Modern Vespa

In these pictures, it looks like the "kids" are not wearing any kind of protection other then a cheapo dust mask, no shoes, gloves etc...
Can you spy something else?

http://www.powderscooter.com/index.php?page=restoration

You can get 40yr bikes from India in the same condition too. But Indians don't disguise them with paint and chrome and passing them off as awesome for only $3600. Indians seem to have the honest and goodness decency to pass it off as they really are. The Viet-Bodges are a deliberate scam.

Honestly, what I think it is, is because of American scam artists generally find it easier to operate out of VietNam rather then India. The VietBodge's are not exported so much as they're being imported... to Atlanta or Florida, places where it's easiest to run the operation out of. I don't know if these places have the best laws for running a scam like this, but I assume Atlanta must be a good place to title an import bike, as it seems to be with Florida.

I heard there are a lot of really good vintage Vespa's in Japan. I've not heard of anyone getting bikes from Japan yet.

My point exactly.
If it needs work sell as is, don't try to to hide as something otherthan what it is.

Just so everyone realizes, there are 80,000,000 people in Vietnam and many dozens of places doing scooters. They're obviously not all the same despite the ease of making vast generalizations. Obama isn't the same as McCain, right?

>>If it came from Vietnam, chances are very very high that it's a bad, bad bike. High like 95% high.

I'd agree it's high, whatever it is. All of that ebay stuff and most the rest comes from little local shops and the work is as described everywhere. Here's our old junk pile:



http://[redacted].com/comparison.cfm#Asia-r

>>VietNam by virtue of it's economy doesn't have access to the simplest of material to do a halfway decent job.

Sure it does, like any other country, but if you mean most people don't or didn't buy new parts, true, UNLESS your company actually imports new parts as we do. We import maybe $30,000+ at a time and use the same parts as, or better ones, than Western shops do in their restos.



That's only one row of one of our stock rooms, btw: http://[redacted].com/roadkill.cfm?id=712

>>All i know is even if you get the world's best Vietnamese restoration, no legitimate scooter shop is going to touch it.

Respectfully, not correct. Our customers don't have problems and why would they? Nothing weird, better resto than you'd get most places. We've had top UK tuners complimenting us when they added cylinder kits after to scooters we did. The site you just linked to yourself says this about us: But, it is true that you do find a few in the US, but nowhere else, who seem to know only how to order from Piaggio catalogues and for bizarre reasons act like that. We had one "mechanic" at a well-known US shop REMOVE our 12v CDI system because he didn't understand it and replace it with a 6v point one! Bizarre. I completely agree about the ebay total bodge-bikes though. We don't repair any local scooters either. We just open cases, throw every piece away and start over with new imported gears, etc.

>>You can get 40yr bikes from India in the same condition too. But Indians don't disguise them with paint and chrome and passing them off as awesome for only $3600. Indians seem to have the honest and goodness decency to pass it off as they really are. The Viet-Bodges are a deliberate scam.

Respectfully, somewhat disagree. First, the "scammers" are generally Americans/Westerners buying to flip there, as you say. But second, the site linked to is selling 40 year old Indian VBBs, same as are done in India to sell to various Western shops, same as with VBBs sold by some Vietnam shops. Some are good, many are terrible, entirely depends who does it. Honesty here has nothing to do with nationality or location. We can use all new parts in Vietnam. Indians can get them too. Or not. Or lie about them.

But I've always said: look around there locally for a good untouched scooter first. And don't assume the location or nationality of the person you're dealing with determines much of anything.

(Btw, we're not looking for business, just helping to clarify. We do very few restos at all, have a huge wait, and when the scooters we already have are gone, that's it. We haven't bought any in ages.)

I bought a Vespa in 2009 from Allvespa. I had it delivered to Western Canada (Calgary, Alberta). I honestly LOVE the bike. It passed provincial inspection at the time (for whatever that's worth). Gas/oil mixing is a pain. But the bike runs well, and is my favorite bike. I have a Lambretta that was restored by a motor cycle shop in my city. But I always preferred the Vespa, and personally thought Allvespa did a better job (although I'm clearly not an expert). Speedometer was always a bit shakey, but the bike is really cool. The headlight recently stopped working, but I'm assuming it is a minor electrical issue or a burned out bulb. I was going to buy a bike from another Vietnam restoration co., but reading the comments, I really appreciate the food for thought! I can say my personal experience with Allvespa was really good (other than the pain in butt import and inspection process). I really am happy with the bike and thought the customer service was good. Anyway, that is my two cents.