Modern Vespa

1964 Vespa 125 VNB5 Piaggio Antique Scooter Italian Mad



This auction kind of caught my eye as a possible project bike that I could cut my teeth on, however it might be a bit too much work for me.
Someone here, I am sure, would be able to do some nice things with it.

That is a pretty f-ing rough looking allstate.

I would have a hard time even paying $300 for that. There's a lot of work to be done there.

+1, without question

Al

I'll tell you the secret to buying your first vintage bike :

The newbie sees the parts in the picture that are THERE ... the cowls, the frame, the headset, the tires ... those make up like 90% of the visible bike. They see the OUTLINE of the bike ...the curves.. the fact it looks old and promising.

The devil ( and the dollarsign) is in the details ... and the person who's done it before sees all the things that AREN'T THERE, knows how expensive they all are, and sees having to spend $1000 in parts, $1000 in paint / bodywork, and likely hundreds of hours in time by the time it's all done.

.... and in the case of this allstate, to end up with a $2300 slow, not very desirable, not very safe, bad handling scooter when they could have just dropped that coin on a P200 or some similar running, painted, more powerful 10" wheeled bike that they could have ridden all season on.

you'd likely sink more money into the restoration than the finished bike would be worth (right now), and that's a dealbreaker in the automotive world. but go with your heart. you gonna keep it? ride it? love on that action? there's no real pricetag on gut feeling, and there isn't a one of us who would fault another for sinking X amount of dollars into a vespa restoration that is worth less than X. contrarily, you would get mad props from me, my friend. besides, it's a collectible and the value *will* rise over time.

I am glad to hear you all say that.

I have a vintage bike now and it is maintained by a very talented person. I was having delusions of getting a bike that I could put some "learnin" into and maybe get it to work. It looks like too much work for me to start with but the price seemed low enough.

I am glad I didn't jump on it now.

Don't restore a scooter with the plan of getting your money out of it, because in most cases you just won't. The paint will cost about $1200-1500 if you have it done by a good shop. An engine rebuild can cost 300-400 just in parts. I do do it for the enjoyment and learning experience of it. Go into it with your eyes and wallet open.

That baby is a bit rough. Looks similiar to what I started with. To put it in prospective to go from the first picture to the second picture was 5k with me doing the paint and subbing out some of the mechanicals including the engine and front fork. Parts alone will be at least 1500.00. If that does not scare you away-go for it.