February 2010 Archives

This Ebay auction just goes to show you that even in these days of good quality reproduction parts and internet searches... some parts are still made of unobtainium.  This large face square speedo is one of those items.  The same size speedo was mounted on some of the '50's Vespas, but only the GS speedo was calibrated to 80 mph.  (I believe it was a 120 kph speedo on the Euro models)  These things are very hard to find since they are not being reproduced.  This one was rebuilt and has a new lens and faceplate.  It brought a whopping $280 at auction!

Now to rummage through my parts boxes...

There are a couple of Lambrettas on ebay right now (here and here), which are a good representation of the two ends of the scooter spectrum.  By that, I mean that there is the "barn find" candidate for full restoration, and the scooter which is already done, and ready to ride.

The '61 Li 150 Series II is totally done, and looks very nice.  The black paint, while not stock, is very pretty on the Series II.  The other thing about black is that it shows every flaw in the bodywork, so if you go gloss black, you have to have a perfect scooter.  This scooter has some nice internal motor upgrades which will make it something that is practical in today's world. Most notably, there is a 175cc top end and electronic ignition.  All in all, this is a pretty nice scooter.  Given the work it takes to get a Series II to this point, I'd say that the opening bid of $4000 is probably pretty fair.  You could just hop on this scooter, and ride it today.  Of course, the chrome and crashbars are something that would have to suit your tastes...

On the other hand, you could buy something like this mid-60's Li 150 Special.  It is in pretty rough shape, but it appears to be complete.  Though it looks beat up, I bet a little body work will have the legshields and cowls into shape pretty easily.  Now tally up the costs for paint and body, replacing rusty parts, a motor rebuild, etc, etc... and I bet you'd be into this thing for more than the cost of the Series II above when it is all said and done.  Is it worth it?  That all depends on whether you like to wrench, or whether you like to ride.  To someone with the knowledge and the time, the 150 Special could be a good opportunity... only if the price doesn't go too high. I would probably not pay more than $600-700 for a scooter in this condition.

Friend of the site, Olivier from Belgium sent in a few photos of his beautiful '51 ACMA Vespa.  The ACMA's were Vespas which were built under license in France.  As with almost all of the licensed Vespas, the ACMA's were technically somewhat behind the Italian made Vespas.  They had frames and motors from the older model Vespas.  (That may have been later because this one looks pretty similar to a '51 Italian Vespa). The ACMA's sourced some of the ancillary systems from French manufacturers.  So things like the electrical components, carburetor, and tires were French-made.  One of the most obvious differences on the ACMA's is the headlight, which was bolted onto the handlebars.  On the Italian Vespas, the light was on the front fender.  Though not aesthetically pleasing to my eye, I'm sure the technical function of the headlight on the ACMA was superior to that on the Italian Vespa of the same year.  I'm not sure if the typical French yellow light bulb helped any though!

More photos of Olivier's scooter below the jump.

With all of the Vietnam scooters floating around, I often get asked to point people in the direction of good honest vintage scooters.  Here is one for sale right now on ebay.  It is a '65 Vespa 125.  One of the last years for this model before the Supers came along.  I really like the VBB/VNB body style, it is just about as classic as you can get.  They are very reliable scooters, and just about every part is available for them.  This one has some good points and bad.  The main bad point is that it has been repainted, from the looks of it, rather poorly.  The scooter was clearly not taken apart for paint, and you can see that numerous nuts and bolts were painted over.  On the other hand, someone cared enough about it to paint it, so one would hope that it has not lead a life of too much abuse.  All of the parts appear to be there, and it has the neat accessory legshield basket.  It also has the special US market "Mikey Mouse" tail light, which is neat.  There are a few other strange things... I'm not sure what is going on with the rear seat, and I'd want to know what is hidden under the floor mat. 

All in all, the buy it now price of $2300 is a bit on the high end of fair.  If I were looking for a 60's Vespa, I'd keep an eye on this one.  If it didn't sell, I'd email the seller with a lower offer, certainly under $2000.

This weekend was a busy and productive one for me in the garage.  Hopefully I'll have some time to create a few posts from the work.  Here's what I did:

• Finished replacing the shift cross on a Vespa G.T. and did a test ride
• Resurrected a '75 Vespa 150 Super from a 6 year hibernation. 
• Got all the lights (including the turn signals) functioning on the Super
• Finished an on-and-off project troubleshooting the electrical on a '74 Rally 200.  got all the lights (including the turn signals) working great
• Picked up a '54 Allstate and '60 Allstate for a friend of mine.  Drove the '54 down the street!  Fun!

This, my friends, is the definition of awesome...  Vespa Ape three-wheelers which have been heavily modified for racing!  I know, it is totally ridiculous.  Why would anyone do such a thing?  The only answer to that must be that these people are Italians, and Italians will race anything that has wheels.  So kudos to these crazy people.  I love it!

This scooter is for sale right now on Ebay out of Florida.  It is a completely original looking US market Serveta, which was a Lambretta made in Spain.  They imported two models, the 150 Special which you see here, and the Jet 200, which was a version of the SX200 Lambretta.  Of course the 200cc models are the most desirable, but these 150's are not bad either.  This one still has the special US market turn signals, and the reflectors.  You can tell that this is a fairly early version, because it has the nice Italian-style switches and tail light.  Later versions had big black plastic switches, and a large squar-ish "tractor style" tail light.  Clean Servetas in original condition are becoming harder to find.  This one is well worth the $2000 buy-it-now price. 

I'm not sure if this magazine cover photo was staged for the magazine, or is just a reprint of an old Piaggio advertisement. My guess is the latter. Piaggio created tons of ads which somehow managed to place scooters on the beach! I wonder why? Of course here, we have scantily-clad models on the scooter, next to a train. Ummm hunh? The train may signify something, I don't know... perhaps Mr. Frued could postulate a reason... The simple response can be found in this post.

This is the tale of the small, hidden issues which make vintage vehicles so much of a frustration to may people.  My friend had a 60's Allstate Vespa (similar to a VNB) which kept breaking gear cables.  After I replaced the cable the second time myself, I decided to take a closer look at what was going on.  Scooters should not break gear cables but once in a great while, so something was clearly amiss.

After checking from top to bottom, I noticed that the attachment point for the cable barrel-end in the handle bars looked a bit off.  When I took it off the handlebar, I saw what you see on the left side of the picture above.  It was clearly bent, but what is hard to see is that the chewed-up area on the inside of the cable pulley actually has some sharp edges.  Howe they got there, I do not know.  But I do know that they were acting as a knife, and cutting the cable.  You see a brand new pulley on the right side for comparison. 

Quite a few companies threw their hat into the scootering ring in the late 50's.  It was a time of booming scooter sales worldwide, and it is pretty amazing to see the sheer variety of scooters which were available at that time.  Of course, some scooter designs were better thought through than others.  One of the best was the Maicoletta, a sturdy German scooter from a well-known motorcycle manufacturer. 

The styling on the Maicoletta was very German, which is to say - big, boxy, and imposing. The mechanical parts were pretty good, with a few weak points such as the starter. Otherwise, the Maicoletta was built to be a solid touring or "executive" scooter. It was not cheap. It also suffered from the same problem that struck virtually every motorcycle manufacturer that decided to make scooters, it was too late. There was a huge boom in scootering in the mid-to-late 50's. By the time many motorcycle companies got their scooters into production, the boom had ended. People had moved on to buying cars.