Modern Vespa

Hey guys, I have stripped the splines on 2 kickstarts in 3 days. Both were professionally installed. What is the issue! I cant be shelling out htis much cash every few days!
a.s.

Maybe you are being a bit too brutal?

Kickstarting a two stroke is a relatively gentle art if my Mojito 50 is anything to go by. The LX 125 was a different matter.

I kick it as hard as it takes to start it...which is pretty hard.
a.s.

a couple things :

1) The splines on the kickstart quadrant need to be clean and fresh ( i.e. not all rounded and worn ) or you are going to strip kickstart levers forever.

2) When i first started doing this, i would not use a whole lot of torque when attaching kickstart levers ...but i figured out pretty fast that you gotta put them on WICKED tight, lest you strip them out as readily as you have been doing.

There is NO way you have the kind of compression it would take to strip a properly torqued down lever just from kicking it. I suspect your kickstart quadrant splines are worn.

Remove your kickstart lever, and shoot pics + post a closeup of the spline it bolts onto ...and maybe one of the inside of the mating part on the lever.

-Eric

I had Big People do the install, and I'm sure that they would have informed me if any parts were worn and needed replacing. Right?
a.s.

I'd say take a pic anyway... It can't hurt to have us (Eric ) take a look.

it's at big people already.

Oh well. I'm curious to know what they say for my own reference!

Dude, you're going to end up paying a fortune on maintenance if you have to pay a shop to put on a new kick start lever. You'll save yourself a ton of money if you learn to do extremely simple tasks like this by yourself.
just sayin...

+1

Agreed. And if you're going to make a vintage bike your regular ride, it's unrealistic to count on other people to detect maintenance issues or small things that need attention. Even the best shops are only looking at the issue you are presenting when you take the bike in for service. They're not on the hook for detecting potential problems, it's really your responsibility to know your bike. I'm not saying this to be critical, it's just the reality of owning and riding a vintage bike.

Ok, well, remember, this is my FIRST vintage bike...my PX was not so finicky! Anyhow, Jeff from Big People called me today to let me know that the "kickstart quadrant" needs replacing. Apparently the quadrant for the SS180 is rare. Does anyone have one in useable condition? Or know where I should look? Please!?! THANK YOU!
a.s.

SIP has them new (part # 14858000) but I find it hard to believe ASC, ScootersO, or Motorsport don't have any. You may have to call directly, as all of those websites are hopeless, but it shouldn't be that hard to get.

I got it from Motorsport...it should be to big people tomorrow. Will report once fixed! I also have some Sava MC18 Race Softs goin' on her too!
a.s.

good. I knew they weren't terribly hard to find.

if it's happened twice, you might have some worn splines, but...*sigh*....i don't trust professional mechanics. never have, never will. not with any of my babies. it's the nature of things. time = money = no emotional investment = higher probability for fuckups. i wouldn't trust MYSELF if i were a professional mechanic. it's not heresay or speculation, it's seeing the end product of jobs gone awry. threads stripped, bolts missing, and worse.

i would rather learn to do it myself and bank on my steady hand and lack of time restriction, than pay someone else to do it. you take that approach enough times, pretty soon you won't find yourself needing to consider professional mechanics ever again.

besides, doing your own work on vintage bikes is really half the fun of owning them, and makes riding around on them that much more gratifying.

I think, ultimately, that's why we're all here.


Sometimes i play the game in my head "if i had a million dollars, would i just pay someone to do all my scooter work for me?" ... and it makes me get down on this as a hobby / scene / lifestyle / whatever. Money kinda cheapens it... like when you are at the end of a video game like Sim City and you have millions and millions of dollars and suddenly the game isn't fun anymore because it's not hard - you can buy whatever you want, and the challenge is lost.

You can't just buy into it like that, and if you do you're not really wrapping your head around the whole thing ... you're just reading the cliff notes. As with anything, having your blood sweat and tears into something multiplies the value you place on it.

That's my opinion ... but it's something different to all of us, i guess, so there's bound to be differing ideas on it.

Totally agree. I very recently spent time over three days trying to figure out why my fuel tap wasn't working as intended (story posted elsewhere.) Right when I was about to give up on finding it myself, I discovered the problem..with the good advice I had received from others. Three days to diagnose a fuel tap??!!!

Once I had everything back together and working perfectly, it's hard to describe how satisfying that accomplishment was. I know that dialing in a fuel tap is a small thing, but if I ever have to do it again, I know I could do it in an hour or two.

