Modern Vespa

fingers crossed the top end piston and rear hub .......

the crank was cracked and its scored the casing so not much to save there

I've bought a dirty great motorcycle.

How dirty? How great? Details please!

Cambridge Scooter Clubs
St Georges Day Rideout
Sunday 25th April
Meet at Cambridge City F.C. 12pm

Anyone up for this tomorrow?

Obviously not a Mana.... Do tell.

Test successful then?

Genie you really should look into crystal ball gazing. No pun intended.

OK So I had a lovely ride down to Southampton and met a lovely guy called Alex who showed me his GTS 250 in silver which I promptly rode up the road at speed to check that all was well. On my return, I had a good look over the scoot but to my dismay I found a patch of bubbling rust on the belly pan and a piece missing from the handlebar cover. Apart from that everything was tickety-boo, but it was enough to put me off. Considering it had done less miles than the Hornet and was in worse condition, I couldn't justify owning it, as I'm looking for perfection or close to it..

It was a shame because he was a lovely guy but in the end it didn't scream 'buy me, own me, ride me like a bitch (even if I have got Savas on).

Another thing that put me off was that there wasn't a service book with it or a pdi stamp from the original dealer nor a manual for that matter.
These are the kind of things that I'd like to have if I was ever to re-sell it.
There was a receipt for a service aound 800 miles from a non-franchise dealer but no all important Vespa dealer stamp.

I made my way back through London along the M3 and 316, and dropped in to Scootech to see Neil. He informed me he has a black GTS250 ex-demo, available for sale in mid-June, and can do me a pretty reasonable deal (like all good salesmen say they can) so I'm just mulling that over.

Oh thanks for for the call Doug !!!

Bill XX

I take it you have looked then? Any news?

I am now on a mission to find you a GTS as I have ulterior motives. (Actually no secret any more - I'd like to see Jim arrive in Tuscany on the Green Hornet!)

It's got to be the right one though of course!

Module 1 is done, module 2 on Thursday, but I'm working on the basis that I pass that too.

I've bought a 2008 Kawasaki Versys:



If anyone knows of someone looking for a Honda SH300, do let me know.

Don't worry; I'll park out of sight at the next Donk lunch

That is a dirty rotten monster of a bike David i can see kate riding bitch, wearing a tight pink leather jacket.

here are a couple of shots of the kittehs, taken while gardening yesterday:

pussies and bushes ....... nooooooooo im not going to do it ... i -- can -- re-----sist

WHAYHEY

hello guys and lasses ..
so sorry have not been on for a few months ...
Bill sorry for not getting back to you with a text .. they come through when im at work and i say must get back to Bill then forget aaagggghhhh

i hear your going to France in June .. tell me about it me and Tracy are looking to go ..

she will only stay in a Hotel .. i would sleep on a bench ..

The Classic Vespa is getting a repaint after the ding at Camber Sands
so should be back on her next weekend .. after a list of bits coming through the post ..
booked up for Camber Sands in July .. going to ride past the spot i had the crash and stick up my fingers and shout out you cant keep me off them ..

not looking to good on the dead foot i have .. still not working as yet but still early days ..

Come on people get booked in for Camber Sands Scooter Rally you would love it ...
Northern soul, Ska , and the The Lambrettas are playing live on Sat night ..

keep Cool and ride like its in your Soul ..

just a thought anyone up for Scooter at Linden Hill Dover ..

Lydden Hill 31st July/1st August

its mainly lammys ..
great fun to watch

Its a rally that Maver invited me to and I believe there's a fair amount of Broadsman and Darkside members attending.

I've actually forgotten the name of the rally. I think it's Sugarbeet or something like that but I'm pussying out on the camping thing and have a Campanile Hotel room sorted out with a spare single bed which anyone who I like is welcome to use.

If my awful memory serves me well it's on the 25-27th of June and I have my Eurotunnel already booked up.

I'll send you the times of the crossing if you wish?

I'm up for the scooter racing Spider. I tried to go last year but something got in the way. Probably a volcano or something.

Bill XXX

You missed out Marc. 100 plus scoots doing a lap of central Cambridge.
Dixie and Jules showed up too. Even got my brother out.....

Yeah I know Pete, I am bitterly pissed off.

I promised Sue I would spend a day with her and the kids, so I wasn't about to break a promise. But then my mother gets involved and I find myself spending the day at my mum and dads house. Pure mind boggling tedium.

Cock.

Spider, I was looking at the prices for Camber yesterday. I have never been before and Pepy was regaling me with his romantic Camber stories recently, so I was considering it. It is on my radar but no commitment. (obviously )

Bugger.

I've still got a freebie bike-lift for you, and I need it gone in the next three weeks. Bring the van.

Bugger.....I wanna go to Camber even more now!

Okay back from leave.... ride into office in my suit (cold and scary), gloves and helmet. Cool looking though.

Get to office and everything is f***ed.

Happy holiday face immediately replaced by "you stupid ****, can't you bloody read?" face.

I need another holiday. And people to READ the stuff that I give them, not stuff the paper down the side of a radiator and make up some bullshit instead.

