Modern Vespa

Just remember...


Home is where the booze is. They won't pour you a decent drink in those places, I've tried.

Be nice to the nurses! They're the ones who keep the doctors from accidentally killing you

Last night, one of our neighbors' cars sat in their driveway with the horn going HONK-HONK-HONK for anywhere from a couple seconds to a full minute, at random, starting around 9 or 10 and not stopping until at least 2:30 AM.

Now it's 10:35 and the effing thing just did it again. I think it's going to be another long night.

Does anyone close to you have a camera that shows the vehicle and property ?

If not, do you have something heavy and long in the garage ?

EVERYONE around here has outdoor cameras of one sort or another. It's why I never take out the garbage in my underwear.

Odd. That's why I always take out the garbage in my underwear.

I never trust cars. Here's an idiot today turning from the wrong lane in a 60kph zone

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7Yn00BxJ3t/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

You don't wear any? Must get a little cold in the winter.

Builds character.

Broke my scoot 🤬

Striped the thread on the bolt that holds the bottom of the right rear shock to the exhaust bracket.

Must've cross threaded it and not noticed the tension because of the nylon in the lock nut. Or was to much grit in the threads. Or ...

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

No, i don't use an impact on it.

Edit: currently ordering a 2nd hand one. Yes could maybe tap it but don't have taps and haven't used them since high school. Or even try to get the bolt out?

Edit 2: AU$80 inc shipping. I was going to replace the bearing soon anyway

Edit 3: more on the cause further down

The Stella is going to be the death of me.

I told her I loved her.
I told her I was keeping her in favor of something better.
I ordered parts.

I still haven't got the BBQ rack sorted out.
The front rack didn't fit and I had to return it.
The center stand kit came with missing pieces.
Now there's something loose inside the muffler. New one on order. From India.


Questioning my life choices. I could just buy a new Vespa.

another thought on the cause:

Due to having the larger diameter springs of the SIP shocks which push against the fuel tank when pulling the shock off that bolt (and the stiffer bushings I installed), I have sometimes let go of the shock while it's slightly twisted which will make it catch on the threads a bit as it slides back on to the bolt.

After staring at your pic, could that be the threads from the mangled nut hanging on to the bolt? I only suggest that cause it looks like a spot of clean bolt thread visible on the left end. If it is, I've removed that with a steel pick and the underlying threads were good. If the inside of the nut is missing its thread you might have a shot.🤷🏼

As we say here Australia, yeah nah. Too screwed for that

An email response I got from an enquiry to a government department: And there is no link to supply the details (which were in the original enquiry anyway)

Yesterday had the tire shop install a replacement unit. Today i find that they installed it incorrectly and it's leaking around the stem (can see the install difference when comparing to the front)

🤬🤬

Norton Motorcycles lost 38 Million Pounds last year.

The year before 26 Million.

Ooops.

I want their couch

🛋️👇💵

That sounds about right.

Sounds like somebody is going to buy Norton Motorcycles for pennies on the dollar soon...

I'd argue that this was projected.

Very unwelcome but projected.

South Africa went to the polls today for National and Provincial government elections.
My polling station opened at 7AM and by noon had run out of ballot papers...!


For over an hour, voters had to queue until officials obtained additional blank papers from the Independent Electoral Commission Regional office.
Surely if you have an electoral roll and a total number of voters for that station, you will have that number of ballot papers on site?

Thinking of moving ?

Torn ACL, (partially) torn MCL, fractured shin, and "the rest of the stuff around there doesn't look too great either."

And they've had me walking on it for just shy of three months (6 March was the dump).

I suspect a lil slicey-slice is in my near future and a big fat cast for everyone to sign.

Silver lining, 100% VA rating is pretty well guaranteed at this point.

Yikes!

eh. nobody's actively trying to shoot me in the fez or asplode me so i think the worst dangers are all behind me.

hurts but....i'm in my sleep number and having mac n cheese whenever I want. could be worse.

but it do hurt.

Truth. And speedy recovery.

Quick recovery, and make the most out of the positives. I have still the same philosophy you mention. It really helps!

I went out for a small ride today.

