10 posts tagged “scooter”
Wow, they kind of nailed my demographic...
I'm not sure what it is about scooter rallies which makes people think that everything will be fine if they do an Evil Knevil jump across the Snake River on their scooter... Oh yeah, the beer... right...
I just got tipped to this from Ian... oh man, this is so rad... It is a kids show (yo gabba gabba) which has a total rude boy singing a ska song about cleaning up your room. Never has the throw away ska phrase "pick it up" had so much literal meaning!
This has been a great couple of weekends for my vehicle hobbies. I've done a little wrenching in the garage, helped a good friend get a classic BMW motorcycle, and gone to two scooter rallies. The Bay Area is so awesome for this stuff. There are so many events going on for classic vehicles that I have to really prioritize which I go to.
Last Saturday I went on a 100 mile ride with some of the East Bay scooterists. We rode up through the East Bay hills all the way down to Castro Valley. Those are some pretty awesome roads, and it is hard to believe that they are just 5 minutes from Berkeley and Oakland. Towards the southern end of Skyline road, there are people with horses stabled at their houses. And this is in Oakland! Crazy. After Castro Valley (which is a dump) we drove up to Pleasanton. Talk about a "white-bread" suburb! I guess it could be worse. In any case, we drove through some pretty amazing backroads going through the Livermore wine country, and eventually ended up back in Berkeley. Lots of fun, and it was a full day of great riding in amazing weather.
A few weeks ago I went to a really excellent scooter rally in Santa Cruz. This is my kind of rally. It is classic-scooter only, and pre-1960 scooters are highly encouraged. This rally was awesome. There were the most 1950's Vespas on that ride that I have ever seen at a rally... and this includes the big 300+ scooter rallies. People just don't ride these old scooters around much, mainly because they are slow and hard to keep running. I brought my '59 Vespa G.S.
Here are a few pictures. If you care, you should click the bottom picture which will bring you to a "collection" of a bunch of great pictures from the rally.
I should also mention that these photos were taken by Monterey Pete while riding his scooter through the rally. Pretty amazing. They are stored on scoot.net's image gallery.
I'm sure that all of my scooter friends have seen this already... but just in case you haven't...
Well it looks like I'm starting to be the East Bay scooter repair guy... I don't really have a business, but a bunch of the East Bay scooter riders are bringing their bikes to me to fix 'em up. It could be that people are already thinking about spring, but I just got slammed with a bunch of bikes to work on.
Project #1) I've been working on a '55 Handlebar on and off for about a month now. Mostly I've been waiting on parts for it. The owner found a really sweet original bike, but all the cables and wiring was pretty well shot. It needed the works. So I pulled it apart enough to get the cables and wiring harness out. I spent the better part of yesterday getting the cables back in, though I had gotten the loom in a few weeks ago. Holy crap. This is the most difficult Vespa that I have ever worked on. I'm really glad they changed the frames and controls on the later bikes, because how they did it on these early bikes is just bad news. All of the cables go through channels in the frame, and at several choke points have to manuver through very awkward bends and very small holes. Getting the cables through the very narrow handlebars is a real chore, and as I found out, they have to go through in a specific order, or they get tangled in the bars. This job has taken me about five times the amount of time that it would have if it was a 60's bike. At least now I have all the cables done, and all I have to do now is connect all the electrical wiring (which is thankfully already run through the frame), and button the bike up. There will be some adjustments which need to be done to the new cables, but at least I can see the home stretch.
Project #2) I started in on a basic shift cross job on a friend's Rally 200, which has turned into a bit more. The bike needed new tires, so I did that. It also needs a new shock, which I'll put on next weekend. And I also installed a nice vintage rear rack on it. The real problem has been that it needs new rings (or maybe a larger piston). In my basic inspection before tearing it apart, I found that the compression was really low. I figured we could just try a new set of rings, and see how that goes before spending the money on a piston and bore job. The problem is that First Kick is out of standard rings. David ordered a few pairs, but then promptly sold them before I could pick a set up. Now I have to wait again for another set to come in. I had no idea that stock 200cc rings were such a hot item! Once I get them, I should have this one out and on the road.
Project #3) This bike just came in for work on Sunday, it is a Sprint. I have already worked on it a bit, putting new tires, shocks, brakes, etc on it. I also installed a Cosa clutch in it, which was kind of cool, since they are not really made for the Sprint. I had to make some modifications, but it seems to be working fine! Now the bike needs a new shift cross as well. I'll make a trip to First Kick this week for parts, and should have this one done next weekend if I can get into the garage.
Project #4) I have been working on a Primavera that is owned by some grad students in my neighborhood. This bike is an Italian import, and has had a hard life. Essentially, it is beat down. Well, now the headset broke right at the front brake lever. It is a bad break. I told them I could try to bodge it with cold weld, but that it might not hold, and I really would not recommend it... if the lever broke off in an emergency situation, that would be bad! So they told me to just replace the headset. This is going to be a real pain, mainly because I'll have to pull out all the cables and wiring and install them on a new headset. I have a spare smallframe headset on a parts bike that I have, but it has different switches, so I'll have to make some new wiring connections. I'm not looking forward to this job at all...
Nonetheless, working in the garage is theraputic for me. Even when the jobs are challenging, it is still pretty fun. Plus, I just got a nice motorcycle lift for the garage - which should make all of these jobs a lot easier!
This is seriously one of the coolest custom motorcycles I have ever seen. I really like the lines on it, and there are some pretty interesting technical aspects to its construction. I like the crazy steering linkage, and the wheel rims are slick. The whole thing is very well done... and the styling... well, it looks like it just drove out of a Tim Burton film!
You can see more detailed pictures of this bike here.
I'm trying out Comet dudes. Yeah. Check out this scooter I'm selling... it is DOPE-A-LICIOUS!!!
