Modern Vespa

Neighbor asked if he could take one of the scoots for a ride up the street. Said he'd been on motorcycles and ridden Vespas before. I put him on the yellow Super, gave him a helmet, showed him the basics ... all the while a little voice inside my head is saying this is probably a bad idea.

Sure enough, 100 feet out of the driveway he dumped it.

Fortunately, no major injuries, just some scraped knuckles. Scoot's gonna need need some TLC though.

Lesson learned. Listen to that little voice.

Oh man.

Dragsville.
Hope the repairs are quick and easy..

Damn! That's why I rarely lend any of my vehicles...

NOOOOOOOOO! That sucks!

Thanks. Not too worried about the scoot. But it was a good reminder that as much as we want to be friendly and share the scoot experience with people, we need to exercise discretion about letting people ride.

That's not good, did your neighbor offer to get it fixed? I don't even like to borrow peoples pickup trucks the few times I've needed one in 20 years. Friends have offered and I say no thank you and rent one.

Damn that sucks. Sorry about it. Note to self.. feeling generous and trying to get someone new to ride.. always give them the beater to try out, never the nice one.

Awwwww man.....

I am so sorry to hear that. Main thing, no one got hurt really bad.

Those little voices are your subconscious trying to save you from yourself sometimes...

So lame! What a bummer MP. Dude prob gave a teeny bit of gas, yellow woke up...and..."we have liftoff".

I have the hammer of Heinz if you need it.

that sucks, big time

you shoulda loaned him the non-red primavera that sits around your garage awaiting your attention. hindsight, ugh.

Yeah it was pretty ugly. Just glad he didn't hit something or get seriously hurt. Could've been much worse.

sdjhn - you are right, except the primmy's in storage. I needed to make room in the garage.

modkuo - I'd be honored. There is nothing the Hammer of Heinz can't fix.

Yeah, that's a total bummer. Well, you were looking for something to do now that the GL is finished anyway, I bet.

I keep my Stella in all its battle-hardened glory and don't let anyone touch my other scoots unless I either already know they know how to ride or have learned on it.

Oh no!
So tru - these things are unique to themselves and the owners.
Motor hanging off the side.
Tight turning radius at the flic of the headset.
More touch required than it looks like at first glance...
Bummer! But lucky the owner knows something about cleaning up those type of repairs...

ugh...that sucks. It's so hard to say no, even to your nice neighbors. I kept around a beater P2 for that exact reason. Same rule applies for borrowing chainsaws...always have a spare broken chainsaw around in case someone wants to barrow one from you. Give them the non-op saw to use and not your good one(s).

you might have an addiction to Vespa if this is true......

Sorry to hear it. It is a moment to pause and think if there is anything else you should do to the bike whilst fixing it.... Did the frame / legshield escape damage? or is it just fender, headset, and cowl?

Bummer, hope he offers some dollars to help with the repairs!

It's an addiction, clearly.
Legshield's a little tweaked, brake lever's broken ... haven't looked too closely. Sad. Took it on a 60-mile loop out Lyons Valley Road a week ago and it was running like a freight train, really dialed in.

man, what a kick in the dick. that sucks big time.

sold a bike one time, guy shows up on a harley. checks stuff out. i listen to my lizard brain voice in my head and say no test ride without cash in hand.

homebody wheelied it straight across the street into the curb and taco'd it up hard.

it's yours now man. and you can pay me to fix it or take it as is. call a truck.

anyway, i'm sure you'll make it better than ever!

-g

Sorry to hear, especially since I did exactly the same thing yesterday, even heard the same voice, but I got away with it. A guy who I'd seen skillfully ride his slick Kawasaki midsize scrambler style motorcycle I thought was a 2T at first. But he was fascinated by my Vespa and did have other small 2T machines. He'd never ridden a Vespa though, thought my Sprint was belt drive and that the kickstart was clever and odd that it had no battery. He wanted a short ride BAD and I caved, but just up the hill and back and break it you bought it.(He said yes, he has good health insurance PLUS I think I can sell him my VNB ) He was amazed at the P200 power and now has to have one maybe (don't count your chickens when selling a scooter) and drove it fine, just loved the clever shift idea!!! I smirked secretly.

Anyway, I wish I could trade experiences with you, mine's been dumped before by my son anyway(touchy clutch, too many revs) and is a tuff old bird with that reinforced frame, and is no virgin. But I can't take your lumps I'm afraid, still, I probably got a brake lever for you if you haven't a spare. Just gimme a close up look of the clutch lever so I can match it well.


bad paint, grudgingly dumpable

Oh, NO!!!!

First time checking in here in months and I see this sad mishap. So sorry, SCG No fair, especially when you were being so generous to a Vespa admirer. I'm glad there were no injuries and I know you have the skills to fix everything back just the way it were....(cue Babs singing mournfully in the background).

If it's any consolation, Yella Super still looks Hella Good, even with extra "patina"

Thats suck Brother SC, happen to me too often as well, remember the no oil boy a couple week back a chief of the community neightbpur also borrow my pink vespq, he said he wanna take his wife to have a nostalgic romance like in the old days, so i let him have it after i swap the engine from the red vespa and luckly no body part damage, just loosen cable (as i presumer he didnt squezee the clutch lever all way in )

Did i stop i think i cant i always crave to have more folks to ride along as long as they like riding vespa, hope they will buy for themself as i only borrow to make them addicted

Good luck fixing the super and cheer Brother SC

Thx all.

