Modern Vespa

Put it on your Stella

So I took the scooter to get Mexican food, like I always do and got to the end of my street and the bike was running like crap, and blowing a lot of smoke. I stopped at the end of the block and had thoughts of blown seals, then realized I left the choke on. Doohhhh! Pushed it in and all was golden!

Spent the night rebuilding my carburetor on the sidewalk in front of my apartment. Finally got it finished no leaks fires up fine. ....throttle cable snaps.
it kept idling....so I guess that's good.

It's 21f out this morning. I'm going wish I'd done that over the weekend as soon as I leave the garage.

I got ready to paint some parts. But maybe I need to do more prep. It never feels like enough.

I'm dealing with this same feeling about the boat I'm restoring, only it's the entire hull. I think I'm about ready to just start priming after the last round of fairing and hope for the best.

Thanks for putting up that picture! I'll be painting on the weekend and realised I had forgotten to prepare my tail light base!

Yesterday I changed a main jet using pliers. I have a piece of wire which I put through the holes in the side to pull them out but I left it at home and couldn't wait.

Today I'm ordering 2 new jets and an atomiser, F*&king rats cocks!

LOL!!!

449EUR !!! for a CNC carb tub, 635EUR with a Pinasco SI26/26 and 729EUR with a Pinasco SI28/28. OK, I understand that your costs are high when you're a small business and you've just bought a very expensive CNC mill, but I just don't see it. The SI is outdated, but even so, why would someone pay 449EUR for just a carb tub. Funny thing is that they try to justify the cost on the FB comments...

https://scooterlab.uk/new-chiemgau-tec-production-the-pool-si-carb-box-news/?fbclid=IwAR0W0Yg1ir35EPoPRRQQ_gvw19X92cfV8af6i6zZLUgfEXL4FwRQaP6KlRw

A CNC version of the Pinasco high volume airbox would have been so much better. That cheap plastic thing is awful, but somehow it costs £50 / 57 Euro / $64 US

Yes. It's ridiculous. I don't think the sellers will be retiring on the profits any time soon. You could achieve the aims of the box with half an hour and some JB Weld.

Although I realised shortly after my post that CNC milling one out of a solid piece of aluminium would be a ridiculous waste of metal hehe. I'd settle for a pressed steel one, much like the stock Piaggio item, just bigger.

Content deleted by tenders. A forum where management/moderators repeatedly quash and delete well-intentioned, constructive concerns about governance issues raised by multiple users does not deserve my participation.

Yeah, I'd hope they at least rough cast the box, then milled it down from there. But maybe they didn't, which would also explain why the damn thing is so overpriced. Big-ass piece of stock like that would be pricy on its own, plus the cutting bits, mill time, operator time, etc. all adds up.

In non-stupid-use-of-cnc news, I borrowed ph0ngvu's engine stand inspiration and threw a pipe stand together since I have at least four motors that need some rebuild love right now.

The parts were more than I was expecting, but I'm extremely pleased with the results, and it'll also hold up to running in quite nicely, I expect.

The only think I don't like is that the threads in the T's and the threaded rod that I'm using up front tend to bind up on each other. I'll probably pick up a couple of short nipples and thread those in to help with that, but that's pretty low priority for right now.

Now, I need to clean the damn workshop up enough that I have space to actually tear this thing down!

Chanlerman, I built a motor stand similar to this a few years ago. It was a little pricey, but like yours, it was heavy duty enough to start the engine while mounted. I gave it away awhile back and if I build another, it will be out of PCV - a whole lot cheaper and should suffice for rebuilds.

Yeah, I wanted one heavy-duty enough for running on, hence things like the double-stand back on the shock mount where a single support would be plenty for most applications.

Today was testing out the under-bar mirror, then sanding the primer and getting the first coat of paint on the hull of my project boat. Tomorrow night will be the second coat, then I'll decide if I'm going to wet sand and re-coat again, or just go with it.

Got hit by a car its a minor damage but the lady said she want to fix it.. well fingers cross

Glad you're ok brother!

Hope you are all OK big-E! Not sure how you could hit a pink scoot....but... some people... are.....
....

Today I checked in with the mechanic who is going over my 66 Bluebadge motor. I hope to have my Cannonball scoot back together and looking good for Christmas.

Bloody hell e ...... hope that legshield isn't too bent ..... 😯✌

Many thanks guys,love you all.. I am good as i bail out of the vespa when she hit me.. they dont call me flying monkey for nothing
The lady didnt pay when i said it will cost her $15 and i dont wanna mess with a older lady so i guess the reparing gotta wait and ride the smallie once again

Ride safe everyone and cheer

put the head back on the super and had a nice winter 68 degree So-Cali ride. had to ditch the jacket cause it was too HOT! sorry east coast...I know you are getting pounded right now.
west is the best.

1 back on the road...2 to go. the P is getting a makeover and almost ready....and then sort the Franken-camo smallie.

