Modern Vespa

Terry is the mad scientist everyone would like to have as their neighbour. I'm sure he can cast a nuclear reactor from scrap metal...

Props for spreading the vintage vespa bug to the youth. I'm very dissapointed by the newest generations in my country. Most kids don't care about 2 strokes or anything vintage, especially vespas. Anything, 4 stroke, single cylinder 50cc - 125cc, noisy and pink is the fad around here...

Today I...

Built a frame to turn my portaban into a band saw...

Voodoo,
Respect for passing your skills on to the next generation. No better way to learn than hands on training!

the Scoots bid a fond farewell to little brother Franken-Camo Smallie, who is going to a great new home in San Fran. Cobbled together from 2, the Camo scoot had a slightly bent frame and the PO had the rim on backward in order to ride it. The red scoot was abandoned in a backyard and rescued. Needed to replace the crank, so engine was rebuilt under the tutelage of So-Cal-Guru-Guy, and he buttoned it up at the end. Frame components and electrical migrated over to the red frame by MJ Rally....so you know all was done correctly and cleanly...much thanks to me mates! Covid job loss encouraged the sale, and I needed some garage space back anyway. Last one into the fold...first one out. Sorry to see it go, but knowing it will now be ridden more than I do is also a good feeling. Cheers Peeps!

Had an interesting, almost surreal encounter at the local auto parts store yesterday.

Drove up to get some oil, parked, and as I was walking up noticed a gleaming white handlebar Vespa parked out front. I did a double take. It looked like an older restoration, very nice condition, lots of original parts, Siem headlight, correct speedo and switches. A slightly built older gentleman was standing nearby.

What followed went something like this ...

Me: Beautiful Vespa. Is it yours?
Older Gentleman: (in Italian accent) Yes. Do you want to buy it?
Me: Excuse me? (thinking "am I dreaming"?)
OG: It won't start. I don't like it very much right now.
Me: (chuckling) It's a scooter. I have a few Vespas. Maybe I can help you get it started? Did you ride it here?
OG: Yes. I have been trying... I think it's flooded... I tried pushing it... I don't have any tools, no way to get home...
Me: No worries. I can give you a ride. Let's see if we can start it ...

Long story short, did some fiddlin (it wasn't flooded, carb just needed to be primed). It fired up, we let it idle a bit, he thanked me, he hopped on and asked if I'd mind following him back to his house in my car.

Turns out he lives just a few blocks away. His name is Victorrio. The scoot is a 1955 VL1. He said he bought it in Italy about 25 years ago when he was visiting his family. He shipped it over here in boxes. He said he "enjoys mechanical things". We chatted for a bit, interesting and gracious man.

Small world. I'll shoot over there today and see if I can get some pics.

Always a great day to run into someone with a Vespa! Even better when you can assist them to get it going.

Great bollox!

Cool story and a fun experience you wont forget. Maybe you just made a new Vespisti friend

Some of us could only dream of taking a ride on this here February 13, 2021. Jealous!!!

Great story.

Thanks for sharing, Mike. Best kinda Vespa owner meetup experience! I've tasted this a bit and really enjoyed the stories too, often it was their father's Vespa from new. But only a little in Greece where you might expect such things. You have it right down the street.

Did you notice if he had legit plates on it? Please ask him how that registration, title etc all went ~25 years ago if you get a chance. I'd love to sneak my ratty white P200 'SnakeEyes' back here in pieces, but no way these days I'm afraid.

Mike, that story is fantastic! Other than the fact that he wasn't riding it at the time, that's pretty much exactly how I came to own my Sprint V.

Now, I just need to find some fellow scooterists in Nashville, but I haven't been trying too hard between getting settled, it being what passes for "winter," and COVID.

Terry, based on my experience with titling vehicles in Tennessee, I have no doubt you could get a Tennessee title and plates, then flip it to Washington from there. That's what Saints Cycle Works does with their service.

Dropped by on the smallie to see my neighbor and new friend, Vittorio.

