Modern Vespa

Haha Lvivske beer
Thank you Hibbert!

Finally got back side panels from painter and put on rear bumper. Also put mirror from 1998 Honda XL 250 and Vespa Club of Ukraine badge.

So as I hated this Yankee seat I borrowed another seat from a friend.
Good looking but also very cheap and uncomfortable.







With my 50 Special

Finally I got seat what I totally like - it is Nisa Wave Seat.
And put on SIP handlebar indicators. Also put brake and clutch levers with adjust and mirror from GTS Notte HPE.

Blown away by your workmanship - that scoot looks great!

Superb looking ride and I'll say it again, I freakin' love those air scoops.

Looks awesome man. I hope my scooter looks half that cool when I'm done. Love the ska legshield trim!

Thanks for the kind words guys!

More updates here.
As you can see on early photos scoot was with spare wheel and round MRP luggage box.
Later I realized that with 11" wheel mounted on spare wheel place the side panel cannot be attached.
And so there is no sense to have spare wheel onboard. I bought Motul P3 Tyre Repair and always keep it in glove box.

I got another MRP luggage box and put it on spare wheel mounts.
This was a useful improvement, since soon we had to drive 1000 km through the Carpathian Mountains during the Galicia 1000 Rally.

Also you can see on early photos that there was a chrome decorative pipe on the exhaust. I really liked it but one day it say "enough" and "goodbye"


I was not far from my welder so went to his shop and ask to do something. At that moment he had not any 20mm pipe and I don't wanted searching it or wait for few days. So we decide to put in 30mm pipe.






He also changed a bit angle of end pipe so now I can demount rear wheel without any problems(remember it is 110/70-11)

I have 11" tires and an MRP toolbox also. Once I went to a tubeless tire, I started carrying a tire plug kit instead.

Changed mirror again. Put on Bumm leg shield mirror.
Just few photos.

Kinda like the camels back aesthetically sorry 😀

I'm like how it looks too. But it is cheap repro. It also very soft so after 30-40 km of riding my ass was numb too much
Maybe it's because of my old back injury. Now only the hard seats fit for me.

Less than 2000 km clutch is gone.
Funny as it was DR clutch kit which can't hold the DR cylinder.

I ordered Polini clutch kit. And as I want to ride while it is on the way I filed DR plates and change most damaged one for old Surflex plate which was in motor when I bought the P. Even old Surflex looks better than DR.
I had spare cheap clutch basket so decide to reinforce it.





My is mk.I six springs basket, not a Cosa 2 one.

So on the 07.07.2021 there was a Galicia 1000 Rally which taken part in West part of Ukraine.
Start point was in Lviv that is near 600 km from Kyiv.
I decided to done this way by car as I already ride on this road back and forth few times on my LML 200 4T for ex. in 2019 when I ride from Kyiv to Zanka(Hungary) for WVD 2019, all route was near 3000 km.

To be honest I was not sure that P can made that 600 km as it was my first time when I rebuild such engine. And I want to ride with other guys on the rally much more than boring 600 km on the highway.

Here is some photos.











The writing on the wall translates to "shame". It is fun as this mate wait till his PK cool down after heat seize.






















Special rally equipment

BTW my fears about the reliability of my P were in vain. It survived these not easy 1000 km along mountain serpentines and dirt roads without any problems, I beat all shit out from it, but scooter did not disappoint.
For me it was very nice - it means I built the engine correctly.



Back in home garage.

Love the photos! Looks like a ton of fun. Ukraine looks beautiful. Lots of twisty roads never hurts, either.

keep posting, loving this thread....

Reliability is #1 for me. Looks like you built yourself a nice bulletproof ride. Happy trails to you.


This is the lobby of my son's high school in small town Vermont. This sentiment is widely felt in the USA.

Dat nasty paint!
So much contamination, orange peel & poor coverage!
Hope you managed to sort it out.

Great photos - nice shot with the Coronas...
Looks like a spectacular ride.
Ironically - you seam to have sent some free spirit and joy our way.
Fantastic.
Thanks!

I like the paint that way, gives it an industrial look. Or you could spend many hours wet sanding and polishing it out.

Thanks for replies and support folks! I'm very glad that you like my thread.

SubEtherBASS, Tierney you are quite right. I want Nardo Grey and received what you see
Also is impossible to do some polishing or something else - the quality of paint is f*kn terrible and thickness of paint is too thin. And there is no any clear coating. So in lot of places you can scratch to bare metal just with your nail.

Sorry to hear that the paint is so thin and fragile. I just like the look.

No problem mate. It was good for me that I don't paid for paintwork full price before it was done.

I found more photos from Carpathian Mountains.
It was car trip at October 2021.
Interestingly, quite by accident we stumbled upon a private open-air "museum" of vintage cars. And there even was two scooters. Most exhibits is the from the USSR.
Entrance is free but owner is happy if you make any donation.
But first just few photos not from "museum". And if any car not locked you free to sit in or open trunk or hood. Some of them even have keys in ignition locks.

So here is my Skoda Octavia MKI in Carpathian Mountains








Museum entrance.


Soviet scooter Vyatka Tourist. Year 1968, 200cc two stroke.










Soviet scooter Vyatka 3 Electron. Year 1975, 150cc two stroke.










Very rare Moskvich 423N(USSR, 1958-1965) it was first soviet station wagon.










