SCOOTISSIMO ~ For the Love of Scooters!

Goodbye Beautiful Lola

2011-02-11T19:02:00.000+11:00

See ya later Lola, it's been a hoot of a scoot!

Well the time had finally come to clear out the shed, a couple of my scooters just had to go. Being self employed is great but not having the time to get the scooters out was starting to get me down, just seeing them sitting there was making it worse.

The decision of what to keep and what to sell was fairly easy. The GTS is my main mode of transport these days, for the short trips to the shop, the long trips into the country and every other trip in between. My SS180 is still very much a work in progress and my favourite old scooter & therefore 'Sophia' just had to stay. So that leaves Francesca and Lola.

Lola was my first classic Vespa and it was kind of sad to have to let her go. Francesca (or Fat Franki as I often call her) is on the market too, she's been fun to play with over the last few years but she's just not getting used and I am so sure someone will love her.

So...Lola went to her new owners today, Sue and Darren are going to take her to Western Australia for her new life. I am sure she'll be loved and looked after but I have to admit, I felt a bit sad this afternoon to watch her loaded up and driven away.

Sellers remorse?

Maybe.

What's the ONLY thing to do in this situation?

Yep...go for a good long scoot!

I came back with a smile on my face and I feel a whole lot better about it.

Thanks Bella ;)

Fat Franki up for Sale

2011-01-24T18:26:00.002+11:00

Time to clear out the shed, I have decided it's fun to have the Vespa collection but not so much fun with no time to dedicate to them so am flogging 2 off.
First to go, on ebay as we speak...
Fat Franki, I'll miss you but someone else will love you!

An update on James Story

2010-11-09T10:47:00.010+11:00

An update on James' Story

I bet she gallops now James!

Regular readers of this blog will remember James' story.
(click here to read the initial story)

He fell in love with a Vespa in Bali and had to have her so he imported her back to Australia and went about his new life as a classic Vespa owner.
Sadly he had a few headaches with her initially but here's his latest update. Warms the cockles.....

"Things have been going great. The scooter is running like a top! Absolutely no issues at all. Have been on many club rides - took it to the National Classic Scooter Rally to Dalesford which was a fast and long ride with 300 scooters and she rode like a champ. Just got back form the Mods Vs' Rockers on Sunday which was a hoot. Motor wise - have done a few mods, Hotwing Vintage 226 pipe, Pinasco 177 kit, pot matched and inlet extended, 24/24 Si carb, Ducati 1.8kg Flywheel, corsa clutch and Mazzuchelli race cut crank. Body has held up fine. No suspicious bumps, cracks or blisters. Absolutely no structural concerns, I have put this scooter through alot, heavy bumps, braking as speed and if anything was going to go wrong it would have a year and a half ago. I ride this scooter every day, its my transportation to work. She never seems to missed a beat - except for the odd cable or spark plug of coarse - general scooter stuff"

Check out those mods! :)
You go James! (& now you can.....a lot faster too!)

Where's the last 12 months gone??

2010-11-03T08:57:00.013+11:00

The SS180 Project Takes Off.....again!

Well the last 12 months have flown by, I have only just stopped to take a 'breather' and it's something I could get used to! I'm having a little holiday before I finish my Diploma in OHS as that will be full on for a while.

As the weather warms up I'm getting more excited about the prospect of getting my SS180 up and running for summer. I am also slowly coming to terms that my lifestyle doesn't allow me the time to enjoy all scooters in my collection so will downsize from 4 to 2. I will be keep the SS and my new GTS which has become my daily scoot due to the pure ease and reliability of the ride. I love it.
It is possible to enjoy both classics and twisties as they each have their own uses in my eyes.

There's so many scooter sites out there where the hardcore classic scooter owners spend a lot of time slagging off the new scooters and their riders as having 'sold out' somehow. This has always puzzled me.

Surely it's about the feeling of freedom you get from scootering, the whole experience, the rush of being on the scooter and out for a lovely ride - not about the type of engine under you?

So, personally I quite enjoy the options of having both.
The classics come out on a sunny day for a glorious ride around the bay or for a leisurely trip through the countryside for a picnic.

The GTS300 comes out for the quick trip to the shop where I know I can jump on and go with no hassles, no last minute cable checks or oil top ups, it's easier than the car for the dart up to the butcher, a drop off to the post office or my favourite, a lovely 110kph cruise on the open roads in pure comfort and safety.

So now I am trolling through the buckets of parts I have for the SS to make sure I now have all the bits I need to put the engine back in.
Higgo is going to fix up a few things for me first like the cases, there's the odd hammer and chisel gouge in there from trying to get seals in or out!

There's also a tiny little hole about 5mm in one corner of the case, Higgo will weld this up for me. This little hole in itself would have made the scooter hard to start surely? No wonder the previous owner was so frustrated with her.

We'll also fix the gear selector rod hole behind the gear selector box, this has been made wider for some reason or maybe just shagged out due to age?

I'm not sure how long this project will actually take to finish, there's no rush for it as long as it's done properly. It's been fairly easy so far to find the parts I've needed. BG at GPS Imports in Melbourne has had some ripper parts there for me. I nearly fell over when I called to ask if he had an SS180 front hub assembly in stock, (as mine had just crumbled in my hands) holding my breath with all fingers crossed....."Yep, got one here" OMG! :)
I did some shopping at SIP and Beedspeed overseas and found lots of little goodies...so it's time to get the 'explosion' drawings out and see if I do have everything for the rebuild.
The next installment will show pics of the cases and hubs etc being fixed, welded and milled. Higgo seems to think I'll be able to do the milling myself with some guidance so we'll see...gulps!
His collections of mills and lathes is amazing so there's nothing that can't be done.

Last month we did a job for a guy in Canberra, his flyside key way was well and truly flogged out and was ready to go in the bin. Others had told him to scrap it.

Higgo filled it in by welding it up, milled it all and re-cut a new key way all for under $200!
It fits like a glove with no movement at all and we think it will run better than it ever has :)

What do we have here?

2009-12-28T13:35:00.005+11:00

I've had an email from a mate in Indonesia who has come across these old girls in a shop workshop/shed and wants to know if I want them??? Hmmmm?? What to do? ;)

Looks like a couple of old GS150's to me, and the gold handlebar model with farro basso lamp..? Not sure??

I'm awaiting prices on stripping, crating and shipping first before deciding what to do but not much known on their history so that can be hard.

Another barn find story, my mate who does my machine work and welding etc is also a pilot. He met up with a guy recently who is in rural victoria for summer as a water bomber pilot but his summer project between fire calls is to get an old Rally 200 going, one he found recently in a shed down here and bought for $100. Yes, that's right. one hundred dollars!! :0 He changed the sparkplug, added fuel and kicked her over, off she went!! I've been helping him out with parts so maybe he'll be kind to me when summer is over and I might get a cheap Rally.

Which brings me to the next thing, time to get rid of some old Vespas I think! I'll probably flog the 150 Supers, keep the SS180 and GTS300 and just go back to the buying and selling rather than buying and keeping! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL, Safe Scootin' for 2010.

More new scooter pics

2009-11-18T11:58:00.007+11:00

....SUMMER SCOOTER PICS...

I just can't get enough of this new scooter.

I had a great summer cruising the South West in the sunshine and thankfully we had a good long scooter season which just ended on the 22nd April. My scooter season 'guage' here in the SW is when the day temps drop to around 15-16 and the rains start. (Which is a shock from the mid 20's-mid 30's we had been used to for the previous few months)

BRIDGEWATER BEACH.....Another of our 'best kept secrets'...sshhhh!!

BRIDEWATER LAKES & DUNES IN THE BACKGROUND

One of our "best kept secrets" Shhhhh!!!

PORTLAND South West Victoria.

Victoria's Birthplace! ;)

THE LONG AND....well,...STRAIGHT ROAD TO NOWHERE

Vespa GTS300ie......It's Scooter-licious!!

2009-10-10T14:21:00.004+11:00

Meet Arabella.

I took the plunge and bought myself a brand spanking new scooter this week. I have been eyeing off the new 2009 Vespa 3oo Super for a few months and decided to just go buy one! :) Life is waaaay to short to not reward yourself from time to time. Gotta say...she is absolutely gorgeous and a complete pleasure to ride. She has way more pick up and power than I imagined and it is very easy to look down at the speedo and see it at 80 without even trying...

I called Warren at Peter Stevens in Geelong and assumed I'd be choosing from white or black, after reading somewhere that the red models would be limited and hard to find. ..so when he said..."or would you like a red one?"..I nearly fell off my chair! So it was meant to be :)

This morning was particularly windy and I went for ride around the coast to test her out. I was being knocked around quite a bit by the strong coast winds but managed to keep a fairly good even line in very difficult conditions, I was very impressed with this as if I was on one of my old scooters I would have been in the dirt. She climbed very steep hills with ease and never missed a beat, actually feels more 'zippy' to me that some of the big road bikes I've had.

She is Scooter-licious that's for sure!

New Vespa Factory for Vietnam

2009-07-05T07:57:00.002+10:00

SCOOTER NEWS

This from the "Vietnam Briefing" websource.....

Jun. 26

Italy’s Piaggo is opening a new US$30 million Vespa factory in Vietnam to manufacture their 125 and 150 cc scooters.

Piaggio is Europe’s biggest maker of two-wheeled vehicles and the fourth largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. The plant is forecast to produce 100,000 scooters to be sold in the country and exported in Asia, as well as employ 350 workers.

The choice to expand in the country is only natural for a company famous for making its classically designed Vespa. Vietnamese streets are busy and full of zipping motorbikes and scooters, where it remains to be a popular mode of transportation for the masses.

“We consider Vietnam as an important market with high GDP growth, young generations and the number of scooters is one of the biggest in the world,” Roberto Colaninno, Piaggio Group president, told the AP.

A Vietnam-made Vespa is expected to cost US$1,500 less compared to the US$5,000 European made one.

According to government statistics, the country has more than 20 million motorbikes, from its population of 85 million.

Out with the old....

2009-04-09T11:41:00.004+10:00

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW???

So....I have been thinking about buying another scooter but wondering why I think I need 4 scooters in my shed when I can only ever ride one at a time.

It's a disease!

I started thinking about selling one of the old Supers to help with the finances for purchase but not sure I could part with either of my Supers when it comes to the crunch....

I am liking the look of the 300 Super and toying with the idea of grabbing one when this contract is over.

I am currently working in the bush on a construction site doing OHS and I think I'll need to reward myself at the end of it :)

What better way than spoiling myself with a brand new Vespa.

Is it possible to love both old geared scoots and new twisties alike?

I think so, it's a Vespa after all :)

I'll just go with white as its safer on the road. I'll be able to jazz her up with decals if I get bored.

Now all I need is a suitable name for her, any suggestions?

2009-04-03T10:53:00.002+11:00

James' Scooter Saga Solved!!

