Old Vespa TV Ad for SS 180

The November '06 Sunday Ride

The first Sunday of every month brings joy to my heart as the Vespa Club of Los Gatos hosts a ride open to scooterists of all breeds. This Sunday was especially wonderful. 13 scoots began the ride to San Juan Bautista from Los Gatos, stopping briefly at the Uvas Reservoir. Round-trip I clocked about 100 miles on the old ticker. Ride highlights includ entering the magical misty forests, gaping vistas of the valley floor, riding a 32-year-old Vespa next to Rolf's 80-mile-old Vespa from the future (2007), and finding out the same Rolf fixed Susan's seized P200 on the side of the 101 with nothing more than a spark plug and a spark plug wrench. I think he also pulled a rabbit out of her helmet but it could have just been an illusion.

I loved the ride, even if it did mean braving the 101 and gale force winds. Most of all, I loved the fact that my old Rally didn't whimper once, not climbing up the mountains, not hauling ass on the freeway. She's a strong one, she does me right.

The Halloween Ride

 On last night's ride I dressed up as a glow stick with red triangles for palms. No one asked me what my costume was so I assume everyone got that. My Vespa, pictured beside me, was dressed as a 1974 Rally 200, which I think was an extremely original idea and I only wish I had thought of it.

We rode a good ride that chilly night (much further than anticipated) and met some great ambassadors of the Vespa Society. For my wife and I the night was short (we're so old and lame...party dead weights) but it was sweet - filled with good talk of small frames and Lambretta restorations. A new friend Bronco, in particular, was kind enough to leave as early as we did so we didn't have to ride back alone. I'm still getting comfortable as captain of this rocket ship... 

History Class: How to Sell a Scooter

Watch this commercial from the '60s, have a romp, then download it.

All is Right in the World

Ignoring the North Korea crisis and the death toll in Iraq and the genocide in Darfur I can safely say all is right in the world.

• Barry of SFSC made good on his promise to send me the brass contact point to make the tail light work. He's good people.
  
• I easily replaced the brass pin and both tail lights work like a charm (once I figured out how to fit the cowl properly)
• I met John Bettencourt of Moto Amore and purchased a $3.50 gas cap gasket. He's good people.
• I replaced the gas cap gasket. It would be swell if this one didn't swell.

Why We Ride

"A solo scooter roadtrip in the San Juan Islands. Set to Lion's Mane by Iron and Wine (and Jane's Addiction)."

I don't know the soul who created this piece of work, but they are my kind of scooterist...even if they don't ride a Vespa (it's a modern Stella).

Matter over Mind

What happens when you cross a dumb ass with a 32-year-old Italian motor scooter? The dumb ass pushes the scooter about a mile to the closest gas station because he never checked the fuel level and just assumed the reserve would work.

Sinning with a Vespa

I believe, written down somewhere by some messenger of God, it says something like turning something beautiful into something really ugly is a sin. Even if it's not a commandment it's still really stupid. Case in point, the ugliest Rally 200 I've ever seen.

Of Dirt, Rust and Other Minor Annoyances

This weekend called for a complete cosmetic healing. Note: this required I wear a respirator, eye protection and blue latex gloves (on account of the fumes and lead paint chips). I frighten and confuse my neighbors with my erratic, bohemian and toxic material based eccentricities.

First, I started with this too-good-to-be-true cleansing product. The company claims no water is needed -- just rub it on the bike, create a haze, then buff out the haze and walla! Clean shiny shine. This is what happened...sort of. Some stains did not come out and a waxing will be in order down the line.

Next up came the rust control. I slopped on two coats of the Rust Bullet. The only down side is that instead of ugly brown rust spots I now have ugly silver blotches all over the scoot. If this gets on my nerves I'll buy some white paint and have another go with the respirator, eye protection and blue latex gloves.

As for the other minor annoyances mentioned in the title...well the bike came to me from SF Scooter Centre with two irritations.

