Modern Vespa

Well Bill, you have been rubbing away at your shiny bits, I've been spraying various shades. None of the orange colours do it for me. I've tried Focus Electric Orange, Land Rover Tambora Flame, Fiat Calipso, Peugeot Salamanca. They just don't hit the spot. If they look good in the sun, they look shit in the shade. So decided to use a blue from Ford which pops in both sun and shade. It also goes well with the ET4's organic looks.

I give you Vision Blue in both sun and shade.

i've seen it in person. it is rather lovely. it took a bit of convincing but i'm now certain that it will look beautiful on the scooter

Oh yes Vision Blue it is. It's very reflective isn't it.

I can understand what you mean about the orange. It's either going to be amazing or crap in the wrong light.

mmmmm Looking good.

Bill X

doug is the only person i know who can make a rattlecan job look like a professional respray

and ta to michael for giving me the idea of making a refreshing mojito. i am now on my third refreshing mojito. i'm feeling .... refreshed

I can tell you that I made a real cock up of the spare mirrors this evening. despite cleaning with spirit wipe, there are fish eyes all over the place.

One certainly picks up some bad habits hanging out around here! What do I see upon visiting my local French importer today on a quest for Tavel but a tidy stack of BN packages. "Wait!" I say to myself..."didn't I just get introduced to those on the Daily Donk?"

So of course I bought some. Chocolate (the only flavour they had). I'm somewhat embarrassed to report the husband and I have already sampled our way through half the packet...just to determine if we like them, of course.

Another wonderful instance of cross-cultural education, courtesy of MV!

(Thanks, Alice! I think....)

Great ride up to, around, and back from The North. We stayed in Norham, "the most dangerous place in England"[1] - but at a superb pub[2], great hospitality. 936 miles round trip. Links to photos later.[3]

[1] http://www.coldstream-scotland.co.uk/history_norham_castle.html
[2] http://victoriahotelnorham.co.uk/
[3] http://195.12.48.80/~x9ocfco/thumbnails.php?album=363

glad you're back safe and sound jim

i just noticed that my favourite emoticon - - looks exactly like my bunny avatar - minus the body of course.

Back from Menorca.........thought I was gonna hate it (not a sun worshipper in any sense of the word) but it was great.
I'm now shivering and wearing a bloody fleece......

We are back from Bestival on the Isle of Wight!

Verdict on the X City - a comfortable cruiser with great seat which is unfortunately completely underpowered by its tractor engine as it struggles to reach 70 mph.

@pepy ... and Kate as well come to think of it: nice one 8) what did you do there? lie around on the beach sipping drinks with umbrellas? sorry about the tractor... perhaps appropriate if you were wearing festie gumboots

it looks like the GT is coming back to me later this week ... with pretty much an entirely new front end and a respray of everything except the handlebar cover

i'm wussing out and getting a set of rear crash bars - cuppinis, which are very minimal and will take nicely to a satin black powdercoat i have also heard that they will contact the LV during spirited cornering, but i'm prepared to live with a small dent in my pipe if it will save me ££££ in the event of another unfortunate drop.

We is knackered. Saw MGMT, Klaxons, Elbow, Massive Attack (gloomy) and bestest, Kraftwerk! Plus lots of repetitive beats! Danced our boots into the dust. Great atmosphere - very friendly festival and the setting is in a gorgeous country park.

Head still ringing from all the beats and the endless hiss of nitrous - I thought the people in the next tent were going to give themselves the bends with the amount they did.

Going to a festival by scooter is pretty much the only way to do it. You can strap everything on and everyone else goes by car or train. Designated bike parking but very few people using it. Whizz past all traffic and look cool while you are doing it as you run to the ferry. Recommended and the ride through Hampshire is beautiful!

Isle of Wight was great too, weather was perfect. Three days of sunshine. David has a farmer's tan.

We are happy to come back and have hot water and a soft bed.

I went down to the festival of speed on Brighton beach front. It's not a scootering event but a drag racing in front of the sea using pretty much every form of transport from any age - the smallest engine I saw was in a 100cc drag bike, the fastest tended to be in the stretched Hayabusas and the most desired were in a few Vincent Black Shadows. I must be getting a bit old though cause I found myself just enjoying looking out to sea and watching the sun on the water for much of the time. It was a pleasant day.

A few days just doing nothing and a few more checking out the island the the excuse for a hire car i had........relaxing was the order of the week.

Welcome back everyone.

Bestival sounds excellent and attending on scooters sounds like an fantastic plan.

