Modern Vespa

One of our local club members in Eugene bought a package deal consisting of an SS, a couple smallies and the GL. He already owns a GL and a smallie so up for sale they went. I was all excited about the GL for a bit then talked myself out of it, qascooter (Scott) got hot on it for a while but cooled his jets. Scott and I had talked about it several times both getting hot and cold I think secretly hoping the other would buy it. Enjoying a build getting to ride it all you want while the other guy pays for it, what could be better? 😀 So in a moment of weakness I ended up with it and I'm super stoked.

Got her home and spent some time cleaning her up a bit and sorted through the box of parts just seeing what I've got.

A P200 hiding underneath the cowl.

Changed the oil, the old stuff looked good, cleaned the carb and loaded up and headed to the beautiful Oregon coast to have Scott lay eyes on it and help me try to get it started.

hells yeah!

please tell me that the paint is decent enough to salvage. along with those grips and lever covers!

very very cool bike!

the square body Dakota veritible makes for a fine scooter toting machine!

A thermos of coffee, muffins and a couple hours of messing around an Oh Baby she came to life and ran great. A long way to go but we made a lot of progress

P200!!!!

It was a bitchen day! So fun to hear it fire up. And it runs super nice.

I'm curious on the history of the engine. But so far so good.


Coffee and muffins. Mmmmm

Hey, I'm just eating and watching. Kick it over already!

My opinion on the paint - it suuuuks. Sprayed on thick and runny. The front fender was patched up and there a couple legshield creases, and a crease on the right tail end.

BUT - someone had plans cause the box-o-parts new in the package and some stuff started

We're thinking (listen to me, talking like it's mine - ha!) of getting it running solid (brakes, tank, oil tank to keep autolube, lights, etc).

Then ride it for a year before thinking of painting it that original sweet ivory that it wants to be. Including the fork and hub.

So the plan is: make it a solid runner, then think about paint and body work, proper colored rubber, etc.

Please correct me if I'm wrong Chris or if I'm talking too much.




That needs some help, but you can see the original paint on the hub


Last edited by qascooter on Tue, 01 Mar 2022 11:19:59 +0000; edited 1 time

Yeah man!! GL Welcome to the GL club. You guys really got after it, I'm happy to see you with this; and even more stoked to see what you'll do with it!

Dont forget I have OG mudguard trim for you. I'm still on the hunt for the sidecowl trim...

Chris rolled up the street.

https://youtube.com/shorts/LS3RV4zc2C8

GL… Stands for "good lookin" ! 😀

Really that is a nice looking scoot. Great score.

Nice! Can't wait to see what you guys do with it

Welcome to the GL club! And sporting a P200, to boot! That's icing on the cake, especially since all the other Kool Kids in your de facto scooter club are running 200's now.

Even with the crappy respray, it looks straight and nothing going on there that won't hammer out when the time comes.

I'll be looking forward to watch this project proceed. And I 100% support the plan to get it mechanically sound, then ride it for a while.

Also, GeekLion...

@Scootnewb: Congrats!! Great looking GL!! It just needs a proper kickstart. SIP does a really nice one for P motors on old frames...

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/kickstart-lever-sip-rally-style_751221PO

I am a new member to this forum having recently acquired a couple modern Piaggio's but have always had a soft spot for old classics and a profound love for anything on two wheels.

I have about a dozen bicycles and about five of those are old classic cruisers among them a couple of two speed kick back hubs and an old Colson that I rescued from lawn ornament service that is still very much a work in progress on the back burner. The newest in my collection of bikes being hard tailed mountain bikes from the 90's.

I am very much appreciating these threads on the old scooters and the whole "you are the caretaker now not the owner" mentality. Good stuff thanks!

Or, you can just do what I do...keep the P-style lever and let 'em wonder if it's a bodge or something they probably don't want to play the "fuck around and find out" game with.

[quote="qascooter"]
So the plan is: make it a solid runner, then think about paint and body work, proper colored rubber, etc.

Please correct me if I'm wrong Chris or if I'm talking too much.
[/quote

Probably a more accurate statement would be, "the plan"is to make it a solid runner and ride it for a year or ten and change our plan thirty times before developing the Official Plan😀. For me plotting, thinking and planning is half the fun.

To quote a friend of mine who was asked to present to her entire management team on her first week in a new job, "The plan is...No Plan."

Hey GeekLion,

Are you gonna make the Oregon100 the first week in May with your GL?

If you don't, it looks like Chris will have a few scooters done by then and I'm sure you can borrow one of his! Dooohhhh!


Sweet GL, and nice rack....

Nice score. You know GL is short for "Gran Lusso", which translates to "great luxury". LOL. Style man, style!

YEEEESSSSSS!!!!!! You got it! Geek Lion Gran Lusso Great Luxury Good Luck

I'll be there for sure! Not so sure if I'll be on the GL, it just looks so good parked in my Den. You and Chris both have a strong lead against me in the 'finished'projects' department.

