Modern Vespa

Here is a better picture, I hope. That was a piece of an insect on the rim, a pill bug or roly poly.

I rinsed the scoot and did not dry before the 1st pics. In person that spot looks like a repair flaw, maybe bad Bondo.
It doesn't look like rust close up, just a piece of 50-65 year old metal fender.
I don't think it is contributing to the steering wobble.

So, can anyone suggest the best vendor that will sell me several bearing sets to address my single concern, steering wobble?

What is the provenance of the scooter, where did you get it and what did the seller tell you about it? I don't know much about what Bajaj produced and even less about what they exported to countries beyond what was officially exported to the USA which is limited to one model and for like one year around 1980 and that's it. That being said I'm inclined to agree with some of the folks that raised suspicions this machine is likely a Bajaj frame and from Asia. Post a photo of the engine VIN it's on the swingarm that may shed some light on what engine is attached. A photo of the engine cowl lever would be good something looks odd. My guess is this bike was prettied up for an unsuspecting buyer the rust under the scraped engine cowl is a good indicator. The gear selector cover poor fitting missing engine bolt funky seat etc. not that those things can't be fixed but need to know what you're dealing with and how to approach it to make it worthy. Loose steering is not good additional photos of the front suspension would also help analyze it.

I did wonder that... a far better thing than a piece of wire.

Sadly the better picture of the underside of panel makes it look worse... they look like angle grinder marks in bog or covered up welding

Cheers for pic, glad it was only a bug.

Have you checked that the wheel/rim is spinning straight & not bent?
Also, spin wheel & lightly put brake on just to check brake isn't grabbing.

We live in Florida.
Florida is GOD's waiting room.
Everyone moves to Florida to retire and dies.
We have dozens of Estate sales every week, it's pretty cool.
Amazing the deals you find on cool stuff, especially the last day of the sale.

It was in an Estate Sale, it had no info.
Title said 1971 Vespa.
Thought it was cool, liked the color, brought her home.
Cleaned the carb and emptied the tank, added true Fuel 50:1, she started right up.

That was like 2 years ago.

even if it's a bike with uncertain provenance, the parts are pretty likely to interchange with vespa parts. you may have a bit of guessing to do though.

If you're looking for places to order steering head parts from, once you figure out what you've got, some domestic options are Scooter West, Scooter Mercato, Scooter Speed and Scooter Centre. If you can't find what you need there, overseas SIP or Scooter Center has almost everything you'll need.

I have personally found the folks are Scooter West and Scooter Mercato to be super helpful and I bet if you pulled your current races and bearings, you could send it to them and they could help you find replacements.

Thanks for all the information and input.
Super grateful for these connections,

Dave at Scooter Mercato
and
Christoph P. at SIP Scootershop

We're on our way to solving this.

We agree that the brown log is a terrible excuse for a seat,

what is appropriate?

Is white an acceptable color?

I'd be careful if you're using Sting's 'GS' as an identification tool..

Only for Herb Tarlek's belt and shoes.

Go classic black.

Herb Tarlek died.

Rest in power Herb.

Yeah did some homework afterwards should have took time to look a lot closer.

Also not 100% sure it's so long ago Sting's GS was a rally maybe wrong. 🙄

Color is up to you. Like white? Do white. If you care about original colors from the factory, then pick black. But honestly, that's silly unless you want people to think that you own a showroom new scooter from the 60s, and that's still silly. You're in Florida, do Florida. Get white grips (original!) and match it to white kick stand booties if you can find them. Do you.

My scoot's black, it came with the tan log. It just might be the least comfortable seat ever made. I replaced it with a saddle and buddy seat in the same tan. I wish I'd have gone with black and one of these days I'll replace the cover. No biggie. Oh, and I never put the buddy cushion on, it's in the attic because 2up on a 150cc is not epic, and the cargo tray without a cushion on it is more to my liking.

FWIW, I didn't replace my races, just the bearings. 8mm according to my micrometer. The races aren't perfect, but they work fine.

P.S. If anyone wants a tan log of their own, you can pick it up at my garage. I have the key and everything. I'll throw in a hand made spare tire carrier (identical to the one seen in this thread) to sweeten the deal.

Thanks jape, you're a tremendous help.

Black seats just don't work in Florida.
I got a sweet black helmet several years ago, wore it once.

Some parts are on the way,
and we got some great guidance from a guy with a couple hundred Vespas in his warehouse. Our fork my be the culprit.

He also thinks our scoot is pure India, not Viet-Thai-Indo

Happy to help as I can. I knew so little when I started, and I'm improvising my way through it. If it were a stock bike with a known configuration, it'd be easy. But it's not. It's a 60 year old blend of fixes, mods, and hacks, so I can't just order VBA brake pads because they're the wrong size. It takes a little willingness to figure out how it works, how it's supposed to work, and figuring out how to get there. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes not, but it's fun.

Honestly, yours looks a lot like mine, save the color. Just about every part is Indian on my bike, and it's been fine. When I replace parts, I put better ones on. So far, it's worked out. I'm not trying to restore it, just enjoy it.

When I got mine, it was titled as a '74 Super, similar to yours. It's not, obviously. Turns out it was made in '62 according to that VIN checker.

In terms of fixes, I've changed a bunch of parts on mine, some because I needed to, others because I didn't know better or wanted to err on the side of caution. The ones I had to change are the following.

Your coil looks different from mine, I had to replace mine. And the mount itself broke. I replaced the coil, and made a new mount from a bit of aluminum angle stock (drill four holes, paint optional).

My clutch arm seal was leaking (and is leaking again). That causes a few drops of oil under the engine after running it, and centrifugal oil drips on the inside of the rear wheel. Looks like you may have a bit of that. It's more messy than a serious mechanical problem.

My speedo crapped out too. I bought a new cheap one from SIP. It's weird in that it records speed fairly well in mph, but rolls up the odometer like km. One of these days, I'll get my GPS speedo going to validate, but it's just not that important to me.

Otherwise, it's been mostly a great toy. Best of luck to you, I hope you enjoy yours as much as I've enjoyed mine. That's the point, right?