We talked scoots for an hour, and he even let me take his VL1 for a spin. Nice solid scoot, engine has lots of pull. It originally belonged to his brother, who lives in Genoa, Italy. Vittorio shipped it over in boxes and had it restored at a place here in San Diego 25 years ago. He can't remember the name, but said it was expensive. Whoever did it the restoration did a very nice job. He said he didn't have any trouble getting it registered.

He's thinking about getting a modern scooter. I told him he needed to keep this one, and made him promise that if he ever decided to sell it to call me.

So there you go. Really is a small world.

that is a beautiful scoot and we all can hope to some day have an experience like that, and a potential line on a future purchase like that! Glad you got him running and didn't take advantage of the situation to take it off his hands just yet. Good neighbor!

Dry fitted the shortened fork on my friend's V50 (second smallie I'm working simultaneously with the one I'm preparing for my brother in law). What is left to do is to modify the mudguard and break apart everything. Peripherals will be vapor blasted, chromed and body will be resprayed...

Today I compare 8 inches to 10". The height and differences in lineage is a trip, but I guess it comes down to who wields it better.

Blue is loaded up and on the way to an "engagement". More to follow.

That so nice man...

So great to help folk out like that... hope he gets to ride it more...

Productive weekend. Finished with my friend's V50 to a PK fork conversion and dismantled everything so he can get it resprayed...

Nice work Chrys! I recently swapped my YSS spring for a SIP softer replacement spring, about 20 euro. Huge improvement! The YSS can be a real teeth-rattler.

Wow - I need to visit here more often.
Safis - very nice! How did you pound out the shape in the mud guard?
I always wonder that - do you strike it off dolly?
Seems too narrow in there to fit a hammer.

SoCal! Tell that man to buy a modern twist and go and BUY THAT SCOOTER.
WOW.

Those are the same questions i have - i have seen them done with section of pipe. but i would love to know how thats done and measured without having to cut the guard.

Do we have a section on here for "HOWTO's"

some of the work i see on this forum should definitely be in there!!

Thanks guys! Hammers, dollies, some other custom shaping tools my father made over the years, practice and trial & error. Mudguard was first marked, beaten to basic shape with a round head hammer, then was formed with the dollies and finally smoothed with an angle grinder. I've lost count of how many times I've tried it on the fork...

. Oh - I bet... Nice results tho! Safis - were you able to get the hammer on the inside of the mudguard to beat it out? Was there room? Or did you do all the pounding from the outside with a dolly on the inside? This part has always been a mystery to me.

Seems like things are tough all over in Vespaworld today.

I was riding home from the doctor this afternoon and had my phone in a clamp on the Sprint because I don't know my way around downtown Nashville very well. Crossing the bridge over the river to East, I hit a bump and my phone went flying. Circled back looking for it, didn't see it. Did that a couple times and just before I found it, I shifted to 4th, the cruciform popped out of gear (it's been past time to replace the ol' 4th gear) and broke.

So I find my phone, coast right to it as a matter of fact, but it's been run over at least a couple times, and it's mostly, but not completely, dead. Display is thrashed. Wifi radios gone, but the cellular radios, GPS, and bluetooth are still there enough that it can make & receive calls and texts, I just have to use bluetooth.

And I have a scooter with no working transmission as the lowest possible point from my house...right next to the river. To make matters worse, there's a highway interchange between me and the best route home. So I have to push my scooter around the interchange, then another two miles uphill to get it home.

So I have a broke-ass scooter (not to fear...I have others) which will require a new 4th gear and cruciform, at the very least. A broke-ass phone which I have to replace, and the doctor's visit was a CT Scan, and the out of pocket on that was already $500.

So not a great day a the ol' Casa Chandlerman.

On the bright side, all the panels are here for the GL, so other than needing to open up the Sprint's motor to see what I need parts-wise, I'm ready to finish prepping and maybe get primer on the GL this weekend.

Geez! Tough day CM.

If later on you see light at the end of the tunnel, get out of the way of the train.

