Modern Vespa

Thanks!

The paint could actually be a lot better. I really should have bitten the bullet and shot another coat onto the frame, but it's good enough for now, and if I really wanted to, I could still re-shoot the parts that need it with the bike assembled. Getting the fish wire through is easy, but the wire itself keeps pulling off or hanging up.

I'm going to try my actual fish tape, or maybe pull the rear brake pedal out (again. The millionth time again) and see if I can break it up into three pulls (tank->brake, brake->horncast, horncast->headset).

This is just so dumb, though, starting from the fact that I forgot to run these wires before I things mostly reassembled.

Something to be said for getting it done, out the door and on the road. I actually like the blotchiness on the legshield. As you said, you can dick around with the paint at some later time if you still care at that point.

Yeah, the blotchiness is a result of the Gray Primer Toothpaste Incident, and I wear that scar with pride. Luckily, it's grown on me.

Fixed that for you.

I have been watching this thread. I really like the build and i love the color you chose. It's little late in the game for a comment, but without additional modifications the anti-dive bracket kinda messes up the suspension geometry. Once the upper shock mount is installed, it puts a side load on the shock's shaft (and therefore the interior seals and bushes). It also puts a higher side load on the upper shock stem. Having a disc brake brake will only make it worse (because you can now stop WAY faster than any drum brake). Other repercussions besides a blow shock seal could be a bent a bent shock shaft...or worse. Keep in mind that it won't be a constant side load at the exact same pressure, but the side load pressure will change as the suspension cycles up and down. Which would most likely cause more fatigue than what a constant side load would do.

Even though it's the norm when installing an anti-dive bracket, it doesn't mean that it's correct or safe (very same situation with the SIP wide tire kits. Also a somewhat similar situation when swapping a PKXL fork into anything other and a PK). As much as it would suck, i would either; A) drop the fork and extend the upper shock bracket, or B) remove the anti-dive bracket until you get motivated to extend the upper bracket. I wouldn't even worry about repainting the whole fork. That whole area would be hidden under the fender. Just mask off the upper and lower portion of the fork and give it a down and dirty respray where any welding was done. Yes it would stall the project, but once you had all the materials in your hands, it would only take a few hours of time to do.

My comment isn't to take a dig at you whatsoever. What frustrates me is that the aftermarket would sell something to the unsuspecting.

always gotta keep some of those tabs on the shelf...

Thanks for all that, Whodat. It makes sense and I don't disagree with any of it.

Given that I could stand to drop the fork rather than fight any more with getting my sensor leads run, it'd let me kill two birds with one stone, too.

I can fab up an extension tab out of 1/8" angle bracket I have on hand and, yeah, it'll probably take me an hour or less. Throw a little black rattle can on it and go on with my life.

I guess we know what I'm going to do this weekend.

I will admit i went a little bit chicken little the sky is falling, but if you can get it sorted correctly now, you'll feel good about it for the rest of time. And since the shock will be located further away from the fork leg, i'd use something thicker than 1/8". Maybe 3/16"? I'd also extend the triangle gusset to the very end of your add on bracket at well. I'd want to remove the coil spring from the shock body so that you can easily cycle the suspension up and down and pinpoint the natural arc of the upper shock mount positioning. Before making any cuts, double check for under fender clearance so that the top shock collar isn't going the make contact with any of the sheet metal.

Keep in mind that it has to support the weight of the scooter, you on the scooter, and you braking hard (with a hydro brake) while on the scooter. Dunno if you go full Dukes and jump down a short flight of 5 steps.

Good man, it's the right way to go

I'm getting crushed with a cold right now, which is impacting progress, but I'm fully committed in my own mind to fixing the shock geometry.

I'm mostly annoyed I'm going to have to remove the bearing race. That's one of those things that never gets any better, even if it's 90% just heating it with a torch until it pops off.

The existing arm is pretty thin metal, so my plan is to use a piece of 1/8" L-iron and weld it onto both the fork and existing bracket. That'll be a lot heavier duty than the original. The tricky part might be getting the clearance on the mudguard, but I think that will be fine, too.

SaFis' pic looks like 3-4 gauge, closer to 1/4"
Are you still using a 110 welder?

220v welder. I've never had a 110.

I'm wired up on coffee, sudafed, and cough syrup right now, which is the perfect time to be making major safety decisions. So I think I'll fix the fork geometry.

I will also say that it's hard to take those two steps back right now, but, the drugs also help with that.

Really, looking good CM.

Not so ratty looking now…

It's super clean…

Loving the silver mudguard crest.

Good luck with the welding work! Don't get burnt out!

Fork is torn down and I figured out the template. I'm going to use 1/4" sheet steel that I had on hand and then add bracing all the way back to the fork. Still need to work out exactly what that will look like, but that'll be relatively easy and will also be 1/4" sheet steel.

Unrelated, one thing that fell into my SIP cart on this latest round of parts ordering was a short 4th/long 2nd primary, so I'll be splitting the cases before this project is complete.

It's done.

Tl;DR: Measure. Cut. Grind. Measure. Cut. Grind. Measure. Measure. Weld. Grind. Paint.

When I measured, it was exactly a 30mm offset, which put the edge of the new hole just into the end of the old arm.

Paint is drying, reassembly tomorrow.