Pepy, I have never been on a 'sun and sand' holiday, I am not sure I could sit still long enough to enjoy it. I am glad you had a nice time. 8)

Marc, I've never been on one before either mate.
I dreaded it to be honest but it was ok.

I like those - better than my current set of towel rails.

i am exploring the possibility of a fantastic custom colour for the scooter, since they are going to be respraying just about the entire thing anyway. fingers crossed it doesn't require some kind of costly base coat... they'll get back to me tomorrow.

anybody fancy getting some scooter parts powdercoated satin black? i'm trying to organize a 'group buy': London UK peeps - want to share a powdercoating order?

I thought you poo-pooed that idea back on page 18

It is of interest! My stock has just developed an interesting bees farting in big tin sound which means it must be replaced after nine months of ownership.

Stock exhausts, pos.

Wonder, the exhaust is a definate problem with the 300, in this months scootering the stock exhaust was the only 'real' issue they raised after a one year review. So a non-stock option is the way to go. By the way... Have you been working for Simon Carter ? (mens clothing brand) . I noticed a scooter/dog cartoon on their suits hanging up in House of Fraser. It looked very Kate-like.
(There was also a Lambretta range of suits and accessories WTF? it was quite crap.)

ooh, I'd like to be working for Simon Carter but I've been working for journalists instead....drawing pixies. Am I sick of pixies!

Are you getting your exhaust replaced, Marc and if so what are you thinking about?

I won't get another stock and love the PM but the noise.... argh. Even the DB killer only takes off 6 db. 6 db off a PM is nothing.

Are you sure it's not just the graphite exhaust collar? I'd be very surprised at a stock exhaust rusting through in just 9 months. Three years, certainly.

I agree with Jim. Your graphite collar needs replacing... £15 I'll do it this weekend, if you want to go that route.

Otherwise, you have first dibs on that black LV, Marc has second...

£100 fitted so a bargain, you just need to ride round to mine!

xx

I am in no immediate rush as my stock exhaust seems OK at the minute. (6000K) I checked it all over earlier this evening and its looking fine. Having said that my preference would be an LV (at Dougs bargain price ) or a Scorpion, AlanW has one and it looks great.

I confess that I did not make a thorough examination this evening as I had a bad case of bikers crotch after riding home. Massive ew. It is making a rattly, tinny nasty noise like an angry sewing machine.

I am sure that you are both right, but the exhaust is already looking terribly rusty on the underside and I hate the appearance of it so this is the perfect excuse to ditch it!

Black LV! Maybe make the 300 totally black, a darth scooter!

Don't bin the stock exhaust, just brush off any rust and spray it with matt black VHT paint, then stow it away somewhere. My exhausts always needed a respray every three months. If and when you sell, it'll get a better price with a clean stock exhaust, and you can sell the LV or whatever separately.

I am too tight to bin it so good advice jim. In the interim I'll keep it in the living room and claim it is modern sculpture!

yes! yes! give me your transmission cover and bar ends and perhaps your pillion pegs and maybe even your chrome towel racks and i'll take them to the powdercoater's for you

Thinks - I wonder how long powder-coating would last on an exhaust...

WM, now's your chance to experiment for the greater good!

A powder coated exhaust is a good idea...

apparently not - at least not regular powdercoating

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?s=243e3c6b3095a5eb8c4b5c23cf65011e&t=207204

Boo.

Confirmed today, the SH300 is a total loss.

Excess paid, and new bike will be ordered as soon as they get my V5, keys etc.

So, in a week or two, I should be back where I was 3 weeks ago.

I have to release this into the air..I've already told Genie but not you lot.

Can you believe a customer of mine gave me a FREE Honda Pantheon. It's not in working order but its a 05 plate, aesthetically brilliant.

Pictures will come through after I clean the birdy poo poo off it. Or Do you people want to see it with the birdy poop intact?

Let's see yer "scat" photos then. I have to admit, I've no idea what a Honda Pantheon is, but free is free!
I'm off for a google image search.

give us a 'before' shot, warts and all

Can't wait til I get home and show you lot!

hehe I haven't been home for a while and I hope the poopey is still there for the forum's sake lol

Those guys bronze up nicely when they're hot, so you'll get partway there anyway

Has anyone tried applying the black grill paint that folks put on the stock exhaust?

The one that Doug has for sale has been painted with bbq paint, which appears to be holding up nicely.

on other news..... the 'Loper is going to come back to me with a new look since they are doing a total respray anyway, i went for a custom colour.... i give you 'Bronze Persan', known to its detractors as 'caca d'oie', or 'goose shit'... as seen here on the Citroen Berlingo...