Continued from Last Post

From last time I wrote, had some issues to resolve again, I got my RWC but the motor was smoking and behaving badly. I broke it down again and replaced the crank and seals again. I also managed to repair the rear hub (if you recall the bearing retainer was welded in). Got my dremil into it, cut it out and popped out the bits, luckily the thread was undamaged, and came up like new! I got the cases and motor looking really clean and I think that every part has been replaced/serviced and up to grade. Put it all back together, started first shot, but still had smoke issues....... very unhappy at this point, did the job twice but I guess I put in all that effort onto a set of cases that must have a warp issue internally or a crack that is not allowing a seal to happen between the gear box and rotor area.

OK, picked my self back up and kicked in plan 'B'.

Got the LML P150 motor I had as a backup, and did an inspection. This motor looks fresh, popped the head and cylinder off and inspected the inside via the clutch cover and rotor area with a micro torch (those with a bendy head look like ET ) and the guts look brand new!
Decided that I was not going to split this motor, quite frankly a bit sick of all the rebuilds and felt I needed to get some time on the road before the weather gets bad. I did change the cylinder, head and piston as there was scoring in the cylinder and the piston was a 3rd over sized and had scoring on it - and its cheaper to replace than machine a 4th oversize and also that would have been the limit as 4th is as far as you can go. Dave hand cut the ports on a new 3 port cylinder and honed it nicely. Put it all together, did the electrical conversion (this was fun, I love electronics) and mounted the CDI and regulator.

Converted the motor to a 8 inch (very simple, dust cover plate, brakes and rear hob fir straight on from the old motor) Mounted the lot - it went straight in, no issue. Fired it up - had an idle issue (would not stay on unless I opened up the throttle), did a carb rebuild and found that the mixture screw was missing - reassembled and now she is running well!

No smoke - I was worried about the seals, but they seem OK.
I am running in the motor now as I have the new rings in it, but for the last couple of weeks she has been sweet! I think she has finally in one piece - can't wait to open her up, will have to wait for another 600km for the run in to finish, but seems to have more power (it is a 3port motor and 20/20 carb!).

Have to sort out a couple of mystery vibration in the body, but I am happy with her.

Another Asian Scooter Saved!

2009-01-31T18:09:00.012+11:00

Another Asian Restored Vespa "Saved"!

This is James' Story.

James is from Melbourne, he fell in love with a gorgeous old Vespa in Bali and decided to buy her. I mean have a look at it...why wouldn't you fall for her? :)

It had been 'restored' there and he wanted to bring it back to Australia.
After organising transport he awaited the arrival of his dream scooter.

Woooo Hoooo!

Scooter Day :)

Hmmm, I wonder what it is?

James soon discovered things were just not right. The old Vespa wasn't running that great so he decided to investigate.

What he found wasn't a 'restored' engine but something badly patched and bodgied in order to flog to the Western market.

Glue, Glue and more Glue!

Nice Machining Work in Bali....... what with?? a CHISEL!?! Auughhhh!!

When at first you don't succeed- Epoxy it!

That's The Asian Vespa Restorers Best Friend- Other than Bog!

"Nah, they'll never see the inside of the engine, just Epoxy it"

That's Better!
Good on you James...

OMG

Rear axle bearing retainer Welded in!! – a job for another day – seals and bearing OK thank, God!!)

A bit of a mess. Look restored to you?

Other buyers beware...they don't expect you to ever find this stuff, they want you to pay your few thousand bucks and just bugger off!!

Clutch Bell Gasket Gunk

More to fix

Getting her back together

Engine Back In
Motor Work:
a. Full strip down!
b. All seals and bearings (FW side – Oil Gallery blocked up and off set, Clutch side – damaged from Cush Gear Plate)
c. Cush kit (springs and plates)
d. Cruciform
e. New Carby

Modifications:
1. Machined cases where previously repaired (poor gauging of material to match cases - nice and smooth now)
2. Replacement of all cylinder studs (suspicious threads)
3. Drilled out bearing oil galleries (incorrectly blocked in previous repair - sure to fail eventually)
4. Dremel the seal seats flat internal and external (previous repair had left material that off-set seal seating - nice and flat now)
5. Machined cylinder bead flat (poor fit when cases were matched, needed excess gasket material to work. Also – heaps of ‘crap’ to help seal the ill fitted seal)
6. Machined cylinder head- piston not clear of head (piston would hit head, it had two thin gasket plates to compensate, now fitted without the two gasket - piston is clear of head)
7. Clutch nuts replaces (had normal nuts, not castellated with basket and butchered to remove original nut)
8. FW nut replaced (poor blunt nut replaced)
9. Main drive gear - nuts & retention washer replaced
10. 98mm engine stud added (missing, the long one next to swing arm - bodgey engine stud with nuts used)
11. 14 new X 11mm nuts and stainless steel washers / lock washers and heaps of other crap screws/nuts and bolts
12. Added correctly fitting shim washer on rear axle (leaked and had 3mm play, now nice and tight - and dry!)

Other:
13. All brakes
14. All cables
15. All cable adjusters (most missing or broken)
16. Repaired gear cable control plate / cable holder (had been welded and would not accept correct cable butt end - drilled to correct size, filed clean)
17. Rebuilt brake switch (clean, unbend and solder - removed masking tape)
18. Added cable crimps to all junction box cabling (wire twisted around terminals)
19. Added light to Speedo
20. Front light holder repaired (missing clips, bad connectors and just plain bad)
21. Bulb holder rear light repaired (bad connectors, bare wires and just plain bad)
22. New lights all round
23. Replaced head stem bearings (front end would shudder under braking - now nice and tight)
24. Added mirror
25. Wired in indicators and added switch (poorly added - now works fine, not sure I will keep these on)
26. All wiring joins now soldered, shrink warped or crimped
27. Rebuilt stator plate (Replaced bad wiring)
28. Fitted luggage/tire rack correctly
29. Fitted petrol cap rubber seals
30. Fitted FW points dust cover (Kidney shaped rubber on FW fan cover)
31. Fitted rear shocker (nuts under rear seat had com off!)
32. Renewed control lever bolts (old ones just crap)
33. Added cotter pins to brakes (nails used)
34. Added cotter pins to rear/front axles (nails used)
35. Refit luggage rack
36. Condenser
37. HT Coil
38. Points
39. Set timing
40. Educated myself about all things Zen and Vespa.......

ALL Done – NICE !!

Fingers crossed – starts first kick now, let’s see how reliable she is now.

So that was James story.

There's many many like them too.

Sad but true.

Now....if we can just convince some of the boofheads on the hardcore scooter advice sites that "trashing it" just isn't an option.

That means the Asian restorers win that battle and another classic Vespa is lost to the great scrapheap in the sky..

No Way!

Come on guys- you need to adjust the attitude a bit.

Don't look at them as Asian Bodges, look at them as a classic worth saving.

It's that simple, Just save their souls!

The trouble with buying your dream scooter over the net..

2008-12-23T11:15:00.008+11:00

The trouble with...

ASIAN VESPA AND LAMBRETTA RESTORATIONS
By Sam Schembri-Portland

Never before has the old saying "Buyer Beware" had more significance for the modern day scooterist.

If you've been involved in the booming scooter industry or keen on old scooters at all, you would have heard all about the thousands of scooters sold all around the world each year which start their new lives in sweaty Asian chop shops.

Of course there are some good ones out there, I am referring to the many many hundreds of 'dealers' who are set up to rip people off for as long as they can before being shut down.

The aim of their game is to find the cheapest scooters they can, remove all the original, pitted and dull looking parts and replace them with poorly chromed and badly made parts that they think we would like to see on the scooters. They add home made shims where they need to in order to make parts pit without rattling and if a goo coke can shim won't fix it then they have learned that epoxy resin will!

If you don't have access to "O" rings you can simply make them out of some cotton and electrical tape!

This is how the story unfolds all over the world....

A person spots an old Vespa or Lambretta online and falls in love with it.......thats's fair enough-who wouldn't?

They check it out from all angles, looks good, it has a great write up by someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about so that gives them some confidence.

They search online and find that other scooters are fetching similar prices all over the world so they decide to think about it some more.

That night they can't get to sleep as they think about how cool it will be to pull up at the coffee shop and watch all the heads turn to check out the old scooters and it's cool rider!

The next day they check it out again, notice someone else is bidding and as they have pictured themselves on it already, riding through the streets with the warm summer air on their face they decide there and then to buy it.

A few weeks and a bit of extra cash later the crate arrives at the port, yipppeeee. They rush down and pay all the appropriate fees to all and sundry, organise to get the crate home, dreaming of their first sidewalk macchiato.

After all the unpacking and admiring from afar it's time to start her up, or at least try to!

This is the step where people start to realise what they've bought into the country and where I usually get all my business from.

Sometimes they'll be lucky and get going for the time being. That might be for 10kms, 100kms or even 1000kms but when things go wrong and they finally have to drop and open the engine they discover things that make their hair curl!

On investigation, one of the very first things they hear from the so called 'people in the know' is ...'can't help you-sorry.'

Most shops just won't touch Asian restored scooters. There's probably some legal reason why Vespa shops won't touch them. This has got to be the single biggest warning sign of them all when doing your purchsing homework. When you ring the bigger Vespa shops in the country and ask "Can you service my old Vespa?" , one of the very first questions they'll ask is where is it from? I'm almost 100% sure they all give you the same answer.

So what do you do if you've bought an Asian restored Vespa and it won't go?
EMAIL ME NOW!

We should be able to get you going again and well enough to pass your roadworthy test which is our goal of course.

You can also look at this phenomenon from another angle completely. This is the scenario I am personally fighting against. Essentially, every single old Vespa or Lambretta coming out of Asia has been restored to death. Despite the restorers thinking they are selling an old scooter to someone to use as transport, in actual fact they've done the opposite. They are modifying them so heavily or the work is of such a poor standard that the new owners dreams of riding a classic scooter to the cafes will never be realised without first having to spend much more hard earned cash on it.

Scootissimo came about to try to help those people get those old scooters on the road rather than losing them to the Asian Scooter rip off scams, it's bad enough that people have spent thousands already on their scooter dreams, throwing good money after bad hurts even more..

Email now if this sounds like it's happened to you or even someone you know.

We are NOT here to say.."that's what you getwhen you buy a scooter online from Asia"! ...which is all you'll hear from lots of scooter shop people all over the country, believe me! I've heard it all myself!!

We are here to help you, for a reasonable price we'll get you scooting again and what's more..SAFELY!! We'll remove all the crappy scooter bling and home made modifications so you'll pass your roadworthy inspection with flying colours. We don't pass anything back to you with any kind of guarantee (we can't do that) we just get your scooter running smootly and you'll have that long awaited "scooter grin" ...sitting at your local cafe admiring your pride and joy on the footpath.

NEED HELP GETTING YOUR ASIAN RESTORED SCOOTER RUNNING AND FIT FOR REGO?

Email now!!

We CAN Help.

All my Bikes and Scooters

2008-11-13T22:14:00.008+11:00

ought

Today I found a picture of an old bike I used to ride on my grandparents farm and it got me to thinking how many 2 wheeled toys I had owned over the years, the different farm bikes, road bikes and now scooters.

Here's my 'Bikeography'

My very first ride, the Honda AZ50

What memories, learning to balance and ride when I was 3 in the Riverland of SA, my uncle Steve and Dad running along side to make sure I got the hang of it.

