Modern Vespa

That's like 1' thick of bondo & paint.

I'm leery of any Vespa with extra chrome. Is this GS a Bodge?
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/mpo/d/elk-grove-village-1965-vespa-with/7034660748.html

I'd be leery of the "I don't know much about this scooter" part...

And the "previous owner $12k"

Both stink of "I'm selling a PoS and know it"

That's not a GS - not even close - though the ad doesn't claim it to be...

I got curious and looked at the bill of sale from that auction where the guy paid $12000 for that scooter. The buyers name is right there on the bill, so I googled it and found an obituary for the guy. It sounds like he was a collector.
I just have to see this scooter, so I'm going to see it tomorrow night.
They didn't make a Gs in 1965, but it might be legit.

Looks like a 1970's Bajaj Super ScooterWorks brought in. Its made like a VBB with 8 inch wheels, a curve tail, Volcano speedo, but that one has a P style motor. Maybe something Scooterworks put together back in the day with a LML motor and Cozy sidecar. As i recall, most of the Bajaj's ScooterWorks brought in did not have motors.

Here's a white one in the US with 8 inch wheels, P style motor but the Bajaj badge and different horncast badge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshqZ3lAmNI

Prob worth $2500 to $3000 with the sidecar. If you're serious about getting it, send Rob Hodge a facebook msg with a link and ask does he know anything about this one coming through Scooterworks back in the day. If Rob answers the msg, he may know something about the owner on the paperwork.

I'll check the frame and engine numbers tomorrow.

The scooter with sidecar was sold before I got out to see it. I didn't have his $5000 asking price anyway. The guy said he sold it on eBay.
I'm pretty sure it was actually a VBB from 1965. I tracked down the auction where it sold in 2007, and they listed it as a GS, which it wasn't.

The scooter with sidecar was sold before I got out to see it. I didn't have his $5000 asking price anyway. The guy said he sold it on eBay.
I'm pretty sure it was actually a VBB from 1965. I tracked down the auction where it sold in 2007, and they listed it as a GS, which it wasn't.

Jeeze... I always thought of RM Auctions / Sotheby's as a house that dots the i's and crosses the t's, so to speak, when it comes to verifying the authenticity of listings.

You don't even have to remotely be a Vespa "guru" to know that there weren't any 1965 Gran Sports. It's about as bad as listing a Lamborghini Testarossa, or a Harley-Davidson Goldwing. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Way too much chrome, non-standard pedals, mudguard emblem...

Three wheels too, by the looks. Kid's toy.

Ah yes... but clearly a SEA kids toy.

Don't care, want that mudguard lady.

Neither butts nor boobs, always been mostly a big wingman myself.

https://newyork.craigslist.org/que/snw/d/little-neck-1967-vespa-150cc-sprint/7034901832.html

at least the bodge pricing is slowly coming down!

shinny one is only $2500... Pricing is not coming down. Owner found it's full of problems and is trying to get rid of it.

Well yeah my joke was he's pricing it closer to reality than the guys listing same for 6,000+.

This thread has got me wondering if there really are this many bodges from out of country and how did so many of them end up here? Was there really that many people or one or two companies bringing so many of these bodges to US.. and why?

Or are we just considering viet bodges the same as a bodge job someone in the US did to their original bike because they liked the look of it, or had no other option? My thought is there can't be so many imported bodges because the cost to import something like this is not really economical. Maybe there was a time where a lot of people bought these things original and just wanted a glove box on soemthing without one.. or preferred a different headset, or their headset broke and the only one they could get was an aftermarket POS, or even that stupid chrome wing plate on the leg shield. I'm new to this game so I just cant fathom a huge market for importing junky vehicles, but I can imagine a bunch of people for some reason really loving some of these accessories and modifiying their legit bikes out of style choices.. ie. the two separate seats instead of the bench seat, or just overall lack of legit mechanics who have been asked to work on so many of these and end up bodging them out of necessity.

Viet bodges have been the forefront of bodges from Asia (India, Pakistan, Indonesia). As far as I know, beside a few companies do the import, the bodge scooters were so available on eBay 15yrs ago. People can just click and buy. Not to mention the Vietnam vets who went back to VN through out the year and import them back to states. I have heard people there said in early 2000, they were hot cakes, they can't restore fast enough to sell.

