Modern Vespa

Well, I've been thinking that for us in the north and on east coast, winter will soon be here and that, for a good few of us, means project time. Many a weekend will be spent in the shop, garage, basement, or shed fixing, sanding, painting, polishing, and my personal fave, cutting and grinding! Not to mention the countless hours tracking down parts and all the cash spent. So, with all that in mind, wouldn't it be nice if someone found a decent indoor venue to host a vintage stock/custom show? Well, that guy might just be me if I find there is sufficient numbers and interest out there. The venue I had in mind is clean, well lit, has a lot of floor space, and is located here in Pittsburgh.

I know what some of you are thinking: "Don't we already do this at every scooter rally?" No, this will be different. There will be decent looking professionally made trophies and hopefully enough cash for whoever wins something like People's Choice or Best In Show to have made it all worth while. The cash would come from the door and the display fee for scooterists (I was thinking around 25 bucks) and for vendors (around the same). Whatever was left over from paying the venue would go in the prize pot. Well, there you go. I feel for myself the scooter scene has grown somewhat stagnant over the last few years and stuff like this would give it a shot in the arm and show the dealership brigade just what our old beloved steeds mean to us.

This idea is still in its infancy, but if there's enough interest I'll get the ball rolling. Any input is welcome.

I'm thanking my lucky stars that I don't have to hibernate during winter.



Cool idea though if I had no other option.

I would be down with that but I live pretty far away.

So let me detail out a few ideas that DJ, Sean, and myself have sorta been punting around.

This would sorta be the east coast / midwest version of the Scooter Buildoff competition in Vegas. That's a great event, but I don't have the money ( particularly after restoring a bike ) to ship it out and back for that rally / contest. Moreover, that event was entered in by a lot of SHOPS... and we're making this about the individual hobbyist restorer - not the people who do it professionally.

We're talking about an event that would be regional for us. One that would reward creation and restoration. It's awesome if you bought an original SS90, but we're giving more credit to the guy who restored his VBB to look perfect. The VBB would win over the SS90 in this case, because we're going to alot more points for how much work you performed on your bike over rarity / original condition / etc. The goal is to encourage people to do quality restoration work - take some pride in their handiwork, and reward those who are the most fastidious.

We're talking about having the show at one of the regular regional rallies - rotating every year. Detroit / Pittsburgh / Columbus / Cleveland. If other cities nearby want to be added in later ( Chicago, etc ) they can be. This would be a concourse event that would be thrown in concert with one of those regularly scheduled rallies.

There would be a cash prize... donations from shops, etc. Regular or Rotating judges - we haven't worked out. Judging criteria - haven't worked that out yet either. Thinking about having either a "participant" patch made up each year for the event that displays the winning bike from the previous year ... and / or some sort of rotating trophy that goes to the winner and has previous winners engraved on it.

i tend to think eric has a good grasp of the economics of this "sport"

eric has made a good point of "shop" resto V "home" resto

i am putting my money and vote on our socal local mv'r len

he is a great example of a home restorer, who can start and finish a project and end up with a show stopper

The Devil is really in the details on this one. Should professional scooter builders be aloud to enter? My answer would be compilation makes us all better. Should it be a build off type thing, where you start with something raw at a set date, and have it completed at a set date? My answer would be that that might be too expensive and would not allow enough time for the hobbyist. Maybe clean up something you all ready have completed. Who should do the judging? Should it be a panel of selected scooterist from all over or should it be the public who make the dissension? Should the venue move around every year? I think so.

All that aside, I do believe the main point is should to promote, celebrate, and create compilation in the vintage scooter scene and I feel that a indoor stock/custom show will have a far greater visual impact (putting scooters on display tables, having a photo album of the build, displaying accessories, etc.) then just lining them up for a few minutes in a parking lot to be judged.

I really like the idea. People come at scooter culture from many angles. Rallies emphasize more of the social side of scootering than the bikes themselves. Which is great. I love hangin out with folks and havin a bbq and beer. However some folks are more into checking out the bikes over the social aspect. I always enjoy the concourse at rallies but it seems like anymore it's just an obligatory thing to do.