Hot days, red dirt, rows and rows of track in the orange groves to just
ride all day. I rode in shorts and tshirt and never remember getting hurt or burnt- ahh the good ole days :)

I was shattered when Dad took the engine out of the mini bike to make a go cart when I was about 5 or 6, the AZ was way too small for me by then.... but still!!! I never got over it..sob sob.. :)

HONDA AZ50

This next one was my toy on my grandparents farm. I started riding this model when I was about 9 or 10. I wasn't allowed to ride it until I could touch the ground. I remember running to the machinery shed every weekend when we first drove in the driveway, I'd jump on and stretch as far as I could groaning as I tried to reach the ground with my bare foot!! :)

On this bike I mastered dam bank jumps, skids and slides and was able to even pop little mono's by age 11. The friends I used to bring home for the weekend would be a bit white knuckled on the back for a few kms but soon starting grinning as big as me!

HONDA 100

SUZUKI TS 185

Back to the riverland for holidays, I'd jump on my uncles Suzi and race around the old familiar tracks in Loxton on the block

SUZUKI ER185

(I think?)

Another family farm rider

Vespa PX150 or 200

(can't remember which)

This was 'a Loaner'

This came about in a funny way, it belonged to the son of my very first next door neighbour in Mt Barker SA. He asked if I'd like to borrow it to get to work and back while I was saving for a car, I used to ride my pushy to work but I think he felt sorry for me one winter and said his son would appreciate it if i could keep it running for him while he was away.

Which I did, until he came back....from jail!!

He sold it for drugs I heard years later but I had the best few months ever on that old scooter- vowed there and then in 1986 that I would own a Vespa one day. I waited 19 years for that dream to come true!

YAMAHA DT250

Road/Trail

This was the first bike I ever 'owned outright' and had out on the open road (and bush-which was way more fun!)

SUZUKI GSX250

This was my first real 'road' bike, I loved it. I rode it from Adelaide to Victoria about 3 times, even moved house on it once! It had a quirk where I had to lift the seat before starting and spray some fuel down the top of the carby air filter just to get her going, I rode around with a Rexona pump action bottle filled with fuel under my seat for 3 years in all kinds of weather, now I'm older and wiser (and in the Safety Business!) I'd probably not do that now :)

YAMAHA XS650
Man, I LOVED this bike. When I owned it I was living in the Adelaide Hills before the tunnel went in and it was a joy to ride to "town" thru the hills. They were no match for the old girl, she was a beast- mine was chocolate brown (brush painted) with more gaffa tape than backstage at an AC/DC concert!!!

The back road from the Great Eastern Hotel in Littlehampton to Birdswood was my fave ride.

SUZUKI TS185

I didn't ride for many many years until I had the chance to buy a cheapo 'bush basher' from a family friend. It was fun for a while then gave it to my brother to have fun on.

YAMAHA 100 Ag
In my shed at the moment awaiting a rear tyre, was my brothes. This old beast will just be my 'camping basher' or for some rough fun in the paddocks next door.

and then the Vespa Bug bit me!

Lola VBC 150 Super Franki VBC 150 Custom Sophia SS180

I think there's a few farm bikes and rat bikes missing but this is the main list.

I've had some fun on 2 wheels, I think when you are bitten by the bug as I was at age 3, you are hooked for life!

Arabella, purchased Oct 2009

Some troubles with Lola

2008-11-13T22:06:00.002+11:00

The weather has really warmed up now and we are into scooter season again.
I decided to roll Lola out for a little cruise the other day but couldn't get her started. I put it down to the old dodgey broken and regularly fixed fuel tap so I set about replacing it. That done along with a few other overdue jobs and I was ready to get going, but alas- still no go.
I worked back from the spark plug after finding an intermittant spark only and discovered a bad coil, new one fitted and all is great again, much more powerful ride...feels more 'gutsy'.

The Rebirthing of Sophia Part 2

2008-10-16T17:23:00.007+11:00

I've put some new videos on youtube, Part 2 of "The Rebirth of Sophia" as well as "Lola's Story" and "Black & Gold" a little show about Francesca.

You can check them out here on my special channel at Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/scootissimo

Today I think I sorted out the bearings and seals, tomorrow I will visit Higgo's and bead blast the other side of the case and start to think about what is needed to get it happening sometime before christmas! :)

I am waiting on GPS to let me know how they are going with the front hub assembly but I am definately getting closer.

STILL TO DO LIST:

Bead blast other half of case
Higgo will remill sections of case after he's made some minor repairs
Sandblast then beadblast hubs and backing plates to remove last of paint.
Get Higgo to mill the old hubs, clean them up for new brakes
Blast the old flywheel
Finish polishing the clutch housing to get old rub marks off
Renovate front end-awaiting hub assy, but I have faith in the boys at GPS if he says he has one it's probably there somewhere...he says he just has to find it :)
Clean up the engine bits, re-hone cylinder, clean up piston, clean pits and gouges from inside cylinder head-from very obvious prior ring explosion issues!!
Renew all bushes and buffers
Check steering bearings
Check Suspension
Renew engine mounts with nice urethane ones if I can find some (if not Higgo said he can make them for me)
Find an air filter (anyone got a spare?) ;) I have a modified foam pod ready to go so not tooo stressed there...
Check out the wiring loom while her guts is open as well as headset electrics

That will do for now!

When all that is done I'll think about sitting down with my bags and bags of parts and the manuals and see what's still missing, it was too hard to tell when I was pulling it apart as so many things looked different to my other scooters (both VBC's) and I assumed at the time they were original but have since discovered otherwise!

I take it the tabbed clutch nut and washer is the same on this model as the others, still to get to that bit...but I definately didn't remove one! It was a nylock nut by memory..eeek.

More to come folks

What a difference a spray makes!

2008-10-06T15:32:00.008+11:00

Glass Bead Blasting is Fun!!

It's been a long time between blogs for me, busy with work, life and trying to keep warm and dry.

Thankfully we've seen the end of the long cold dark days (...she says as she looks over her shoulder out the window, to the hail and wind...!) OK...so most of the long dark days are overwith :)

I finally got my act together and proceeded to the next stage of the SS180 project, the clean up of parts.

Here's one side done and one in need of attention, makes a HUGE difference!

In the process of the pull down I continued to find some astonsihing asian shortcuts.
This I had heard of, but never actually come across it...until now.

It's the drink can shim!!

and for some reason, they reamed out the hole! See above pic- It's supposed to have a nice round hole there where the gear selector rod goes thru to selector! God knows why? All going to be fixed up by Higgo and will be as good as new when done so no stress there but you still have to ask yourself why!!!!

Stay tuned for more.....

Higgo's New Toy

Find a job you love & you'll never work a day in your life!

2008-08-23T12:38:00.009+10:00

A wise woman once said to me,

'Find a job you love doing and you'll never have to work a day in your life'.

How very true!

Enter......SCOOTISIMO :)

About 3 and a half years ago I decided to start a new business venture, one that I would enjoy working in and maybe earn me some moolah along the way. I decided my business vision needed to be simple, to provide other scooter riders with parts at a much cheaper price than they were currently paying. To me, it felt like people were being punished for having an interest in old scooters, in that the parts were as dear as poison, if in fact you could find them! It also occurred to me that this might be keeping people off scooters, classic ones anyway. I knew a couple of people with old scoots in their shed that couldn't do anything to them because of the lack of decent parts or they just couldn't afford them anyway. A very counter productive industry in my opinion.

I had bought an old VBC and was finding it hard to find parts for, well, parts in my budget range. I started ringing around the scooter shops to feel my way a little. I discovered that parts were available and mostly aftermarket stuff as Piaggio stopped making the genuine stuff many many years ago. There are a handful of manufacturers in Italy and Europe, cranking out good quality stuff but I just couldn't afford their parts so went looking elsewhere. I emailed many shops and dealers all over the world, slowly compiling a list of the better known and trusted parts suppliers. I rang the international suppliers and during long winded passionate conversations about old scooters managed to glean a bit more info here and there before discovering one final fact. It started to dawn on me that many roads in the scooter parts world lead to India. I jumped on the net and started some investigations. I bought parts initially from a manufacturer in New Delhi, and even though they suited the budget they turned out to be pretty damn average but we live and learn.

Side Note- it's here that I apologise to some of my earlier customers for some of the inferior products I had in stock..it won't happen again folks- I guarantee that!

The next supplier I went to was a bit more expensive but parts were getting better, and to cut a very long and tedious story short, after 3 years of searching and climbing I made it to the top of the pile.

I now buy my parts from one of the very same companies stocking the shelves of shops like:

Beedspeed in the UK, Seventies Scooters in France, Thai Charoen in Bangkok, Lambretta Teile in Germany, Eddy Bullet & Lambretta Cottage in the UK, just to name a few. I will be offering new stock in about 4 weeks and will be adding an order form to the website so stay tuned and thanks for your support.

Asian Scooter Restorations. The BIG Picture!

2008-08-23T07:56:00.017+10:00

When I was searching online for my first scooter a few years back, it became very apparent to me that beautiful classic old Vespas and Lambrettas were being ripped apart and 'modernised' for convenience in all corners of Asia to feed the ever burgeoning appetite for classic scooters in the western world.

I've talked about this before on this blog, it's a big part of my life as I get so many emails from people needing help with parts for their scooters. They've spent upwards of $4000 by the time they get it here from god knows where in Asia and don't really want to spend much more but need to get it running. It's Catch 22 alright! "Do I suck it up and live with the fact that I just spent $4000 on a shiny useless paperweight with wheels or, do I spend more hard earned cash on replacement parts and try and get it registered?

Nicnamed Vietbodges, Vietscoots and Frankenscoots, they are classics hacked to death for a few thousand dollars.

But what burns me is, if you stop for a minute and think about the big picture here, it's heartbreaking and extremely scary. Think about all of the consequences of 'restoring' a classic scooter in Asia.

Old Vespas, many of which have been ridden around Asia for the last 40 years have all of a sudden become hip and trendy in the western world. We see them, we fall in love with them and for whatever other reason, we go in search of our dream. Maybe its for the cheaper fuel, to relive the Mod days or, damn it... just for fun! :)

The Asian chop shop owners see their prey and pounce. They're pulling the classics off the road to flog to us at an alarming rate. They rip all the genuine parts off to 'modernise' them and after covering them in shiny badly chromed after market parts, they flip them to unsuspecting westerners online who've fallen in love with 8 or so pictures of a shiny piece of poo they'll never be able to get registered.
So have you ever wondered what happens to the original parts? If not binned or able to be restored they are sold on. I know a dealer in India who buys entire vintage engines for scrap, or he'll send 100 of the 'better' engines to Thailand to be patched and bodged for the next Ebay sale. A tragic ending for a classic old scooter.

When the scooters are stripped in Asia, they are also often welded and bogged up to cover 40 years of dents and dings, sometimes even to disguise them as a rarer model.

Get a load of these pieces of faked poo

This first one from a dealer in Melbourne, a car dealer trying to make more cash it seems! the other pic from scooterbbs.

