Modern Vespa

Happy Birthday brother E!!!!!

Hope it's a good one.

You are a legend, Brother E. Happy BD and cheer!

Happy Birthday Brother E! Cheers to another 40 and more!

Looking good Brother E! Happy birthday! Much love to you and your family

Happy birthday ebeth, glad to see you posting a bit more again. We've missed you!

I said it again loud and clear, i really love you guys, many thanks for the wishes, yes its been a great year and busy as well, but it worth it, i am sorry i hasnt post alot lately as i have lots of thing to catch from this past 2 years due to covid pandemic, i even hasnt touch my vespa project since january

And yes, i am still working hard for vespa world day next month in bali, i promise by the end of the month it will be enough and i will try my best to be a good host for everyone that come, maybe u will forgive me for not being active lately and for trading 3 of my project vespa with an old benz (plus some coins)

Until then, stay healthy and cheer

Ps: i have no secret, but i do smile and laugh alot even when life get too hard on me

Happy birthday Ebeth, sorry I could not get that package to you because of covid. Keep your posts coming, they always make me smile.

...got home from LA around 4:45A. We'd taken my buddy's Tesla to save on gas since we were all chipping in for another friend to trailer the scoots to LA and back. Return trip took 12 hours because the car was being weird about range and we had to stop over a half-dozen times to charge it. Took three hours to get from Phoenix to Tucson alone. I told him I'd eat the gas cost next year if we can do the drive in 7-ish hours.

The Vino was flawless all weekend. The Zuma lost spark on the PCH in Malibu, but all the chase trucks were full so we had to get a U-Haul in Santa Monica and shlep it back to Huntington Beach.

Bought a Vespa in Torrance. Looks vintage, but I suspect it's a bodge.

Made the pilgrimage up to the San Fernando Valley in search of the storied Kajit's House of Wares. Mindful of local custom, we hit a liquor store for some suitable paint thinner before arriving. Gents, I gotta tell you...truth is stranger than fiction. I was left with a sense of appreciation and bewilderment...plus a couple of boxes to cram in an already full trunk. A side deal on some Italian twisties might have occurred as well.

Greasy, you're a prince among men. Make a hole in the beer fridge and expect some local lagers.

Having just towed two scoots through the mountains from Charlotte to Nashville, I can testify that while the range estimator will be wonky, it'll get you to the next supercharge with a few miles to spare. It was a little nervewracking on the first leg from Charlotte to Asheville, since I didn't know if I could trust the estimate or not. I made it to Asheville with 9% charge remaining.

You spend a lot of extra time charging with the trailer, and the worst part is that I couldn't even use Autopilot and had to actually steer it myself the whole way!

Oh the agony, I had to steer myself.

The land o' plenty with a mad king and a herd of land bats. Oh, and yeah… likely bodge.

Brother, you don't know the half of it. My buddy couldn't figure out why the car kept wanting to lane change on an empty stretch of I-10 west of Phoenix. Autopilot has a HOV lane setting that determines if you have two or more people in the car and then endeavors to get to the HOV lane. Crazy sorcery, I tell you!

I had to have him dial back the regen when I drove. Years of ICE with manual transmissions have not prepared me for one-pedal driving. I need to retrain myself that you can't "pulse" or "coast" with lighter pedal effort when standard regen is switched on; the car will slow down unless you set and hold that pedal position at all times. Did not use the Autopilot myself, but I can see CM's point. At least on the Model 3, the steering wheel is smaller and chonkier than on my Frontier. The steering effort on the forearms is noticeable after many miles on twisty mountain roads.

What Tesla you got?

Model Y, the smaller SUV/Crossover. We traded in a Model 3 so we could have the trailer hitch, plus my wife really wanted the SUV, and the car is primarily hers.

How you liking it?

I've got a cybertruck reservation that I don't expect to see for 2-3 years.

We like it. It doesn't have quite the range, performance, or handling of the 3, but it rides higher and has the hitch. And living in the land of stupid jacked up trucks, we need all the visibility we can get.

It's also really roomy inside and has a ton of cargo space. I've put a Stella in the back, but had to leave the liftgate open to do so.

It's not my old Honda Element, cargo-wise, which you could roll a couple scooters into if you took the mirrors off and pulled the rear seats out. It was such a pragmatic little box on wheels. I loved that thing as much as my wife hated it.

Good news/ Bad news.

I am out of a neck brace (cone of shame) and Ok'd by doc for light work. Still no lifting over 20 pounds for a month. But, can officially go back to working on scoots without dodging my wife's withering glances and whispered barbs of disdain.

Bad news. No riding on the Vespas until late July. Target date is July 27.


I should be able to finish the SS lickity split as the engine is in. But, after that I need to do a couple engines. Which far exceed the 20# pound lifting restriction. Hmmmm. Time to get creative.

Ouch. July 27th is better than the First of Never, I guess.

Can you work on them on the floor, or does that just add to the neck adventures?

And you'll still be dodging your wife's withering glances, you just don't have to feel bad about it any more.

the land bats were at Linderhof for the day. now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go drown in the pool under "mysterious" circumstances.