1. The new gas cap gasket apparently swells up upon contact with gasoline. Hmmm...so the point of this thing is to seal the gas tank; but the very substance it is sealing in causes it to fail? Sounds like this whole cheap labor, outsourcing, globalization thing is working out well. In-state scooter stores want to charge me over $10 to ship me one of these little circles of rubber. I reject that sort of extortion. Barry said he'll send me one if he remembers...
2. The rear left turn signal that worked when the bike left the store didn't work when the bike arrived at my home. What happened? Well, the brass contact point that connects to the cowl has mysteriously disappeared. I suspect the butler. Anyway, Barry said he'll send me one but warned me that it's really hard to install. Then I called San Diego's Motorsport Scooters who told me that it's super easy. Who will win this battle of ideas? Only time will tell...

Oh, and one more thing, I also ride the thing...and it's AWESOME!

Pics to come...

She's Mine!

I bought her from Barry at San Francisco Scooter Centre for $3,500. Barry is/was amazing. He offered a 45 day guarantee, replaced some cables, replaced the seat cover, added a new carburetor, installed the euro taillight, shimmied the levers, replaced a bunch of small hardware and performed a general tuning -- all included in the purchase price. Not only that, but he stayed late to sell me on the bike (i.e. answer my 1001 questions) and worked past 10pm to have it ready for me to pick up. That is service -- I didn't get a tenth of that when I bought my new car.

After about 50 miles of riding I must say she's strong and the only issue I need to take care of is some surface rust, especially on the underside. I purchased a small amount of Rust Bullet and I plan to clean her and apply the rust inhibitor this weekend. Wish me luck...fumes make me randy.

Before She Was Mine

Before I purchased my Vespa she had a difficult life. She was a misunderstood, awkward, and extremely unfashionable motor scooter. As is usually the case, we can blame her parents. Here are some pictures of the styling sins she withstood throughout her formative years:



This lonely existence was spent in the northwestern United States for years until she was saved by the brave men of Scooter Station in Portland, OR. Below I have pasted a recounting of her extreme makeover as advertised on their site:

All original white paint
Original silver stripes
Strong fully rebuilt 200cc engine
Only 8000 original miles
No dents
Very clean

$3950.00

This Vespa Rally 200 was purchased from the same owners as our two NOS Vespas (see restored section). When we first received this nice Vespa Rally 200, it was equipped with crashbars all around and a top case. This circumstance propably saved the Vespa from getting dented. We removed the withered crashbars and out came this beautiful Vespa Rally 200. The scooters last registration ran out in 1984. The Vespa had been stored away ever since. The engine did turn over, however we decided to go ahead and rebuild it, because we did not want to take any chances. The rebuild includes a brand new cylinder and piston !! This Rally 200 with it's low miles and neat body is a bargain for any Vespa enthusiast or anyone who is looking to find a nice vintage daily driver. The scooter is priced to move it quick. So don't miss your opportunity !!
PS: since we hve not yet had a chance to take pictures, we can only publish the two pictures that were taken BEFORE the rebuild and all the work we did.

So, that's what they said. Anyway, I didn't buy her. A women bought her -- a women and her partner, they both bought Rally's together - a pair, for a rumoured $12,000 total. They brought them down from Portland, OR to San Francisco, CA, registered them and rode. One of the women works too hard at the computer and suffers from Wrists That Hurt Disease (WTHD). After just a few miles she realized she couldn't deal with the shifting and traded in her Rally (the Rally pictured above) for a brand new twist and go Buddy at the San Francisco Scooter Centre.

How do I know all this? Well, after I located this Rally by calling the local scooter shops and put down some money I realized I had come down with the I Can't Get Vespas Out Of My Head Disease (ICGVOOMHD). This caused me to scour the email lists available for subscription at my workplace. I searched for "vespa" and lo and behold vespa@myworkplace.com exists. 7 members. I promptly subscribed to the email list and wrote to my new family, pronouncing my upcoming acquisition. In reply, I received an email stating "that was my bike"! Go figure. The women with the Wrist Disease is overworked by the same company that overworks me AND owned the scoot I was buying (if only for 10 miles). She told me all about it so I could tell you -- that's a win-win-win.