April 2011 Archives

This is another in my period installment series calling out the horrible bodgery that passes for a "restoration" with some people.  It really disturbs me to see these things, and many a budding scooterist has been turned off to scootering through having been duped by one of these deathtraps.  I just noticed a pile of them on Ebay, so I figure, let's call 'em out!  Here is numero uno...

There is a lot going on here.  This scooter is purported to be a Vespa G.S. 160.  Take a look at the "before restoration" photos in the listing.  They purport to show a nice complete VNA, though the photos look like they are of two different scooters.  I would have to say that it is highly unlikely that the "before" photos show this actual scooter. In any case, you end up with the horridness what you can see in the picture above.  There is a P-series front fork, P-series center stand, oddly upright looking legshields, and all of the home-made Viet-chrome add ons you can imagine.

This photo, though, tells you a lot.  They cut a hole in the back of the frame, in order to make it look like a GS 160 Series 1.  But they added a glovebox (like they do to all of the Viet scooters), which is correct for a Series 2.  However, the glovebox is not even close to right, and is way too small for a GS glovebox.  They appear to have cut the bottom and smoothed over the top door of the glovebox cowl, if they truly used a VNA as the basis for this monstrosity.  In a nod to "originality" they did install a P-series key to the top of the headset, instead of where the Viet-bodges normally put it, near the fuel lever.  Wow, this one really takes the cake!  I don't think I have seen this particular version of the disaster before.

Let's move on to some more convential death traps, shall we?! 

This post is for all of my San Francisco area readers.

LALO (Loose Association of Lambretta Owners) Lay Low....

April 30th
-Oakland Rally 11am Blue Bottle Coffee Co. Cafe 300 Webster st. Oakland. (City to Hills Rally)
(SF toOakland departure: meet 9;30am Grand Prix Coffee Bar 1 Tillman Pl. @ Grant ave. depart 10:30am)
-San Francisco All vintage rally 8pm Orbit Room 1900 Market st. @ Laguna st. arrive Azul bar 1 Tillman. (Cocktails,Music & LALO visuals)

May 1st
-San Francisco 7th Annual Lambretta Specific Rally 11am Pier 30, (May Day City Tour)
Rally ends at SF Scooter Centre parking lot for hosted BBQ & Vintage Scooter + All Moto parts swap meet.
(Locations departure & arrival times posted by April 17th)

Lucky 7 experience. Limited edition Lambretta artwork and GOODS for attendees.

Look for me on the white SX200 - come and say hi!  I'll have photos posted next week for all of you who can't attend.

This is a good example of very poor advertising. Why is the Washington Monument in this advertisement? Is the huge phallic symbol supposed to make up for the small car? This ad was produced during the highwater mark of Freudian analysis, you be the judge.

Via: the Vespa Club Roma.

A friend of mine has a VBB with a newere LML motor in it.  It is a Vietnam resto, but surprisingly, it is one of the only ones I have seen that was actually pretty good.  He's been riding it around for a year or so as a "Sunday driver".  Recently, he took it out and noticed it was making a funny sound.  Shortly thereafter, the motor siezed up solid.  Not a soft easy sieze, but a "something mechanical broke bad" solid sieze.

So, he hauled it over to my garage, and I proceeded to try to determined what happened.

First, I got it up on the lift.  I figured I'd look for the easy stuff first, and slowly dig into the motor. I suspected something in the top end, but I want to be thorough.  So I'm going to start with the clutch, since that is easiest to get to.  I pulled off the rear wheel, to get access to the clutch cover, and then pulled the cover. 

I'm back from a vacation... so let's begin the blog posting again with another caption contest!

Scooterlounge is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and thus, we have a deep and abiding interest (some could call it a hatred) of the California DMV.  Paying the registration fees on a fleet of scooters really adds up.  So we are really keen to figure out ways to pay less, or at least, not pay any unnecessary fees to the Man.

We already gave you, gentle reader, the tools with which to fight any back registration fees on your classic vehicle.  If you forgot, go here and read....

Now, we have become privy to a new online resource to find out in advance whether you'll need to pre-arm yourself for battle.  We give you, the online registration calculator.  You can use it to find out if your chosen vehicle owes back registration fees and penalties. 

Thusly forewarned, you can go to the DMV with the correct law provisions at your fingertips with which to dazzle and delight the clerk opposite you in the window.  You'll be in for a fight, that's for sure.  However, with the law on your side, you should come out victorious.

I had an old Vespa seat lying around for a long time, and decided that I should put it to some use.  The problem was that the seat cover was trashed.  However, the rest of the seat was fine.  A new seat now costs around $140 USD, so time to fix this one!  This is an easy project that you can finish in an hour or two.  All you need is an old seat, and a new seat cover.  The covers are not too expensive, and should only cost around $60 USD.

So the first step is cleaning all the old seat bits from the existing seat.  First, remove the seat lock by taking off the three small screws that hold it onto the seat frame.  Then remove the rear "Piaggio" badge from the seat by pulling off the two retaining screws.  Then pull the seat cover clips from the bottom of the seat frame, and take off the tatty old seat cover.  That leaves you with the metal frame, as shown above.