(also the cave is boring, it only contains motor cases)

lies and innuendo!

but for serious, that bottle is above and beyond what I expected. know it will be put to good use in only the most pure and virulent ways.

I wish that you had more room! I would've filled it to capacity! but when you come for the twisties I'll have a bunch of boxes for ya to go with!

it was great to BS for a hot minute and put a face to the name! you're a class act dude!

this is fantastic news.

knowing the director of your sovereign airspace I had to giggle at "withering glances and whispered barbs of distain".

I'll send PSP out, she's strong and can blow a motor apart no problem. you and I can just drink gin on the Lanai and chill with the couch bears.

there's two looks:

1- when you try and grab on the butts during a zoom call and don't realize it

2- when you walk inside wearing just chones and t-shirt because you left your super nasty uniform and shoes out on the porch.

pro tip: both require pork chops AND feet rubs to come correct.

Dang, i didnt know anything, what happen?

Today i paid my yearly tax, missed by 5 minutes and havr to wait another 2 hour while waiting come stumble this bad and good news

brother E! happy belated b-day!

that color, holy... wow...

but that headset!? WTF is THAT? more pix please!!

Chickens from a 2002 broken neck (car crash) coming home to roost. I had damaged some discs in my neck pretty bad. Add in 18+ years aging, and some other wear and tear and I ended up "slipping" a disc bad enough that my left radial nerve was entrapped... (read- left arm completely numb and/or someone stabbing you in the left shoulder... choose your own adventure). Surgery worked though. I will set off metal detectors for the rest of my days from all the new hardware in m neck, but otherwise all good!

And, I am with G-man. That yellow scoot is 100% WOW!

BN, get TSA PreCheck if you don't already have it so you just go through the magnetometer. They probably used titanium, but even if your insurance only paid for stainless steel, it won't be enough to set off a metal detector.

If you go through the nudie-scanner, it'll pick that up and they'll want to inspect it every time.

I was out in the workshop tonight, but not working on scooters. Instead, I was installing a through-wall air conditioner because I'm tired of sweating my balls off all summer long.

Still need to do some trim and add a brace on the outside, but it's up and running so I'll be working in cool comfort from here on out.

Next up, time to clean the workshop and re-arrange things a little. Then, I might even touch a scooter to do more than move it out of the way.

True artist… love this

Sweating your balls off? Wanna pro-tip?...go commando. Last summer in Oregon we had some VERY hot temps. Upper 90's and low 100's for a few weeks. I was in the middle of doing a 12 valve Cummins swap in my old ford, so I was outside in the sun grinding metal, welding, and melting stuff with the gas ax for multiple days in a row. After the second day of that heat malarkey I went full commando inside my coveralls. I did set up a box fan so that I could has a tiny bit of a breeze.


Ok, maybe I'm just a bit jealous of your AC. It's still not as sexy as commando coveralls though. My jealousy rant is over with. Keep cool chandler.

LOL!

Yeah, having grown up in Texas, I am well aware of tricks like ditching the shorts when it gets really hot.

If you were outside during your serious heatwaves last year, then you can appreciate what it was like through part of June, and all of July and August for my entire youth. When I was back in Austin ten years ago, I could only work in the garage until about 11am because after that, it was just too damn hot.

I said I was going to do the AC last year and just never got around to it. This year, we're already seeing 90+ temps more days than not and humid as hell, to the point that I've been skipping the workshop because it's miserably hot out there, so I decided to drop the $400 and go for it. Already glad I did, and I haven't even been back out yet since I installed it.

Does it have a dehumidifier setting? Nice to run and remove humidity out of garage. Cools it off a few degrees and keeps stuff from rusting. I didn't have a dehumidifier first few years, my bench top drill press has a bit of rust on column now. I would like to hang a minisplit system for heat also.

Yes, it has a dehumidifier and I splurged and got the version with a heater, too, which was like $40 more, so I may not need my trusty ol' electric radiator going forward, either.

Thanks Brother G, not bad for $5 paint job right, in reality the colour is so thin🤐

As for the headset its a t5 handlebar with a sprint round headset as the cover
More to see here Sprint project..

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Glad to hear its a old wound, though it was a recent event, i once fell from vespa at your ages, and yes sometime it gave a numb sensation on my left shoulder if i mot moving it for some period time thats why i like shift vespa, its make my left side worl all the time

Have a nice monday and cheer

Today i attend to a meet and greet in Mr. Osa the senior rider in portugis bogor, its fun and lost of friends

As always, you both went in style! And yellow bike looks great, they will see you coming from far away

Our Gang of Five had a tiny event/ride last Thursday to celebrate me leaving... (wait, that don't sound so good)

You don't need to worry unless you find out they had your celebratory departure ride the day *after* you left.

I was looking at seats for the VBB on SIP's site and noticed this in the filter options.

What? No "As a crappy rat bike have-to-have" option?

Who is making these judgement calls? Cause some of those "attractive" accessories I wouldn't be caught dead with!

how about the "ugly for anti-theft purposes" option?