Chandlerman! What a day! and like you said what a week for MV Vespisti everywhere! whew

Sux to hear about your adventure today. It could have been ALOT worse, so atleast you made it home safe and with your scoot in mostly one piece. Cant say the same for the phone, but hey; better the phone than the Vespa!If you had to choose.....haha.

Geez.
Tough day for the CMs all the way around.

I joined AAA (not AA!) when I got the scooter.
Doesn't cost that much.
Comes with 3 free tows we year!

As I tell my wife - I'm saving us money!
Ik where you were - that's a long push of a scooter home and it aint flat!

I thought about just having it hauled, but I view it as a sort of penance for not dealing with the gear jumping when I should have. I *did* underestimate how much it would suck pushing uphill for three miles, but that's all part of the fun, right?

I'm going to split the cases and see how bad things are this morning so I can get parts ordered. No pictures for obvious reasons

I'm guessing new 4th gear, new cruciform, maybe some spacers, and probably also clutch plates.

I'm not too upset, and I learned long ago to embrace the suck on these sorts of things and just laugh at myself, resolve not to let it happen again until next time.

Made another big box and it felt like i was over power, more braking then instead of throttle for now, i need a vacation to a mountain roads for sure

Have a nice weekend to you all and cheer

Postmortem on the Sprint...

Two broken teeth on 4th, two broken teeth on the Xmas tree. The crucifix (Crimaz hardened) has some wear, but held on strong.

time to order some parts...

WOW - what are the odds that both CMs have big issues on the same day!

Maybe it's because I had a spectacular day: First a ride up to Yachats - cold but sunny, then rearranged the garage some more. I'm getting the big pieces in place (and lots tossed out), then comes the minutia.

Oh, and EBeth - nice job on the pipe brother!

Actually - pretty high. 🙂

CM1. - consider upgrade to EFL ?
Means new output shaft and shift box. Love mine.

qas - garage looks fantastic. I've always envied the discipline you have at replacing tools when you work.

One thing about my total reorg and clean: once clean - and set up properly (read easily accessible and vacuum plugged in and at arms reach) I've found it natural to just - wait for it... put things away and vacuum up after each process.

Doesn't seem taxing at all when everything has a place - and that place doesn't require me to lift things out of the way.

Who knew - old dog new tricks

CM Tennessee - Sorry to read about your seize too. (And I hope your CT was just routine and all good!)
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SS180 Is in a holding pattern waiting for my welder to have space for me.. so it was all Shitbox this weekend.

Busted a throttle cable on VNB and ran a new one. Then ....
Had the pleasure of working on the VNB with Poi Dog.

Jets and stacks and timing.

Trying to get rid of some mid throttle pinging. A 108 main has stopped the ping but it has a flat spot and won't rev out.
Thinking 105...
Of course I didn't have one so I ordered a 103/105/106... we'll see.

Ebeth... your exhaust looks aces!!!

Made some bearing tools on the lathe. One for the flywheel / rear axle bearing (selector box side) and two for the front brake baseplate / caliper carrier. Right bearing on the baseplate needs to sit in a bit further to make room for the v-ring, so the tool needs a small "step"...

^^^^


Wow. Very cool!

I need a lathe.

yup, me too! been on the hunt for the past 6 months but covid keeps getting in the way.

I got a new phone, so now can take (and thus share) pictures again.

And the news ain't good.

In addition to the broken gear teeth, I realized that I have a fairly massive crack in my cases. I wondered why there was so much oil on the cases. I guess now I know. The crack had been there for a while, I'm assuming, probably from a previous instance of the motor jumping out of gear.

Can that be welded, or do I need to add new cases to the shopping list to recover from this fiasco?

Oh, and my old phone's got a few cracks in it, as well.

Cman-

Ouch! That takes some talent to break all those teeth. Email some pics to John Gick and see if he can save them.

A talented welder can fix the case. Pretty sure it's curtains for the phone though.

Send the case to Gick! Or use them as welding practice for yourself!

I wonder if that Crimaz Cruciform contributed to the demise of your gears. Hardened steel.