Modern Vespa

oh crap the tube on a friday evening. you have my heartfelt sympathies hope it's not too £££ to sort out the broken stud.

bloody hell you must have a strice mot-er ....
... mine dont care that ive got half the scoot missing and a seat with no lock that opens backwards ... my lowbeam didnt work he just said get a new bulb .... i havnt yet 4mnths later ........

...... can you take it somewhere else

Evenin Koks.

I never realized Eddy was such a well known chap. To me he has always been the big tall chap that we make suits for. Strange how life comes full circle. It is also strange how I have spent the whole of my adult life disagreeing with my dad and over the last few years we have become more and more alike. To the point where we are starting to become similar and sharing similar views, like a love of Vespas. Weird.

Kam, Sorry to hear you that you have been relegated to the tube temporarily. I hope it is a not so expensive fix. Good luck. 8)

I ,rather annoyingly, had stones lobbed at me by the local Yoofs. I was asked if I would buy them cigarettes and alcohol from my local shop, I told them I wouldn't. And me being me, I also offered them some kind advice on avoiding teenage alcohol dependancy and a nicotine addiction. It turns out they couldn't give a feck. When I left the shop and rode past, I had rocks bouncing off my helmet.

Well I never!

They're still wee bastards for it, but that does sound like a surefire way of winding them up that extra wee bit.

Kam I'm sure that you can get a broken stud removed by having it drilled it out then having a helicoil put in or at least have it extracted somehow by someone who rebuilds engines.

It sure it can be done without the engine being removed just as long as you don't mind the Vespa being put on it's side for a while.

Take a blanket to put underneath if you get it done while you wait.

Keep us posted.

Bill XX

it does all seem a bit drastic but luckily i trust cbs whitton as they have been very good in the past and jim does not give recommendations lightly. the mechanic at cbs says he will try removing the stud with the scooter on its side first, but this may be impossible due to inadequate access.

i'm hoping to find out the extent of the bill on monday and hoping it will be fixed before the cock ride on the weekend.

at least now i know why the scooter has sounded so bloody horrible for a while. i thought i just needed a new exhaust clamp.

i'll post my progress. for now i'll console myseld with an enormous indian takeaway and a bit of rubbish telly

Kam, any idea how that stud may have sheared off??
I get that noisy exhaust from time to time, but so far it has been that doughnut between the exhaust pipe and muffler.

I believe it has to do with the exhaust being under tension - apparently they need re-tensioning from time to time, at least the GTS model does.

the mechanic reckons the damage was done when changing a rear tyre.

That sounds quite likely.

we went to the Barbican today to check out the Ron Arad exhibition .... amazing highly recommended - inspirational, beautiful, thought-provoking, and you can sit on the chairs. here are a few pics ...

One of the best exhibits was a crome ping pong table that had a gradual curve in it down towards the "net" which you could actually play on and a huge red couch that looked like a huge up turned smile.

Most exhibitions that I've been to people are walking around in stealth mode stroking their collective beards saying things like "oh that's very clever" and " i think what the artist was trying to say was" but this time people were letting out gasps of amazement and laughing out loud at the more interactive pieces.

I was really impressed with the whole thing as you can see by the fact that I've fallen asleep.

Bill XX

The GTS Owners Club are meeting up and riding to the Ace Cafe on the 28th March. I am going too. Do any of you other Donks fancy it?
http://www.gtsownersclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2592

Marc
x

I'm trying to read Genie's expression in the above picture.

I think it's saying Hurry up and take the picture Billy !

A great day out and I'd suggest that anyone with an eye for design should go and see it.

Bill XX

looks like a super day out bill & genie, i like art you can touch and interact with 8)

I'm doing the South West Peninsular Rally that weekend or I'd be up for that.

Wedding that weekend, shall mostly be falling over at the reception and into the Cam, should things go to plan.

It looks very likely that we will meet you there Marc.

Anyone else wanna cumma long ?

Bill XX

Yep, I'm going.

me too

<aol>

That is, unless some other glorious ride is happening that day.

Bill, picture 5 reminds me of Clockwork Orange. 8)

Viddy well little brother.

I'm in.....

Is that Kubrick looking up his own ass in that shot ?

TY Baz

Bill XX

Not sure what he's doing, looks like he could be filming it.

