Modern Vespa

Now that makes sense. You were distracted when the muffler fell off and didn't notice... because your exhaust is so quiet the muffler is just there for looks.

*Chuckles*

Yeah, I was thinking that if it didn't get loud enough for you to notice then it's not really doing that much. Is it on there just for looks?

It makes a pretty big difference at higher RPM's/throttle. Not so much on the low end.

I'll replace it, but it's down the list after replacing fork bearings and putting the new tire on. I'm not feeling all that motivated to fabricate the new exhaust section and silencer mount for some reason right now.

That makes sense. Wishing you success with improving the handling. Enjoying watching your progress.

As a bit of a last ditch before I took on replacing the bearing races, I tried tightening up the fork nut again.

This time, though, I did it with the bike off the stand and leaning on a block of wood. Once the fork was supporting the bike, the fork nut was obviously too loose, so I adjusted it again and while it's a tiny bit tighter than I was intending, I no longer shudders when braking, so I'll call that a win.

Of course, now I have a new problem. The brake caliper is sticking in contact with the disc. It's sticking on the posts it floats on, so I guess next up is pulling them apart and re-greasing, which will hopefully sort that out. I could hear it, and when I gave it a shake that cleared it up, but only until the next time I braked.

Holy hell has this front end been an endless source of misery.

So the front brake caliper decided to fix itself, at least for now. One of those things that never happens, but I'll take it.

Meanwhile, I both solved the mystery of why the silencer fell off and also fabricated a new silencer mount. Simply, the can was hitting the cowl and eventually I must've hit a bump hard enough that it broke it off.

The only spare I had is a [redacted] off a JL Leftie knockoff that came with a motor I bought some years ago, so my penance is running that until I can get something better. But, hey, it's better than nothing, I think.

Then, when I did a test ride/liquor store run, I heard something rubbing. Stopped and checked and it was nothing in the front end. Resumed riding and it was definitely rubbing, but only intermittently.

When I got home, I discovered that I'd managed to bend the rear mudguard, which sits inside the frame, and it was now rubbing the tire when my weight was on the bike. Luckily, there was no damage to the tire yet, but there would have been soon enough, I'm sure. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I'm glad it's fixed.

So right now, other than the speedo still reading totally wrong and barring additional visits from the Entropy Fairy, the Riverside is good-to-go. Carb is rich in places, but nothing bad enough I won't run with it. Definitely shouldn't be seizing and I can carry a spare plug as a ward against fouling.

And not directly Riverside-related, but the battery had gotten intermittent, so I opened it up, found a bad solder where the coax connecter mounted to the internal circuit board. Fixed that and now it's good-to-go. So no more speedo brownouts or headlight strobing at idle. Win.

Redacted.
Hahahaha.

Prepped and ready for the ride.
Something I aspire to.

Silencer looks like it can make it at least halfway, and some dude behind you can pick it up - or out of his face shield, which ever comes first.

Isn't Birbs gonna join this ride? Where exactly does one jammy their lammy?

Their stuff wasn't all terrible.

Assuming it's not bashing against the cowl, it should be fine. I'm just disappointed in myself that it took me so long to realize what had happened. Yep. He's coming, too, even though he knows I'm also going to be there.

This year, it's at Red River Gorge in NE Kentucky. Beautiful area by the looks of it. Should be a good time.

It rotates through West, Central, East, so last year it was in Eugene, OR; 2024 was Bristol, TN, and so on. Yeah, some of it's finey. Maybe I'll flip the can around and rock the logo, albeit upside down. Seems apt in a way.

Good sorting sir. Efforting.

Hotels and plane ticket booked... but I talked to John Friday and the parts I ordered in early April are still in Milano. Bike is running, but running hot. Not ideal.

Thanks! What're you missing parts-wise? My Lammy stash isn't huge, but I know people...

Hope this one works out. I was thinking that maybe you could use some rubber bushings somewhere in your brackets like exhaust hangers on a car…even though those are usually for hanging off the chassis. Just a thought.

Was hoping to put the larger carby on. Looks doubtful due to parts not shipping.

Float & sttill need gaskets and jets for the 19

Jets being the important part... I wanted to upjet the main and see if it helps bring the temps down any further as I did not find a leak yet.

