Modern Vespa

Well my fucking front fork completely broke! Jeez this sucks. At least it happened in a nice neighborhood. It's locked up to a telephone pole there tonight, and my mechanic will be able to pick it up in the morning. My mechanic is so awesome. Anyways... sucks for me

I assume you sustained minimal or no bodily damage, and your mechanic is going to pick up your scooter tomorrow...you ain't that screwed fella.

How about some details? Where did it break? What kind of bike? Did you hit something?

hope everything will be better..

holy smokes, that's kind of up there on the "bad shit to have hapen to you" list.

interested in seeing how it broke. Got pictures?

I have an Allstate Super Cruiseaire. Here's my first post with pictures, etc:
https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic47633?highlight=
ok here the basic story:
I was riding home from work Friday. I realized that the steering was weird, and I decided to stop and mess with the alignment some. After a few minutes I decided that I'd screw with it when I got home, and I hopped back on. I only went a few more feet before I realized that something was definitely wrong, and I got off again to take a good look at the tire. At that point I looked under the fender and discovered that it was fucked.
A co-worker happened to drive by and pulled over to help out. I called my mechanic and he said that he could pick it up the next day, so we wrestled it over to a telephone pole for me to lock it up. At that point, the entire wheel was falling off the damn thing.
At some point in the life of this scooter, some jerkwad decided that it would be a good idea to put a fork in that had been welded together. I should consider myself lucky that the wheel didn't come off while I was riding it.
My mechanic wants to take pictures and post them, so I'll email him the link to this thread and hopefully he can give you more specifics as well as some pics.

wow ur really lucky the tire didnt pop off when u ride it, very lucky

post up some pics of that fork. I'd like to see.

Maybe it's time to do a P200 engine in the back, and a PK fork on the front?

And who says you only get BODGE work from Vietnam?

if i had to guess the fork not completely broke, just axle retaining nut or pivot security bolt were loose, as seen you're use super or bajaj fork... maybe your pivot secure plate let off
it impossible to broke if you're not collided or hit something... but that's my guess +1 and grimeca diskbrake on it

i wouldn't even mess with a running bike. i would just buy a new 8" fork assembly for a vnb. it is worth it since you will have an actual shock. my gf has the OG allstate fork on her '64 and it could use an upgrade.

My mechanic got the fork put in there. I think he said that it is a sprint fork, so it's got a new hub and shocks as well. I wish I knew more about all this stuff so that I could tell you all about the parts being installed. I'll try and take some notes next time I talk to him.
Now I'm having a big problem with keeping my balance on the bike. It's hard to explain; before it felt like the forward momentum/ gyroscopic force/ whatever would, you know, hold you up, and keep you steady. Now I'm extremely wobbly, and am having to really concentrate to keep my balance. I was shitting bricks while riding to work today. At first, I thought that this was just the new way that it handles and that I needed to get accustomed to it, but now I'm not having fun riding it, I hate to admit it, but now I'm kinda scared while riding it.
I already talked to my mechanic and he said that it was a tricky conversion to work out, and maybe there's some additional stuff that needs to be done. He said something about spacers, but again, I don't know about this stuff. However, he's on the case and going to figure out what needs to be changed. I have a lot of confidence in him. I'm wondering if this isn't just an issue of the front end riding higher than usual, but I'm certainly no expert on any of this. Anyways, I just wanted to talk to you guys about it, because this is the most worried that I have been about my scooter.
I mean, it's not about getting together money for fixing it. My problem right now is that I don't feel safe on it.

i would guess it (the fork) is either too loose or too tight at the headset. a year ago, rover eric was helping me get rid of a front end vibration, and we made the locknut too tight. the bike rode pretty wonky and we had to find a happy medium.

Sounds like the fork it too tight to me.

Amazing the difference a fraction of a turn of the adjusting nut can make.

- Eric

If you put a Sprint fork/hub in it, then you are running a 10" wheel in front and an 8" wheel in the back. No wonder it feels weird.

Sell that thing to Dullivan..he needs a scoot BAD.

What ever happened with that? Did he pick up the old VNB? Or twist his dad's arm to get the 100?

it had a 10" conversion before I bought it. Both tires are 10"
Before the fork broke, it was riding fine, and I had good balance on it. So it's not the 10" wheels that are the issue

Who knows...and who really cares? HA! Just kidding..he's been really really quiet..so hopefully he bought something.

I'm still around. The guy still hasn't called me back on the VNB, and now I'm not hearing back from the lady about the 100 either, which I still haven't convinced dad we need to go get anyway, because he's all about "waiting" for the VNB guy to show face. I really hope I don't get passed by here, especially since I wanted to go get that scoot for my birthday this weekend. I emailed this morning, but no word yet either way. I'm still crossing my fingers, but it don't look pretty.

As far the fork is conerned the headset bolt is stripped and the fork and headset were swaying back and forth. I have another bolt on the way and should be better by the weekend. Dullivan don't wait for the 100 sport anymore it is in my backyard waiting on a carb sleve and a new exhaust. The girl who bought it is very excited.

Matt got it all fixed up! It's riding just fine now. I'll post pics of the disaster fork when I get them

I'm glad it went to a good home. I got so excited about that VNB and didn't think twice about the sport, which I'm pretty sure means I didn't really want it that much to begin with, even though it was a really good deal. Maybe this P in 'bama will work out for me.

So it turns out the 100 Sport was a better deal than anyone thought. It has front and rear Bitubos, a four speed transmission, and a Polini kit. Runs great. The new owners are really happy.

sounds like a great set up

Holy crap! I was at Matt's today and saw the fork, I'm really glad you didn't die.

ok folks here's pics of what happened.
Two different forks had been welded together. The top half was a VBB fork and the bottom half was a sprint. They then crammed part of a shift tube in there to try and strengthen the weld. It was this shift tube in the center that kept me from being thrown off.

bodge-tastic!

Buy a lotto ticket, you're lucky to be alive!

Yeah, lucky is right. My old smallframe had the castle nut welded to the rear axle when I got it. I left it alone and rode it cause it was a good running motor. Wasn't sure if or when it would snap and the rear wheel would take off on me. It was always on my mind when riding though....always. I would be looking that thing over really good before I got back on there to ride again.

Okay, you just scared the sh*t out of me. This aft, when I've got a moment, my front tire is coming off (I have to adjust the front brake shoes anyway) and I'm having a good, long look at my front fork.

I've had almost all the rest of the scoot apart and it's all been in very good condition without any obvious bodges (it's an Indonesian bike) and the frame welds appear good without bondo all over the place. That said, I've never had the headset off or front fork dropped. Now I'm going to take a good, long look for any conspicuous welds.

I'm glad you're okay!!

What part of your frame is welded?

Hey nice meeting you Sunday Alec I was the guy with the Silver Rally 200 that couldn't go on the ride. It's a really cool original paint job you've got there.

Your frame is spot welded together in many places... The horncast is spotwelded to the front, the center channel area is spotwelded to the floorboards, etc.

Indeed, this latter part is what I was talking about. You can see where the front section is welded to the rear and I took a magnet all over that and it seems fine. There's some minor bondo over a floorboard section, I think, but nothing too serious. I'll only ever be able to tell if I get the whole thing blasted, however, and I'm not in a rush to do that anytime soon...