Modern Vespa

Nice, if I ever decide to paint one I would like to try a deeper green such as hunter green. Always liked that color for some reason. The top green is a bit bright, like the bottom better.

Nice work, thanks for all the videos on the way 😎

Wow...this thing is juuuuust about wrapped up.

Paint is as complete as it's going to get, which is to say it looks great other than the pinholes and a couple drips.

At this point, I just need for the rivets to arrive for the floor rail ends and I managed to lose the legshield badge rivets yesterday, so I'll be ordering more of those.

Oh, yeah, and I seem to have disconnected the ground wire for the electrical, probably while fishing the EGT wire through the frame, so I get to pull the tank to sort that out.

But other than that, I'm good!

That looks awesome!

Fuck. My. Life.

First off, no, nothing happened to all the bodywork I just did.

But something bad did happen that I'm gonna tell y'all about.

Everyone who's been following along recalls that the tuning test I was running when I laid the bike down was validating that I needed a fuel pump.

So before I started the body work, I added a nipple for the fuel pump to the back of my reed block, which required me to remove the reed block to drill and tap it.

In the course of doing that, I thought I might have dropped a washer into the intake. I looked, fished around, turned the motor by hand, and found nothing. So I thought maybe it didn't fall in after all. I counted and only had seven. Oops. But when I looked under the bike, I found the eighth washer. All parts accounted for. All good.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I went to shoot shoot a little celebratory First Re-Start video, kicked the bike, which started first kick, btw, let it run a bit and revved it a little to warm it up after six weeks off.

When I put it in gear and gave it throttle, though...I hear a metallic pinging sound and the motor dies. And has no compression.

That fucking washer was in there after all. I just know it.

I still don't know how I wound up with eight washers and still had one in the motor, but I did. Were there three washers on one of the bolts? Was there an M6 washer already under there that I "found?" Did a gremlin sneak up when I wasn't looking and slip a washer in the intake?

I'll never know for sure, but what I do know is that I expect I'm going to be splashing out for yet another BGM177.

Like I said: Fuck. My. Life.

If you haven't seen Ford VS Ferrari you have to watch it.

Here I was sad I had my reed valve leak again. Let's hope it's easier than it looks…

I just went ahead and pulled the trigger on another BGM 177. Didn't even bother opening it up to look. I've been to this rodeo enough times to know what I'm going to find when I pull the top end off.

if you end up not needing it I will help ya out

Thanks, John!

But unless the Compression Fairy visits my motor between now and when I open it up, I think you'll need to order your own.

Ah, I somehow missed the no compression part of your story. Yeah, that's gonna hurt.

Oh, trust me. It hurt a lot.

compression ferry?
haha.

But - ouch!
Good grief.
Side note - I keep as many washers on the floor as I do in my drawer.

Sorry brother - that is a royal PIA.

That's just unbelievable. So much bad luck. Any way to turn this into a tuning opportunity?

Didn't you say just a couple days ago that this thing is cursed?

My brother had an old CJ Jeep back in the day that he got cheap from a police auction. The story behind it was that the previous owner had done a bunch of bodgy shit to it and had used it as a getaway vehicle for a couple armed robberies. It ended up being a nightmare from day one until the bitter end when my brother couldn't take it any longer and practically gave it away. His final words to the newest buyer were, "I think it's cursed. Be careful with it."

Jesus Jack.
Hahaha.

I hadn't so it's now on the watch list. My wife is about to go over to the UK for a couple weeks to visit her mom, so that'll keep me out of trouble for one evening, at least. EVERY disaster is a tuning opportunity if you just try hard enough

Ironically, I had just gotten the shipping notice for the replacement legshield badge rivets, along with a P200 SIP Road 3.0 which miiiiight just have fallen into my cart because it seemed dumb to pay 10x the cost of the parts in shipping to get them and I figured that would be a decent pairing with the MHR I put on that motor until I get around to doing it up right, even if the intake really needs to be opened up to take advantage of either part.

This morning, I'm just morbidly curious to see what the carnage looks like in there. We won't know for sure until the weekend, though. In the meantime, here's a video snippet of the moment of death.

Atari eh? Maybe it's the transitive Blade Runner curse.

What the hell man… That's the worst…

Bikes not cursed… you're just the unluckiest…

Screw it man… it'll end up great

Edit: just catching up on the videos… do you have the specs for the legshield tool? Interested in making a pair…! I still have some in perfections near the indicator on the PX…

You are patient man with an abundance of determination. Some of us would have snapped by now. Stay at it ... in the end the juice'll be worth the squeeze.

Reminds me of a Led Zepplin song....

Doing a top end swap is nothing for me at this point. The only Dremel work will be taking the gates off the BGM and I think I opened up the piston windows a little bit last time.

If I did anything incremental, it would probably be widening the exhaust port, but probably not even that. I *will* confirm and adjust port timings, because I think they're a little off and I skipped that for some dumb reason when I built up the new cases.

Regardless, I really only have two options: fix it or roll it out in the street and set it on fire, and today, I'm not choosing violence.

I think we are all faced with exactly these 2 options when first encountering (yet another) issue. I'm glad you chose the peaceful route - this time You're doing good work! Keep it up.

Every problem is a (tuning) opportunity

Ok- its POSSIBLE that there is not too much damage. You were not at speed, and it stopped pretty abruptly.

Sincerely, resident optimist with rose colored glasses.

Now, PULL THAT JUSG! PULL THAT JUG!!!

