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

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

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...

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...

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....

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

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...

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!

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..

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

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.