Talking about the quality of these scooter, you probably know the weather there is not too friendly, this is when rust taking over. For over 2 decades after the war, they barely have any replacement parts. As the result, they handmade them, bodge them, anything to make it run again. Original parts became jewels. For the export ones, they would strip all usable original part, replaced with cheap Chinese, Indian then put a thick layer of bondo and paint. They did half SS job while knowing full well that it will run a short period of time and buyers cannot return. This is why, 99% of scooter from Vietnam are junks.

I've seen many US bodges and they are a lot lower mileage, far better and the body is still much more solid.

I asked for the VIN and was given VNBLM093567 but have not been able to find it on any of the Vespa VIN decoder sites. Anyone help?

Personally love the wood blocks carved and painted to look like tail lights, but I wish they didn't waste perfectly good frames to permanently fix these bodges in place just for decoration.

Portofino hotel universal studios Orlando.

How do you know they are "perfectly good frames"? This could be an answer to the actual problem this long thread is about, props for tourist photos.

However, I feel the pain as well. They could have been free souls roaming the hills and woodlands like their luckier brethren.

No clue but I imagine they were not as bad as they should have been for what they were put to use as. And yes, a great usage for true bodges for someone willing to take that chance and who knows designers in need of them. Have a friend who sells off old but perfectly working mole Richardson tungsten film lighting units to designers because they are worth more to a designer who is going to destroy the actual functionality of them to put a 100 watt bulb in it so that people can use them as decoration for their mcmansions. That also makes me sad but I understand it as it's really not economical physically or financially to use big ass outdated hot continuous lighting fixtures anymore even for the budding filmmaker who would be looking for cheap second hand lights like that.

Hi all. I was just wondering about something and wanted to understand it. Back in the 1960s and later, Italians used to adorn their Vespas with accessories. Some were for looks, and some were to protect the paint. Here (below) is a vintage Italian catalog for these shiny bits.

They were not to protect the bodywork against crashes, but from the scrapes and bumps that were/are really easy to get in the crowded Italian cities like Rome, Naples, Milan, and though out the boot. That's why some are bolted right on to the fenders, cowls and shields.

I guess my concern is of real-deal Italian builds from the "old country" being tagged incorrectly as Viet-bodges nowadays in the U.S. How does one avoid "hanging the wrong tag" on a really cool scooter, considering we know the likes of Ulma and Vigano accessories were commonly added to Vespas and Lambretta in Europe (not to mention England during the Mod days)?

I mean, how do I distinguish between what was added in a Vietnamese sweatshop from what some original owner added on an Italian street corner in the 1960s? Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Good question!

Having been to Vietnam and having seen some scooter gangs there they seem to favour the UK mod scene when it comes to accessorising their scooters. So the bikes that get crated over tend to be shiny. That raises the initial suspicions on here that the bike is a bodge but really you need more provenance on the frame or engine to make a call.

I do find it interesting reading through here that if a person paints a scooter a two tone color scheme it is often called a bodge because it is not cosmetically original. As stated above a person bolts on chrome accessories they are called bodges. All of these can easily be fixed or removed if a person doesn't like them. Those same people take a motor apart, cut, grind and whatever else to a set of cases, put on aftermarket top ends and exhaust pipes. Some motors and cases are welded on and holes patched with JB Weld. I would be more worried about a motor than bolt on chrome and a two tone paint job.

I agree in that there are a lot of surface stylistic choices that tip people off here to a potential bodge, and I'm not sure it can easily be stated from just photos online that it is in fact a bodge crated from Vietnam or other without more info. But I have noticed that when people post them here, criticism extends to beyond those choices to point out incorrect elements of the frame and engine beyond the shiny bits that point to work done to a bike that is incorrect for that stated model, such as a mullet, a p frame in the rear with an older style leg shield up front, etc. Which back up the claims of bodge at least. I'm not entirely convinced that all these bodges are from Southeast Asia due to the cost to crate and ship even on a bike that could have cost someone practically nothing (I assume from my experience shipping normal packages overseas) as I've never done this.

I don't doubt that some of them are vietbodges, but I have a feeling many of them were bodged right here in the past by some handy individuals who collected the barn finds for years and decided to salvage the good parts from many different bikes into presentable but possibly questionable construction.

Regardless of where they were bodged, there are a lot of scooters out here that have had work done to them in some form or other. Be it tuning or bodging. If you can find one you like in your price range and want it, buy it!