1/4" steel for the extension and the braces. Welding turned out well, too. I'm happy with it. Hopefully nothing will fall off when I'm actually riding on it.

Looking forward to seeing it assembled.

Adaptor looks great! Meds for the win!

Assuming that I feel better and my wife still feels like crap (she caught cold, too), I should get it all back together pretty quickly tomorrow and be back on track.

Lolz… hope it doesn't linger for too long… looks like you powered through.

Oh that primary shaft will be great! Currently using stock PK one (which was already and upgrade)… wonder if I should go longer 2nd shorter 4th…?

What is in the engine atm? Forgot…

New hole is nicely close to seam - so not much leverage.
Suspect you will be all good with that.
Must be looking forward to having it all back together - in it's spectacular new color.
The heard will be jealous of all that shinny power.

I was pretty thrashed by the time I finished up. Nothing a nice nap couldn't fix, though.

Right now, it's stock Bluebadge gearing: 10-14-18-22.

New gearing will be 10-15-18-20, which will bring the bottom of the power band in 4th down to about 40-45 MPH and extend 2nd up to over 55 MPH.

It should make 2nd a little less wheelie-prone, too, which is what I'm more interested in with that switch. First gear is never going to be anything but a test of the rider's skill and guts on this thing.

Chuckled.
I have mine geared to climb a tree in first - for side car reasons…
But gawd forbid I open the throttle while turning left off a stop light.

Front wheel leaves ground and I just head straight into the surprised faces of drivers waiting to go straight across the intersection.

Little less throttle.
Front tire bite.
Alls well.

Would be nice to get more speed down in second before shifting gears.

The Pk is 10-14-18-21.

Might look into that malossi, the other thing I was thinking about was a polygon version too. But hey, beggars can't be choosers…

I have a polygon one-finger on the shelf that I bought by mistake at one point. Definitely seems like a better design, but I'm not going to spring for yet another clutch to make that happen.

I'm looking forward to checking out the new gearing. First will still be a lost cause, but a more usable fourth at street speeds will definitely be nice.

I rallied and made a ton of progress today.

Electrical is done. Fork is done. Front brake is bled. Various bits and bobs that needed bolting on are bolted on.

Only things left are installing the motor after I swap the primary and fix the rear hub seal, mounting the gauges, and finishing the floor rails and mat. I have a new center mat... somewhere...

Plus whatever else I am forgetting.

The fork mod should probably only have relocated the upper mount about 25mm rather than 30mm, but I think will be fine, and better than the standard triangle.

..

Very nice! Now that it's done, each and every time you walk past the front end of the scooter, you'll be glad that you spent the extra time to sort it out!

Unfortunately, what will happen is that every time I walk past it, I'll think, "I should have relocated that top mount 25mm, not 30mm."

I also had a comedy of wtf's getting the sensor cables run. I was unable to get them the other night, so this time I went with the Big Guns and used a full on fish tape. Which worked great. Until it got stuck between the horn and the rear brake. And by stuck, I mean "couldn't get the fish tape out, with or without a wire attached."

Eventually, I figured it I could rotate it and get past whatever was causing these issue, but that was some bonus aggravation I really didn't need. Once I figured that out, though, I got the tach, CHT, and egt run in short order.

That would have been my concern about using a fish tape. In the future, you could always cut the hook off the end of it. Then once you're done chasing wires, then you can reform a new hook.

Yeah, but this was my good tape that has measurements marked on it, so I'd prefer to avoid that if at all possible.

I need to see if there are mini fish tapes for shorter, tighter runs. It seems like something that should exist.

That looks awesome!

Way better than triangle. It looks like it makes sense now.

You'll have to let us know if the handling is any different. I'm guessing maybe not, but looks heaps better. I would take the 5mm over triangle any day.

Quickly becoming my fav bike on MV! Hard choose between the unicorn and rays yellow.

Looks great, C-man! Light years ahead of that white small frame you dragged home from here a couple years ago. Good man.

Ha! Also Light years ahead of the white scoot that was dragged in front of the truck.

That shorter 4th is going to make this a terror in town.

I had a vision, it just took me a a couple years to actually realize it.

Plus I had to fix (and fix...and fix) that white Stella so I could get it sold on to make room for vision realization. Call it was it was, CM. It was a victim of a violent Tourist Bro-Dozing. All the scraped up extra bits are still on it, though, so it wears its scars with pride. Fixed that for ya.

I gotta make sure I have a spare smallie case gasket in case I tear the existing one when I split the cases. I should probably do the cruciform, too, just because.

*opens Scooter Mercato in a new browser tab...*

Great job and all but that brake line haunts my dreams.
Needs to be dealt with…

Didn't want to say anything…

It is CM's scoot, if there isn't sufficient sketchiness or danger factor involved, where's the fun in it? It's supposed to make you somewhat uneasy.

At this rate, y'all are gonna make him all respectable and the explosion counter is never gonna flip over.

<snork>

Don't worry, it'll get zip-tied back into place just like it was soon enough

(I seriously do need to get a proper length brake line, but that may have to be a 2025 project) I'm basically the NASCAR race of scooter projects. You follow along so you know how it's going, but deep inside, you know you're really just here for the crashes and explosions. Have faith!

I think we determined some time ago that I'm a true innovator in the field of scooter explosions and general high performance chaos.

lol