Tastes in Trade

Sometimes they leave me too. Adios, CH250.

I was contacted by an acquaintance I knew through reddit.  He had seen that I also had a Vespa project going and asked if I might help him with reconnecting the cables on his 1963 Vespa VNB. I said I would be happy to help as I was about to go through the process with mine and would have the immediate experience working with them. 

I knew from reddit that he rides a Honda Ruckus and had once ridden from Austin down to Eagle Pass on the Mexican border. That, of course, just impresses the shit out of me. Riding a 50cc bike that far on those roads definitely takes perseverance and balls. In our discussion of that trip and Hondas in general he mentioned that he'd like to get a Honda Helix. The Ruckus was too small for some places where a motorcycle (his other ride) was too big and impractical. The Helix was the continuation of the Elite 250 and shares the same basic frame and engine. 

Well as it turns out, I had an Elite 250 out in the driveway. I had picked it up to work on after I had such a good experience with the Elite 150s. It came with a complete set of black panels with gold trim and in my Craigslist searching, I had picked up another nicer and complete set of the same black panels for free. The bike they came from was somehow used for launching hang gliders!! I am really not sure how that went down. (I will make a note to call the owner of the hang gliding company and ask. Maybe I will have a Scooter, Texas special report on it!)

My acquaintance expressed interest in the Elite 250. He said he enjoyed the Japanese bikes and liked the Japanese mod style, low and clean. He also said that he was less interested in the Italian bikes for the same reason, the metal unibodies (monocoque) weren't very good for structural modification. 

In the long and short of it, we decided to trade scooters. I love the Hondas for sure. I have an Elite 80 out in the driveway I am working on now. But I could tell we were both more interested in the other bike. So today I loaded up the CH250 and all of the MANY spare parts and panels (2 OEM seats!) and drove over and had a great time talking with him and trading shop talk and riding stories. He's signed up the September Rally and we talked about going for some rides around Austin in the meantime. I think we both came away from the trade satisfied with our new bikes. 

This is a 1963 Vespa VNB. It has a 125cc engine with a 166cc top end and an aftermarket foam intake filter and carburetor. I got a box with a lot of the original parts along with it as well. 

The first thing I am going to do is slap a Texas flag sticker over the Union Jack. No offense to the Brits, but I have to represent!!

The body is in good condition with only a little rust here and there. It was repainted at some point with inferior paint and it has crackled some which actually makes for a great patina. You can see that the  original center stand has been replaced with a kick stand. This was done to accommodate an aftermarket muffler which is now gone. With the original stock muffler in place, I will go ahead and reinstall the original center stand. It's nice to get extra parts along with it. I will begin work resetting all the cables this week.

"Sembra una vespa"

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Now some patina porn:

                                                       

Del Lorto Carburetor

Along with the Vespa Super 125 I received a box of various scooter parts. In with them was this Del Lorto carburetor. 

The guy said he thought it was for a chinese bike but there is clearly a Piaggio logo on the airbox. 

I have confirmed here that this is the carburetor that was installed on the 50 Special before the engine was pulled for whatever reason. The small frame engines have the carb inside the body rather than on top of the engine like the large frames. 

Couldn't Let It Go + Figs

I found a small frame Vespa frame (50 Special - V5B3T) for sale on Craigslist and rode all the way out into the country at night to pick it up. I got a good deal on the small frame but noticed another larger Vespa sitting in the corner up on blocks. I asked about it and he described the problems it had and his solutions. He eventually said he'd sell it for $600 just to get out from under it. I went home with the small frame and left it at that. 

Except I didn't forget it. It was such a beautiful light aqua blue. The piston was seized and he was spraying penetrating oil on it occasionally to try and free it. He said he had been doing that for a couple of months with no results. I hadn't forgotten it. He would never get it going and would eventually sell it off.

So I texted him an offer of $400. He could simply say no. 

He texted back a counter offer of $500 saying we should split the difference. 

I counter-countered and bought it for the excellent price of $450 and a big bag of ripe figs from the tree outside of my house. He was very happy about the figs. 

And here it is: It is a earlier Vespa Super 125 (VNC1T). There is no oil reservoir. This will require premixing the oil and gas. I am going to have to keep a can of the premix and fill up at home. No big problem really.

The cowls are in good shape and the engine...

Well as I said, the piston of the engine is seized. The owner did not have an explanation of  why it was seized but I am not terribly concerned. The beauty of these small Vespa engines is that they are relatively simple and unless parts are rusted together, can generally be rebuilt and they will run just fine. 

