Modern Vespa

Good afternoon everyone, it's been a while since posting but I just stumbled upon a very interesting Craigslist ad that caught my eye!

2001 Pearl White Vespa ET50

* Twist and GO!!
* 7,322 miles
* Big Bore Piston and Cylinder kit installed
* Leo Vance Touring exhaust
* 19mm Carburetor
* 80 miles per gallon - easily goes 55 MPH

Asking $1,000. Now this seems pretty cheap for even an ET50. It's also rare for me to find such a modded ET50, typically any 50cc Vespa on Craigslist is looking for $2,500-$3,000 and they're selling because it peaks at 35mph and want some more juice. Even 50cc Chinese scoots are selling for over $1,000 these days.

With these mods, can it really hit 55?

http://spacecoast.craigslist.org/mcy/879115734.html

Most likely, yes. The 80mpg claim seems a bit dodgy and makes me leery. Search through the forums about kitted ET2 and the consensus seems that 55mph is very possible and engine mods make the ET2's fuel efficiency go right down the toilet. If it is what it says though, it seems a VERY good deal even if it isn't kitted. I'd be very interested and kinda' leery if I lived down your way.

What you need to check for: The Leo Vince pipe should be obvious from 10 feet away over stock ,as it's not shown on the pic so ask for more pics. Ask about the carb. 19mm probably means manual choke (unless they went kinda' oddball and got an Arreche carb.) so ask if it has automatic or manual choke, and what brand of carb it is. Ask which cylinder kit it got and the cc's of the kit. The cc's is meant to be sort of a trick question and the answer should be 68-70cc's

I just received my response that I wrote to the seller...

- Reason for selling is that they're moving to larger scooters (there's another 50cc Vespa they're selling as well).
- I did get two other photos, a side shot and a speedo shot. Unfortunately, there's cheesy "bullet hole" stickers all over this thing! Yuck! And there's also a very ugly seat cover on it and they said the original seat under the cover is cracked...
- The pipe did look like a legit Leo pipe
- There was a large crack by the foot well area. They said the scoot was _kicked_ over at a college football game. So along with the scuffs and crack, who knows what else happened to it when it was kicked over.

So between those three reasons, I'm ultimately going to pass (I was 50/50 anyway unless they gave me a really good deal, even better than the $1k). It was too scuffed up and I would be concerned about any "unknown" damages from it being kicked over.

Right now I'm looking for a ready to ride, nothing needed scoot and unfortunately the cracked seats, cracked foot well and scuffs would drive me nuts and as of lately I just don't have the time to tinker.

Thanks for the feedback

$1000 is a deal even scratched up BTW. Especially if you already have all the mods dont to it..

+1 on that one.

Someone will grab it for 1k. I probably would if it was closer.