Modern Vespa

My wife wants Bondo - I told her that original examples are always worth more!

- Eric

I once suggested my wife get a cutdown - damn stupid mistake on my part.

I might have to let my wife ride my cutdown, she just crashed the VNA again

Cheers

So, no discussion of club wielding mice?

So they restore scooters in nam?

Hey Jimh, your wife OK?

Jimmy, I am completely lost on your statement. Do you mean we should only talk about scooters?

If so, your own MV history would suggest otherwise

Nigel mate. my wife is fine, thank you. She ran the scooter into a stone wall.

It's now became a new sport for her I should have kept that ET2

Cheers

fair dinkum

somewhere in vietnam... need we say more


frames




panels




engines

Oh the humanity!

These must be "the best quality replacement parts and materials" they advertise.

Sorry, just couldn't help it.
No, it's not my image.

thats why dont buy vespa from vietnam

Looking at all those frames/panels/engines , I just gotta ask a 'newbie' question...

So are the bodges bad from Vietnam because there is something knock off or inherently bad with the parts, or is it just because they slap the ones they think look good together instead of the actual matching pieces?

I guess what I'm asking is, if someone skilled like say Len or Eric took those parts and resto'd them, would it still be bodgy in some way, or are at least the parts authentic?

This is how its spoken over there, don't get all sensitive Jimmy!! Just look at some of the products over there.

hear hear. +1000. promote you to the high council we will o wise jedi master stefan.

The difference is that i don't really want to take on a restoration if the bike can't support the money i'm putting into it. An SS180..Rally180...GS160.. that's worth it, because i can spare no expense in painting and assembly, and if i have to sell it i'm not going to lose money.

Those bikes you see in piles there, they are assembled and sold for very little money ...and so very little expense is spent in getting them in a sellable condition.

And that's the rub isn't it? Those bodge bikes are only restored to a sellable condition, and not a ridable and dependable condition.

Well, I think you have to elaborate that "sellable" condition literally means that taking a look at it, possibly only even in pictures, reveals nothing obviously wrong. The turn signal covers may actually be colored plastic wrap, the switches on the handlebars molded play-doh, and the cylinders on the engine empty tin cans, and it looks "GREAT" but you'll get a great deal on it. Literally, they're going to put as little as they can into it to get it out the door, weak bondo body job, shoddy mechanicals, zero safety and all, and make as much money as possible. It's pure capitalism.

Important to note: This isn't neccessarily all Asian restos, but you'd be hard pressed to find one that ain't.

yea, i'm being sensitive,it comes from a good place though

back on subject

i like my description of the tool

if i or eric or whoever on mv were to comprimise a cord on a power tool,chances are i would replace the cord from the inside out.

in societies where the scooter is a way to "take chickens to market" the cord on the tool will just be wire nutted and wrapped with electric tape.

that is the simplicity of there repairs.

some of those repaired bikes get pretty paint jobs and make it over here

(my dad taught me how to replace a power cord on a tool)

Hey jimmy, no doubt about that, comes from a good place def.

There's enough stereotyping bs in this world that most people never get the chance or bother to look behind the different clothes, skin, languages whathaveyou to see that at the end of the day, we're all human beings. Now what's great here is that people from all over the world come together and cut through all the bs because of a shared passion. Roll on!

the thing to consider is parts are just worn and ridden to shit. a bearing race on a fork could have just been packed with grease for years and have thousands of miles on it. the rest of the fork could be completely serviceable, but if the race in the frame and fork are gone, the tolerances could be so out that they're rendered completely useless or unsafe...that's just two parts.

when most would throw them in the scrap heap, they'll shim it our with bigger, non-spec ball bearings, and try to get as much mileage as possible. think of a car that has 150k on it, it runs, but there are parts that definitely have more wear than a new one. are you going to replace every single boot, bit, and bearing to make it 100%, or will you wait until completely fails and you HAVE to replace it?