A vintage/custom show would be for the true bike geeks (I say this affectionately because I consider myself one too). For those who appreciate the time and effort it takes to restore old scoots and make custom ones an event like this would be a blast. People could have photos of the progress of their custom projects or restorations along with original manuals, brochures, and literature of stock scoots. You usually don't see that stuff at rallies. That's the stuff I would love to see.

Maybe I'm naive and there is a very small percentage of scooterists today who would appreciate this type of thing. I would love to be mistaken.

This is EXACTLY what i'm talking about. I'd like there to be a points category added in ( say, 10/100 total points of the bike ) be for provenance stuff ... period advertisements, pictures of the restoration, factory toolkit, factory manuals, any other history of the bike, presentation of said items, etc )

i love all that old period stuff that came with the bike. i about peed my pants when the free p i found had all of the original sales receipts, owners books, air pump, etc. in the glovebox. i almost like looking at that crap more than the bike sometimes.

"Maybe I'm naive and there is a very small percentage of scooterists today who would appreciate this type of thing. I would love to be mistaken."

Yeah, the first one or two might be on the small side, but as time goes on, more people will came to watch the compilation and be inspired to get join in. The trick will be not to make it too difficult for people to get involved. If you have something you think is show worthy, then put down your 25 bucks or whatever and come on in. Also, did I mention, there will be a bar?

Great idea!!

I would like to see two different categories: one for actual vintage restorations, and one for vintage customs, which are not true "restorations" but can be great rebuilds.

Perhaps i was hasty in saying it had to be restored 100% original. I don't necessarily feel that's a requirement. Your bike would be judged on it's build quality and such... taking into account all the work you put into it. It doesn't matter that you didn't paint it a stock color or something.

I do appreciate a true restoration, and I think it takes a lot more commitment and diligence than a custom. I also like the creativity some rebuilders show in their work. I think a true resto deserves special recognition.

"I do appreciate a true restoration, and I think it takes a lot more commitment and diligence than a custom. I also like the creativity some rebuilders show in their work. I think a true resto deserves special recognition."

In some cases yes. It just depends on your starting point. As far as customs go, it also takes a lot of diligence to make something that all ready looked good look even better.

Also, don't forget the hassle of making and machining you very own one-off parts as apposed to mail order from Casa Lambretta.

There's no way I could take this 90deg. weather here in Florida. I like knowing and feeling the seasons. Day after day of hot weather would make me even more nuts. I'm looking forward to the cooler climate back home.

Florida sucks except for the women in South Beach wearing pretty much nothing.

I live in Carlsbad (North coastal San Diego). It's never hot here...pretty much perfect all year round. The warmest it gets around here is in the 80's. During the holidays it's in the 60's and 70's with sunshine.

Disney World with the little ones.And Yes San Diego is very nice.

disney land is california and world is florida

yes, the weather here is sweet

and my money is still on lens baby blue bike

Eric, after doing a bit of thinking may I suggest 3 different classes (stock, custom, and restoration) with 4 trophies. The best in it's class would get a trophy awarded by a panel of judges and the 4th trophy with the cash prize could be given out to the best of those 3 winners, maybe as a people's choice type thing.

Classes defined .....

1) Stock; The closes thing to an un-restored scooter that has retained it's original qualities. (might want to award points based on age of scoot. The best in the most original condition for it's age?)

2) Custom; Any scooter that has been mildly to drastically modified from it's original condition. This can included anything just about anything really (rat bike, street racer, mod scoot, chop, etc.).

3) Restoration; This one would be judged on the quality of the end product of workmanship (paint, bodywork, chrome, general parts, etc.) that went in to the restoration.

I like those classes. Seems to cover all the bases. How about a rarest model category? For something that you don't see everyday. e.g. "there were only 50 of these models ever made"

I think the rareness of any model would be taken into account no matter what class it was entered in, but it would still be the condition of it that counted. An example might be not have a falling apart rust bucket of half of an SX200 winning over a nice looking VBB in the stock class.