Modern Vespa

I bought a 30"X72"x1.50" black foam exercise matt from Dick's. (the two sales co-eds complimented me on taking up floor exercises!....like that thing is ever going to see a sit-up!) THE best darn tool I've purchased for working on my scooter. I've dozed off on it a couple of times while waiting for oil to drain
Saves the knees!!

O.S.

Yes. OP has an LX150 though, that's why I said that

I wonder how much $$$$$ in labour that $25 lift saved you over 15 years. Probably enough to justify trading in the wife's sedan for an SUV that can park over your new lift

I personally could never justify spending that much on an inspection/fluids replacement for a scooter.
Especially when I pay quite a bit less than that for them to do my car which uses more oil/fluids.

I am not a mechanic in any form but I agree with the people saying to do it yourself. Not everything, just things that you think you would be able to do fairly simply. There are tons of tutorials out there which makes it less stressful that you will mess up. (I personally was very scared when I started working on mine)

I do all the stuff on my own scooter and when I started I had no idea how to do anything and I just learned along the way. It will get a lot easier after the first time. Also, it is very fulfilling to save money and feels good to learn.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

I'm sure any savings on labor that I incurred over that time period will be more than wiped out when I buy her a brand new SUV, just to buy myself a $400 mc lift. Anyway, she loves her car and would never part with it .

I can appreciate the DIY vs dealer dilemma. My first bike needed a gearbox rebuild so I opened it up and replaced a shift fork. 50+ years of being my own mechanic ended when at 65, I bought my first new vehicle, a sweet Kia Soul and let the dealer do it all. I still love wrenching bikes but cars....not so much!

You're in a good place Top. You did it yourself when you were younger and (presumably) needed to save the money more. And now you can take it to the dealer should anything come up knowing that you have the expertise to know they won't be able to pull the wool over your eyes on charges. I'm still at the replacing my truck's motor pulleys in my drive way stage of life, but fast forward 20 years and I'm hoping to be where you're at!

That's kind of you to offer! I'm admittedly not mechanically inclined. I promise I have a whole other skillset, just not that one.

My moto jeans came with Powertector knee pads, which are perfect for servicing the Vespa.

I'm still relatively young, but I definitely appreciate not having to kneel on cement.

Are you absolutely, positively, 100% certain that despite this lack of mechanical aptitude, you don't want to become a Vespa mechanic?

Still don't want to?

How about... now?

Now?

If you've made up your mind that you don't want to repair Vespas, how about fixing airplanes? It's a little harder, but there's this youtube video....

$460 for the 6000 mile service is a deal, I think. My 600 mile service cost about the same and there was much less involved. This was 3.5 hrs + materials.

Goob, I know you to also be a daily commuter. How many miles a year would you say you're generally racking up?

You should hear my attempts at keeping time!

Let me know if you change your mind...I'll be doing an oil/filter and gear oil change in the next couple of weeks.

What's up my SoCal brethren? If you are talking about LA Vespa I just bought mine from there. I really liked the shop but being in Anaheim I don't think that I will be able to make it there for services.

Learning how to do an oil change is super easy. For every vehicle you should check your oil level periodically. If you see that your oil is low then you should put a funnel in the fill hole and put a little oil in. Check your level again and you are good.

If you can do that you can do an oil change. The basic idea is warm up the bike, unscrew the drain plug, let the oil drip out while you practice bass, reinstall the drain plug with a torque wrench and refill oil.

A torque wrench will make a click when you reach the set torque value. If you stop when it clicks you are golden. It takes all guess work out of it. You can also get a measuring cup for the oil that goes back in.

Anyway you seem like you really can't fathom trying it so the other way to look at it is you are helping to keep a Vespa store around.

I take my other bike to BMW Long Beach most of the time. I can do a lot of the required maintenance myself but I know that I am helping to keep that business around. When I needed a weird mount that had fallen off of my previous bike I took the piece in and they figured out what it was and sent me on my way back home with it.