It sure does look fabulous in the den! I gotta say, I'm a bit envious...

Thought about leaving my gear cables hooked up backwards just to keep my old brain sharp but decided to get them in the right position today. Great tip for adjusting the shift cables, get the shifter in neutral and mark it on the bottom with a Sharpie so you can see it from the gear selector when messing with the cables. I think Scott told me he learned it on a MV post from Sausage. Probably an old trick but this novice mechanic could have got off my stool a thousand times to look at the top of the headset and still wouldn't have thought to to mark the bottom.😀

Shift cables straitened out, a quick test rip around the block with no lights without going to jail and my granddaughters stopped by and made me cookies. Great day. 😀

Nice find. I remember Rob Hodge selling a similar white gl...but not sure about the motor. He raved about it was one of the straightest he had seen. Any history before the previous owner?

Mine isn't that straight, she's a rider. All I really know is from some parts receipts dated 2015. It's a project that appears to have stalled out.

Great find. You are collecting quite a herd.
Totally agree with getting it all mechanically sorted, polish it up and ride it.
That's what I'm doing to my P200 project.
It has a white repaint over the original red and I'll just continue to wax it and leave it.
It looks decent and I've gone thru it mechanically.
Looking forward to getting it on the road.

I used that shiny duct tape. Lined up the marking for neutral then taped the twisty part to the headset. Worked flawlessly. That tape has next to no give to it so I didn't have to worry about the shifter shifting at all while tightening the cables. A marked line is a good idea too.

The current seat isn't very luxurious but works great for quick test rips around the block.





Last edited by Scootnewb on Wed, 02 Mar 2022 16:56:31 +0000; edited 1 time

The Actual Seat isn't much better if mine is a representative sample.

The rains have started here on the Oregon Coast. And that means it's project time!

I finally convinced Chris to bring over Lucy for the first big project of the season, which he did today.

We drank coffee, ate donuts, listened to tunes, BS'd about everything and everyone (if your ears were burning, we were talking about you), and wrenched on Lucy. Oh, and rode around town in the rain, and to the taco truck.

Chris got an autolube tank and made a mount for it, and also got an adapter for the tank nipple size differences. (Heh heh, I said nipple). It's going in the left side cowl and over to the carb.

We pulled the carb and carb box, both on finger tight, and made sure oil will flow properly when the time comes. Cleaned everything up, then reinstalled the carb with the proper washers and lock washers, torqued to 10-13ftlbs.

The game plan at this point is I'm going to make a kindergarten schematic of what is there, and then see what we're missing to go batteryless.

After that, the steering column and headset are getting removed for a proper cleaning and greasing, and the front hub, and shifter and throttle tubes.

Hopefully when all that is done I'll have the wiring figured out with y'alls help of course.

Enough talk, on with the pictures!


Time for the best buttermilk donut on the planet and some coffee

Here is Lucy, back on the table

You carry in the bins of parts Chris, and I'll drink my coffee

The tank is clean, so in goes the fast flow fuel tap

How cool is this oil tank!

Perfect bend and straight into the tank cavity without any kinks

Let's make sure the nuts and bolts have lock washers and blue locktite

Carb oil passage is free and clear. The oil gear shaft is in good shape too

Let's put some oil in the tank

Oh yeah, it's flowing baby, it's flowing! (Gotta clean up that tunnel...)

Ok, enough work, let's go for a ride and get some tacos. Turns out we got rained on for the ride around town. No biggie, we're used to it :D

I absolutely love the autolube! Good on you guys for hooking it up. So what size is the oil tank? I think the Nalgene bottle that i use for an oil tank in my PK200 is 16 ounces? All i know is that it empties quick if you ride a lot. I think the stock oil tank reservoir holds around 2 quarts? The bigger the tank the better though. Another option is to fit a P series fuel tank and reservoir in the GS. That will give the GS a longer range...but that might not work because i think you'd also have to relocate the choke bracket to a different location in the frame. One last thing, is the cap for that oil reservoir vented?

I'm not sure what size the tank is but the cap is vented.

Mine holds a whopping half gallon!
Might only need to fill it up once a decade

I'm intrigued by this.

Thanks Whodat! Chris and I did a lot of talking about what type of tank to fit in the glovebox, and still have usable space. He ended up making some cardboard sized tanks to see which one he liked best. Then he made this cool mount at his work to hold the tank. I think it's going to work out awesome...

Last edited by qascooter on Sun, 13 Nov 2022 16:28:12 +0000; edited 1 time

Ha! We looked at your tank, but Chris didn't want to carry enough to keep us both supplied with oil when we ride across the state

You are actually the inspiration, so thank you!!

The conversation went something like this...

Me: Are you going to keep the Autolube?
Chris: Naah, just premix it.

You know, you could keep it by putting an oil tank in the side cowl area.
Really? That would be cool!

Yeah, FM did it on his 58 Allstate, check out the thread....

And the rest is history!