Classic Scooter Collector

I've been lazy and not made a blog entry for a while. It has been difficult to motivate myself to write about scooters for the past few weeks. Four weeks ago I crashed a rented scooter while on a holiday in Florida with friends and injured myself. In addition to the weeks of pain that I have had to endure, I'm a little embarrassed. The accident was entirely the result of my carelessness. I am very safety-conscious, but as it often occurs, even a minor lapse in judgement can have serious ramifications when riding. I won't get into the details of my injury here. I will heal up fine but it's going to take several more weeks.

Due to my situation, I've not been able to get much work done on my current crop of projects. Although I have been sorting thru my disorganized collection of parts and project bikes. I have to make some room and get rid of a few project bikes I don't have time for and parts I will never use. Over the next few weeks, I'll be listing a few scooters on eBay and the local Craigslist.

Riding season is drawing near in the Pacific Northwest. I should be ready to ride again by the time the weather becomes agreeable.

I normally look for a complete project scooter, tear it down, then put all of the restored original pieces back together. The first step I take in most of my restorations is to pull the engine out of the frame and rebuild it. This project deviated from my normal pattern.

A couple of years ago, I responded to an ad on the local Craigslist for a Lambretta LD. When I arrived it turned out the guy had two. The one for sale was a complete and all original LD Mk 1. Sitting in the back of the garage was another Mk1 completely dismantled and painted an awful red. It was a very amateur job. Along with these two scooters was an extra engine. He was moving and anxious to clear out his garage. I made an offer for the two Mk1's and the extra engine. He agreed so we loaded it on the truck. Mk1 LD's are pretty rare in the USA. They were never imported to dealers here. Any you see - which is almost never - were brought over by individuals. You'll see an occasional Mk2 and the the LD Mk3's are fairly common. The Mk1 was made from 1951 to 1953.

I recognized the spare engine as being one of the earliest of the LD production. I chose to rebuild that one and put it away for some future project. I realized how scarce the parts are for this engine, so I sent it to Casa Lambretta's Denver shop instead of taking on the rebuild myself. After it arrived in Colorado, Jon called me and said that sourcing parts for this old motor was going to be a long haul. Sure, enough, it took Jon about 9 months to find all the stuff he needed. Which was just about everything - crank, top end, magneto, the works. Casa Lambretta has affiliated shops all over the world and of course there's the connection to the Casa mother ship and Lambretta expert Vittorio Tessera in Italy. I don't think any other shop could have handled this engine rebuild and I would have had a tough time finding the rare parts for it had I done the rebuild on my own.

As you can see by the photo, Jon did a remarkable job with this engine. Early LD and D model engine cases were painted silver, as were the LC, C and all previous models. It looks brand new again and was test run in a frame designed for that purpose before coming back to me. It's nice that Casa's engine rebuilds come back to you already dialed in and ready to run. Note that the rear brake is the type that has a solid rod vs. cable arrangement. That's a sign of how early this LD Mk1 engine really is.

A beautifully restored antique engine deserves a proper frame to ride in. I have almost everything I need to assemble a complete LD Mk 1 except for the side panels with porthole vents and the carb door. They come up for sale now and then so I'll be watching and waiting.  In the past I matched the original LD gray with some help from John Sisson of jonbretta fame. The Mk1 was available in green, gray, and beige. I was leaning toward gray but today I waffled on that and may go with green or beige. I'll decide in the next week or so as I begin to gather up all the parts from storage and prepare the next steps.

There's a certain anxiety among some vintage riders about the resurgence of scooters in the US as a consumer product and the unwashed masses that buy them. Now... I do understand the point of view that people into classic scooters don't want to hang around with someone that bought a new Vespa yesterday who doesn't know a carburetor from a cat's ass. It's like someone showing up at an antique car show with a Kia, expecting to fit in and be one of the gang. Birds of a feather like to stick together. There's nothing wrong with that.

On the other hand, there's a Luddite attitude among a few of the classic scooter crowd who reject anything new. They insist you have to do everything yourself. The appearance of your ride doesn't matter. You have to be a club member, and all modern four stroke automatics and people who ride them are bad. Disagree with any of this and you are tagged as a carpetbagger who is bent on ruining the culture. That point of view reminds me of a character I once knew who incessantly bragged about using only one golf club because that's how they did it in Scotland three centuries years ago. It was interesting and perfectly OK with me if he wanted to enjoy the game that way. Once, in response to his annoying one-club banter on the back nine I gathered some leaves for him. I said they were for wiping his ass... that's what they used three centuries ago. We had a beer on the 19th hole and laughed about it. Sometimes people find strange ways to stand out. And they feel the need to tell others about it. Over and over.   

I've periodically exchanged messages with a guy in Oregon that gets up at 4 am to wrench on his Lambretta's. Between his job and his family, that's the only time he can spare. If he chooses to not do everything himself and outsource some work to a shop, I don't see why that's a big deal or or makes him less worthy in the eyes of the scootering community. Although I had some prior experience as a kid working on my own cars, my scooter collecting has inspired me to learn metal working, painting, welding, brazing, and even old school techniques like using lead instead of plastic filler. About half of my engines have been rebuilt by a shop. The other half by me. I have a small lathe I'm learning to use and have occasionally made my own parts. There's a minority of people who do all that. But there are times when it just makes sense to send work out and I do so with no apologies or shame.