That is my intention with this one. I am going to get this engine back into good running order and perhaps even put a larger head on it. (perhaps a 166cc?, we'll see) The front assembly (steering column  + front fork and shock) is the wrong one for this model. Once again, there is no good story for why it does not have the proper column but I will try and find the right one and maybe trade this one for it. 

This is the sad little corner I rescued it from. The stack of wooden blocks was propping up the front fork which did not have a tire or rim on it. (included but not on the bike.) 

We loaded it up and he gave me the photocopied user manuals for both the smallframe and this bike. He also gave me a book called "How to Restore and Maintain your Vespa."

That ought to come in real handy here soon. 

As asked, I closed the gate on the way out. 

Didn't want the cows to escape.

Scooter, Texas!!

Another Spree, Another Elite

I got a deal on a Honda Spree and a Honda Elite 80. The Spree is to added to a pool of them being gathered for a little Spree racing league. That new one and my other one were delivered today and will soon be little monsters. I can't wait.

The Elite on the other hand I just picked up since the guy wanted to get rid of them both. I am a fan of the Elite line of scooters. I'll say it again, Honda makes great engines. This one is a 4 stroke 80cc engine. Honda sold pretty much the same Elite 80 model for about 23 years. I see a bunch of them out on the road.

This one had been sitting for awhile and the inside of the carburetor certainly shows what can happen when a scooter sits too long. The rusty material was mostly residue and cleaned out fairly easily, but the crust on the jet side appears to be some sort of oxidation. I have these pieces (and most of the rest of the carb) soaking in Marvel Mystery Oil overnight and will see how they clean up in the morning. I will take some fine sandpaper and/or a file to it to see if I can smooth it out some.

I went out and met Scooter Steve in person today and we seemed to hit it off right away. I was very impressed with the contents of his shop. So many scooters and I can only ride one at a time! We went for a short ride on a pair of Kymco People 50s and I am easily reminded how fun it is to ride with other people.

Here's the Elite 80. It's not leaking, It's just wet from being hosed off.

Rally With No Name

The Rally With No Name is happening at the End of September here in Austin. I'm excited.

My friend Felipe has it too

He says, "While in Houston over the weekend, I found a great deal on a trials motorcycle. Of course I bought it but how to bring it back to Austin in a rental car? Let's just say the Lincoln's back seat now exudes the sweet scent of 2-stroke oil..."

Felipe and I have had some crazy adventures together.

Fun with Scooters

Scooter, Texas

The Old Herd

Left to Right: 

2005 Piaggio Typhoon 50, 

1985 Honda Elite 150, 

1986 Honda Elite Deluxe 150. 

Note the headlamp differences on the Elites. 

I loved riding all of these bikes. 

I have sold them all now and I am positive their owners are happy with them. 

One funny note, all three of the buyers for these bikes called me within an hour saying, "I was riding it and I turned it off and now it won't start." and I asked them if their kill switch was off and it was and then I could hear the bike start up, a general "fuck yeah" and a "Thanks Goodbye". 

Always check the kill switch first. 

Barn Find Deluxe

Sometimes you find crazy things. 

This was the headshield of a 1986 Honda Elite Deluxe 150. I bought it for $50 as a parts bike and after pulling some panels and hosing it down, It turned out to be really clean and complete.

I cut the Kryptonite U-lock off the rear rack with the angle grinder. I did it at night so it was exciting seeing all the sparks flying. I did the usual run down (spark/compression/fuel) and cleanup (empty tank, change oil, new plug, fresh battery) and it fired right up.

It did have some cosmetic issues. The visor was broken so I temporarily replaced it. I also fixed some broken plastic with what I call Frankenstein Stitches. This picture is from another bike but you get the idea. 

I had two semi-related weird issues with this one. What makes the Elite Deluxe 150 "deluxe" is the pop up headlight. I am not sure that there's any other scooter ever made that also had the pop up headlight which is prominently featured  (at about 00:22) in this ad for the Deluxe 150 featuring DEVO (awesome):

When I got the bike, the headlight did not pop open but was instead set permanently open. It worked but I was a little sad it didn't open and close like it should. The other problem was that the headlight worked but would short out while I was riding which made it impossible to take out at night. I fretted over the issue for a week or two frustrated at not being able to find the short. Then one evening as I fired it up just to ride up the street and back, I found that the short was in the start button switch. I could now control the light coming on and off. It turns out that the start switch, when pressed in, fires the engine and when pushed back out by the spring, reconnects the headlight circuit. I assume this is to not add extra drain to the starting circuit from the headlight.