People with no idea are sucked in every day to the tune of thousands of dollars. As you'd expect, life in Asia can be rough for an old scooter. You can also imagine some of the patch up welds and bog that are found on Asian 'restored' scooters. I will always use that term very very loosely, I prefer to call it "restored to death". Some of these old scooters are bastardised so much during the process they can never be registered for road use in the countries they are destined for. Buyers of these scooters from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ to name a few, find it extremely difficult to get them on the road as the registration specifications for road use in some of these countries are quite stringent. This is of no concern to Mr. Hu Flung Dung of course, the Asian scooter chop shop owner with the big smile on this face. They get paid and are laughing all the way to the bank. They might be lucky enough to repeat the whole process a few times before having to pack up and move shop when things get a bit heated. How hard would it be to find a particular dealer in Ho Chi Minh City when you've been sucked in and bought a dodgey scooter from the other side of the world. I often wonder how many times this scenario has played out all over the world? It's probably not that appropriate but I become more angry at the loss of the old scooters than I do feeling sorry for the people who lost money.

There has to be hundreds, if not thousands of old scooters lying in sheds all over the planet, unable to be ridden or registered, they are gone forever, restored to death.

The saga continues...

2008-08-03T10:33:00.002+10:00

I haven't been spending much time in the shed due to the weather and STILL waiting for the 'handyman' to fix the potbelly stove chimney so I can stoke it up and stay warm out there. I am an eternal optimist and when he said he'd be here 3 weeks ago, I believed him :)

This week I've had new guttering on 2 sides of the house installed and 2 rather large trees in my front yard lopped off to keep them away from the power lines so that's enough excitement and money out of the piggy bank for now! **gulp**

Hopefully this project doesn't get any bigger than it looks at the moment because after the recent steady stream of workman through this place, there's not much left in the piggy!

{I will be adding pics here of latest finds...stay tuned!}

A small glitch...

2008-07-23T13:51:00.002+10:00

A small hiccup, the boys at the scooter shop and I got our wires crossed a tad, I was asking for a hub assembly but got the hub in the mail instead so i have sent it back awaiting to see what they can find for me. In the meantime I have a few more jobs to go ahead with, been working too hard to get the cases done, hate it when life gets in the way of scooting! My other parts from GPS Imports arrived, just waiting for a couple of weird items now and will set off on the journey of reassembling. As I am not touching the paint work other than touch ups it shouldn't be too long before I can get her on the road.

A Special present for Sophia

2008-07-14T12:37:00.005+10:00

I decided to give Sophia one special gift to make her rebirth complete and make her feel special ;)

I was very lucky to snag this plate! I must be the only fanatical SS owner in this state so far? :)

The new plate arrived today, I was hoping the blue would be the same as the scoot but not quite :(

Doesn't matter, she will look great with it on, we had to try it on for size...sort of.

Southern Right Whale in the bay

2008-07-13T18:28:00.003+10:00

Portland, Victoria.

You often hear that Warrnambool is the place to go to see whales up close, they have a viewng platform at Logan's Beach so you can see the whales playing out in the ocean.

However...if you want to see whales up close, you should come to Portland. :)

The BIG Clean Up

2008-07-12T13:23:00.004+10:00

Granny always said 'Patience is a Virtue'.

Granny didn't have an SS180 in the shed waiting to be ridden for the first time!!

I've been fairly busy with work so haven't done much with the SS over the last week or so. I have an order almost ready to go for the last of the parts and will get into the reassembly as soon as the cleaning is finished. Before I tackle that, there are some jobs to do on the cases.

One case stud bolt hole needs a weld up from the inside as it has made a small hole due to someone screwing it in a bit too far! Another job is the hole for the gear selector shaft plunger has at some stage been drilled out wider than it should be so will get that fixed too while I'm in there.

Here's the very basic steps left before I can ride Sophia for the first time.

Fix the cases.
Bead blast cases and all engine alloy bits
Clean all the engine bits that can't be blasted.
Reassemble engine after renewing all rubber buffers, gaskets, bearings and seals etc
Put rear hub on with new brakes, put engine back in.
Remove headset and front forks for inspection, renew bearings, seals, cables etc
Reassemble headset and front end, renewing hub bearings and speedo drive, new brakes
Wiring and timing checked (as per the pre-marked cases)
Lube up as recommended in manual, greases, oils, fuels
Last Safety check, inspect all nuts, bolts, cables, EVERYTHING!
Start her up, tweak mixture and timing as needed
Vroom Vroom.
Check everything works and book a roadworthy test, rego and go!

**Fingers Crossed** I hope this is the way it all unfolds, stay tuned for more over the next week or so. It's deathly cold here at the moment so I'm avoiding shed work at night until my Pot Belly Stove is fixed. Wuss!! :)

Is this an SS180 crank?

2008-07-05T15:58:00.004+10:00

This is my crank

It's not like the round ones shown in the parts books?

Does anyone know anything about this type of crank.

Is it better for performance etc to have the round design or the 'cut' design like the one I have?

Cheers

Sam

UPDATE: 7th July

Thanks to some help from a couple of fellow SS owners I have established the picture in the parts book is really a generic after market crank and the one I have is from an SS :)

Thanks to fellow SS180 owners

2008-07-04T16:09:00.004+10:00

Although they are probably not aware of it, I have been lurking and learning from SS180 owners all over the world by reading their blogs and forum postings.

This is a specific thank you to Eric and Jeremy who have both got SS180's and decided to share their adventures when restoring. Follow the links to the right to see their projects.

I have also been able to follow some of Eric's advice to other SS owners on the Modern Vespa Forum, who are dealing with the same issues I am. It has all been very very useful and saved me loads of time and stress.

Thanks Guys, it's pages like yours that help put more Vespas back on the road.

Whew!

2008-07-04T15:50:00.003+10:00

I've had time to go over the SS180 to see what is actually missing, broken or 'bastardised beyond recognition'.

The biggest issues so far have been the broken hub assembly, the missing air filter, bellows and speedo cable and seals. I am fairly relieved that I will get this job done for about $400 including parts as I will do most of it myself and have found everything I need. I won't be changing the paint for now, just happy to get another Vespa off the scrap pile and back on the road.

It's all about the cosmetic stuff now but I have a list of stuff that is missing that I will try to find.

Luckily I have a good friend who is an engineer and will make some of the sacrificial items for me like cotter pins, welsh plugs etc as well as weld up repairs for the case or repair holes with helicoils, making this journey a little less stressful. I know at anytime if I ever get stuck I can call him and he'll help me through it but I get a big kick out of doing as much as I can by myself.

GPS Imports to the rescue...again!

2008-07-04T15:19:00.005+10:00

I had all but resigned myself to the fact that this project was over when I discovered this. IE: How hard would it be to find an SS180 front hub assembly in one piece because mine is in 2!

Just as I was disconnecting the front brake assembly I noticed some lumps under the paint work. I gave the brake backing plate a tap with a wooden mallet and a fine crack appeared, you can see it just below the spring here...

I started to pick and chip away at the bog to see what had been covered up.

Eeeek..
The front hub is cracked and joined by bog (not welded at all) and 2 little screws from the front side of the backing plate.

A quick call to GPS with fingers and toes crossed (and a quick word to the Vespa Gods) paid off.

Steve has a good looking 2nd had unit for $150, all he has to do is find it amongst his treasure trove of scooter goodies and I'm in business.

Ordered so far

2nd hand hub assy -$150

Carb seals -$10

Points set -$15

Gear change tube washer-$2

Air Filter -$27

Next Order I will need

Speedo cable and drive pinion

Engine Gaskets and Oil Seals
SKF Bearings from local shop or my shop stock

I will be beadblasting the cases and hubs myself using a mates set up, I expect this to make them look like new!

At the moment I am having my shed lined and potbelly stove flue fixed (it's bloody windy here in SW Vic!) and when that's done I'll be back out to scooter nights in the shed but for now It's just too damn cold at night.

I'll attack the case work and hubs next

The very First Warning Bells are sounding

2008-07-04T15:05:00.012+10:00

I knew I would find some dodgey stuff as I went along, it's from Asia after all.

What I am banking on though, is that regardless of the crappy chrome and shiny paint, there is still a soul in this old scooter. I need the workings and frame to be OK, I don't really care about the little "fix-its" along the way, they go without saying as this scooter is 41 years old.

So, what did I find? ....Gulp....

The Seal is stuck in place with god knows what?? Haven't attacked this yet, I am currently about to beadblast my cases, hubs, flywheel and anything else I can find to make shiny :)

......Stay tuned....

The "rebirthing" of Sophia begins

2008-07-04T13:08:00.029+10:00

How to bring an Asian Resto back to life

The old catch phrase that went hand in hand with Vespa, "From Rome, with Love" needs a modern update.

"From Asia-to rip you off (& with no regard for your safety what-so-ever!)"

The insidious invasion of Asian scooter restorations obviously equates to rising numbers of classic scooters sitting in sheds all over the world unable to be registered or ridden. This scourge on the classic scooter world is as detrimental to their history and tradition (IMHO) as it would be if it was written off or put in a car crusher. I have personally seen scooters that have been ‘restored to death’. It will cost more now to 'rebirth' the scooter than what it’s worth, in both time and money. This is very sad, as many are now just shiny ornaments as people hang on to them in a hope that one day they will be able to get it on the road.
I have seen this industry grow in an alarming rate over the past few years. I remember when I first went online looking for a classic scooter as a project and there were 3 scooters listed on Ebay for sale, one was in Vietnam and the other 2 were here in Australia. Recently when I did a search there were 18 classic Vespa scooters online and most were from Vietnam or low mileage classics for resale here. This means one thing to me. It’s dead and it can’t be fixed as reputable bike shops won’t touch them, don’t know enough about them or parts just can’t be found.
This scenario must play out every single day, all over the world. I hate to imagine the number of classic scooters that are dead, sitting in sheds and workshops worldwide never to be fixed because some little Asian workshop has sacrificed its soul and ‘restored’ it to death.

The Waiting Yard!

(waiting for your well earned dollars!)

During my many years of reading and research I discovered that these workshops are often set up and run by westerners who have seen the scooter boom coming and wanted to get in on the action. Many corners are cut to save money in what they describe as the “restoration process”. Commonly, lots of Bondo is used to make the scooter look like it’s just rolled off the assembly line.They have had a hard life in Asia, having been imported en masse in the 60’s and 70’s as a cheap means of transport. Clones of the Vespa Scooter were licenced to be made in India and Indonesia (and other parts of the world under different names) so after market parts are plentiful in the region. Asian parts are often ill fitting and seriously unattractive, but it is increasingly hard to find genuine parts or New Old Stock (NOS) these days so the market is flooded with cheap (and ugly! see pic below) repro’s.

Just about every scooter rider or enthusiast I know has a list of what they would like to own in the perfect scooterist world. My list had a GS160 on it as do most others.

I also resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never find one here but a girls got to dream.

So when I came across an SS180 online for sale and did some research I started to think I might still own a classic from the GS series style scooters.

One look at it told me it was an Asian import, one thing I initially always tried to steer clear of under any circumstances but I decided to check it out anyway. Over the last year or so I have really been thinking about the numbers of Vespas coming out of Asia that are now basically buggered because of it. That made me quite sad. Surely they can't all be bad? I started to think that I might be able to find one to bring 'back to life' and even up the ledger, so to speak. I kept an eye out online for what looked like a decent project.

