Modern Vespa

Please help me decide on this. I bought a low mileage 1980 bajaj chetak. Orange with the indicators. A perfect commuting scoot. I don't intend to own another sprint style vespa. I would like a P200 later when one pops up near me. I can:

A) Buy and put in an already tuned and built 177 sprint engine in, keep my bajaj engine and learn to rebuild myself to put in later to have matching motor and body

or

B)But and put in a P200 engine in now, have a lot of fun on the scooter and again learn to rebuild the bajaj engine myself to put in later. And when I do that, I now have a nice P200 engine to go into a P body.

I'm leaning toward B. Everyone likes a good P200 motor. Seems to me it would never go to waste.

Was it the one that's been listed for a while? I hope you didn't pay the $2,800 he was asking.

If you're going to use it for commuting, put in the P200 motor. It's not even a debate. It'll be dead reliable and haul you at up to 62 MPH until you get bored or need to stop for gas.

OH gods no. I did pay $1500 which was probably too much, but it was garage kept for the most part and the wiring all looks good. After ditching motorcycles for good, I was wasting too much time looking for scooters and getting frustrated. I decided I had to get at least a beater for now.

It looked like it was in really good shape and if he'd set a reasonable asking price, like under $2k, I'd probably have jumped on it a while ago.

You have a great looking bike and a solid plan, it sounds like.

If you decide down the road that you want to sell it at a reasonable price (like you paid), I'd definitely be interested.

I like to embrace the peculiarities of the Bajaj including the engine. I built mine into a 190cc and have over 11,000 miles on it. Actually I see no major improvement changing out the Chetak for a sprint engine. However I do think changing some things to make the Bajaj engine equatable which is mostly performance related so those would also be changed on a Vespa engine. With what is on the market now for the 150 class engines I don't feel the need for a 200 but maybe because I have a P200 as well. Here is a link to my Chetak project.

my BLUE Bajaj fitting 60mm Crankshaft & Kytronic

Thanks for that link, I'll look it over. I pulled the trigger on the stock p200 engine.

so you already have the sprint engine built and ready?

but the p200 is an engine you'd have to go out and buy?

it seems like option A costs not much at all and option B is gonna run you at least $1-2k more. I'm not at all sure it's worth going for B.

Sorry my fault. I have to buy either from a local tuner. 1600 for the kitted sprint or 1800 for the rebuilt stock P200.

Lee Lux?

He builds good motors

for that kind of dinero I'd rebuild the bajaj engine myself. it's not that the pricing is wrong, just that when you contribute the labor, you do save money.

No time. Three kids, wife, house. Two working parents etc. I'm lucky to find time to ride it to the grocery store.

Donarntz I'm just up the road in Winder. Always up to ride or wrench. I have a couple P frames in the garage.

I gotta remember to announce our next Snakes not-rally here.

Tentative plan is "Snakes in a Cave," staying at a campground (but not camping if I can avoid it) and riding to Mammoth Cave, but not until the spring.

Good to know! I should have that old bajaj up and running in a month or so. So little time these days.

Sounds like fun. I haven't been to a rally in years. Last was an Austin Hill Country Classic.

I have built and enjoyed both kitted 125/150 and stock/kitted 200 motors and I would go P200 all day long. It's hard to describe and it's nothing to do with peak power, but a 2xx motor just feels like the complete package IMHO. Closest I got to small block perfection was a PX150 motor + BGM177 + other bits and pieces, built for distance rather than sprints.

I don't disagree. I'd describe it as a better alignment of torque to horsepower with the larger displacement motors.

Practically, that translates into being more likely to be able to just turn the throttle, rather than having to downshift, when you start to climb a hill or just want to pick up the speed.