*sigh*

Spider, I was looking at the prices for Camber yesterday. I have never been before and Pepy was regaling me with his romantic Camber stories recently, so I was considering it. It is on my radar but no commitment. (obviously )[/quote]

Bugger.....I wanna go to Camber even more now![/quote]

Go for it mate ... you have to rent a chalet .. its great .. trying to get my Classic GTR back on the road .. for that weekend .. i would not miss it for the world ...
you will love it

Well that's it the Hornet has been sold and I couldn't be happier for the new owner because it's someone who I've always liked, respected and I know that it's going to be used and at the same time well taken care of.

I'll admit I'm going to miss it because I've so many good times on that scoot. It took me so many places and it introduced me to so many wonderful people and it will always remind me of a fantastic year when so much changed for me.

Seriously though it feels like a part of me if that doesn't sound too pretentious and I won't ever forget the ride up to Amsterdam last April when it was just me and the Hornet and alot to think about.

I'm handing it over on May the 8th and I might be scooterless for a little while I decide what to do and no doubt I'll be sharing alot of my thoughts here with you so any input is welcome even if I stroke my beard and do the exact opposite.

There is a lovely cream 08 GTV 250 at a dealer in Croydon which is really up my street and a black ex demo GT 250ie at Scootech which becomes available in mid June just before Amiens........

On Saturday I'm going to ride down to Hastings with my riding partner to give it a good send off on one of my favourite roads.

Billy No Scoot.

You can't call yourself Billy no scoot until the 8th May.

Oh and congrats Jim.

Bill - are you sure you want a GTV with the headlamp down there? And you might not like the Siena Avorio in the flesh, looks kinda like custard in some lights. You might not like the riding position with the leather saddle, although you could always put a GT saddle on it (wink) that would be more weather friendly. The GTS dash is nice too with trip, temp etc....

Just make sure that if you go GTS that you get scootech to put it on the web upgrader thingy to check it has the latest mapping. Not good. One of my colleagues wrote an email today of four sentences to one of the administrators who has annoyed him. The capitalized letters at the beginning of each sentence began with C and followed through to T. Made him feel better.

I kinda like that retro beige colour and you know how much I like flat paint.

Plenty of time to bore people stupid with what's going on in my head until I have a "ding" moment and say I'm going to buy that..... but hang on....

I'll end up getting a Yamaha T Max or something like that.

Billy No Scoot XX

Oh I feel a little better after the ride home.

I am very cross though.

Bill, funny you should mention the T-Max - I've been having unsettling thoughts about maxi scooters. The Aprilia Atlantics keep taunting me on eBay, although I've no idea if they're any use.

On an unscootery note, my work situation remains unfulfilling but I have got long-awaited word of a slight windfall coming my way. I have also been reminded of financial committments that will result in me keeping less than 10% of it for playing with but I'm sure I can do something fun with it. It isn't likely to result in a new two-wheeled toy appearing in my garden without an accidental zero, though.
Still, some satisfaction will be delivered along with it.

Edit: Spelling...

Aww man, the fair-weather bikers are out in force now! I get to choose between parking miles from the office or arriving ridiculously early to bag a space

Gosh, Bill, bold step to ditch the Hornet without a replacement in the bag. Hope you find a worthy successor soon!

i learned today that Alita is a 'torbie' - a tortoiseshell tabby.

I have a plaster bath full of tadpoles in the garden.

Been keeping my head down as have had deadlines converging on me like zombies. sent one paper off today, busy bashing out another.

Not riding the scooter as much as i'd like to sitting on arse in front of desk instead.

Wow, I thought I knew about mogs but I've never heard of that!

Foolishly, I did a Google Image search for 'torbie' and now I'm a melting puddle of soppy goo.

Alice I'm going to have a good few rides out this weekend so it will get a good send off before I hand it over to Jim on the 8th who I believe is going to treat it to a bit of a jaunt.

I've had loads of fun on it and now it's someone else's turn.

As for having a hole in my Vespa ownership they'll only be one weekend when I'll without two wheels and then it's off to Greece but when I return I'm going shopping because at the end of June it's Amiens and I need something Vespa based for that.

Plenty of time to decide what to buy. Nya ha ha ha.

Ape anyone ?

Billy No Scoot

If you're going to go down that route, get something with two wheels at the front.

He might have the use of one for the interim. If I get the steering bearings fettled in time that is.

My last two days:

Day 1:

Over the last few days I've been riding in North Wales - rather 'progressively' in the company of some friends from London Bikers. Suffice to say by the end of day three my back tyre was down to the wear bars and totally shagged, the chain had shed a roller, and the sprockets were showing the first signs of giving up. Not too shabby after 25,000 miles when the service interval for these is meant to be at 18,000 miles. I had to ride home at strictly the speed limit, and only really accelerate around corners. Interestly this led to some very smooth progress.

So today I started to do the necessary myself. Loads of plastic has to come off, back wheel off, and then the fun really begins. To get to the pinion (front sprocket) the rather complicated final drive bit has to be completely dismantled. I didn't take pictures of this (it's all in the manual) as my hands were far too filthy to hold a camera! Disconcertingly it looked as though the final drive oil was rather low in level, though the sight glass had stained itself to show a good level. Other GP800 owners - dealers often miss this at services as you have to take off the right foot-peg to even see it exists.

