90% ready….?

The scooter build has come along very well for the most part. the starter works, like a starter!

I must say this first, Don Jeka at Great Bay Motorcycles, is a really nice guy and has offered to help me out with an excellent deal on parts and half price on labor.  I met with him twice and discussed the deal and he has been great, it was my mistake not to follow the deal down the line and make certain that his service manager and parts guy were on board. unfortunately they subscribe to the philosophy that I can get the part in one week then we can work on it reather than keeping a supply of belts , rollers gaskets etc…so , I ordered a muffler gasket, belt, rollers only way ahead, only to have the guys at great bay use them on someone elses scooter WTF. this is only the beginning of the mess all I can say is try to find a mechanic who “Likes” to work on Vespas. or something.

 I am grateful to have Don’s support.( even if is mostly moral support) they checked/ changed all the fluids. adjusted the brakes, replaced belt and rollers, ( I had planned on doing that myself) when I do it in Bowman ND it will be my first!

The shocks feel very nice and I apparently guessed right on the pre load( they came preloaded from the factory ,set for the “average rider” so I set them for TWICE the average plus a little) this is good b/c the YSS shocks are hard to adjust , the rings are on the top and on the Vespa those are set way up inside.

 The muffler bearing was a bit of a disaster (the future may show…) I could get it onto the header but could not get the “silencer” onto the bearing, I took it to the experts at the local Vespa shop and they jammed it on and  tried to tighten the bolts without it being lined up (THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE, MESS IT UP ALL BY MYSELF)  but NOOO I take it to the experts  to do that, damn!   I had to tell them to stop, they were ready to drill out the holes on the stock muffler to get it to fit, I started it up after they said it was “all set” and the exhaust was blowing out of the junction between header and pipe. CLUSTER.

I told them that I would get them the right part and they said bring it in and they would get it on.

I had already spoken to John at Moto amore and he is all set to remove the bearing ( after I ship the stuck header to him) and was very gracious on the phone. good guy.

Plan B : buy a new header/gasket collar/ “recall kit” from scooterwest / motorsport scooters and put it in. (skip plan B)

Note: my vespa dealer had no idea that the graphite collar was even a PART. nuff said

NOPE! straight to plan C  I called motorsport scooters and spoke to Alex, we chatted cannonball a little and he agreed to ship overnight  a new PM-68 pipe. he threw in the shipping for free I paid for the pipe! I ordered some last minute spares as well, a plug, a new plug wire, header gasket, set of rollers and a belt. ( we like motorsport scooters) they even agreed to overnight any emergency parts that we would need along the run!

 The pipe arrived the next day at noon, straight to the dealer ( cringe) where they drooled over the “racing” pipe. and proceded to bastardize the install, Jeeze, even I can read directions. I went online and got some valuable info from “Cheeky Thomas” someone who has put  ALOT of PM’s onto Vespas, and forwarded it to the service mgr with some of my own venemous comments i might add. well it is now installed. I think they tried to dremel the pipe down to “fit”, f**k!

 but the pipe is on. the guys at the shop said that I wouldn’t be able to change a tire beside the road, I am an optimist. and with a bit of help from my fellow canonballers I feel good going forward. I may bring along Plan B just incase.   exhale………

 the scoot is running great though, The tires feel good! Heidenau 130’s front and rear, ran it up to Portland and off to “Camp”  Maine, 120 mi RT  ran great, off to Manchester NH and back 120 mi RT another good shakedown, I want to get the prescribed 300 to 500 on the new belt prior to CBR.

 I still need to consolidate my kit for under the seat, pack the spares for in the truck, build an extra support for the tourtank.

and work on the trailer configuration for the support truck.

Advertisement

Bettie the clashmobile…

the scooter to be named “Bettie” being delivered from Great Bay Motorcycle in Hampton,NH

I picked her up as a leftover GTS250 in early 2008, she had a flat front sava that needed to be replaces and her kill switch was loose. she overheated on the first ride ( aparrently an electrical glitch) and has run flawlessley ever since…until recently

 the starter is NFG. or that is what we think it is, better now than on day 5 CBR.  waiting to get the starter back from rebuild, put in the new shocks, change oil tec… the build goes on, hope to be doing some shake down rides soon!

Cheers

TWO Weeks and the starter has returned!!! we will now see if she works, fingers crossed.

OK update 7-25, the starter is in the scooter and it WORKS! yes, now I am wrestling with the miracle muffler bushing, i fought and struggled and now it is seated on the header BUT the pipe won’t go over it, I have some superfine emory paper to soften up the edges etc… so that is next.

 Oh yeah and BTW I had two silly little nuts left over from the rebuild of the rearend and I now have to take it all apart BC I realised where they go… should be good practice. Cheers

Late Night Wrenching

Yesterday I  spent a good deal of time in the Ice studio splitting blocks for the weeks projects… later the Red Sox were getting spanked by Texas at HOME!

I went out to the Garage and went about some CBR wrenching/ prep. I am still waiting on my rebuilt-refurbished-better-than-new starter from “Ricks”, so the task at hand was remove the muffler, take off the wheels front and rear, Remove the Stock shocks, to be replaces by the KSS upgrade ( to better haul my husky physique ) and put it all back together along with the Heidenau K66LTs 130 front and rear.

ok 1:30 am . Done.

still need to put on the new starter and replace everything that came off before it, change the oil, and figure out this Muffler Bearing, ( it dosen’t seem to go over the header pipe..hmmm NG. and I destroyed the perfectly good graphite sleeve  removing it to make way for this Bearing “Gizmo” well the jury is still out on this one.

make some calls, scooter shop. Ricks electric, Moto amore in CA.

L8TR.

Is that a KEG?

Mulligan the Hooligan, Pembrooke Welshcorgi practicing keeping an eye out for other scooterists

Yes that’s the “tour tank” by Coyote Gear  it has the overflow “puke tank” and a shut off valve that will help in refueling etc…

 The first tests have gone well, I have found that you must get the front tank almost completely full so the vacuum will draw the fuel from the top tank, ( I guess) on an early test run the front tank went to 3/4 while the top was full, I stopped immediately thinking there may be a leak but no there was too much air in the bottom tank and the fuel simply fed down from there first. It should work very well in the long run. The tour tank holds 3.0 gallons so the full scoot now carries 5.3? +/- at 60 mpg thats 320 mles??? sounds good, this means one  stop mid way on most days during cannonball to top off the rear tank and I should be golden. Believe me the tinkle stops will far outnumber the fuel ups…LOL