I had some basic starting criteria for my search.

The scooter had to be here in Australia with paperwork

In running condition, no noisy engine, no noisy clutch or clunky gear change.

No metal fleck in the gear oil

No welds, joins or mega bogged sections

No bent fork

Matching case sides

Matching engine and frame numbers

As many original parts as possible.

I didn't care too much about the colour, the tyres, the cosmetics or all the vietchrome, all that can be fixed.

Can she be bought back from the brink? Who knows? What I do know is I will have enormous fun in the process and the end result will be very rewarding having saved another classic from the rust pile.

So, I fell for the colour right away as it’s my favourite blue and as we are both 1967 ‘SS’ models I thought that was a ‘sign’ that I should see what I could do to rebirth her. I was communicating with the son in law of the owner and established that it came from Bali and he bought 2 of them, one for him, one for his lady friend. They had them crated and bought back to Australia but sadly they split up not long after so his Vespa dream was never realised. He gave me a good report on the running order of the scooter and then we got down to business. I got it for a good price and had it transported over from Adelaide.
Sophia, as she’s been christened, arrived late on a freezing cold winter’s night but as soon as I saw her for the first time she made me smile.

As she is an Asian import, the very first thing that must be done is a complete systematic pull down. For anyone doing this, I can’t stress this enough. Do not trust anything, check every single nut, bolt, gasket, shim, cable, screw and bearing from the tip of the front wheel all the way to the number plate holder and everything in between.

So it's time to get the nails dirty again.

Just like last winter when I pulled Lola apart, I expect to find things that make me laugh, gasp with horror, scratch my head with curiosity and amazement and swear in Italian (so she understands me). I fully expect it to be loads of fun too. There is no feeling of desperation this time as there’s 2 ‘spare’ scooters parked in the shed for me to ride while Sophia is on the operating table.

I will be keeping track of all the weird and whacky stuff I find on this scooter as I systematically pull her apart one bolt at a time.

I will also be keeping a tally of what it costs in parts and labour for the job.

OK, here we go, strap yourself in!

First Step- Prepare the Operating theatre, get all the tools, books, light and warmth you'll need.

I recommend getting a few buckets and label them "Clean", "RIP", "Repair", "Reno", "Replace".

As you pull things apart, decide what you need to do with it, put the item into a zip lock bag and label it immediately. You can throw it in whatever bucket it needs to be in and deal with it later. If it's something I think I might lose track of mentally (or forget how it came apart) I'll add a highlight to the manual page for reference later or highlight the item on a photocopy of an 'exploded' parts diagram. So on the bag with all the front brake bits in it, I have written "PG 75" and have also made a note of all the bits that weren't there when pulling down.
There are often missing washers, grommets, bushes etc and all these can be replaced if you follow the parts diagram if you go and make notes at the same time.

and then later, you can check the front end too

Do I need to go faster than 105KPH on 10" wheels?

2008-06-21T12:22:00.003+10:00

210cc! That's Wicked!!

As is mentioned on the pistonported.com page....

"The SS barrel has more wall thickness than the GS160 and can be bored out to accommodate a P200 piston for a resulting capacity of 210cc"

I'd be interested to hear from people who've done this?

Big Bertha

2008-06-21T11:54:00.003+10:00

I bought this custom VBC from Dave in Coffs Harbour. She's a bit of a beast. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first laid eyes on her.

She's W I D E R

& L O N G E R

than your average VBC 150 Super.

From what I can tell its been put together using an APE shield or something similar as the legshield is seamless all the way to the engine. Looking underneath you can see all the criss cross stamping pattern in the body although its a lot bigger than my others. There a bit of bog in the panels but all in all she's not too bad. She starts first kick and thanks to her big expansion chamber pipe, sounds pretty good too.

You can't always get what you want

2008-06-21T10:58:00.005+10:00

The GS Super Sport

Known as the SS180 Super Sport

Piaggio came out with this robust model in 1964, read more about it here at pistonported.com

http://216.32.198.134/history180SS.htm

I've never been what you'd call a purist when it comes to the Vespa, but I did always have my poster model that I wanted. The elusive GS seemed to be the much sought after model by Vespa people everywhere dreaming of their favourite or most desired scooter. It was on my list (still is I guess) for many years but having recently purchased a '67 SS180 I think I can safely say, this is it. I love her and from what I have read over the years she will treat me to some great power and reliable performance when I finally get her up and running and tuned properly, including replacing all dodgey bits for NOS if I can find it. Luckily I have established a big network of scooter parts suppliers worldwide for my parts business so I am hoping that finding crucial bits and bobs won't be too hard. I am very lucky to have found an SS in this condition, albeit under some shitty cheapo chrome and 2 tone paintjob, but the bits I need to be working well are all fine and the work is mostly fiddling with electrics and updating things I need to be A1 for safety, like brakes, cables, lights, tyres and that's all pretty easy for this scooterchick to handle :)

more to come

A new scooter, It was meant to be.

2008-06-21T09:01:00.016+10:00

This scooter thing is a real disease. You get the bug badly and if you are lucky enough to be able to stop yourself at one, all power to you! Hasn't worked for me. I'm hooked.

Let me introduce Sophia, a '67 SS180 in fairly good nic for an import. I'm doing a bit of a rebirth with her so expect it to take some time but was very happily surprised with the overall condition and fundamental running gear all fantastic. (note here, if the fundamentals are buggered I'd recommend that you didn't attempt a resto-too hard!)

So the price was right, the colour is my favourite in the world (that lovely cobalt blue) and its a 1967 SS just like me!! (born in 67 and my initials are SS) It was meant to be!! :)

So another project has started, great for winter and in lead up to my dream trip to Italy- planned for September or October when the weather is great and scooting through Tuscany will be a dream. I've found the Vespa Hire place, but at $66 euro a day I've been haggling! :) I have friends over there (Hi Zayney) who say they can find me an older vespa to 'borrow' for a few weeks but will see what they come up with first i think!

Stay tuned for the trip plan- will add it all here as I make decisions about where I'm staying etc

I'll be centering around this lovely quaint area of Italy, staying near here-Montalcino- as I have has dreams of riding through those avenues of pines since I was about 18! :)

Staying in agriturismo as it's cheap and gorgeous!

The SS

First step, getting rid of the inappropriate chrome!

As you can never trust what fuel mix the previous owner has used or how much they have cared for the fuel system, my first job with a new scooter (before I even try to kick it over for the first time) is to empty the fuel tank and check it out.

You may not like what you find!

This is what was left after the fuel came out! Ick!

So it's pointless cleaning the tank and renewing the fuelcock filters etc if you don't go through the entire sytem from woe to go so I renewed the old fuel line, filters and float as it was flooding the carb due to a small hole allowing fuel in making it too heavy to engage float needle, hence too much fuel and then moved on to the engine....

Systematically checking all the other crucial bits and pieces for wear and tear

Get ready for the big clean

I love a good winter project, I have to order some parts & will be spending lots of cold hours in the workshop over the next month or so but it will be a dream when I can roll her out of the shed when it's done.

Parts needed (that I know of so far)

gear sleeve washer

oil seals as is running very rich for no real reason

front wheel bearings

carb gasket set and maybe new needle?

Air filter (might put a foam pod in there yet?)

Points set

front and rear badges just to make her look right

Scooters go into Hibernation

2008-03-01T19:25:00.011+11:00

Brrrr, Winter is here and the scooters don't come out of the shed much until about September :(

We've had lots of scootin' weather but also some days where it just was way too hot to do anything but those days have great cool evenings which makes scooting very enjoyable.

I have 3 scooters to keep me busy over winter, lots of jobs to do so stay tuned for the headaches I will no doubt endure! :)

New Scooter!

2008-02-29T22:16:00.004+11:00

Friday 29th Feb 2008

Well I am so excited about my new scooter, just one drawback really, I am here in Portland and Francesca is still in Coffs Harbour- but as Granny always told me, good things come to those who wait.

I have to credit a scooter mate of mine in Cairns for christening her Francesca, I had chosen Arabella as it meant 'answered prayer' but the new name suits better for a couple of reasons.

I emailed Marco to show off a pic and was telling him she is a bit of a 'Frankenscoot' in that she is customised and has many different parts on board and his suggestion of Francesca for a name kind of fits. Franki for short, which was the nicname of my beloved old 70's caravan that I recently sold.

So it's Francesca and Lola.....so far!

BIG things in Portland Bay

2008-02-21T18:11:00.006+11:00

Thursday 21st Feb 2008

For the last month or so Portland Bay has been the home to this massive oil rig called "The Ocean Patriot"

They moored outside the bay when they first arrived and to see it out there it was awesome..

But then they moved it closer.. This thing is HUGE!

It's apparently bought something like $40 million to the district with repairs, crew and family accomodation, supplies, contractor employment etc.

If you are anywhere nearby and want to see something massive, make it quick- it's taking off soon I think.

The Scootache begins again

2008-02-21T17:57:00.007+11:00

February 2008

I am in desperate need of pulling my scooter off the road and changing the rear hub seal and both sets of brakes. She's not about to kill me or anything but I have the parts now and just can't seem to put her on blocks while the sun is shining. I am yet to take delivery of my new scooter so unlike some very lucky people I know in the scootering world, I don't have a spare! :( but I hope to change all that in about a month, I wonder if the new brakes can hold off til then? Hmmm? No-probably not. Bugger! I hate that feeling when the sun is out but the scooter is in!

Oh well, been scooting everywhere to make sure I get lots of exposure before the need arises.

Sunday I was up with the birds and set off on a lovely dawn scoot around the bay.

Took some great pictures before deciding to go and have a coffee on the foreshore and watch the sunrise but just as I pulled around the corner to pull up the throttle cable snapped and I was all of a sudden stranded. I suddenly felt a huge relief when I realised I had some spare cables and all the tools I'd need in the glovey so I set about finding the problem. The cable had come away from it's barrel ended seal in the headset, easy enough to fix I thought- done it before.

I pulled all the gear out of the glovey that was needed for the job and soon discovered I had every cable other than a throttle or clutch- which would have also worked in a pinch! Grrrr.

It's 7.02am on a sunday, what to do? I luckily remembered my purse this time so caught a taxi home and grabbed the right cables and drove my van down the street to either fix it there or bring it home. The drama was over within about 8 minutes and I decided to leave my van there and just keep on scooting!

So all in all it was a great day when I finally got going, picked my van up later in the day to pack it up for work and that was the end of another weekend.

A New Years Resolution that I finally kept!

2008-02-21T17:37:00.006+11:00

I had a dream.

This year I wanted to buy another scooter so I could always have one in running order when one is off the road. I had been watching a restored and customised vespa pop up for sale on and off online over the last 12 months or so and made an offer recently that was somewhat surprisingly accepted.

So.......I am officially a scooter collector!

"My Stable"

LOLA- 1974 150 Super

& Introducing

Francesca (thanks Marco)

(formally and very briefly known as Arabella)

She was listed as a 1966 Super but according to her numbers she's a '78 150 Super under all the customisation-but she's wider, longer, curvier and has all the wrong bling but nothing that can't be fixed as I have all the parts already in stock.

Lucky I'm not a purist I suppose...