I initially got stuck behind a funeral cortege for the first 15 minutes.

Soon after the road I was on got blocked by a over height vehicle hitting a railway bridge and then falling over.

Trucks drove either side of the closure along country lanes which quickly seized solid with traffic.

I then tried every trick I knew to ride around the accident but because I was in the boonies the Nav wasn't working that well, if at all.

After some cursing I found the road which took me back the way I wanted but it was " Closed".

At this point I wasn't about to admit failure so rode around the sign then rode around a Construction Crew who cursed at me quite a bit so onward I headed to find that the road wasn't really closed at all.

Back on track I may have broken the speed limit but by the time I actually arrived at the meeting point my Buddy could only stick around for 5 minutes as I'd arrived so late.

On the way home it rained.

Great day out.

Sounds like a strong bridge.

It's one of those old ones made of steel and rivets n shit that will last longer than Elton John's career.

The road actually dips underneath it but not enough this time.

The Low Bridge sign wasn't enough of a giveaway.

We have a famous one here in the colonies.

?si=kkCwYIwzCmsq6wz1

I have to admit, that's pretty awesome.

It like the way that the A/C units just get swept off the roof.

Golden.

Edit, It made the Papers but due to copyright I can't show the picture.

Yeah, that's my favorite part!

Is that the one they call the can opener bridge? I thought I saw something about the road being lowered under it so that didn't happen anymore.

yes. and it still happens *A LOT* because people don't pay attention.

We have at least two here in Syracuse, one gets hit more than the other. Sad thing is a couple years back a large bus that had seating above the drive hit the one and killed a few passengers.

What has made this worse is GPS's and truck drivers who buy the cheap automotive ones instead of trucker rated ones. The trucker rated ones clearly show a simple by-pass over to a parallel road that takes you to a grade level crossing.

Just had an idea, maybe they should put up a large billboard showing the bridge with a truck stuck under it! Put one half a mile each way from the bridge.

Some people question why they built this bridge so low. Well the railroad bridge was installed before there were trucks! See the road under the bridge is actually a filled in canal and that was done over 100 years ago and the road was used more or less to access a county park and was later up graded to a state highway.

What's pissing me off most today is my own damned stupidity.

I started changing my own tires a couple of years ago. I go through 2 rear tires and a front every season on my Vstrom, and Darling bride goes through a set of tires every couple of years. Enough that it made sense to stop paying people for it. (around here, shops charge $100/tire) Add in helping a couple of friends with theirs and I've changed 10 tires so far, and I'm getting pretty good at it. Or so I thought.

Putting a new front tire on the Vstrom yesterday everything went smoothly until the last ten inches or so, then no matter what I did I couldn't get that last bit over the rim. Fought with it for far too long, bent a tire iron beyond use, practiced my four letter vocabulary more than I have since my time on a construction crew, then finally gave up and walked away in a fit of barely controlled rage before I did serious damage.

Came back into the garage a few hours later to try again, and my first glance at the tire told me that I had neglected to push the bead into the center of the rim.

Cue more four letter vocabulary.

Put a knee on the tire opposite the stubborn bit, and it slipped on remarkably easy. Ten minutes later the bead was set and the wheel re-mounted on the bike. Would have been a satisfying job if I wasn't so pissed off with my rookie mistake.

Been there. Not with tires...yet. I think we lock into our method and get tunnel vision.

At that price I'd do my own too! It's the price plus inconvenience of having to drive the tire to the shop, wait a couple of days, then drive back to pick it up. 20 miles for me. Wasn't all that crazy about the shop....then I asked at another place that'll do it for $25! Maybe I'll put off changing my own yet....

I tried changing my tires once.

I had always taken the wheels off the scooter, then driven them to a mechanic, who would remove and mount the new tires.

He did it using tire irons and nicked up every rim.

When he retired, I decided that I should try it myself.

After unsuccessfully prying on the tire for hours to get the old tire off, I threw in the towel.

I checked around and found a motorcycle shop a few miles away that had a proper tire mounting machine and would do the work for $25, sometimes while I waited.

The machine, run properly, leaves no marks on the rims, and they even fill the tires with nitrogen.

Easy call for me.

Bill