The worst thing is all the accumulated chain-lube and grime, 5mm thick in places. Parafin and Muc-off got rid of most of it, leaving a few bits to be re-done tomorrow.

But - Humbug! The rear brake pads are close to needing replacement, and bugger me, it's a Heng-Tong caliper as used on the BV 125/200, Vespa GT and X9 250 Evo. These have two allen-keyed machine screws instead of the normal single hammer-able pin. If these haven't been coppaslipped at PDI there's no way on God's earth that they can be removed after eighteen months, let alone well over two years. How do I know? When my 250 Evo had to have the rear brake pads replaced after 18 months I had to have a new caliper under warranty. I don't think they are too expensive, but bleeding the rear brakes is a bugger on the GP800, as the bleed nipple points down, not up, so air gets in every time unless you remove the caliper from its mount, release the banjo joint, and point it upwards and then reverse bleed - feeding the brake fluid from the caliper back to the reservoir. This requires rubber tubing and a syringe - yep done that before.

So:

Filthy bike onto lift


A truely shagged Diablo


The missing roller


This bike is *dirty*


Getting nearer to the nitty gritty


Yup, lots of plastic has to come off


Draining the oil from the pinion assembly


Muck.


More muck





Day 2:

Went to the dealers (Walton Road Garage) - and they had a new rear tyre in stock! Whoopee - left them with a parts wanted list while I went home to fetch the squeaky clean rear wheel complete with new sprocket. They fitted the tyre on my return, total cost, GBP106.62 with balancing and a new valve. Very good value! But every other part was on back order up until the end of May. The other bits aren't essential right now, so the back wheel will go back on, and at least the bike will be rideable. Oh, it seems almost no-one is making 120/70-16 H rated front tyres. It seems someone has a Gold Standard in stock, so I'll probably grab that.

Getting the pinion assembly back on was a 'mare. Eventually it cooperated, the back wheel went back on, the gear oil was added, all torques checked, just the plastics to be fitted tomorrow.

I don't see any workshop getting that job done in less than 5 hours, took me just over 10 hours.

Loads of rubber on the new tyre.


Lovely new sprockets and chain.

Smudge (18 year-old cat) died today. Not eating well the last week, and today wasn't able to walk very well. Still tottered outside to do her usual visits to neighbours. We left the door open so she wouldn't have to use the cat-flap on the way back, but she never re-appeared.

An elderly (going slightly senile) neighbour eventually came round to ask if the dead cat on his footpath was mine - I replied 'probably'. She wasn't actually dead just then, but obviously on her last gasp. He had looked after her while she had basked rather brokenly in the afternoon sun. Put her in an open box to carry her home and took her upstairs to spend her last few hours with younger son. Expired about 18:30 tonight.

Excellent innings, no complaints, no huge vet bills, just a well-filled life.

Sons wanted her buried, I thought of tossing her over the fence onto the river-bank for the foxes, but common sense says take her to the vets for disposal (incineration). There will be a charge, but far better than just hiding her in a bin liner in the rubbish.

While alive (called Smudge for the black nose):

Very sorry to hear about Smudge, but it sounds as though she lived well and was well loved. It is what our pets deserve.

looks like you had a great day fettling with the GP800 jim - I am a bit worried by the thought that assisting at such an operation is a more appealing prospect to me than the paper i'm presently writing. Between you and Doug, I'm catching the fettling bug. ... now all i need to do is develop the skillz to go with it

sorry to hear about wee Smudge she was a little sweetie, very friendly and good-natured. Getting her incinerated is going to cost you about £100. If she's buried more than 2' deep, there's no chance of her being dug up by local wildlife. Please don't just fling her over the fence for the foxes - they'll probably bring her back into the garden in bits, which would be awful she was a good little companion and deserves to be put into the ground entire.

Ouch....! Plant her deep and smile. She probably got more smiles than curses, but it might have been close.

Smudge should go in the garden.

Deep hole (two feet or so) will be fine.

Yes, in the garden with something planted above her. Sorry she's gone - when they reach that age they've been with you for a lot of your life and there are lots of memories to lay to rest as well as a beloved pet.

Digging in my garden would be a PITA - the local vet will dispose for twenty quid. Off to do that in a moment.

Okay, can anyone answer this question?

What are the service intervals for the GTS 300?

It is 1000km, then 10,000km (or yearly if that comes first) as I understand.

I have just returned from a dealer who will remain nameless who told me that I should have had it serviced at 5000 km. I'm trying out somewhere new and I was a bit put off by their insistence that it should now be on its third service.... okay check pads and oil, but not a full service!

Kate, Me thinks they were trying it on you being a lady and all that.

Just a hunch.

Not a clue on the servicing schedule for a 300 though.

Sorry I failed.

Bill XX

Yes I thought it was bollocks - shame as they have a good rep generally.

You'd think that with a new customer, they'd be less greedy.