She was a BARGAIN with a capital B and I am still grinning- thanks Dave :)

Now.....where to find an old GS?

41 degrees, does that mean summer is here?

2008-01-04T09:51:00.001+11:00

Well, summer is finally here. It's been very very hot down here with days in excess of 40 degrees. Yuk. Real bushfire weather and even unpleasant for scooting.

She does love the warm weather though, she's been riding like a dream, starts easily and idles evenly all the time and the ride on the open road is effortless, powerful and seriously more emjoyable than ever before.

I have a goofy smile on my face by the time I reach 3rd gear every morning when leaving home. I love that feeling.

Although Lola has been running well there are a few things that still need doing and since the rebuild I have been too busy scooting to worry about pulling her apart again but it has to be done so will attempt it this week if not too hot in the shed.

Rear hub seals, brakes, fix horn and brake lights, realign front tyre (got a little wobble, think the rubber is on crooked) as well as a few little CDI jobs, add battery to rectifier and rewire rear brake to work in with system in reverse.

So it's time to head out for a scoot, theres a massive oil rig in our port at the moment which is about 20 storeys tall, an awesome sight indeed.

Fun stickers and T shirt Logos

2008-01-04T09:41:00.004+11:00

A few of my own designs

The Scootache is over

2007-12-29T20:13:00.000+11:00

There were days I thought this moment would never arrive.

It is finally engine day!

October 23rd 2007

Back bolt in-via rear suspension pivot

Feed all wiring through ready to see if joins are right

Back together again for the first time in nearly 8 weeks!

Temporary joins in wiring.

Let there be Spark! Pleeeeeaaassseeee!!!!

Yes!

Now for fuel...

I have to be more patient, I'm a Vespa owner!!

2007-10-15T17:08:00.000+10:00

I'm a classic Aries and at a time like this it shows, I'm seriously impatient when I have a project on the go.

I have been scooterless for way too long and the endless list of vespa specific idiosyncracies I keep finding is making my head spin.I want to go for a scoot and I want to go now!! :)

I think it's a test!

There's been so much S#%@ that has had to be dealt with along the way to get where I need to be.... sitting on my scooter with helmet on ready to go for the maiden voyage!

New cables broken, new brakes don't fit the pivot, new D clips are binding up wiring for indicators-need to re-route, wiring for CDI is all over the shop, can't work it out, gear cable carrier is not holding cable end as it should, cables keep disappearing into steering column-have to figure out a way of anchoring them in the headset without hindering their operation? The headlight bulb won't work, rear brake switch needs to be reversed, Horn is A/C I think? and not working, will tap into an A/C wire if I can, junction box seems to be wired differently to most diagrams I have so will have to play around to find what's what. Stripped the clutch breather hole thread and the oil drain hole thread & had to get them helicoiled, the clutch cable was a severe pain to get into position but finally got it after lots of swearing. I couldn't get the front hub nut done up tight enough on my own to get the split pin through so had to call on some muscle for that one. This is just a small list of stuff that went wrong in the final stretch :(

So, back on with rear hub after fitting brakes and new clips, the metal brake backing plate was a bit bent up so needed a light panel beating, sorry for the sideways picture!

wheel back on with new tyres and tubes

new carby and all new seals

Lined up ready to be jacked up for the main 2 bolts, rear suspension bolt and main pivot.

Halfway there

It's IN!!!!!

Will it start???

The Rewiring Game

2007-10-06T08:05:00.000+10:00

October 4th 2007

I had to make a wiring detour. I was going to ignore it and move on as it's working fine but my mate Higgo said it would be no worries at all to fix so I took a deep breath, snipped the indicator loom and pulled it out . Gulp! I found the wires I needed in the body so we could tap into them later and started with trying to figure out where to put everything.

wiring ready to tap into if needed

The local bike guys couldn't figure out how to get into the headset when installing my little bud indicators so glued the cable to the side of the headset and along the floorboard to the glovebox. Looked quite dodgey but was glued on hard and I was scared of taking off more of the elusive purple paint that I can't seem to have matched anywhere.

Joining new wires and rerouting rear lights through the proper hole instead of through a drilled hole!

So Higgo helped me reroute all the wiring back through the body and I spent a couple of hours rejoining and soldering in the headset to make it all rattle proof and an hour or so adding wires for the CDI unit. I went to the local auto electrician who helped me make a tiny unit for the old speedo as it was missing so now I'll see how fast I'm going at night

Now, what's that white one for again?? Trying to figure out what goes where...

Taping it all up for the dummy run.

So the new indicator wiring is done, CDI wiring done, new bulb for speedo, reroute back light wiring and a quick terminal exchange for everything in the headset. Next step, engine in! Finally.

The rain has stopped & the parts are here-Let's Go!

2007-10-03T12:14:00.000+10:00

October 3rd 2007

My last (*crosses fingers*) box of parts arrived this morning in order for me to finish my scooter off, clutch cover, brake shoe clips, D clips, carby retaining bolts and some nice legshield trim as a treat. I bought a clutch cover from a shop in Melbourne and they have sent me a 2nd hand one when I thought I'd bought a new one? Anyhoo wasn't too peeved as it's an original Piaggio one and in way better nic than my old one, gave it a polish on Higgo's buffing wheel this morning.

It's like a mirror,

shame no-one will see it when it's on!!

I have some muscle coming to help with slipping the engine back in, then it's just the gear wires and CDI wiring and we'll almost be there. I'm hoping for the first kick over tonight maybe??

New Seals

New Clutch

Piston on and Crank back in

It's a good idea to wrap your piston to protect it from knocks at this point

By golly, I think we're ready.

Time for tyres

Make sure the inner area of the new tyre is clean from debris etc. Pump the new tube up a bit and ensure it fits snuggly within the tyre.

Ensure the valve stem is inserted s shown, turn over the tyre, add the other rim making sure you don't pinch the tube

Tighten all wheel nuts & do not add more air until this step is complete!!

Make sure the tyre is fitted properly as per the rubber fitting mark around the rim, the tyre should show the same gap or pattern all the way around on both sides. You can see the fitting mark in the picture above, it's a ridge of rubber forming a line, a few millimetres from the rim edge circling the whole tyre.

Almost, but not quite.

2007-10-03T12:06:00.000+10:00

Just when you think you can see that dim light in the tunnel, it's a long way in the distance but at least you can see it, something comes along to snuff it out.

Last night I decided to get a head start on the clutch cable renewal. I needed to wait for the D clips to arrive the next day to put it back together but at least I could get a start on the process of getting into the headset. So I managed to remove the cut off roofing nails used to secure the handlebar rods,

and then as I removed the old clutch inner wire the outer tried to follow within in headset. I gave it another wiggle as I leaned over to look at the rear of the cable-no movement! Great! The outer is in 2 pieces and from what I can feel, the piece at the handlebar end isn't that long.
Replacing outers is my pet peeve, especially if there is no existing cable to use as a guide!! Grrr.
There was only one thing to do, the cable had to come out and I'd have to try to wriggle a new one in on its own. Time check, 11.23pm, time for bed. A job for tomorrow.

So I was up at the crack to get this job done and wait for the parts to arrive. The clutch cable just wouldn't bloody go where I wanted it to, I fiddled and poked it all morning. There's so much going on in the wiring and cable space it's all getting a bit bogged. There's a very specific hole for this cable to travel through and all I need to do it get it up the other side of the steering column and I'll be set.

.....Patience Grasshopper....

Doh!

whoo hoo!

Now to make sure it doesn't go down the steering column again...

Finally I get it to where it needs to go!

Vespa Lane

2007-09-30T21:53:00.000+10:00

25th September 2007-Vespa Lane

What do you do when it's pouring rain, your scooter is dead, you have a 2 week wait for parts and nothing else to do? Paint a mural in your shed of course!

I have a limestone brick shed and have been eyeing off this wall for quite some time. I decided to give Lola somewhere familiar to park at night, Vespa Lane!

I was able to use a stream of sunlight coming thru the shed door as a guide

That same stream of light the next morning with the shed door wide open, funny how it seems to light the way up the lane..

Just as well it's Raining!

2007-09-30T19:21:00.000+10:00

We should be used to the wind and rain in SW Vic, but it has rained non stop here since last Thursday night. It has been blowing a gale as well so definately not scooter weather. I don't feel so bad when it's like that and Lola is in sickbay.

The engine is actually close to being in one piece again.

I have to buy a few goodies first thing tomorrow but should be able to finish her this week. I have a mate calling around one night to work through the CDI wiring with me as the original wiring was such a cock up, we couldn't even use the wiring charts. Not only that, but the previous owner had told me it was a "new wiring loom", what do you think??

That's dirt you can see , dropped out of the shrink tube when I cut it open. There were so many joins in this wiring I'm surprised it worked. This is the wiring leading to the rear light.

So, it's time for the CDI Wiring Headache (I had been putting it off!)

First I got the placement right and then set about making rubber gaskets for the body and drilling holes for attaching to body as well as to reroute wiring. Note the hole above the rubber backing-this is where the wiring leads into the body cavity under the fuel tank. From here all wires can be joined to the main loom and can be taken out the right side to the junction box and join wires coming from the new stator.

Next Step for CDI, placement in Glovebox cavity, by removing the glovey, you can line up the CDI and Regulator so both can be easily wired and the glovey can be reattached with no dramas.

Placement of Black CDI box and Regulator.

Note the black cable here is the rear indicator connection from the handlebars. This was moved also.

Wiring of CDI to Regulator

Feeding wires out through existing wiring loom hole on engine side. All these wires will be going to the Junction Box, existing Coil and new Stator plate.

Now, where did I put that engine??

CDI Reno

2007-09-30T14:46:00.000+10:00

Ready to Go. August 28th 2007

I decided at the start of the year to put a CDI on and get rid of the points, as I hate them. The Vespa points seem to be a bit touchy so along with the fact I can make my scooter a more reliable ride with a CDI, I finally took the plunge and got the parts. It was a long time between the initial idea and the actual job happening as I had been busy with my real job and could just never find the time. So right at the end of winter I decided to go the whole hog, do the bearings and seals and see what else was wrong with her along the way.

What did I find??

Lots of stuff that makes me wonder how the heck she was even running

The Nail that was attaching my right hand side handle bar to the inner throttle tube!

Old Clutch Cover had been epoxy glued where the threads had been stuffed up

The Stator Plate was shorting out on the inside of the flywheel where you see the exposed wire.

All Coked Up!

All sorts of wires where they shouldn't be!

The gasket on the top is what they should have been like, look at how much of each side port was being blocked!

Lots of wiring, lots of joins in lots of colours.

This, according the guy who sold me this scooter, is "New Wiring".

That's dirt coming out of the "New Loom"!!!

Cracked and rewelded crank

Naked! Engine Dropped.. Sept 10th 2007

Engine Out

Sept 11th 2007

Case Split

Engine is Stripped

Cleaned all over using a paint brush and petrol

Some minor case work, open up those ports! :)

September 27th 2007.

Before.... mark out the case and area to be cleaned out

Higgo goes a dremmeling

Vroom Vroom!!!
Now, lets see if it all goes back together!!