What size and type of carb are you dreaming of? I can pretty much guarantee I can source one of those for you. I have a spare Dellorto rebuild kit that I bought semi-by-accident I can send along as well. What's your current main? I have a few spares that I bought to help dial in a friend's TV175, and can DEFINITELY bring any sizes you want to try with me--plus, there will be people there with literally every jet size ever made who will be happy to help you out.

I have a SH20 I just sourced from england. Float is suspect and unsure if it fits the manifold for the existing SH18. I thought I read somewhere they were the same... but don't believe my STM. So kind... I may hit you up. Running a 101 main IIRC... Want to try anything up to a ~106.

SH20 may have a 106 in it? (I just cant remember if the jets from a 20 are also suitable for an 18?)

Time is short and I feel like I'm in "two steps forward, three steps back" mode right now.

Went out for a test ride/shakedown on Sunday. I finally figure out the speedo issue--it was double-reading each magnet, so I adjusted the pickup and it finally started to seem accurate.

Then, I was coming out of a left turn and hard on the throttle when the rear wheel decided to lose its bead and effectively blow out. Fortunately, I was able to ride it to a stop, then pushed it the half mile or so home. Zero stars. Would not recommend on that one.

Got the tire seated again, but it feels like it's out of round, so part of my current SIP order is a new tire and rim, because time is tight and I'm just fuckin' over it. Ran a couple errands, then got gas and headed home.

I pulled into the workshop, shut off the fuel, and the fuel tap lever just twisted off the tap...at which point, the now-full gas tank started pissing all over the floor. There's not room to get anything under the tap to catch the fuel spray, so I found myself pumping/siphoning gas out the top as fast as I could while it pissed on my boots out the bottom. Finally got the tank drained and, yes, the fuel tap had snapped clean in two. This is the second time this has happened, btw.

I ordered a batch of parts from SIP, but given their apparent order processing backlog, I ordered another tap from Casa Lambretta to be on the safe side.

Looking at the tap, it looks like it was rubbing on something, so when the new tap goes in, I'll be making sure that nothing is interfering with it, but, like I said...I'm just fuckin' over it. Two gallons of pre-mix trying to piss all over the floor will do that to a guy's patience levels.

And independent of that, I figured out what bent the front disc rotor...after I had bent it again. Basically, it was still interfering with the anti-dive, so I raised that up and the ride problems finally resolved. New rotor is on the way from China again, courtesy of Ali Express, but...I don't need this crap.

So with less than two weeks to Lammy Jammy, I have a Lambretta that I can't ride and I'm hoping that the vagaries of the international supply chains don't mess up.

Get a Lammy, they said. Lammies are awesome, they said...

I had to double-check I wasn't reading one of Birdsnest's posts then... fair bit of suck in that lot. Especially pushing it home with a flat tyre.

Also you used the words "time is tight" and "SIP order" in the same sentence. I was amused.

Indeed. Things are tough all over in Lammyland right now.

On the bright side, the motor starts first kick every time, warm or cold. Or would if I could get gas to the carb. At the rate I'm going, I'm going to have to use my mayonnaise jar on a stick to fuel the damn thing at the rally. That'll be dead classy.

I feel seen.

Don't worry, CM. I'll grab a Styrofoam cooler and a case of Hamms on my way to Lammy Jammy from the airport. We can pop tops and lament the state of our semi- running Scooters for the weekend.

"Get a Lammy, they said. Lammies are awesome, they said..."


Literally no one has ever said this lol!

When it's back to 100%. Park it and don't ride it again. Then what you have is Schrodinger's lambretta

Hah! I'll get mine running, even if I have to beg, borrow, or steal a fuel tap off someone else's even-less-running bike.

Even if I get myself back on the road, there'll be plenty of time for cooler beers.

No tracking numbers from SIP or Casa Lambretta yet, though. One of my clubmates already owns Shroedinger's Lammy. It's a Servetta 200 with 39 original miles on it. He's literally never ridden it.

Every Lambretta owner …

Lately it's been more like

C-Man, hang in there - you have more patience than Job, certainly more than anyone I know (including myself). I would have probably rolled the scoot outside, taken off the gas saturated boots, put them under the floorboard of the scoot and thrown a lit match at it.