Edit: again my theory is not based on any concrete evidence but purely my inability to comprehend that crating and shipping these things overseas is economical in any way. My brain just can't wrap around that.

Agreed it must be clearly a FrankenVespa more than just an accessorized Vespa to convince me. BTW, what is a mullet? Thanks.

Business up front, party in the back

This thread should be taken down tbh, it's no longer what it was intended as. Now everything is a 'bodge' unless its a garage tinker toy a NSM member would own.

regarding the accessories they are not that hard to tell apart, and throughout this thread people have tried to point out the differences in the original to the bodge/copy.

Bodge, but look at the details and commit them to memory. These crashbars are the poster child of bodge, note:
1. note the thinness and shape, this is a good first clue. it's an early '50s shape reworked to a late '60/'70s body
2. note the rear crash-bars mount to the cowls not to the frame. this will not save anything and will likely bend and rip out of the cowl.
3. note the double row leg-shield trim does not stop at the bottom but continues along the length of the floorboard. the originals were never like this.
4. most accessories were made by Ulma or Vigano, and would not have a "Vespa" or "Piaggio" shield on them.



Not Bodge, again look at the detail:
1. bars are thicker, plastic embellishment is standard for Vigano on Sprint era bikes.
2. note how the crash-bars mount to the frame at the front and rear. A bit of a pain as you have to remove them to take the cowl off, but they actually protect the cowl if you lay it down (I know, I have)



page 87 has many examples of bodge and not a bodge. Maybe we could have a moderator flag the determination for each post, but that would be a lot of work. Or we could start a wiki page...

This. A wiki page that shows good examples...real legit ones...of what a SEA bike is, why thats bad, and sticky it to the top of the forum would be better. This 9 year old thread is basically a bash thread nowadays.

It's useful as a looking glass for people to post potential bodges and for those in the know to confirm or deny it. For myself, I enjoy looking at what people post and deciding for myself whether I think it is or not. It's a scavenger hunt of possibles and then a scavenger hunt within each image. the point of the thread is to get people to notice those details and not take things on face value. To read posts on this thread with that same lack of digging beyond the face value as people who buy bodges without doing research means someone isn't learning from the thread.

I quite enjoy and learn from seeing people deconstruct a posted bike both when it is confirmed or denied as a bodge. Oopsclunks previous post is perfect example! Thanks!

Crawdad23 has been ejected from this topic

Tsk tsk, another ruined victim of inadequate MV hand holding.

Will they never learn?

Sad.


This thread is what it is and most ppl come here to show and tell or to help other ppl. Nobody comes here to just BASH BASH BASH your bike my friend. Oh yeah, do not forget that everybody is not always 100% right, we mostly KNOW that and just accept it. Thread will not be deleted I think and you may use whatever ID you like to check in and get the latest news. But could you please just keep your sexlife out of it?

Well, he definitely deserves a prize or an honorable mention, I tell you that. He was fast enough to open a new account, say "F U" to my reply and get banned again...



P.S. Terry, I really like the addition to your signature...

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/mcy/d/atlanta-rare-75-vespa-rally-200-motor/7048355345.html

Definitely not a 5000 dollar bike. The paint near the piaggio badge appears to be cracked. Also look at the front brake/speedo cable. Looks like electrical flex conduit. Maybe not an SEA bike, but just a crappy "professional" restoration. Something is just off to me.

It's an electric brake. They're the hot new thing. The cable can't be more than 48" long though, or you have to use conduit.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1493449429&utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Kijiji_Search_Alerts




YES FOR SALE 1962 VESPA 150 scooter/mopped ...WITH MATCHING NUMBER
*SEND ME YOUR OFFER WITH YOUR PHONE NUMBER I WILL CONTACT YOU IN THE NEXT 10 MINUTES IF YOUR OFFER MAKE SENSE*
ACTIVE TITLE; YES
WORKING ORDER: YES
Reason for selling: I'm moving
IT SITS IN MY LIVING ROOM SEE PICTURES
TRY TO FIND ONE
THIS IS A COLLECTOR PIECE ORIGINAL AND MATCHING NUMBER
The LAST 1962 VESPA LIKE THIS WAS SOLD IN THE USA FOR $16,700 USD...
SERIOUS BUYER ONLY
NO DREAMER
DONT WASTE MY TIME I WONT WASTE YOURS
DONT MISS THIS UNIQUE PIECE
GOOD LUCK

$16,700 or $1,670? Did he accidently add another zero?