Modern Vespa

Last Spring I installed a VAPE CDI kit and converted the VL1 to 12V lights. I've been happy with how everything works. Nice bright lights even at idle, better starting, all of that. Rode it around the neighborhood a dozen or so times last year, including taking my 4-year-old grandson on the back in the neighborhood Fourth of July parade.

After letting the scoot sit all winter in the garage without even so much as draining the gas out of it, I was dreading what I'd find trying to start it this year. Especially since I have no choke... the supposedly correct choke wire I bought from SIP doesn't even come close to connecting the choke to the lever. But I digress. Opened the fuel valve, held down the little carb float button for a few seconds to get a little gas in it, gave it a few kicks... started right up. I let it run long enough to warm it up and then shut it down. Half an hour later tried again and it started on the first kick.

I would have ridden, but not today. I'm waiting on a couple of new tires. The old ones have substantial cracks in the sidewalls, no doubt the result of spending a few years in the hangar without being ridden (or inflated, for that matter). I wouldn't even trust them as spares. Got a pair of Michelin S83s on the way. Life is good.

Every solid wire choke cable I have bought through SIP, I have had to add an inch, give or take, of distance. Luckily, we have tickler on our early carbs.

Why they come up short? Dunno. Probably pressed in Vietnam with all the other panels with lack of quality control.

Hell, I couldn't even figure out how it was supposed to connect to either end. The only real strategy I could figure out was to use safety wire loops on each end. But if I'm going to do that, I could just run safety wire (like I had previously) and be done with it. But then I figured out that using the tickler was enough to get it started cold... problem solved.