Modern Vespa

As a guy who *does* full teardowns, I'm going to tell you right now: DON'T TEAR IT DOWN!

I missed this thread the first time it went past (I was probably out in my workshop ), but you have an amazing origin story, you'll never get to tell it if you're not out on your bike, hitting the occasional rally, and just generally enjoying the ride.

Consider how much effort you've already put into sorting out the kickstand spring. That's like a five minute job for an experienced Vespa wrencher, but you're now on Day Three just of that little task--for all the right reasons, like wanting to understand how it works and do it right, but three days nonetheless.

By way of comparison, I'm some kind of freak of nature who does full teardown projects in 3-4 months.

So if we take 3 days, divide by five minutes...carry the one...and you're looking at seriously like two orders of magnitude difference between you and me. 300 months is a lot of years to finish it; basically asymptotic at "never."

And while, sure, next time that might be a five minute task for you next time, there's going to be a thousand more such tasks along the way. You want to have as many of those lessons learned as possible before you take on a teardown.

Even then, it shouldn't be on on your only bike. Riding is the best motivation there is to keep going on a teardown project, because there will be blood, sweat, tears, profanity, side-eye from the wife, hiding SIP and Scooter Mercato boxes, parts in the dishwasher and clothes dryer, the Marge Simpson "mrmmmmmmm" from the wife, lost shipments, Bitte Erzahlung freigeben emails when SIP underestimates shipping, learning about and buying or making specialist tools, backorders, and the list goes on and on.

Most full teardown threads on here run to the tens of pages. Orwell's P200 thread is currently on Page 51 and he's just getting through paint. SDJohn did one that ran to like 80 pages and he never did get it running to his satisfaction. Mine are usually in the teens to twenties.

Have I made my point yet?

And lastly, welcome to NSM! As you've already seen, we're all helpful to a fault, overly verbose, highly opinionated, and always happy to see a new face discover how much fun these old scooters are.

I can vouch for the surprising amount of mission creep these scooters create. They are so easy to tear down compared to a car. If I didn't have a rideable scooter already, I would regret it. Once you have it all apart, you will WANT to do it right, but you will also want to ride it. The repairs you mentioned, even the wiring harness don't require a tear down. Even repainting can be done without complete disassembly.

BRAVO!

chandlerman speaks the truth - this bike is too clean for a tear down

though my p200 thread (Malossi 210 build thread - PWK30 tuning / bypass sorted!) was only 42 pages before I started the screw it and turn it back to stock thread that ran another 6, before selling (selling a de-tuned bike - project stock+ - sold)

i much prefer my current one for 3 to make 2 thread (One for three to make two (VBB -->> plaid)), it's been far more joyful but is now 47 pages. at least it's 2 bikes going on, so I have an excuse for its length. I attribute the fun factor to not going nuts tuning and keeping it simple.

getting some time in riding and enjoying the bike avoids all the pitfalls greasy mentioned - we've seen that story so many times.