Modern Vespa

So, this little monster is the first modern-ish, Piaggio-ish product I've procured for my scooter harem. It's a 2001 Italjet Torpedo 50 2T with the Piaggio engine.

It's in decent nick overall, but needs a little TLC. The battery was "mostly" dead (but "slightly" alive), so it's getting float charged and desulfated. The previous owner (a rather interesting dude) though it might have a fuel leak, but based on the crud observed when I pulled the battery, it may be an autolube leak instead. I need to remove all the rear tupperware and clean the dirty/grime of the frame and engine. The clock shows 12K kilometers (~7500 miles) and it seems to have some compression.

Styling is a bit funny. It's clearly derived from the Piaggio LT line, but gaudied up a touch to make it seem more exclusive. Reminds me of the '70s Stutz Blackhawk, which was a tarted-up Pontiac Grand Prix at heart. I dig the blue, though.

The previous owner claimed it was fast, but being a big and heavy 50cc with a PAIR-type system and a catalyzer, I'm a touch skeptical. Once the engine bay and carb are cleaned, we'll see if it runs.

Anyway, here's it is for your viewing pleasure.

I did pull the rear covers off, cleaned off all the road grime and assessed this thing.

Fuel tap was bad; the diaphragm was stuck open. It now has a clean tank and a new fuel tap.

Air filter was a homemade jobbie and has been replaced with a properly-fitting part. Air box was full of oil, likely from the over-saturated filter or the fuel tap leak.

Carburetor needed a full cleaning and it was not stock. The bike should have come with a 12mm DellOrto PHVA and this had a 17.5mm aftermarket DellOrto PHVA. At least it kept the electric choke. I suspect the carburetor settings will be off, as it has an out-of-box setup in it and those aren't really appropriate for the engine displacement.

Intake manifold was cracked. It wasn't stock either. It was a Polini manifold with an integrated reed stuffer built in. Cracked manifolds are no fun, so I picked up an exact replacement for it.

The CVT looks stock. Cleaned everything in there and lubed the kickstarter parts where needed. Just got replacement oil pump drive belts (thank you ScooterPartsCo!) and I hope to replace that some night this week. I also bought some Malossi CVT goodies for the scoot, but I'll see how it runs before turning things up.

Cylinder is stock. I'm going to try a compression test this week, but kicker feedback suggests it's still usable.

Looking forward to that first test ride!

Well, things went a wee bit off the rails on this one...

Lost a bit of time on the Italjet to supporting a multi-day club ride back in May, then more time went to reassembling a friend's Burgman 650 after rebuilding the CVT module. Then more time went to rebuilding and tuning another friend's theft-recovery Zuma 50. Like the cobbler, the hobbyist's own scooter projects tend to languish.

Brought it home from the club garage to address a few items. While trucking it home, I noticed oil running the fork legs...fantastic! The wheels were pulled, new Pirelli Angel Scooter tires were fitted (S rated, no less) and the rims were scrubbed, polished and waxed. The fork came out last night, and has been broken down for servicing. Hopefullly, the new seals will arrive from the UK this weekend so I can reassemble those and put it back on its own two wheels.

As bad as this may sound, it's easier than my '87 Elite 50S rebuild. That one has devolved into complete component refurbishment. I have vintage rubber bits soaking in old salsa jars full of isopropyl alcohol and wintergreen oil to restore some plasticity to them and I've been wet sanding and heat gunning irreplaceable plastics.

Still looking forward to that test ride. Then we'll pull the motor and see if there's any extra speed hiding in there. The Hi-PER2 is a pretty interesting little engine that seems to have a lot of potential. Now that my buddy's Zuma is running close to 55mph, I don't want to be left in his dust!

I love the way you describe the process of fixing this bike up. I wonder what kind of shop you have that allows you to be fixing all these various toys and not cursing but enjoying the process of fixing them up .

Nice writeup, az_slynch! The previous owner is an interesting guy. Can't wait to see how it runs.

Baba, thank you for the kind words.

A friend and I split rent on a 20x25 space on the west side of town. I picked up a used HF lift for about $20 and have gotten my money's worth out of it. The space is currently mostly stuffed with cast-off, broken and cheap scooters we've both collected over the years. Nothing classic or collectible, mind you. Just stuff that looked interesting enough to turn a wrench on.

I bought a bunch of tools and parts from a guy who was leaving town that also happened to run one of the local "vintage" clubs; mostly P-series and Stella bits. I've purchased additional tools over time to hang in the pegboards so they're at-the-reach when needed. I have a bunch of specialty bearing pullers, case-splitters and flywheel removal tools both there and at home, with the really special tools in my home garage. I figure I had almost everything I'd ever need when I tore down my Aermacchi; every special gadget was in my tool chest and the only thing I needed was a fresh bottle for the propane torch.

As for the fixing scooters bit...

I think it's to say that all the riders and enthusiasts of MV share a passion for their machines. The way it looks, the way it feels to sit on it, the way it rides...the sensations invoked by that relationship between rider and machine. It can melt away the stress of a bad day or push troublesome thoughts aside and transport them to a place of inner peace and joy. The caveat being that the machine runs and rides well, of course. A bad day can be made worse by a non-starting scooter and a bad mood darkened by a scratched or dented cowl.

For some folks, the fix is to replace it with a shiny new machine, free of dents, dings and dead batteries. That old scooter will wind up somewhere, ridden by someone who doesn't mind the blemishes or issues so long as it still gets them where they want to go. Eventually, the value proposition of that machine sinks so low that it's not worth putting money in it and it winds up on Craigslist, tucked away in the corner of a garage or abandoned at a repair shop.