I'm now in the middle of changing out the bearings and seals (1 left to install) on a P motor for my Sprint project, and I know that before I get that motor all closed up, there is probably another puzzle waiting to be solved. If I can get this motor back together and running great, that will be a huge accomplishment, since it's my first motor rebuild.

good for you, Len.

Learning is a fucking frustrating process with these things. In the end it costs you SOOO many hours, and dollars spent on broken parts and whatnot... but you come out of it with such a cathartic sense of accomplishment that makes it all worthwhile.

It's like the scooter as whole becomes a working representation of a war won, comprised of countless little battles you struggled long and hard with.

I kinda agree with you guys in a way and in another way I don't. I think riding a scooter is extremely fun. I think the older scoots look awesome and wouldn't mind having one some day. If I work on it myself or if I can afford to have someone else work on it for me doesn't take away from the fun of riding a scoot and the enjoyment that brings. Plus that SS180 is so sexy. The period in my life I am at right now requires me spending time with my 5 year old daughter and my new daughter that is on the way.

I agree with the statement that fixing your own scoot is very gratifying. I just don't have time to work on my own bike and would still appreciate owning a vintage until my kids are out of the house and I have time to tinker with it on my own.

I'm not saying it in a "nyah nyah, we're better" way.

I'm saying that there's a love of the vehicle that i don't think can be ultimately experienced except through better mechanical understanding, and your own effort and time to learn and make mistakes.

Some people don't have time or know-how, and they pay a shop to do it.. and that's fine too. I'm just saying i find the garage-time very rewarding in my own life.

I agree with you there. I used to have a 65 Mustang Fastback which I worked on myself and that car would break down so often. I had fun fixing it and it was very rewarding. I completely understand and if you have the time to work on it and get that pleasure from it that is great. Unfortunately I don't but would still really appreciate and have fun with an older scooter.

i am a blue oval crossover, myself...had to let all that go when i moved into SF. wound up on a kitted smallframe with a blown seal that left me stranded in the middle of nowhere shortly after i bought it. the rest is history.

I completely agree. In my own experience, I never grew up around bikes or engines and working on them etc. so I never had that background, and doing your own work on something that you rely on for transportation can be very intimidating at first. For a long time unless it was a cosmetic thing, screwing something on, popping something off and then back on etc, i was scared as hell to do anything that would do anything to affect the daily running of the scooter.

But nothing got me over that faster than breaking down and being forced to do something in order to get home. When I had my Stella I was out riding with my daughter and everything was fine and then she just up and died, so I got to do my first field repairs on the side of the road, taking out and checking the sparkplug, adjusting the idle, etc. In the interests of getting home. One time I broke down on my LX, 40 miles from home, i got in there and took things apart and inspected everything I thought could be causing the problem and did everything I had read to resolve the problem, and the best part of it was i did everything right. It turns out the problem was nothing that I thought it was (turned out the battery just up and failed, had to get a new one, everything else was fine), but just the fact that on the side of the road I was able to go in and take it apart and put it back together properly in a way that would have made everything AOK had that actually been the problem gave me a lot of confidence, and now I am doing all of my own service on my scooter. Still have a lot to learn, but its a great feeling to be able to take care of your baby and do it all yourself. Especially when it comes to vintage bikes.

I just wish that there was a way when you take a scooter into a shop, that you could watch what they do and have a way of actually learning about what to do hands on. That first step in doing your own service is the hardest one. If you have no experience, how do you *know* that what you are doing is the right thing? Reading manuals and guides are all well and good in theory, but its something else to have that sort of real-world learning experience.

Why would a shop do that? They want your money and there is no money in teaching you how to work on your own bike.

The biggest resources for me when I started were Scooterhelp.com, Vespamaintenance.com, and the people around me. Get yourself $200 in Craftsman tools (the poor-man's Snap-On), a Haynes manual, and get started. Don't be afraid, take your time, keep your patience, and ask questions.

i know, that's exactly my point, and what I have done. But everyone learns differently, and sometimes having that sort of hands-on learning experience where someone is teaching you outside of just reading things on a website and from a manual could be very helpful. That's all I'm saying.

Dude, you live in Seattle. There's bound to be some people who can help. Scope out the local scooter clubs and see if anyone is willing to help you do some wrenching. Make some friends while you're at it.

Kidding. i understand the frustration.