Modern Vespa

I purchased a 1974 Bajaj with the Vespa 150 badge, the motor serial matches the frame serial and everything has Bajaj logos on it.

Runs great, but it lacks a speedo cable. How would I go about finding out what cable it would need?

I also want to replace the two part seat with a different long one as I sit so far back on it. But I'm unsure which model Vespa it would compare to.

I have a feeling it came from Scooters of Seattle, but he isn't in business anymore, it has the signature items that they usually add on like kill switch in the toolbox so it can't be kick started.

Cleaned out the carb & replaced the spark plug last night, it's running great.

Opinions?

Very nice colour ...

Why change the badges?

That volcano headset is a dead give away

BAJAJ POWER! COME ON! ROCK THE BAJAJ BADGES!

It will take any largeframe vespa seat. A p-series one, rally one, sprint one, corsa seat, ancilloti style, etc. Anything made for largeframes.

Pull out the speedo and show me the bottom of it and i might be able to tell you which speedo cable to buy.

Yeah, it's either not the original color, or they use pistachio green for primer

Here are some pics of the speedo

When I paint it back to original pistachio color and if I can find some Bajaj badges, I'll swap em out.

I had a late '70s Chetak at one point and the speedo cable had a much larger threaded ring than any of the Vespa cables I had seen at the time. So I'm not sure exactly what will fit, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's not a Vespa equivalent for that one part.

Best bet is to take the speedo to a shop which has a lot of different model cables on the off chance one will fit.

Or ask Birdie at speedoking.com, he might know.

Or maybe someone on the board closer to Bajaj-land can source you the proper cable...

My 8" wheeled Bajaj won't take standard speedo cables. One day I sat outside a scooter shop and I tried all kinds of stuff to make it work. But now I can't remember what the problem was.

If I change out the front and do a hydraulic conversion on the brakes, I could then swap out with a more standard cable right?

The guy I bought it from was supposed to drop off the speedo cable but still hasn't.

Try checking with speedo king http://www.speedoking.com/

He may be able to come up with a cable that works or at least know what to swap out to have a working setup.

Or forget the speedo and put an EGT/CHT in its place.

That would get you a standard P200 cable mount at the bottom but that cable wouldn't fit your speedo. Also that conversion would take you up to 10in wheels.

That's most likely a "Scooters of Seattle" bike. A few years ago they were bringing those bikes in from India and selling them as restored Vespas. (They are fixed up and painted in India.) Kinda shady, and they eventually stopped doing it, probably when they realized their "Lambretta" reputation was in jeopardy.

Well, the previous owner dropped off what he says was the speedo cable, however I think it's missing something, like what secures it in down by the wheel, etc. Can anyone tell me what's missing?

the end in the upper half of the picture is the part that plugs into your speedo. There's ( on this bike, i believe ) a white plastic bit that has two prongs on it that goes around the outside of the cable and snaps into the speedo to hold it in place.

the lower half..it's hard to say and depends on the bike.

Some bikes have a small, knurled ferrule that kinda grips onto the outer using the little bronze bit you have present... and screws into the speedo drive assembly on the fork... effectively holding the inner / outer in place through pressure.

Some other bikes like smallframes have a rubber bung that goes on, and that's held in place through a little plate that bolts to the wheel.


also, the cable inner you're looking at is threaded backwards. the end with the brass bit stuck to it goes at the TOP.


As i go back up and look at the pictures, i guess yours is held in place down at the wheel by the rubber boot you're looking at, which creates enough friction that it holds it in place. The boot snaps over the lip on that white square piece.

Thanks for the quick reply Eric!

I have to go into Fremont today so I'll check with Sound Speed Scooters and see if they have the plastic bit I'm missing that connects the top part to the speedo, I have a feeling it went AWOL in the guy's tool box where he was storing the cable.

the part i think you need is pictured in the inset of the picture below. I could be wrong ..but i'm pretty sure i'm right. Bajaj did all sorts of wonky non standard stuff to their bikes. I know how the italians did stuff... and not so much about how the indians knocked it off and tweaked it.

On the Bajaj I had it didn't have a plastic piece. It actually did have the metal ring at the top, it was just hella bigger than any Vespa part. Looks like your speedo is threaded where the cable connects? So I'm guessing it also had that type of ring.

In the absence of the proper ring I wonder if you could rig something up with some washers and a jam nut (thin).

<edit>Actually, now that I think about it, this wouldn't quite work because the threads need to preceed the washer. Maybe you could find the right size threaded nut and then weld a washer to the back of it to catch the lip of the cable housing. Or seriously just electrical tape it up there and see how it holds</edit>

Again, just guessing for your specific bike and attempting to share my experience with a similar Bajaj.

Yeah the bottom is threaded, the boot i have on the cable was laying loose in the headset. I just tried putting it on in a multitude of ways and it looks like it's about 2 inches longer than it should be which is causing stress on a couple points and making it pop out because I don't have the threaded nut.

Looks like I might have to spend some time fabricating something.

At least I have time now, I got fired yesterday.

Well, that's terrible.

I'm glad you're looking at it positively as a chance to get some wrenching time in!

Absolutely, they are cashing out my vacation and sick time so I have close to 160 hours in pay coming from that. My two week vacation was supposed to start tomorrow.

I have to look at it positively, my job was getting increasingly worse and the company took away raises so I was still making the same crap wage for my old position that had way less stress and meetings.

My rent is cheap, I'm not in debt, and I saved up for a rainy day.