Modern Vespa

Goooooooooooood morning crazies! I'm gunna be buying another Rally 180 here pretty quick and need to figure out what to offer. He's a good friend so I don't want to lowball, just fair for us both.

Bike is in pieces but all there (actually happy it's torn down) and I don't know if he has the paperwork for it or no.

Thank you much!

What condition?

Frame straight? OG paint? Respray?

Engine in good shape?

Pics would help us make a more educated guess.

DOH!!!! I knew I shoulda....long break...brain fart....I'll put some up here in a bit

Lots of pics will help. Find out if there is a title.

Here's the pics I have of the beast

that's a full on resto, but a rare bike

i'm curious what the opinions are as well, I don't feel qualified to guess!

so much depends on the quality of the parts in those bins

did you find out the title status?

Waiting on a reply. In AZ not having paperwork is no big deal at all. Bonded title and after (I think) 6 months you can have the word "Bonded" removed from the title if ya want.

I'm almost 100% sure I'm gunna get it and build for my lady friend. Just figure out how much for it.

I mean, who doesn't want 2 Rally 180's in their garage?????

If the floor boards are clean and the frame is straight... and if all the parts were there I'd pay 1500 if I was eager for a Rally 180.


*IF* the ulma is there and not fucky *AND* if the barrel and and piston were in good nick. Without the Ulma I'd be at 1200.00.

Without the Ulma and the jug in good shape I'd be at 1000.00.

(and only bc it's a Rally 180.)

Ok...Ulma? Sorry I'm a dum dum......

This...and a friend wants it to go to friend and damn it I just want another one!

Ulma is the maker of stainless steal trim that went on the legshield of the sports models. (GS, SS, Rally) It goes for 350 or 400 bucks on its on if its clean.
The trim will be stamped 44 or 044 at the bottom where it meets the floor rails.

It looks like one pic has trim in a tub... but I cant tell condition. Or if it's ulma vs some crappy, chrome repop.

Dang it! I didn't wanna learn anything new today!

Thank you very much for the info!

5-8k to do a restoration. Less if you don't want much of a looker but road safe.

i might be in the 800-1500 range. as sad as it is, the owner would get much more parted out.

Well I got more pics and I'm picking it up Friday. Judging from all the responses here I'm pretty dang sure I got a square deal! Now I just get to learn more about bodywork! Also, as silly/dumb as it may be, I'm gunna try to get the original motor all squared away and put back in the bike. Don't know how bad it is yet, so gunna have to wait and see!

i don't think that it's silly/dumb to run the original 180 motor - it's a rare bike that deserves to have its original engine. I'd take inventory and see what it takes to make it happen. unless it's missing too much, it's the way I'd go also.

How exciting

The exciting bit will be when I stuff all this in my Mazda 3 and drive it from San Diego to Tempe!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Then the real fun begins. I'm pretty sure first off the cases are going to my buddy's shop for a nice tumbling. I think it'll be a nice change of pace to start with nice cases. Then inventory everything to see what we need.

Oh and it's probably gunna end up being my lady's bike. Nice his & hers 180's. Gunna get her hands dirty on this one!!

Yeah, no not at all. Great engine. The jug is rare business though so do be diligent about proper jetting and timing so ya don't ever seize the bastard. I run an OG 180 engine with the OG 180 pipe on my Motovespa. Love it.

Keeps up with the faster bikes and has great torque. It's a gem. Get yours purring and you will be a happy camper.

Congrats on the get!

Saw this recently at Mercato… pretty cool…

https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Cylinder-Assembly/41470600_2

Ooooooo! Tempting!!!!!

So I went and picked her up today. Turn and burn from Tempe Az to San Diego. Let's just say it's sitting the Mazda till tomorrow. For now I'm enjoying a Beam & Coke.

I have noticed there a lot of rust in the 1 milk crate of parts I was able to muster the energy to take out. Like…a lot. Fingers incredibly crossed.

Well shit….

It's filthy. But doesn't look broke. The rotary pad looks like it might be just fine under all that crud. Unless I'm missing something. Give it a good scrub and see watcha got.

That's what I'm hoping. This is gunna be a long term project that I'm pretty excited to do with my ol lady. She's ridden for years and done stuff as far as maintaining her bikes, but this will be her first foray into full build!

It's gunna be cool I think.

I agree with sdjohn. The GS160 motor, for example is another beautiful motor that many GS160 owners unfortunately replace with a PX motor. They often do this because they don't want to take the time to learn how to work on the original motor, don't want to pay someone who knows how to, or don't want to take the time to hunt down the original parts. Life's too short to ruin good bikes.

I totally agree! This one will be an adventure for my lady and me since I've pretty much only done P series and some sprints with the odd smallie thrown in to aggravate me.

Some inspiration for you- I restored this Rally 180. It won Best Vespa at 2021 AmeriVespa.

I ended up turning down a p200 cylinder and machining the lip off a p200 crank to fit the Rally 180 cases.

Out of all the body work I have done- forming a couple louvers and replacing the upper right side legshield was probably the hardest.

Case looks in good shape. Needs to be degreased, then media blasted. I've worked on far worse looking that ended up looking like brand new cases.

Fuck yeah! Gorgeous bike and even the color she wants!

i didn't paint it, i had a guy that painted for me for several years. I took the rear light to him that had original paint on it. He matched it up as close as he could get with single stage paint.

Wow what a transformation LOVE that color

That's a gorgeous restoration and I think this is a great project.

My VBB came with a VBC engine installed as well as the original case full of internals rusted solid. It cleaned up quite well and is totally workable. It's not the kind of rare scooter that you would fuss about having the original engine paired with the original frame sort of thing. But I might do it anyway.

Got some stuffs back from tumbling (well I pick em up tomorrow). Can't wait to see em in the flesh