Damage isn't too bad.

Bent mudguard. Scraped up legshield. Busted headlight. Scraped cowl. Broken lever. All cosmetic, and fixable. No mechanical issues that I can tell.

Here's the lever Terry. It's the oddball late 70s Rally style with the cam for the front brake switch. If ya got one, let me know.

Every time my wife decides she wants to "learn" she's dumped my bike.

I bought her a smallframe. Started to get almost road ready. Dumped that too.

The little voice in my head is now a spitty yell and an uppercut.

That cam will thread right into a stock lever. The aluminum is so soft. Just drill a slightly smaller hole and drive it in with some cutting oil or similar. Worked out fine on my Sprint.

Since going down engine has developed a stalling issue.

Engine dies when the clutch is pulled in.

Either the clutch is dragging or the crank may have moved in the bearings slightly toward the flywheel side. I'm afraid it's the latter.

So whaddaya say? How to tell for sure if the crank has moved? And if it has, can it be tapped back that way <- toward the clutchside without a complete tear down?

A few thoughts to avoid engine pull:

A. Would dry cork plates cause sticking/dragging? Soln: Pull clutch, clean, oil plates.

B. The accident rattled everything around, now clutch cable goes into tension against a electrical wire causing engine to ground. Soln: Isolate all other wiring not needed to run engine (including kill wire), then see if you can duplicate issue.

C. Crank moves enough when pulling clutch that it breaks clutch or flyside sealing surface. Soln: Pressure test engine with clutch engaged vs not engaged.

You mentioned something about moving the crank "back". Could you change the clutch spacer washer thickness to achieve the same thing?

PS: Bummer to hear about the accident.

If the crank has moved towards the flyside, you can rig a puller to bring it back tight to the clutch side bearing, all while in the bike. I'd heat the cases first, behind the clutch obviously and also pull the flywheel and remove stator screws to flip stator aside and heat case at crank bearing on that side too. You could probably get away with light tapping on the flywheel end of the crank to help it move, as you tension your 'crank puller'.

I made such a puller welding a large bolt to a clutch nut and an old clutch cover. It pulls in cranks gently but tight. You could use sockets or tubing, spacers and washers instead of a clutch cover. The clutch nut & bolt combination is so that I don't risk wrecking the threads on the crank.

Captcha: Kind of doubt it's the clutch cable since it doesn't really come near any wiring. And it's not a quick kill... more like being slowly put to sleep...

You're right, dry or gummy plates could cause the dragging. I'll pull the clutch for sure. It's a BGM superstrong with only about 1000 miles. The oil looks and smells fine.

Clutch does sounds noisier than usual when the lever's pulled in. That to me is a sure sign of a spacing issue.

V oodoo: Thanks, for the tips. I think it's in fact going to come down to pulling the crank back into position. Can't really see or feel the flywheel move when the clutch is pulled. I'm going to pull the carb box and see if I can get a better look at where the crank sits in relation to the rotary pad when the clutch is disengaged.

Just a thought...if he smashed it into gear, he might have bent a tab on a clutch plate.

Good point. I'll check.

Potentially dumb question here about this hyopthesis of the crank floating rightwards -- isn't that impossible if the clutch is torqued down to spec? The clutch nut pulls the crank tight against the inner race of the main bearing, does it not? Meaning the only way the crank could be nudged towards the flywheel side is if there was some damage done within the big clutch side bearing.

Again, maybe it's a foolish question, just throwing that out there.

Not a foolish question at all. I've thought about this too. Not entirely sure it's possible to have enough lateral play in the crank to stall the engine without some damage to the case... Maybe - hopefully - the clutch plates are just bent.

Dunno. All I know is that the scoot went down pretty hard on it's right side. Now when you squeeze the clutch it slowly kills it at idle.

Another dumb idea... Did you tighten the clutch cable after the spill? Could be the spill stretched the cable and now it's just dying cause the clutch isn't adjusted properly.

Not dumb, I've adjusted the cable, couple mm play, same as my other scoots. The lever's definitely disengaging and engaging the plates ... doesn't feel stiff, but there is a whirring noise when the lever's pulled. Something's rubbing ...

This is going to sound really out there, but...

Could you have shaken up crud in the fuel system and clogged they idle jet a little bit, so it's lean and now under-powered enough to stall with the added clutch load?

Not so far-fetched ... it might be fuel-related. After all, the bike was on its side. Some crud could've come loose. Maybe the float or needle got knocked cockeyed? I pulled and cleaned the idle jet, no help. Haven't gone through the whole carb yet. Apart from the clutch-stalling it seems to run fine.

Guess I really need to get it on the bench and go through the whole scoot. Damn.

whirring when clutch pulled... brass push rod inside the clutch wearing? This is what happened to me last year and it caused engine stalling at idle.

Issue documented here:
https://modernvespa.com/forum/post2400030#2400030

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/push-rod-kit-clutch-piaggio_87090100