I could find myself by the ace on the 28th.

good old cbs.

my gts is ready to roll and the bill is very reasonable as well.

they'll definitely be doing all my future servicing

Glad to hear it. Your post about the failed MOT being quoted at the top of the page meant I got reminded every time I logged in. I've never even seen this scoot and I'm concerned for it's welfare!

We're such a loving, caring, sharing club, that's why

Yeah, aren't we just the best...?

What a day it is out there!

I had to go out for a quick errand earlier and was amazed at the loveliness of it all. I'm still riding like a pansy, especially when there's a shaded patch on the road (because it's still mega frosty at night here) but the roads were dry and I fair enjoyed my wee jaunt. I've just worked it out and in total it was less than 4mi, so it really was a weeeee jaunt.

Anyway, when stopping at the supermarket there were two scoots sitting at the bike racks: some asian model in white with the "punk" part of the "daft punk" logo stuck on the cowl - the whole thing was brand new (09 plate) and shiny as you like and looked great; and there was one of those avocado LMLs (58 plate) with Piaggio badges which also looked pretty nice.

So, inspired by all this, I decided it was time to finally wash the bike, only the second time I've done this since the start of April. I was intentionally letting it look a bit ratty, but now that someone's had a go at nicking it regardless I've decided to start looking after it's appearance a wee bit again. Looks much better.

A shiny bike and a sunny day: it doesn't get much better than that 8)

Just popped in there this afternoon. Neil was very glad it turned out to go straightforwardly - stud removal can sometimes be a bitch, even with all the right kit.

Chatted to Neville about Piaggio - he's really fed up with them. Although now they are letting warranty requests go through first time, they haven't paid for any warranty work since November - and that's Europe-wide! So the dealers have to buy the parts themselves, do the work, and hope they eventually get paid. So anyone finding it problematic getting warranty work done - this is the current stumbling-block. If a customer offers to pay for the parts pro-tem and get an IOU, then life might be a little easier for all concerned.

Piaggio now don't offer any 250/300 maxiscooter that offers plenty of leg-room, like the X9 and Xevo did. That's losing customers to other marques hand-over-fist.

I'm also having a good day, having had my horrible wisdom tooth extracted this morning. It has caused me serious gyp for the last fortnight.

I have a great dentist who gave me a sedative and everything was fine. I approve of dentistry with drugs, its a top notch idea. No stitches either.

They let me keep the tooth as a trophy. I confess that I may have shown it to the top deck of the number 40 to Dulwich Library, while the sedative and painkillers took dramatic effect.

I will spare you.

i'm glad to hear that the stud and the tooth both came out without too much trouble Kam, I was going to ask if you were going to leave the remains under your pillow for the stud fairy, but that sounds really weird.

unless it's something simple like a cleaning or a filling, i always demand the best drugs my dentist has on hand. in fact i prefer a cocktail, if they'll allow it - when i had my wisdom tooth extracted i got two sedatives with a nitrous oxide chaser oh yeah.

Yes did quite well on sedative front - they gave me cup of tamazepam! No laughing gas though, though my dentist expressed a fondness for the old days when gas was used...

I never thought to ask for drugs from my dentist before. I assumed it was supposed to be painful and literally grin and bear it! The whole thing is actually bearable if you are medicated to the eyeballs.

I am definitely looking into that when I finally get round to going back. Would make the bus journey home more fun I reckon. Especially (I would imagine) if I sneaked in a vist to the pub en route. Hmmm. Good pubs over by my dentists...

Birthday tomorrow, so I need to think of something fun to do with my day (B&Q is seriously the best I've come up with thus far - that's B&Q, not BBQ) and find out where I can get access to Sky Sports 1 in the evening. Another Hmmm.

B&Q???? on your birthday???



i'm sorry, if that's the best you can come up with, I'm going to have to declare you a prematurely middle-aged saddo

seriously though - many happy returns, i hope you have a great day whatever you decide to do.

Hello all. Well I'm very glad for Kam, Wonder and J for obvious reasons.

Well done to you all for getting a result in your day.

Mine went weird when I got a phone call from the Spagetti House telling me that they were closed on the Bank Holiday Sunday which is the afternoon we have reserved for Lunch with the Stars so I've relocated it to La Cucina Italiana in Cowcross Street near Smithfelds Market where Doug and I had a very romantic meal last year.

I'll post the full address tomorrow when I've had more sleep because I've just rolled in from Hastings. Yawn.

Nite nite all
.
Bill XXX