Zastava 900 AK(Serbia, 1970-1989). It was a licensed copy of the Fiat 900T


ZAZ-965 Zaporozhets(Ukraine, 1960-1969). Its prototype was Fiat 600.
















Was nice to meet rare Skoda 445 Spartak(Chekhoslovakiya,
1957-1959)




















GAZ-21 Volga, mk.III(USSR, 1962-1970)


One more rare Skoda 1203. 1968-1981. Pity but it have non original headlights.






Very rare Moskvich 410 4X4(USSR, 1957-1958)




Moskvich 408(USSR, 1964-1976)












On front ErAZ-762(Armenia, 1966-1971) and Nysa 522(Poland, 1969-1994) on the back




FSO Warszawa 224(Poland, 1964-1973)




SMZ S-3D(USSR, 1970-1997) with 350cc two stroke motorcycle motor and full hand control. It was microcar for persons with a disability. It was impossible to buy this car just like that - you had to stand in line and after a while the state gave out a car for free.




Trabant 601(GDR, 1957-1991) it have body panels were made of the so-called "duroplastic" - a material based on phenol-formaldehyde resin(phenolic resin) with a reinforcing filler from waste(tows) of cotton production.






And the last one is very rare Robur LO 3000 Bus 4x4(GDR, 1973-1984)


Not my photo, but this is exactly the same bus crossing a mountain river in the Carpathians.


Last edited by roland87 on Fri, 27 Jan 2023 06:28:46 +0000; edited 1 time

Thanks for sharing! I don't think I had seen or heard of literally any of those before. That little Trabant looks sweet!

Cool!
They have some awesome logos/decals

Next problem after 9000 km was with the new cheap gear selector box and clutch(again).

I noticed that second and third gears starts to jump off under good load. I tried to play with cables but it not help.
Then I decide to take off selector box and was surprised how much plays it have in all possible places. Also it have strange pin instead of cone pin. I really don't remember why I decided to put new selector box on my engine. So I find old original selector box, disassembled it, gave it good clean, took few parts from new selector box, made laser engrave and put refreshed original selector box back on the motor.
Was happy how it works and it runs already more than 5000 km without any problems.

I also ordered SIP Cosa 2 Sport clutch as on cold engine after few hours of staying I can't start to ride properly - Vespa or dies when start to release clutch lever or jumps forward hard with front wheel in the air. Read maybe on this forum that this is because clutch base plate is worn. Then I take off clutch and saw chewed plates(again), worn brass bush an worn clutch basket. So I thought that it is better to change the whole complete clutch. And I was right - all problems are gone and all works great.









Last edited by roland87 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:00:06 +0000; edited 1 time

During the Galicia 1000 Rally there was a man on PX with very similar engine as my. But he also have lightened flywheel SIP Touren and Malossi cylinder head And I was really liked how his PX runs. Off course I wanted the same upgrades.
I started from flywheel.
Here is few photos.

Original 1981 P 150 X Ducati flywheel


Original PX 125 Millenium Elestart flywheel


SIP Touren flywheel

Autumn photo taken on October 22, 2021


And New Year 2022 present which I made for myself.


Pity but there was no another one with black ring. After mounting I realized that this fuel tap with gauge works weird. Even if there was 6.5L of fuel in tank the gauge starts to blinks about low fuel level. I don't really need it so I just removed the wire between tap and speedo.

is your speedo lens cracked or is that just a reflection? on the 2nd it looks ok

Yes just reflection.
But later during use, I noticed that condensation sometimes appears on the inside of the glass. Then I searched and find that this is common problem with SIP speedos. Then when its dried there appear a few spots and on sunny days I can't clear see the temperature readings(if I find photo I will post it) What a shame for the price of device!

yeah you'd hope for a properly sealed lens for sure.

This photos was taken 20 February 2022.
Four days later Russia attacked Ukraine.

And thanks to Ukraine Armed Forces already in May 2022 we can go back to the Kyiv and even made a little trip for 185 km around town.

There were huge problems with fuel, there was almost no fuel at the stations, and where there was fuel, there were queues of several kilometers. You can only buy 20L at once.

Some suburban roads looked like this - these are the remains of roadblocks and it is impossible to drive a car.








Good to have spare fuel.

In the end of May 2022 that buddy on red PK picked up PX 200 E GS. In terrible condition but for a very nice price. He always dreamed about PX so he is very happy.
That PX is for Austrian market and have four orange reflectors on the mudguard and on the rear light sides.


He don't liked them and removed quickly. I looked on them for some time and really liked them. IDK why but as is. I cleaned pair of them and put on my P.


So nice little parts.

There was big water in Kyiv on June 2022
You can notice split 10" rim. It was temporary.
After much deliberation, I decided to sell my 11" wheels as it was very uncomfortable and stiff. And only a little tyres have suitable sizes. Heidenau K61 that I was have on 11" wheels is turns out the most bad tyres in any conditions that I ever rode.

In July 2022 arrives SIP tubeless rims 10"x2.5". Pity but when I ordered rims there no polished version on SIP, i really like how looks my previous 11" rims.
I thought about 100/90-10 tyres but there was a very good discount on Bridgestone Molas ML50 110/80-10.
Now Vespa much more comfortable on bad roads and bit sharper drives. I was totally pleased.

BTW my ex-rims now on the mate's PK. For sure not everyone cup of tea and I still don't know if I like it or not.