Sometimes, I stumble across one that piques my curiosity and it the budget allows, it follows me home (in the bed of the truck).

I've always been a tinkerer and have wanted to know how things worked. Hardware has always been more interesting, but software is growing on me. My day job has always involved fixing things and solving problems. Scooters have been a long-term love affair. I got my first Vespa, a '64 VBB, from my third-grade teacher. I delivered their newspaper and they gave it to me as a Christmas tip one year. It had been resting the outside of their garage for years and I finally noticed it when the tarp it was under started rending from age. First set of wheels I fell in love with. I spent a lot of time and chore money learning how it worked and getting parts from Vespa of Chicago (phone orders and knuckle-buster receipts). The best day of '87 was the one where I finally got to ride that Vespa. Think Luca, except with no sea monsters and southern New Hampshire instead of Italy.

That Vespa is long gone, but the experience never died out for me. As such, bringing a scooter back to life is just as thrilling as any good day of riding, and the best bit is that you're riding a machine that you have really gotten to know and it just seems a bit more alive to you.

They all have their own quirks and charming features. Yes, an '86 Gyro S is super slow, but it tilts in corners! An '84 Riva 80 isn't much faster, but it's a early-modern Japanese scooter with 6V electricals and a metal legshield. I'd love to rebuild an '84-'86 Honda Elite, simply because of the foot-operated rear brake, the LCD dashboard and the pop-up headlight.

This Italjet is not just another scooter to me, it's an new experience in learning about Piaggio's newer 2T engine and getting a feel for how a big-wheel scooter rides. The fact that it came in a great shade of blue and it's an uncommon variant of this chassis is icing on the cake.

Hopefully, this collection of anecdotes explains my mindset on fixing this scoot and why I'm so enthusiastic about it.

Thank you for sharing your story of how you connect to the machines and how they in turn connect to you. I will say this, my observation of MV forum members, some of you have a nice cadence to telling stories, someone lurking on the forum is going to get some great ideas and put a fictional story together, publish it and someone will buy the film rights to it.
I admire folks like you who have found the way to get some zen in their life through their dialog with these beautiful machines. For some of us ( like me) we vicariously live through your experiences and for the moment when we/I read these posts it is my way to escape to get to those zen moments, knowing that it isn't realistic for people like me to prioritize tinkering beyond the basic stuff.
Thanks for sharing seńor az_slynch .

It's been awhile, but I've made incremental progress on the Torpedo. After poking around the nooks and crannies of the Internet, I was able to find some solutions for the forks. While the Torpedo vaguely resembles the early LT/Liberty, the forks are similar in construction but different in dimensions and fluid levels. To further add to the intrigue, they also bear a passing resemblance to Typhoon forks.

What is certain is that these may be forks legs, but they're NOT dampers. I base my assertion on the fact that they don't have damping rods in them. It's simply a spring, 30cc (1oz) of 20WT fork oil and a couple of tubes.

Disassembly for these fork legs is a bit of a mystery, but I might have accidentally found an easy process. Pull the axle, drop the wheel. Grab a fork lower and twist it clockwise about two turns; it'll drop off the bottom of the spring. The upper tube appeared to be pressed into the steering stem, so I twisted the spring to release it and drop it out too. I did drop the full fork to try and polish out some burrs and wear marks. Wet sanding with 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit brought them around and they were rinsed with WD40.

The dust seals are effectively unobtanium, so I carefully removed them from the fork lowers, cleaned them with dish detergent and let them soak in a wintergreen oil/isopropyl alcohol solution to soften the rubber. The old seals were shot, so I replaced them with new Athena parts. Tip for Torpedo owners; the seal is the same one found on the Gilera DNA motorcycle. Assembly was the reverse of disassembly, with some help of seal drivers and bearing presses for a P-series Vespa. I cut up a thin plastic "Wet Paint" sign to protect the seals from the springs and fork uppers. With ET's help, the forks slid home and the assembly was offered back up to the bike.

After setting the Torpedo back on its own two wheels, another parcel arrived from the UK with new brake pads and service bits for the AJP front brake. I had to look into that bit, and was intrigued that the vendor was a Portuguese manufacturer of trials bikes. Hopefully, the cleaned up circuit with fresh fluid will reign in this fifty's fury.

An additional task that I attacked was the headset. Since it had to come off to service the fork and I was waiting for bits and bobs, what better time than the present? Removing the headlamp section was a nasty surprise; the plastic has several fractures in it! Since availability on Italjet part #460051 is on par with hen's teeth and unicorn farts, I'll be experimenting in the realm of plastic welding. The rear section was in better shape, but had it's own problems. The bezel was badly sun-faded and the switchgear is seriously sun-embrittled. Worst of all, the clock was dead!

The bezel was removed from the speedometer, carefully wet-sanded, chemically compounded and buffed until the gauges were readable again. I couldn't do much about the stress cracks in the lens, but the presentation range dropped from about twenty-five feet down to roughly ten. The clock was gutted, corrosion cleaned and fitted with a new battery...and it worked! The switches are a different story. Out of the five switches, I have two new ones. Still looking for the remaining late-90s switchgear to finish the job. I'm sensing a theme of "hunt weird parts and wait" here.

To fill the time, I have a few other projects in the pipeline. One is a bit more Modern and a lot more Vespa. The other has some Italian roots and less-esoteric componentry. Stay tuned!