Gear Cables

2007-09-30T14:25:00.000+10:00

As with most cables, they fail when you need them most. I was miles and miles from home when mine went. Spares with me? You bet! I'm a classic Vespa rider-it's a must. Tools with me. No. Der!!!!!
I had taken them out of the glovebox to charge my battery (put in for blinkers) and forgot to put them back in.
So when I finally got home after calling a mate to grab my van the rest was relatively easy. I only broke one cable but decided to replace both gear cables.

Start by opening the headlight

When done, reconnect headlight fittings the way you took them apart, replace lens, rim and reattach retaining screws. This end is done.

This is where it's good to have a hand, someone needs to be holding the handlebar selector at neutral while you tighten the gear wires in the selector box as it's just not a job you can do on your own really. Tighten and adjust as needed. You are almost there. When you start up just make sure all gears engage how they should. If you have put it back the way it came apart all will be well and you'll be scooting again straight away.

Throttle Cable

2007-09-30T14:09:00.000+10:00

I can't study a Haynes manual without a good strong coffee so that was of course the first step.

I gathered all the tools for the job and set about the dismantling to get to the throttle wire. It was during this process that I discovered yet another item wrong with Lola. The outer cable for the throttle was actually 2 old halves (of different cables) taped together to act as the carrier for the inner wire which had weakened at the join and snapped. I am glad it happened in my shed and not miles from home though, I should at least be happy about that.

So putting in a new inner wire would have been relatively painless, only now I had to clearly replace the whole cable and from everything I had read so far, this could be a nightmare job on an old Vespa without the old outer to help pull the cable through the body channel.

It's OK, it's still early, it can't be that hard-I'll be scootin' within an hour. HA!

Man what a job that turned out to be. The outer cable kept getting caught inside the frame as I tried to thread it thru from the handlebar end. I stopped and tried from the other end too, my fingers were red, my hands hurt and I was seriously getting peeved off. It had been nearly 2 hours of battling with it when all of a sudden (after a break and another coffee) it popped over it's obstruction within the frame and I could finally grab it. I was leaning over the scooter with my arm as far up the inner channel as I could reach via the fuel tank cavity to try to feel the cable coming through. I could feel vibrations through the steel as it was getting closer but the only thing that got it through was twisting and turning it hard in my hands as I pushed it through. It was getting late now and my scooting mood had subsided somewhat. I decided to pack up and call it a day. At least I had another crap part off and a decent one on.

New Carby

2007-09-30T14:03:00.000+10:00

I decided at some point that the lack of power could be due to the crappy old carby Lola was running with. I had been told it was reconditioned but was so old and cracked, had been glued with that heavy duty metal epoxy gunk at some stage and was a real mess. I put the new carby on and kicked it over, started first start. Yay. I allowed her to warm up as I got the scooter gear on, load the tools just in case, grab the phone, lock the house, open the gate, jump on and.........snap!! Throttle Cable. Grrrr. Climb off, strip off, open the house, put the kettle on!

Paint Booth

2007-09-30T13:50:00.000+10:00

I went with the obvious colour in the end. White. It was easy, looked OK due to all the white trim.

First off, I had to build a paintbooth in my shed.

I started my dragging an old chest of drawers to the area I had designated and covered it in a plastic drop sheet. I sat the cupboard squarely under some rafters in the shed which allowed me to make a plastic "tent" out of another drop sheet. The tented area was taped over the covered cupboard to create an enclosed area for painting and drying dust free. I left a flap for access at the front and a flap for flowing air.

The home made spray booth

A small fan heater was set up about 1 metre away from the booth and warm air directed into a cut out area to assist with drying.

All masked up

A chain was suspended from the rafters within the booth to hold work for painting. This meant I could spin the items slowly to get good overall paint coverage.

Parts Drying

Lots of sanding and recoats and finally put her back together to see what she looks like.

Finished- April 2006

Hey Kid, it's not a coin operated ride- Get Off !!

2007-09-30T13:35:00.000+10:00

One sunny Sunday I set off to the shops to get the milk and paper, when I came out of the shop I noticed my scooter on it's side and a small kid of about 6 running to get in a car, quickly shoved by his father before he slammed the door and took off in a cloud of dust without so much as an apology.

Bugger! Legshield trim smashed on one side, legshield bent and paint cracked but not chipped. The mudguard copped it pretty badly though and would need a paint as would the engine cowl.

Lola was a very distinct shade of purple all over when I bought her, with all white trim. Not a new paintjob but it was still in good condition. These few scratches would need attention or they'd rust away here in Portland. I decided to see if I could find a paint match so took the smallest painted item I could find to the paint shop, the fuel cap.

They put it through their special machine but couldn't match it, declaring after about 15 minutes it must have been a home made blend and would be impossible to match perfectly. I didn't want a full respray- or at least was out of my budget at that stage. It would have been nice, but just not possible. So what do you do? The interim measure would be to patch and paint the damaged areas and save like mad for a respray. But what colour to go with?

Add Indicators

2007-09-30T13:22:00.000+10:00

After a couple of near misses in the first few weeks of having Lola on the road, I decided to do something I dind't think I'd do to the "original" look of the scooter: adding indicators.

Something you take for granted on a normal motorbike is the ability to give a clear hand signal if you need to. You can't safely achieve this on a geared Vespa. Those reading this who are not aware of the nuances of changing gears on a Vespa, it all takes place on the left hand side handlebar grip. The gears are run by a dual cable system set up at the handlebars. It's a click back to first and then 3 forward clicks for 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears. This in itself can be tricky to use after years of your left big toe doing all the work.

What it also does of course, is keeps both hands busy all the time! Imagine trying to give a safe turn signal with your hand (and either hand is a challenge when riding a Vespa) while you use the throttle and front brake with your right hand and clutch and gears with your left. Not easy to do and still give motorists around you a decent idea of where you want to go.

So, on with the blinkers.

They look so wrong on the old girl but have saved me now more than once so worth every cent.

I found the smallest but brightest ones I could and went about getting them fitted. I had the local lads in on this one in the end as the "original" wiring I got the speil about turned out to be many colours of the rainbow in all the wrong places.Confused the heck outta me!

Lola- the Facelift Begins...

2007-09-30T13:04:00.000+10:00

I started to find so many issues wrong with my scooter that I decided I had better have a closer look to see what I bought. I had read up on the horror stories of imported Vespa's and started to worry about my safety. I couldn't find the parts I needed right away so decided to look for a list of stuff and when all here from overseas I'd go ahead with the reno.

What I didn't know at the time was how hard it would be to find original parts. During my journey online I met many other Vespa riders also struggling to find parts, and they were happy to have aftermarket parts on their scooter, they just wanted them back on the road. I had come across many licenced parts manufacturers and dealers during my research and started to build up business relationships with a guy in Germany and others in the US, India and NZ. I managed to get some parts in for a group of restorers I had met online and "scootissimo" was born. This also allowed me to find the parts I needed for Lola, some 2nd hand but at least original. I was still a long way off but things were starting to feel better every day.

Lola was still running a bit strange but at least I knew where to start now.

Through a bit of trial and error I learned how to do my own basic mechanical work as the local boys were really not that keen.

Over the last 3 years I have completed a few projects on my scooter. Following are the work blogs to show how I went about them for people needing to do the same tasks. I hope it helps, and to be honest, as a scooterchick, it's been pretty straight forward so far.

The more you read...

2007-09-30T12:54:00.000+10:00

OUCH!! It hurts my eyes it's so wrong!!

During my travels around the web over the past few years I've come across many references to Asian imported Vespa's and the massive market they are filling in the USA, Europe and also Australia.

Vespa's by definition are of course original italians but what the fine print should say is, "Yes, 40 years ago it was indeed all original but has since then has had a very hard life in Asia and is now made up of so many after market and home made parts it's probably not a Vespa anymore but an ugly, tacky copy that could well kill you when it snaps in half at 80kph."

There are some tell tale signs you can look for to help you determine whether you might be riding a Vietscoot or Frankenscoot as they are commonly called in the scooter fraternity.

Some easy to spot issues, 2 tone paintwork and matching 2 tone seats, front legshield gloveboxes, coloured rubber trim, chunky chrome side panel bling, 10" conversions on 8" models, yellow tacky rubber stand feet, headlights on mudguards (some old french ACMA models had them, as well as the very early italian vespa's but they are way too rare to be selling for $3999 out of Ho Chi Minh City!)

These death traps are often full of bog or "Bondo" and are a far cry from anything you could call original.

An old Vespa should cost you no more than about $3000-$4500 for a very good local restoration. If it's from Asia it should be cheaper as in my experiences acting as a broker, a "landed" classic scooter in fully "restored" condition costs about $2500, rarely more.

Do your homework first, find something local and save yourself the heartache!

This is a good source of information for anyone wanting to know more about Asian Restored Scooters. It's from "scoot net".

http://scoot.net/faq/Asian_Restorations

The fun begins....

2007-09-30T12:42:00.000+10:00

It's about a month after my first adventures on my new scooter "Lola".

Things just don't seem right for some reason. I remember "Bluey" to have great pick up, definately more grunt than this. I start at this point to make myself more aware of the engine, it's specs and the ways performance can be altered.

I bought the Haynes book as well as a few others and set about teaching myself how to give her a checkout. I replaced the plug and went for a ride, it was amazing. The power, the pick up and the ride was smoother. So Stan was right, for a few bucks a new plug makes the ride a joy. But then after about 50kms the problems returned. I took her to the local bike shop where they gave her a good going over but didn't come up with anything solid for me to work with. I called a mate with a timing light and he checked it out, timing adjusted, new plug and things were OK again. This only lasted about 100kms and I started to wonder what I had bought.

I read as much as I could on the subject of engines, faults and symptoms. When riding it feels like an electrical issue but sounds like a bad mixture.

Dodgey Seals! Has to be.

The Scooter adventure begins

2007-09-30T12:35:00.000+10:00

The trip to have the roadworthy and rego done was relatively painless and soon I was back at home, rolling the scooter out of the van for the last time. I attached the label just as the rain started. Noooooooooo!!

Soon the sun was out again and I was off for the maiden voyage, straight to the servo.

I came back up my street after an hour out riding and visiting people and just kept riding right past my gate and into the sunset. It was a great feeling to be back on a bike after 10 years.

Twas the night before Christmas...

2007-09-30T12:14:00.000+10:00

Just as I was about to leave for the city I got a phone call to say the bike transporter had been in an accident up the North Coast somewhere and there would be a delay in getting the bikes down to Victoria. It's the 20th December.

So I waited for the next call which arrived on the 23rd to say the truck was fixed, the driver had been replaced and the truck was on it's way. I got to Melbourne in my Van about lunchtime and called the transporter to see what time to meet them, another delay in Northern Victoria would mean the scooter would arrive Christmas Eve. Great.

400kms from home and I seriously needed to find a spare room at the inn on Christmas Eve! What are my chances? Pretty good as it turns out, for a downtown Hoppers Crossing Budget Chain.

Morning couldn't come quick enough as it was such a hot night and I didn't sleep at all. It was already 30 degrees at 10am. I found my way to the truck depot (a house in suburbia) to watch with some trepidation as my new scooter was riden down a very steep ramp by a very large man covered in sweat and really not wanting to be there. Needless to say I am pretty sure looking back, that it was that action that damaged the front end, mudguard and took a massive chip of paint out as the wheel hit the ground at the bottom of the ramp at such an angle.