It took less than an hour to go get the part and install it on my bike. With no local niche Motorsport shop I would have had to wait several days to get my bike back on the road.

They also serve as hubs for like minded people to meet each other.

So I don't mind paying a little extra to keep a shop around but if you know some of the basics like an oil change then when money gets tight you can handle it yourself.

Btw I play guitar and drums so these things aren't mutually exclusive.

Seems high to me. It's mostly changing fluids and spark plug and rollers and inspecting a bunch of things that usually require no adjustment or additional work. Two hours of work and about $60 worth of supplies, which should make this about a $250 job.

I do it myself, and move the roller change until you do the belt at 9000 miles. I, personally, have never seen rollers that needed changing after a mere 6000 miles. At 9000 miles, they are barely starting to show wear. At 12000 miles, they show more significant wear, and probably should have been changed at 9000 miles.

PS my closest and ONLY dealer is almost 70 miles away. I have incentive to do it myself.

A small 5000km maintenance on my BV 300, basically new oil and oil filter and standard checks, costs me some 150€ ($ 170). For the mechanic they charge 73€/hr ($ 83) and 1,25hr of work.

A big 15000km maintenance, that is new pulleys, new belt and rollers, and oil and oil filter and standard checks costs me 495€ ($ 563). For the mechanic they charge 2,75hr of work.

I find it relatively expensive and I am sure I could do it all by myself. For years I did all maintenance on all of our cars and motorcycles myself (except tyres) but I have had that. Not planning to do that again.

That is indeed a strong motivation.

Mine is only 7km away (some 4,5 miles). There are not too many Piaggio/Vespa dealers here in Belgium and I am lucky one of them is so close by. (I have to admit one of the reasons to look for a second hand BV was because there is a dealer close by)

But if the closest dealer were at 70 miles I think I would reconsider maybe doing the maintenance myself.

I bought a simple used scooter partly because Vespamotorsport is 32 miles away, so required warranty maintenance would be an issue.

Is that too far?

My dealer is an hour and a half of freeway away, which is farther than convenient, but close enough that I make it work when I have to. The biggest problem is that I need to get up first thing in the morning and then wait around all day for the service to be done, unless I can convince a friend to pick me up and go on a hike while we're waiting.

Interstingly, I just asked my local dealer about doing the 15,000km service and they are suggesting I do it myself. They do suggest measuring the width of the belt and talking to them if I have any worries. They understand they get all our work and certainly don't take the p*&* over charges.

DiBiasio That Habor Freight Lift is now over $500.00 dollars

Yes, never pay full price for a big ticket item. Firstly because they almost always have a 10% off coupon in their flyer, or in this case for President's Day a 20% off coupon, and secondly, because the big ticket items usually go on sale multiple times throughout the year.

I'm Canadian, we don't have Harbor Freight here, but I have a PO box just over an hour away in Niagara Falls NY, and it's about a mile from HF so I'm there 2-3x a year. Sometimes it's scheduled around picking up an item, sometimes I let it sit at my PO box for a month or two until what I want from HF is on sale. Never pay full price at HF!

Thanks for the info on the 20% coupon I will have to find that it will make the ramp more affordable.

I just checked the invoice from a previous minor service from the dealership - $138 per hour for labor. I doubt I'm gonna do any better elsewhere. Oh well: at least I'm only going thru 8 or 9 bucks worth of gas in a week.

ps - which incidentally cost 5.19 a gallon just now at the CHEAP station in my neighborhood.

Wow! We pay less than that in $ CAD here... I think the $100-120/hr Canadian works out to about $78-94/hr USD. Brutal!

that's fairly standard here in LA to be honest. most dealers are in the 125~150 range while most bigger general repair shops are in the 95~115 and us indy's are in the 80~100 area.

labor has been steadily on the rise the last few years to be sure, at least in this area.