The plastic tab behind the spring had broken and the switch was not returning to the open position so the headlight circuit was shorting out. I wasn't able to locate an OEM replacement switch at the time so I wired in separate generic switches for headlight and starter switch and was off and running. Except that the following day, the battery was dead. It had a full charge the night before and it didn't now have the charge to make the starter click.

I recharged the battery and rode it around and everything seemed to be fine but then the following day, the battery was dead again. I worried that I had somehow messed up wiring in the new switches or worse, that the engine was not charging the battery while running. On the plus side, I learned how to test the charge to the battery and it appeared to be working the way it should. That was good but I still had this problem of a drain on the battery.

I turned the scooter off and sat there to consider the issue and I noticed a sound coming from under the small front hood. I opened it up and listened and watched. The tiny motor that opened and closed the headlamp was working to close the permanently open headlamp. I am guessing the previous owner, in chasing down the phantom headlamp short, had misconnected the headlamp motor wires and found the lamp no longer opened. In hunting down the phantom short, I probably reconnected them correctly and after finding the phantom short, the motor began working again. It tried all night long to close the headlamp and in the process ran down the battery. I moved the little bracket that held the lamp open and it shut itself like a little robot.

That was a nice touch Honda. I appreciate it.

Shopping Spree

Today did not go the way I planned it. Too many things conspired against me getting to Dallas to buy the scooters I had planned to. "The Best Laid Plans" and so forth...

I did buy two scooters here in Austin, though. I got a great deal on a Honda Spree (NQ50) and a Honda Elite 80 (CH80). I'll fix up the Elite 80 and sell it. It's a good and popular scooter. There are a lot of them out there and Honda makes great engines. Someone will be happy with it. 

The Spree is going to be thrown in with the others which are intended for a Spree racing league my friend is wanting to put together. He mentioned in passing " a lineup of identical Sprees with racing numbers". I am seeing it already. 

The Sprees are funny little bikes. They are 50cc 2 stroke engines but the transmission is a direct drive rather than a CVT (most automatic scooters) which makes them essentially a single gear scooter. They don't usually go much over about 25 mph when running stock, but they can be modified to run much faster. A bunch of them side by side in a closed environment can be exciting. 

Awesomely Hilarious or Hilariously Awesome? 

That would make a great racing team t shirt. 

Things could have gone better today. I could be oohing over the Vespa I wanted and I am disappointed about that but I am happy with what I paid for the Hondas and I know they are worth the time put into them. 

1978 Vespa 50 Special - Long Term Project

I found this on Craigslist. The guy was parting it out and I saved him the trouble by buying the whole mess right out. I should have paid more attention to the location on the ad as I found myself driving 45 minutes away from home in the dark at 9:30 on a Sunday night. 

The place I was going was out in the country and down a long caliche driveway. 

Here's a terrible and shaky video to give you an idea of just how far out I had to go. You can see him on another scooter guiding the way to his shop:

I was warned to close the gate securely when I left, "We have cows."

It turns out that the guy selling it was teaching at the High School I graduated from so many years ago. He wasn't my teacher, but we were there at the same time. Small World...

The scooter is just the frame and front end of a 1978 Vespa 50 Special. It is currently the same color as my truck but I can see what appears to be factory red paint underneath. I may try and carefully strip the blue paint and recover the earlier color. That may prove to suck a lot. What's more, I don't have an engine or handlebars for this frame. There were millions of the Vespa 50s built but the majority of them stayed in Europe. I think I might be able to drop another smallframe engine in there and have it work. 

I think I will see if I can find a 90cc (rarer, I think) or maybe, if I can find it (and I am not entirely delusional), I can find a Primavera 125 engine for it. I am also wondering if I DID find a primavera 125 engine, if there is a larger top end kit that would pump it up to a 150 or so. 

This is all provided I am not entirely delusional. I just watched that video again and I am beginning to suspect that I am. Then again, it's trips like these that make this all an adventure. 

A Honda Elite awhile back

I wrote this previously but it's about scooters so I'll leave it here. 

Here's the Elite polished up but still needing a seat. It was overheating so I spent the day disassembling it, draining all the fluids, refilling all the fluids, cleaning the thermosensor, blowing out the radiator with compressed air, checking the spark plug. At one point I adjusted a screw on the carburetor and then started the scooter to ride it around the block to warm it up.