A lengthy heated discussion ensued with the drivers wife, as she didn't appreciate my refusal to sign off the scooter as having been "carefully delivered" as the contract stated.

I loaded the scooter into the back of my van via a ramp, tied it down well & was on my way back home to Portland. 38 degrees, no air-cond and 5 hours of driving ahead. Yay. The only thing spurring me on was the thought of the scootering summer ahead.

...& make it happen!

2007-09-30T11:31:00.000+10:00

I watched the trend grow and grow and then decided to contact a Vespa Seller on Ebay to see what was available. He told me he could get me a fully restored Vespa from Asia- all new parts and what wasn’t new was reconditioned. This comment had the alarm bells ringing. Asia? Could that be right?

Over the next few weeks I thought I had better do some research if I was going to shell out over $3000 for a scooter sight unseen, and I am very glad I did.
With only days before I was due to send a deposit to the Vespa seller I started receiving emails from his past clients warning me off his scooters. I had researched his customers and was able to email them to find out what the scooters were like. I was contacted by 3 people who had purchased faulty scooters from this particular scooter dealer based in Australia. He claimed to have “Fully Restored” Vespa Scooters of a particular model. They look absolutely beautiful in the pictures, which is all the international sellers have to go by. The list of items supposedly replaced during the restoration process is endless. The unsuspecting buyer falls in love with a shiny shell, and is terribly shocked when they finally land it here from Vietnam. That’s right, they are not restored here, and that’s just where the problems begin.

It may be fair to say that the quality of a restoration job done in Vietnam would be questionable given the lack of genuine Vespa knowledge. They are a distinct beast to work on as I am continually finding out.

So I did some more shopping and decided to buy a "local" scooter. I found an old VBC in Byron Bay and was given the spiel of the century which sucked me in. I asked for as much information as he could supply and was sent about 8 photos from all angles, she looked pretty good. I paid the dollars after a bit of a haggle and the scooter was shipped down to Melbourne so it was off to the big smoke.

Dream a little Dream..

2007-09-30T11:27:00.000+10:00

So now we fast forward my life about 17 years. It’s 2003. Petrol prices have sky rocketed due to the war in the Middle East. Australians are paying anything up to $1.20 per litre for unleaded fuel. This price was to steadily climb over the next few years, peaking at around $1.50 in my own area, and to a lesser degree in the major cities, but it soon prompted a scooter boom in Australia, particularly in the eastern states and those states with less stringent scooter licensing laws.

I had dreams of having another scooter in my life ever since my brief but passionate affair with “Bluey”. I started to see Vespa’s on the internet, particularly popping up on Ebay for sale. Prices starting at around $2000 for an old restorer, or if lucky enough, one in good running condition for about $2500. As the trend grew, more Vespa’s hit the market. It was starting to become obvious that this trend was going to stay- not just because people were looking for other options for travel to save them money, but also as this was the first “real” taste Australia had had of a full on scooter culture taking hold.

There were the “Mods” of course, which stemmed from a rampant weekend in Bristol England in the 1960’s, when the Mods on their scooters in their groovy couture and bobbed haircuts, came face to face with the leather clad, greased haired Rockers on their loud motor bikes. What ensued that weekend went down in history as one of the main events that bought the scooter itself and scooterists into the spotlight.

The scooter culture was re-born.

Back to the Bicycle

2007-09-30T11:24:00.000+10:00

That was an amazing few months of my life, and I nearly cried when Stan’s son came home. He just jumped on and rode into the sunset, I never saw the scooter or him again. It wasn’t until years later that I met one of is ex girlfriends and she said he had been in jail when he was “away” and actually swapped the Vespa for drugs about a week after he got it back.
That was a very sad end to my fairytale affair.
I’d prefer to remember “Bluey” in my own way, and our many adventures together.

Saturday, too far away.

2007-09-30T11:17:00.000+10:00

Saturday couldn’t come quick enough. I had ridden to work in the rain twice that week on the deadly treadly, dreaming of the Baby Blue Vespa, imagining how easy it would be to park and how quick it would be to get to work and back.

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning like a kid on Christmas morning. I sat there just waiting for the sound of Stan’s roller door. It made my heart jump when It finally rolled up at 8am.
I casually strolled out with the rubbish as if I didn’t even know he was there, but the grin on my face would have been a big give away.

Stan was a frail looking, quietly spoken gentleman who was an ex school teacher, which showed as he systematically took me through the controls and basic mechanics of the old scooter with great patience. He explained everything in a way that allowed me to soak it all in. I still remember some of his advice all these years later.

“Change the spark plug every couple of months if you can- just about all problems with starting and running stem from a bad or dirty plug- for a few dollars, you’ll have a better ride with a new plug ”. "Don't ride it like a motorbike because it's nothing like one".

After a nervous couple of laps around the car park getting used to the handlebar gears he let me loose on the open road.
I took off around the block and headed for a quiet stretch of road on the outskirts of town. I gingerly worked my way through the gears discovering that it did take a certain knack after changing gears with my left foot all my biking life.
I whizzed up the main street of our little country town in a puff of blue smoke with a massive grin on my face, the “putt putt putt” of the 2 stroke engine echoing up the empty street. Even though I felt very safe and confident on the Vespa, I was still glad it was early and I had the road to myself.

When I returned home about 20 minutes later, Stan was pottering in his shed. He had found a chrome rack and a few other bits and pieces to put back on it, so we set about the mini facelift.By the end of the day the rear rack was on, new mirrors, a couple of new cables, a new spark plug and a gear oil change. I was ready to hit the road. For some reason I couldn't wait for work Monday morning.

Is that a Vespa in your shed Stan?

2007-09-30T11:10:00.000+10:00

Now this is where the story of the winding road to the vespa dream takes a funny little sidestreet.

I moved into my very first flat in Mt Barker in the spring of 1986. My flat was in a block of 6. We all had our own carports and some had roller doors. One afternoon when I was coming home from work- my neighbour was just shutting his roller door as he was leaving. I caught a quick glimpse of what looked like an old blue Vespa in his shed. The next afternoon I was able to chat to him and found out it was indeed a Vespa, a 150cc Sprint (VLB) he was storing it for his son who was away.
We talked for more than an hour and then Stan showed me many more unique characteristics of the old scooter. We got to know each other really well, and always had something to chat about from then on. Then one day I heard a knock at the door. It was Stan, he had come over to offer me a special deal as he knew I needed some transport for a few months and he needed someone to keep his son’s Vespa
going.

Stan was unlicensed and with a bad hip, was finding it increasingly difficult to kick start the old scooter every few days to keep her running.
We agreed that I would pay for 6 months registration and all fuel in that time but could do with it as I wished.
I nearly fell over.
I stuttered, I stammered and finally thanked him with all my heart for the chance to ride an old Vespa- but also to have some transport for a few months.
As it was getting dark, he agreed to meet me Saturday morning and he’d give me a “Vespa” lesson, as with the twist handle bar gear changing, it was unlike any bike I had ever ridden.

Gotta Getta Vespa!!

2007-09-30T11:07:00.000+10:00

When I finished school I moved to Adelaide to work. I would often go into the city with friends on Thursday or Friday nights to go shopping or just to sit and drink coffee somewhere interesting. One day when sitting at a groovy café with a couple of friends, a lovely old red Vespa pulled up right in front of us. My jaw dropped as it was so cute and dripping with chrome accessories. I had only ever seen 2 in “real life” but nothing like this.

It was so gorgeous and curvy, more rounded than Gino’s model, with a wider legshield, twin saddle seats, a spare tyre on the rear rack and smaller more distinct tail light.I was brave enough to approach the guy as he came out of the café, and asked him what model it was. The curvier model was apparently a 1960’s VBB. So now I had a new goal to strive for. The VBC was now second on my list to the lovely VBB. He told me he had searched for 12 months and finally found an old bike to restore. It took him 2 years to finish it as parts were hard to find back then, but as I stood staring at his workmanship, I was very impressed and of course wanted one even more.

A long time between Vespa sightings

2007-09-30T10:53:00.000+10:00

My next Vespa experience happened at the Melbourne Zoo.

When I was about 17, a group of school friends had decided to go to the Zoo. We had paid for our tickets and were about to walk in when I heard the distinctive tones of an approaching 2 stroke, which to me almost sounded like an old farm bike. I turned around to see an older gentleman pull up and park the scooter with all the other motorbikes and push bikes. I stared in amazement as I realised it was the same scooter as in the movie, maybe a newer model, but definitely the same scooter.
By the time I realised, everyone I was with had gone inside- so had the scooter owner. I quickly shoved past people and darted through the gates to see the man entering a work area.I was able to track him down and we ended up chatting for an hour or more about the Vespa, the history and the background of his scooter and where I could find more information.

He was an Italian man named Gino, a worker at the zoo.
He bought the scooter with him when he came out here to live in the 1970’s from Italy.
I learned it was a 1974 VBC 150 Super, which ironically is the exact same model I first bought myself.He told me with a thick Italian accent, that Vespa was the Italian word for wasp.

His knowledge of the history of the Vespa amazed me- but he assured me that every Italian knew about them- as just about every Italian kid had one at some stage, as they also came in small (but powerful) 50cc models.

My love affair with the Vespa had begun- as Gino had given me the names of a couple of books to feed my fascination. Luckily I was able to talk my high school librarian into finding me the books- so I didn’t have to buy them, but I don’t think anyone else at school ever had a chance to borrow them.

A Scooter Dream is born

2007-09-30T10:32:00.001+10:00

For me, It all started on a hot but rainy summers day on my Grandparents farm in Shelford , country Victoria.
Rarely could I be kept inside when visiting the farm, as there were acres and acres of land to explore, and when there’s an old Honda 100 thrown in for good measure- I just had to be outside.
So as I sat inside listening the rain on the tin roof, flicking the old TV dial from left to right in the hope that something magical would appear, it suddenly did.

Right there, before my eyes, was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. As a curious 10 year old- I had just set eyes on my first Vespa Scooter- although at the time, I had no idea what I was looking at. It was amazing.

Audrey Hepburn, as a passenger to Gregory Peck, darting around the streets of the eternal city on an old motorscooter. I was hooked. For years afterwards I would scan the TV guides to look for re-runs of “Roman Holiday” just so I could catch another glimpse of that wondrous looking toy and maybe find out what is was. I remember thinking at the time it must have been made especially for the movie as a prop as it was so unusual looking.

My late uncle Steve and my Dad taught me how to ride a little 50cc mini bike in the red dry dirt of the Riverland at Loxton in South Australia, when I was about 3. According to Dad, it was called a “Honda Grass-Scrubber”. I’m still not sure if that was the actual model name or just the name he gave it after watching me learning to ride. It was more than likely an AZ50 just like this one :)....ahhhhh, the memories!

I had always loved riding. I remember when that movie was over I raced back outside and went for a ride through the puddles and mud, weaving around haybales and rocks as if they were people, as I let my imagination take me to the cobbled old streets of Rome. The seed was firmly planted and I knew, I would one day own a Vespa.