I feel you buddy, so sorry you're having troubles. With Lambrettas the devil is always in the details. It's how all these components work together, there are so many angles and linkages in those fuel taps. Factor in a big ol' carb and you have to get creative about how you go around it. Putting stress on the tap and bam, broken tap. Then you're rotating your tank up or down to accommodate to take stress off the tap. Details baby details.
Keep your chin up, even if you're sitting on your lambretta drinking a Hamms all weekend. Still pretty fun.

You nailed it. I thought I'd gotten the angle right the FIRST time the fuel tap broke, but obviously not.

My current guess is that when the motor moves as the shock bounces, it's hitting the carb. I expect that I'll have to pull the rear shock to test full range of motion, similar to how I finally solved my silencer hitting the cowl.

Being a Lambretta owner really highlights the need for some sort of stationary bike riding simulator, one that lets you ride in the comfort of your garage while navigating all the bumps, potholes, and pitfalls of the real world, sparing you the tragedy of having to push the bike home past the judgmental stares of your local quick lube service techs.

Ironically, the push home from the lost bead was past a tire shop, but they were closed. They're pretty cool, though. I've gotten multiple car tires replaced there. They'd probably have offered to get it to re-seat if they'd been there.

While I haven't been riding it, I *finally* went down to vehicle registration and did the title this afternoon. So now I can be legal for Lammy Jammy, even if I'll probably keep the SFT3 Slaughterhouse event plate on it.

GLP-1s.

🙂

If the tire slipped off the safety bead like that, there stands a good chance that the tire bead itself was damaged during installation. I only say that because i damaged a brand new dunlop TT92 tire bead while attempting to mount it on a SIP rim. I ended up having to throw that tire in the garbage.

You're not entirely wrong... It feels like it's out-of-round or something now, so I'm very much Not Trusting It. I have a new 3.5x10 tubeless rim and tire on the way in the unshipped SIP order.

I'm going to grab the 3.5x10 that was tubeless until I put a nail through the sidewall and mount it on a spare split rim so I have something to roll on for Lammy Jammy.

To be clear, I was of course, suggesting that you inject GLP ones into your gas tank as they appear to be good for everything else

"Gas tank" isn't the worst name I've heard for my ass.

My SIP package may still be waiting to happen, but at least my fallback Casa Lambretta order came through, so I'll be out there tappin' that gas soon enough.

I prepped and rattle-canned a spare set of Lammy split rims earlier, so I should have a decent rear wheel by this time tomorrow, too.

And the arrival date for the re-replacement front disc is now Monday to Wednesday, so I might be able to get the front brake back to 100% for LJ, too. Who'da thunk it.

😂😂

Down to the wire, for a change…
May your scoot haul gas.

For the record, I have days--that's days *plural*--before I need to be loaded up and rolling.

So with that in mind, I spent my morning enjoying a pot of coffee and making a donut run.

Next, I got back to tappin' that gas. Had to be in the mood, y'know. I tracked down what was rubbing. Turned out that it was hitting the silent block, which is an upgraded engine mounting buffer, so I busted out the ol' Dremel and ground down the outer steel sleeve of the buffer until I had clearance.

Then, I hooked up the tap lever, poured a little gas in the tank...and watched gas start to run out on the floor again. Fortunately, this time it was just the fact that I'd forgotten to reconnect the fuel line from the carb, but I still had a couple of pretty frustrated moments there.

The tap being now (I hope) solved once and for all, I pulled off the misbehaving tire and had a look at it. And realized that the tire wasn't actually fully on the bead. Part of it was somehow turned under (hard to explain--I really screwed up not taking a picture), so it was sealing, but short of the bead, then rolling under, so the tire looked installed, but was actually out of round.

I tried various things to get it to seat, but it didn't want to move. Finally, I deflated the tire, rubbed dish soap along the edge of the rim, then started airing it back up. As it got to 40 lbs, it looked like it was started to maybe move into place. I kept adding air, a few pounds at a time. At 90 lbs, it suddenly popped onto the rim and now seems like it's behaving properly.

Finally, when I fabricated the new silencer mount for the exhaust, I was so focused on making sure it cleared the cowl that I missed how far out the silence was pointing. It was sticking out probably 25 degrees. It looked weird. So I cut and re-welded that. Now, the welding may not be pretty, but it's solidly attached, straight, and level.

Finally, I rode it up to the gas station, filled it up, and rode home again without incident this time. Let's hope it stays that way.

Good man! Fingers crossed for you. And that's a great way to start the day!

Holy crap