I was almost to the end of the street going about 35 when there was a popping sound and the scooter began losing power. I turned it around and nursed it home. I went to readjust the screw and realized it had fallen out! Shit shit shit! The popping sound must have been the screw being blown out of the carburetor as I blew down the road. Also, now the scooter would not start up again.

A trip to the auto parts store and another to Home Depot resulted in the wrong sized screw and the right sized, but wrong shaped screw. The attempts to start the scooter with the wrong shaped screw resulted in draining the battery and liquid spilling from the bottom of the scooter. I apologize for the pun, but this one screw was screwing it all up. I had no idea what this specialized screw for a carburetor made in Japan in 1985 even looked like. I was screwed!

and then it started raining which is a blessing for Texas as we've had so little rain this year that we've begun catching on fire, but it was an immediate workstop as far as the scooter went. I went inside and had lunch and felt like a jerk for wishing the rain would stop. Which it did.

I stood there in the post rain steam wondering how I was going to fix this. I decided that I need to just go find that screw. I walked down the street slowly scanning my head back and forth. I probably looked drunk. The rain made the road dark and that made everything else stand out from it. I walked almost to the end of the road and right up to the screw like it was waiting for me. The little exchange I had with the screw went like this:

"That will teach you screw around with things you don't understand!"
"If we thought the sky was the limit, we would never have gone to the moon!"

I returned the specialized, 26 year old Japanese brass screw to its rightful place and the scooter fired right up. I rode it for about ten miles to see if it was still overheating, but it never broke a sweat. Austin was beautiful tonight. I stopped to watch lightning way off in the distance. It lit the sky up and the air felt electric. Now I HOPE it rains, we need it.

Not an EXPERT, an ENTHUSIAST

I didn't go looking for my first scooter. I didn't even know I wanted one. A friend of mine gave it to me simply for going and getting the thing because he had no way of moving it from his old house. The new tenants were there and pissed. "Just go get it and you can have it. I'll give you the title and everything." I really think his wife was pissed at him for getting it instead of a minivan. I gave him an old Moog keyboard and we were square. 

It was a red and black Piaggio Typhoon 50 and I thought it was ugly. I somehow got into the back of my truck by myself and had it laying over on its side! I took it home and locked it up on my front porch and waited several days until my friend finally found the key and the title. I remember slow trips around the neighbor unsure about twisting the throttle back all the way. That didn't last too long. I rode that poor scooter at Wide Open Throttle for pretty much the rest of the time I owned it. 

I took it out one morning and was cruising down road on the way to the store. The entryway to the parking lot of the store is not very visible until you are very close to it and I had to brake hard and make a sharp leaning turn. There was a small thin stream of water across the entryway and as I passed over it, the rear wheel slid out from under me and I hit the ground without knowing I was going to fall. Luckily, nothing was broken but I was very sore for a few days, embarrassed as I limped through Home Depot. I knew I needed to "get back up on the horse" so I continued to ride it, but the WHEEEEEE feeling I had before was replaced by a sort of OMG OMG which is a terrible way to go about things. 

At this point the scooter was running at reduced response. It was very slow on initial acceleration and almost could not make it up hills. I stopped riding it for almost a year. I would hop on and try and kick start it but I couldn't get it to run and so it sat in the sun til the seat cover split and the foam was showing through. 

I finally called my friend that had been working on cars and motorcycles for longer than the 20 odd years I had know him and I asked what the trouble might be. He told me it sounded like the carburetor needed to be cleaned out. I went online to see if I could just buy a new carb but I wasn't interested in paying $150 to see if that was the problem. So I looked it up on YouTube. I found this video:

I got my tools out and took to it. I removed and cleaned the carb. The jets were nearly sealed shut with residue. I very carefully put everything back together and kick started the scooter. It fired up and ran with a new vigor. I got on and where before it had been sluggish and probably dangerous, it was now quick from a dead stop and responsive all the way up the throttle. I couldn't wait to ride it everyday. My sense of WHEEEEE was back. 

It was shortly after all of this that I looked over at my neighbor's scooter sitting neglected by the mailbox and I asked him what was wrong with it. He said, "oh it's some electronic unit that will cost hundreds to replace." 

I asked him what he wanted for it and he said "it's a burden, you can have it, but you won't get it to run."

