Modern Vespa

I had intended to rise early (as usual), fire up the GTS300, and brave the fifty mile backroad ride to Deadwood for my coffee (and ride) fix, and to share a blueberry (birdyberry, in this case) scone with my posse of English Sparrows who await my arrival at the cafe every morning.

But, sadly, it wasn't to be.

I awoke to an un-predicted world of almost opaque, misting, fog, so, as much as I enjoy dodging Whitetail deer and wild Turkeys in the morning mist, the ride was 'out'.

Well, it occurred to me that the GTS was a bit overdue for an oil and filter swap out, so that's what I decided to do.

Successful oil change?

I rolled the GTS up onto my lift table and jacked the whole thing up to waist level, pulled up a chair, and commenced to yank out it's gigantic crankcase drain plug, but not before fashioning a crude cardboard oil slide to keep the stinky, icky, goo off of the centerstand.

Still with me? (Hmmmmmm...)

As the motor dribbled out about $25 worth of fake dinosaur sauce, I wrangled that teensy tiny oil filter off with a channel lock pliers, because I found that I didn't currently have a proper teensy tiny oil filter wrench in the tool chest.

Regardless, the filter spun free with little effort.

After re-plugging the crankcase and re-screwing on the new oil filter (Thank you, Scooter West), I started to fill the engine with fresh full-synth
5w40, using my classic cafe squeezy-ketchup dispenser, fitted with an appropriately-sized and flexible (important part that) length of clear fuel line tubing.

I don't know precisely how much new motor oil I put in the engine, but because I had installed one of those peachy-keen sight glass engine covers last year, I just squirted enough in to see the oil in the sight glass at about the half way point, ran it for a few minutes, let it settle for an hour or so, and then added just a smidgen more oil to get the
oil level up to where it should be.

All else being good, while the GTS was up on the lift, I drew a bucket of warm, mildly soapy water, and gave the entire bike a light going over.

I even scrubbed the whitewalls, using a strong commercial detergent from a spray bottle, and a stiff plastic brush.

In case anyone that was following my Vespa garage adventures today is still awake, here's some photos...

Tomorrow....I ride!!!!

It appears so, the motor sounds quiet, and nothing is leaking.

Did you remove the oil strainer to inspect it? It tends to trap quite a bit of old oil behind it.

I was using the ketchup bottle with hose same as you.
I spotted large syringes on Amazon and they work better because you can put that hose on the end and push the plunger to get the oil out really quick. Plus, it has the little quantity marks on the side for me not having the sight glass.
Just a thought....

Yep! Didn't show it but I pulled it out, looked it over, wiped it off and reinserted it before reinstalling the oil plug.

Gawd how am I ever going to sleep tonight!

$25 worth of oil? Sounds like a lot.

Not when you buy it at Nordstrom's.

It is, but at least it's barely two quarts of Castrol full-synth 5w40, it's peanuts compared to five quarts of the stuff at one time for the Triumph Rocket.

Not to complain, it is what it is.

Around here, Nordstrom's is (was?) a clothing store.

I'm kidding. Here too. It's a superluxury clothing store that sells $175 tee shirts. If they sold oil it would easily be $25 a quart.

If Nordstrom's sold oil it would be $50 a liter and have an exquisite fragrance and come in a designer bottle.

I don't have a lift table, but for me, the easiest way for me to change the oil on one of theses scoots is to lasso the left handlebar with strap, tie the other end to the garage post, take it off the center stand, with a slight lean to the right. Put a old yoga mat on the floor, and take care of business. Start to finish may be all of ten minutes of my time. Warming up the engine is a given and a pair of channel lock pliers is my go to for the oil filter removal as well.