Classic scooter enthusiasts who outsource work helps a lot of scooter shops keep the lights on. Without them, the classic parts supply would dry up and a lot of broken down scooters would end up abandoned or headed for the crusher. If someone wants to rebuild his engine by the light of a kerosene lamp using only a stone hammer and chisel, great. That's OK with me - right up to the point where he accuses me or others of not being proper for having a box of modern tools or outsourcing some work. I must be unique in my ability to not care what other people do. Or let that discourage me from what I enjoy. The great masses of twist and go riders only interested in scooters as a fashion accessory or being trendy don't bother me one bit. I'm completely indifferent towards them, just as I am with Mod revivalists and scenesters longing for the good old days, bickering clubs, and cliquish rallies. Is modernity about instant gratification or just sensibility? Each has to decide for himself.

Sometimes that means you wrench and ride alone. That suits me just fine.

Saturday, my search for a daily rider ended with the purchase of a white Stella. Although it's a 2004, there are only 1500 miles on it. Just broken in... but in spite of it's lack of wear it does have some problems. The previous owner bought this scooter for his wife. Soon after, she had a minor accident and never rode it again. The mudguard, left side cowl, and left edge of the leg shield are slightly damaged.

I went over the bike carefully with the seller and found some issues that were not revealed in his Craigslist post or the photos he sent me. In addition to the buggered sheet metal, the bike was stored outside and not ridden for a long time. Bolt heads are rusty and all the aluminum is oxidized. It's very dirty and there's oily grime all over the engine. I'm assuming for the moment that this is from oil spilling out the breather when it was laid down. The battery was dead. Some of the rubber is dry rotted.

Given the condition, I considered not buying it. Instead, I made an offer well below what the seller was asking. After a test ride, we did the deal. Mechanically, there doesn't seem to be any problems. After loading it onto the truck and making my way back home, I wondered why the seller didn't take the time to clean it up. Mechanically, the bike is in great shape. A little cosmetic maintenance would have made a big difference toward getting even more than his original asking price.

The sheet metal damage is minor and doesn't bother me. This Stella is going to be a daily driver. In a way, the fact that it's not perfect cosmetically is liberating. I wont be worried about every little ding or scratch. I will spend a day or two cleaning it up and hope for a few days of warmer and drier weather.

I have a relatively short commute every day. The problem is that for two thirds of the year it's dark, gloomy, and wet. I've become accustomed to that over time and don't complain about it as much as I once did. Even so, these are not optimal riding conditions for a scooter or anything on two wheels.

Subjecting a meticulously restored, sixty year-old year scooter to rain and road grime doesn't sit well with me. This is further reinforced by the fact that these old machines were not intended for today's roads and traffic. They are slow. The lighting and brakes are not up to today's standards. I need a modern scooter to ride every day. Proper lights, mirrors, brakes, modern tires.. these are important to safe riding in the Pacific Northwest climate.

Although it's slowly changing in the USA, scooters are still perceived by many as "fun" recreational vehicles. In Europe and other parts of the world scooters play a more important role in people's basic transportation needs. There's a reason why you don't see a lot of old scooters on the roads in Europe. The old bikes aren't as reliable or as safe as their modern counterparts. Nobody wants to spend their morning coaxing a cold machine to start or fiddling with a temperamental carburetor before they they go to to work. That's a weekend ritual I enjoy, but not Monday thru Friday.

A lot of 'vintage' scooter enthusiasts bristle at the idea of owning and riding a modern scooter. I'm not in that camp. No one loves the classic machines more than I do, but it's not the least bit embarrassing for me to be seen on a modern scooter. No apologies.

My search for a commuter bike has begun and nothing is sacred. Almost nothing. Japanese scooters from Yamaha or Honda and the scores of Chinese makes flooding the market have no appeal to me. Some Made in China scooters offer decent quality, many do not. The Japanese Vespa knock-offs annoy me with their lack of originality. I do like the maxi scooters from Japan, such as the Burgman and Morphous. And Vespa maker Piaggio has some nice maxi's. There are others, but that's not the class of bike I'm looking for. After careful consideration, my choices narrow down to the list below - in no particular order:

• Genuine Stella
• Vespa GTV
• Aprilia Mojito
• Vespa P Series

The Stella is a copy of the 1970's Vespa P Series and made for the Chicago-based Genuine in India by LML. A decent bike and faithful reproduction of a classic. The Vespa GTV is a modern 250cc automatic with the traditional Vespa steel frame. It takes it's design queues from the faro basso Vespa's of the 1950s. I like the retro looks. Like all other Piaggio bikes it's a high quality (and very pricey) machine. The Mojito 150 has a cool design; a unique mix of classic and modern in a well-built scooter. Aprilia is owned by Piaggio - so you get basically the same engine and reliability of a modern Vespa. A new Vespa P Series can't be found in the US, but they were briefly reintroduced a couple of years ago to the US market and I've found several of them for sale. The "P" is a great four speed 2-stroke scooter with a long history of reliability.   

I could be happy with any of these. I'd prefer not to buy new because there are plenty of people who buy new scooters as an impulse then quickly sell them with very few miles on the clock. I'll let those people take the depreciation hit and pay the absurdly high dealer prep fees. My time horizon? I would like to find something in the next 30 days but if I don't find the right bike at the right price I can wait a little longer. It pays to be patient.