Vespa Geek

Since I got this thing running pretty well again, I’ve noticed that the top speed is not what it was. She only goes about 36mph (measured by GPS) flat-out, tapped out in 4th on flat ground. I seem to recall having it up near 50 a couple years ago, but that was with 10″ wheels [...]

I decided to convert the Vespa back to the original 8″ wheels in preparation for the rest of the conversion back to original specs. I plan on painting it in one of the original factory colors and I’m now running 8″ wheels with blackwalls - much closer to the original equipment. One thing I do [...]

After many months of sitting idle in the garage, I decided today that I was bound and determined to get the VBB running. I pulled the flywheel off it, checked the points and saw that they were way off. Spent an hour adjusting the timing and cleaning things up, kicked it over twice and lo [...]

It’s been months since I’ve worked on the little gal, much less taken her out for a spin, so I think it’s time to finally just buckle down and buy the CDI kit. I can’t seem to get this thing running with any degree of consistency with the stock ignition, so I’m at my wit’s [...]

After a few months of not riding it out of frustration and debating converting to CDI, I took the opportunity of having my brother Seth in town to take a stab at getting the old girl back on the road. The issue I was facing was that I did not have the Vespa “special” tool [...]

So, the Scooter Cannonball Run kicks off today in San Francisco. The ride is from San Francisco to Ocean City, Maryland, all on scooters. Unfortunately, there are only 5 (now 4) vintage, shifter scooters involved, but hey - at least it’s a showing. I can’t imagine riding my VBB across the entire country. Amazing effort.
In [...]

I was catching up on reading the International Scooterist BBS this morning and came across a thread requesting that people stop referring to their scooters as “she”. One response struck me as particularly funny, in which the author explains why he will continue defining his scooter as female.
“She’s curvy, kinda beat up, and smokes too [...]

With the ignition issues I seem to be having, and with the prospect of starting to replace things like the coil, condenser, points, etc. in an atempt to diagnose the issues I’m having, I’ve been considering converting to CDI. I put a post up on the International Scooterist BBS to see what sort of sage [...]

Sadly, a 30-year icon of design has fallen prey to the eco-nazi EU chiefs who have deemed that it is not environmentally friendly. Yes, the bike that came to fame in the 1979 film Quadrophenia is going away - not because of flagging sales or the price of fuel. No, after more than 30 years [...]

I was concerned that this last fix to the Vespa would leave me with nothing really to blog about if there was nothing mechanically wrong with it. Well, I can truly say that this little beastie is continuing in it’s endeavor to supply me with things to write about.
I had thought the points gap adjustment [...]