Once you watch it report back.

Sadly, when aluminum meets steel, steel wins every time.

I'll pull the jug this afternoon or tomorrow morning and we'll see what I find, but my prediction is scoring of the cylinder deep enough to use as a half pipe and probably a totally trashed piston.

The one upside of my low expectations is that there will probably be only positive surprises, but I don't really see how. It's not like a cast iron cylinder where the piston will absorb pretty much all the damage, like when the wrist pin circlip popped out in my VBB and all I trashed was the piston and rings.

And unfortunately, I got a notice from UPS that the new jug is now not going to arrive until Monday (it was slated for today), so all I can do is the teardown, but the legshield badge rivets and P200 exhaust arrived, so I won't exactly be hurting for things to do in the workshop this weekend, I just won't be able to finish the thing I most want to do.

I finally made it back out to the workshop and pulled the top end off the motor this morning. I just about fell over when I discovered that the cylinder was completely untouched by the washer, which was right there where I left it.

It caught in the piston window and cracked the piston skirt along with cutting a pretty good groove in the piston up to the head, but no other damage.

So I don't need a new top end, but I do need a new piston. Assuming the new kit is a "B" piston (1-in-4 chance), I'll use it for now and order another piston down the road. If it's not a B, I'll have to order one separately, most likely directly from Deutschland.

In happier news, I installed the legshield badge, which really isn't that big a deal, but feels like a lot of progress.

Perfect, now you can sell me the BGM top end

LOL!

It could happen. Let's see what piston size it comes with so I will know if I need to buy another piston or not. It'll be here tomorrow.

In the meantime, I replaced the beat up, probably clogged up, mystery exhaust that's been on the P200 motor with a SIP Road 3.0 and upped the main ten points (120/BE3/122 to a 132), so that will probably wake that thing up a little while I wait to get the GL back on the road.

I'm only joking (maybe). My engine I'm building is going in the PX and based on what a pain in the ass it is to seal, I'll likely leave it there rather than put it in the VBB. I think I'm gonna build my 2 port engine for the VBB. Whether it gets an upgrade from the PX 150 cylinder on it depends a bit upon how long I decide to hold onto my PX project. If I upgrade, most likely path is a Polini.

Trust me, it's not like I can't give it a good home. I have another LML motor that needs a top end and which might get re-geared to go in my VBB when I build it up. That's after the P200, though, and obviously the GL.

I was certain that it wasn't the dropped washer...

Murphy's law clearly states that any dropped washer will find its way into a buttoned up crankcase no matter how unlikely. BUT, you did your due diligence and chased down the washer immediately.

Murphy was always tough but the thought of him putting an identical washer in the most logical place the dropped one would fall to dissuade you from fishing it out of the crankcase...Well that's just cruel on his part. No way, I thought.

I was thinking the ear of a piston pin retainer popping out...

I'm glad the damage wasn't that bad. I've been there.

Luckily (I guess), when the piston pin circlip popped out on my VBB, it destroyed the piston and compression before it did any damage to the cylinder. Cast iron for the win(?) on that one.

That's a Chinese piston from a VW type 4. Crank was out of round, pistons may have been tight or clip just wasn't in right. I ended up hunting down some OG Kolbenschmidt 70's melted down bucket helmet p & c's rather than try again with ones made from Chinese bed frames.

New top end arrived today and it's an A piston, so scooter center will be getting another hundred bucks or so from me for a new piston. I'll finish the floor rails between now and then, so that piston will be all that's standing between me and being back on the road.

It's been pissing down rain here, and will continue to do so for another couple days, so I still haven't had a chance to see how the new pipe works on the Sprint, too. I feel like a little kid looking out the window at the weather and wishing I could go out and play.

"It never rains in Southern California."
But I imagine you aren't getting bogged in traffic on a shifty, or dodging homeless' shopping carts.

Oh, we have both traffic and no shortage of homeless here, but they mostly either live in tent cities away from things or haul their stuff in milk crates and garbage bags.

And this summer, we've had rain. Lots and lots of rain. But that should end for a while by Wednesday or Thursday, cool off and be beautiful riding weather.

A size piston is only one tiny increment smaller. It will run fine. New kit would need a new piston anyway. Giving you plenty of time to have a measure and grind the exhaust port. What exhaust is the final one?

The B size piston is already in the post from Deutschland, so I'll just wait for it to arrive before I do anything to the motor.

I think I'm going to keep the PM Tuning pipe on it. It seems loud (even if it wasn't when I tested it with a decibal meter vs. the RoadXL), but the RoadXL lacks the same punch and doesn't fit with a center stand on the GL.

According to my notes, the old port timings were 126/176/25, which in theory is a little bit low on the ED for my build (BGM 177, 60mm/110 rod crank, reeds, PWK34), right?

PM pipe sounded like a box to me. Modern expansions are usually much louder but some can also be quieter than boxes, when double wall and bigger silencer.

Whenever putting in a 60mm crank, the exhaust port loses blowdown. Longer rod (110) loses a even more.

First actually check the 126 degrees, as it seems like more than usual with a BGM on a 60 crank. If this is correct and you're sure you will keep an expansion, then it will need more exhaust port. BGM port is almost full width out the box. Nothing to do there. So the only way is up.

If 126/176/25 is correct, it will go very strong but fall flat over 6000rpm. A stock P200 has 26 degrees blowdown, so this is similar to what it will feel like.