Modern Vespa

As I find myself ordering things again, find myself thinking of what emergency parts that would be good to be handy. I think I have a decent list of what to carry when I take longer rides, but there are still things that can break that are worth the investment (i.e. probably need sooner or later) and worth keeping on the shelf to avoid shipping time and expense for a single item. Last year after busting a fuel injector and finding a cheap replacement, I'm keeping one of those on my shelf. I usually keep old belts for emergencies and buy new as I near the end of a maintenance cycle, but I'm sure I could consider others.

What I have now...purchased or gifted:
Belts, exhaust gasket, fuses, on/off switch, spare bulbs, various screws and other fasteners that are likely to disappear from various causes.

Anything else any of you keep handy?

Spark plug cap.

Here's my collection. It was bigger when I had more bikes.

I keep all of those items in a spare parts box.

Last time I changed a belt, I found that I didn't have any replacement rollers.

Still haven't ordered any.

The back wall in my garage was looking like a tire store for a while, but those are getting used as I continue to wear out tires.

I have a couple of brake levers, because I broke one ten years ago.

I luckily have a parts GT that I take parts from too.

Bill

No order is complete without a spare oil filter

Forgot that....have leads and caps. But yeah, inexpensive and handy...


And Touring, you're right. But have that covered...usually buy in multiples!

Graphite exhaust gasket!

+1

It's also useful to buy the pipe expander tool in order to fit it.

I just stumbled across some old notes, with "ignition swith" and "ignition loads relay."

I know the former is about $10, but I haven't seen the latter listed yet.

The question is always how proactive to be....for consumables, it's obvious that I'd need the part eventually, often predictably, but for other things that *might* break, it's often worth a few bucks having one around, unless a. it's rare as heck to fail or b. it's too damned expensive just to keep around in case of failure.

Only spares I keep on hand now are extra mirrors, a micro switch for the brake levers, that key/ chip reader wire and brake levers. The Liberty has been very reliable so no need to stock panic spares. I know when my next service is due and I order what is needed at that time.

And I may have a new headlight bulb as well.

Since no dealers, I would carry drive belt and muffler gasket. Other stuff find or order as needed, Oil Filter on hand might be nice, too. Tires, nice to find reliable souce, and if you ride a lot at least have spare rear on hand.

Having a well stocked spares supply is great until you've sold the scooter.

Then there's that....

I don't tend to trade too often....I'd anticipate some interchangeability between models, wouldn't mind passing on a few bits to a buyer, and/or stay tuned for freecycle postings!

It's what keeps my budget a bit low...not worth sitting on an expensive part I may never need for maybe years, if ever.

I tend to have this issue when I sell or trade in a car - I find all kinds of spare stuff in the garage. I still have a couple of Jeep Cherokee parts, and the vehicle has been gone a couple of years... I just gave most of them away...

Surely that's a deal breaker when selling......'you can have my scooter plus I will throw in all these useful spares in with the price'!

I'd try and think of consumables and spares as two distinct categories ...

If you service your own bike and are not expecting to sell any time soon then having belt, oil filter, engine oil, spark plug, etc is not silly. ie buy some of these together to save postage makes sense. and I do stick the bushing for the oem exhaust on this list.

Having a wide range of spare parts on hand that you read on a forum had failed for someone (or even failed for you in the past) such as spark plug lead & cap, or a bearing, a hose, or ... this is where I feel it becomes pretty questionable. basically nah.

And then you get other non consumables like fuses or bulbs. well, it ain't fatal if a bulb blows so I wouldn't stock them. but fuses are cheap so why not?

of course you could just have an entire spare scoot

"You'll need them because these are artisanal scooters are hand crafted by drunk Italians who got the job because grandpa drinks grappa with the right people".

Having three almost identical GTs that I will probably never sell makes having spare parts quite a reasonable deal.

Bill

You are in fact one of the few people I know who keeps enough spare parts for the next hundred thousand miles

...and probably go through those before he'd done!