Ya man, good to see ol Blue back in action!

No doubt. Blue has been out since october. runs better with the spark plug sleeve insert and no leakage. I should have called you to come out and play but i only started out on a neighborhood putz.....but it was way too nice of a day so I just kept cruisin.

Those are the best days - when you just keep riding.

so so true and i will cheer for that

Dug into my smallie headlight, low beam was on/off the other day but high beam was fine. After a thorough wiring check with voltmeter and some demo using the battery charger came to the conclusion that it was just the bulb - wow, an easy one. We always go to the hard stuff if we've touched the area first (in my case, that's because I swapped to the euro style headlamp and had to modify the wiring in the past slightly).

Turned in an order at scooter mercato for bulbs, new brake shoes, and a rear tire for the P. The brakes are sucking on the smallie lately, the rear doesn't do much. They feel glazed (but not oil slicked - felt that once on my Lammy and will never forget how that feels). The front has been wanting a new cable for years so we'll do it all. On the P I'm done with Zippy1's, they cost 2x as much as the Michelin S1 and wear just as fast for no apparent benefit.

You ever run Heidenau's? I've been all in with them since I first wanted a speed rated 8" tire and like them a lot.

Not yet, chandlerman but maybe I should!

Big, big second on the Heidi's ... I will never use another tire on the Supers. Just wish the K75's (M rated!) came in a 10"

Well I'll have to give them a try later. SM only had 1 tire left for me, so I'll be mismatched for a bit anyway. The rear is bald, so something had to give.

I've been playing with my new 3D printer for the past 3 days. I got it on a Black Friday deal. It's a Chinese clone (Anet A8 ) of a more expensive 3D printer (Prusa i3). At 130EUR including shipping and from a European warehouse, to avoid customs, it was a no brainer. It needs a few upgrades out of the box (2 Mosfets to handle the Amps from the heatbed and the extruder, better rail bearings from igus, a better 3d printed air nozzle, better open source firmware and a few other modifications). The screws that came with the kit were terrible, so I changed them all with inox allen screws. I also sheathed all the cables with a braided sleeve to give a more cleaner look. So my first prints had to do with my P. A new side cowl badge and a legshield badge with my nick...

I'm still trying different settings so my prints are getting better...

Enjoy...

Love that last one Safis!

Nicely done, did you make them from PLA? I recently got a JGAurora A5 which is bigger & comes mostly preassembled, but it's a bit more money (flash sale @$309 shipped in USA). And I just got some tough PETG filament that I will use to make this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1054950




and one of these to replace my ragged cardboard one 8) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2945373

Very cool Safis and Voodoo! I keep thinking of the carb that Hot Rod Al made - the vortex carb. What a great application for 3d printing - the vortex and a taller box cover with a spot for a foam filter. And I'm liking that timing wheel Voodoo! Good stuff...

The great thing about making your own timing degree wheel is, that you don't have to stick to the social norms of putting the numbers and degrees in the correct order. An out of whack timing wheel would make an excellent white elephant gift here at the Secret Santa Scooter Gift Exchange. Secret Santa Scooter Gift exchange? ...come to think of it, 3d printing out an ABS lump of coal might be a better contribution.

Thanks Michael. Terry, yes it is PLA. I also got a deal on filaments, but unfortunately not too many color options from the European warehouse. I got 2 black spools, 2 red spools (it's more of a pink) and 1 white spool for 32EUR. The 3D printer you got is really great. I like the bowden setup on it, it's metal structure and the bigger hotbed. I'd say it plays on a more "professional" level. What do you use for designing your models?? I have started "playing" with SketchUp Pro and SolidWorks 2017 (given by a friend who upgraded to 2019)...

whodatschrome : The messed up timing wheel would be funny as hell...

So far Solidworks in Greece and online TinkerCAD here, which is great to start out with. I've just downloaded & started w/ Design Spark, a very nice freebie I found on YouTube here:

or https://youtu.be/ZXgMY3-hlgs if you use Chrome.

Somebody start a 3D printing thread.... So many possibilities scooterwise.

Over the weekend, I accomplished two things.

First, I finished re-glassing the hull of my boat project and, with the help of my buddy Steve and his high-school age son, flipped it back over so it looks more obviously boat-ish. Cut & installed a new transom, then fitted the deck back over the hull, which was kind've a PITA between the slightly increased size of the hull from the extra layer of fiberglass, plus the hull had bowed out a little while it was inverted. That wound up taking much more time than I'd expected, which is pretty much the story of this whole project.

During the course of flipping the hull, my wife came out to the garage to supervise and when she made a reference to the three scooters, Steve's son corrected her, "No, there's four."

I'd literally been telling them that she didn't know about #4 as she walked into the garage, to the point that we all kind've stopped with that stupid "we just got caught doing something dumb" look that I think we all know well.

I love my buddy Steve, but I wonder about his kid some days.