicer to dismantle, but they blew the Dayton decal off.

Favor for my machinist since he's hustled on completing several of my projects as of late.

I figure this was more interesting than the Dell Latitude 5410 I also fixed for him.

I have a different pushing story from last weekend. My mate had just seized his smallframe after finally getting it run in. Tried to help him out with a piston I had on the shelf but mine was a B and his seized one an A, so we didn't risk it.
With that in mind, I was running in my VMC Thug 144 (after semi-seizing the Zeura 144!).
I got to my 300km (recommended by VMC), took a photo of the speedo and gave it the beans. Previously had been limiting myself to 85-90 briefly, took it up to just over 100 and it felt good. Then went blaaaah. I gave myself a good talking to, as you do in these situations, mainly about being an idiot. Pushed it home 4km, turned off the fuel - broken lever so tank out - and there was the carb. Sitting on the bottom of the tunnel.

Glad you made it home, even if with a little detour. Funny how some random people are the most stoked to help out and show appreciation for the scoot.

I feel like we are at a point where these things are old enough for many to be 'true' antiques, and weird and quirky enough to make people smile; even if for a laugh. Whats life worth living if not for a laugh and a smile.

Worked on the 63 VBB today. It feels good to spend a half hour polishing and removing dents ☺️

Cleaned up my parts washer. Way overdue. Took out about 2kg of slurry and almost a bucket of what was cleaning solution in the past (mainly oil now). Filled with 30 liters of fresh cleaning chemical…

SaFiS,

How much of that was from the Chia-Engine?

I still need a parts washer.

Got started on the free snowblower I got. Gonna clean the carb tomorrow and see if she starts, today I did some rust treatments. The rust for the most part is surface rust. Some pitting here and there but no rot through. Yet.

Gonna need some new gaskets. Took the air box off and the gasket crumbled in my hand.


Excited to see if she runs.

That has a great snow blower engine! Tecumseh! I have a Toro 421 that I redid using a 5HP Tecumseh Engine out of a Crapsman Craftsman like yours. I hope yours has the adjustable jet mounted the bottom of the float bowl. If not find one to replace the bowl nut. You'll be glad you did so you can tweak it! Check the belts and friction disk and grease the bearings and gears. Be careful not to get grease or oil on the friction disk.

Hec

c'mon it's too early for snow pics

I think I found the non-working speedo cause, the plastic driveshaft blades are smooshed in a couple places
Anyone know of a US seller that carries these? Available in AL? Thanks in advance!

If the snowblower doesn't work out, put that Tecumseh in a minibike or a go cart.

scootermercato to the rescue!!! 🙏🎉
https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/New-Products?search=speedo+drive

For $4 I probably should've bought two or three just in case...

If you remove the hub while working on the wheel, remember to only insert the speedo drive when the hub is in place. If you install the hub over the speedo drive, you're likely to mess it up and regret not having ordered several.

Reason being: when you drop the worm gear into its slot, it will only drop into position once the worm and hub gears are able to mesh. If the worm gear is already there when you shove the hub on its spindle, it will crush the plastic body of the worm gear and that'll be all she wrote. Learned that the hard way.

Thank you, appreciate the heads up! I'll be replacing the wheels soon and will watch out for that 👍
The speedo wasn't working when I got the scoot. I was able to remove the worm drive screw without removing the wheel or anything else. Used vise grip pliers clamped on a screw driver bit that was able to fit in the tight spot to remove drive screw.

Doing a complete front end overhaul on friend's GTS (the one I serviced before) cause it started having a very serious wobble close to a tank slapper. I first tried the usual things (rear shocks adjustment, riding without the top case, new tire, new front brake disc) but the problem persisted. Found some wear on the steering column bearings and a bit of play on the pivot pin. Test tomorrow, hopefully no more wobble...

What's the torque spec for the fork nut?

I've never seen one published for vintage or modern bikes before.

Amazing how little change there is.

Same for vintage and modern.

Bottom nut (12Nm - 14Nm).
Top nut (35Nm - 40Nm).

T5 is the only exception with the 2nd top nut that also holds the handlebars (75Nm - 80Nm).

According to Haynes:

All front bearings, pivot pin kit and seals are the same as PX with disc...

you can vote on the style you like but I've already made up my mind
occurs to me that there could be a market out there for rad floormats...like I'd pay extra for a cool orange one...dayglow orange!

Got the carb out of the snowblower today. What an asinine setup they've got with that thing. Also not a gasket to be found at the carb where it meets anything actually. Unless the gasket was fused to the exhaust manifold? Who knows. Gonna try to run it as is and if I need a gasket so be it. This will give me time before winter to take care of that. Anywho, removed and cleaned then I got to rust removal on the body.

Going to respray the bits that were rusty either on Friday or Monday depending on how the weather shakes out. Every bit is primed and ready for some black enamel. Or maybe I'll go crazy and paint each part a different color! Who knows!

Planned to pull the SS and the Cop-bike out for some runs and some funs, but it is so damn hot that I am unmotivated to go the storage unit and suffer. 101*
FFFfffff.

Felt.

It's been so hot and miserable here that even I have resorted to running errands in the car.