A few hours, a newly purchased voltmeter, some youtubery, and it was running. Not running REALLY WELL, but it was running and I didn't realize I was hooked. 

and now I am writing a blog to talk about how hooked I am so I can bore my friends more indirectly and at their own pace. 

Next Project: 1980 Vespa P125

This P125 caught my eye. I spoke with the owner and he said it needs the clutch adjusted and the usual fuel tank clean-out and carb clean. It has a 177cc top end on it which ought to make it a nice quick bike. 

I go pick it up Tuesday.  I didn't buy it after all.

A Pair of Sprees

I got the white one from my long-time friend Felipe. He works on and rides motorcycles. He bought the Spree to use as a runabout while at races. It doesn't have a carburetor and I have only recently located one for it, so we'll see how it runs soon. 

I was asked to get the red one running and it will start up and I can get it to run full throttle but only if I stick my finger way up into the air intake to choke out the carb. I haven't given up yet. 

Painting my 1976 VBC

I have to get through a couple of immediate projects and then this one will get another coat of blue and 2 or 3 coats of clearcoat. Then I will be ready to rebuild it and ride it!!

ET2 fires up.

Last night, I flooded the ET2's cylinder with Marvel Mystery Oil and pulled, soaked and cleaned the carburetor. This morning I pulled the muffler and pumped the engine with the kick start lever to pump out the Mystery Oil. I reinstalled the muffler and checked for a spark. With a new spark plug and battery, I hit the starter button and after a moment of hesitation, the engine fired right up and immediately poured LOTS of white smoke out of the muffler. That's a good thing. It's the deposits and residue that the Marvel Mystery oil dissolved overnight. It will clear out soon.

With some air in the tires and the seat bolted back on, this scooter will be ready to go out for a test ride. Whether or not I will be able to register the scooter is a different question. The previous history of this scooter is vague and it may be a 'totaled' vehicle which means it cannot be registered again. The engine and guts of this scooter may find a home in another body.

(Thanks to Scooter Steve for the Marvel Mystery Oil usage suggestions)

Cleaning a carburetor

This is the carburetor from the Vespa ET2 that I just purchased. The purpose of the carburetor is to vaporize gasoline and combine it with air to be ignited by the spark plug down in the engine.

Here I have removed the the float bowl cover. The tan plastic ring is the float. It controls the amount of gas available to be vaporized at one time. Should the float fail, the carburetor can fill with gas and the gas will not ignite properly. 

Visible inside the ring are two slotted tubes. Those are the jets. 

I removed the float assembly by pulling the small hinge pin. The small pointed obejct is a rubber tipped needle that fits into the tube that feeds gas into the carb. When the bowl is empty and the float falls, the needle is pulled free and gasoline can flow into the bowl. When the gas in the bowl causes the float to rise, the needle returns to its place and cuts off the flow of gas into the bowl. 

These are the jets. They are the passages through which the gas flows and is vaporized. The size of the jet determines the volume of the gas entering the main chamber to be mixed with the air.

The smaller one is the idle jet which provides gas at a stop and at low speed. The larger one is the main jet which provides gas when the engine is revved and the clutch is engaged. The main jet flow is controlled by a needle that is connected by a cable to the throttle handle. When the throttle is turned, the needled is unseated and that allows fuel to pass through the jet and into the mixture chamber.

When gasoline sits for a long time it will evaporate and leave behind a gummy residue. When this happens, these jets can become clogged and the flow of fuel is restricted which affects the air/ fuel mixture and can cause poor engine performance and if not corrected, severe damage to the engine.

I have now removed the idle screw. This adjusts the volume of air taken in by the carburetor. 

The flathead screw above the large opening is the air/fuel mixture adjustment screw. This is the fine adjust to cause the mixture to run richer (more fuel) or leaner (more air) depending on how you are tuning your engine.  When removing this screw, it is important to first count the number of turns until the screw is tight. This will allow you to remember the setting when you return the screw after cleaning. Mine was set at 2 1/4 turns out which seems to be a fairly standard stock setting. I removed this screw after this photo. 

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After I took the carburetor apart, I soaked all of the individual pieces in Marvel Mystery Oil and then later sprayed all parts clean with carb cleaner spray. I used compressed air and carb spray to make sure all passages in the carburetor body were clear and clean. I took particular care to make sure the jets were clear  and open. I rebuilt the carburetor, making sure no rubber gasket seals were broken. Luckily all were intact. 

This is a regular part of scooter maintenance and one of my first steps in getting a scooter running after bringing it home.