Vespazine Lives!

Yes, I am still around. Trying to get my lazy hands to click on my blogger link and start posting to Vespazine again. A lot has happened since my last posts. Vespa turned 60, the Piaggio MP3 was released, some guy from the Sopranos (sorry I don't watch it, forgot his name) crashed on his Vespa, and I've added some new accessories to my PX. I'll try and post some turtorials here soon, and some new mods I'm planning for my scoot. I will be in Thailand and Cambodia for a month starting next week, so posts might slow down....but I swear I will get vespazine back on it's feet again. It's summertime, and my arms are getting really dark. GO RIDE!

Vietnam Vespa Club Celebrates World Cup With Parade

DO NOT buy a Vespa from Vietnam. Instead, enjoy this news story about The Vietnamese Vespa Club celebrating the start of the World Cup with a Vespa parade including jerseys and matching decorations to represent each country participating in the World Cup! Now if they would only play the World Cup ON Vespas, then maybe I'd watch.

Link.

Be Careful!

With spring about here, be careful when riding your scoot! Here's a story about a girl in Portland who was seriously injured from a car who didn't see her. It appears the car driver was to blame, so watch out for those idiots on the road...there are plenty of them.

Link.

Old Vespa TV Advertisements

I found some funny vintage Vespa ads on the Vespa Club Roma website. My favorite is the 1962 ad for the GS 160 with the Italian guy going "vespa, vespa, vespa, vespa." Unfortunately these ads are in windows media format, blech.

Link.

Alarm for Vespa GT and GTS

Vespa has just released an alarm system to protect your precious, new, expensive GT or GTS. It can plug right into the wiring loom so there is no mess with cutting wires to get the thing working. It comes with a key fob to control the alarm, and a electronic key and PIN to disable it should you lose the fob.

Link.

High Rollers Rally Photos

Here are some photos from the High Rollers Rally in Vegas. The Hoover Dam ride was awesome, despite the wind and cold. A few of my favorites are posted below...and the little kids on the vespa, it really drove! It was electric.






More photos on my Personal site, and at Scoot.net.

An Open Letter

My Gmail decided to put the Vespa eNews letter in the spam box, so I am a bit late to jump on this story...but the Piaggio America CEO Paolo Timoni has written an open letter to U.S. mayors concerning energy consumption and americas oil addiction. Piaggio has also announced the ad is being placed in todays copy of New York Times. Awesome.

Link to Yahoo! news coverage.

Link to the letter.

Piaggio going public in Italy

The business telegraph is reporting that due to the rise of gas prices, increase in traffic and overall affordability of scooter owership, Piaggio is doing just fine and are going public in Italy. Piaggio plans on adding two new models to their lines, and manufacturing models for china and India. India seems to be the lucky ones, with Piaggio announcing their plans to produce 150,000 apes yearly. Wouldn't it be nice if Americans traded in their Escalades for Vespas?

Link.

Las Vegas High Rollers Rally

A quick reminder to everyone that the Annual Las Vegas Scooter Rally is days away! February 16th-20th! I won't be able to attend the entire thing, but I will be there for the weekend. How many vespazine readers will be in attendance? I'll be there on a green PX150...say hi if you see me...

The Official Site For The Las Vegas Scooter Rally.

Scooter.

Yeah, I have a myspace account. Sad. Apparently aquafina is sponsoring some type of independent films on myspace, and I found this one titled "scooter" featuring a vespa.

Link.

ArtVespa

Here is a cool site I came across with modern styled vespas for sale painted by different contemporary british artists, which are now up for auction. I don't have the 3,000 British Pounds to bid on my favorite one in the picture above...but wouldn't it be nice...

Link.

Vespa enthusiasts deliver Lunar New Year goodies to the elderly

Every Lunar new year a group of vespa riders drive around Singapore to deliver oranges, rice and other goodies to old folks homes.

"...once a year, these vintage beauties dating back to 1964 can still be seen on the roads for a good cause. It has become an annual tradition for the Vespa riders to get together to spread the Lunar New Year cheer."

Link.

Vespa with vooma

Here's a nice little story about Brett Hamilton receiving a call from Vespa for a test ride.

"Splitting the lanes, passing the myriad of caged drivers felt like cheating. Like taking the easy way out. That didn't stop me from saying, 'Goodbye traffic'. Next.

With a smile I wound my way up and over the rocky passes outside the city with the boiling kettle hum from the GT turning this mission into a pleasure."

Link.

The Vespa Scene in Vietnam

Vietnam Net Bridge has a cool article about the Vespa scene there. Forums and Internet clubs in Vietnam have large groups of scooterists, exchanging information and collecting scooters. In Da Lat, there was even a festival held in early 2006 with categories for Lambrettas, modded scooters and original scoots. It's pretty exciting to see a growing scene there and an interest in keeping them restored and on the road.

Link.

Rocket Bike

The Rocket Bike designed by Tim Pickens looks like it could be a lot of fun for those days when you want to go a bit faster than what your Vespa can handle.

How it Works:
1. A toggle switch on the battery pack arms the ignition system.
2. The left-thumb button sends power from the battery pack to an igniter on a model-rocket motor inside the rocket engine, vaporizing the roofing-tar fuel so it can burn.
3. The right-thumb button keeps the nitrous oxide flowing (and the rocket lit) as long as it's pushed.
4. The left brake lever regulates the flow of nitrous and throttles the rocket.

Maybe someone out there can talk to Tim about putting this on a Vespa, and get back to us?

Link via gizmodo.

My Experience With Towbin Vespa, Las Vegas Nevada

My friend picked up a great deal on a 1979 Vespa P200E locally. The scooter was in great shape, the engine turned over and everything seemed peachy until it started having problems running. Being the mechanically handicapped people that we are, my friend thought it best to take it to an authorized Vespa dealer to give it a look through and a tune up. We live about an hour and a half outside of Las Vegas, and this would be our first time checking out the Vespa dealer there. We looked up their address and got driving directions on google maps. We were on our way.

When we arrived we were surprised to see a lot full of Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis. I guess that's the way they roll in Vegas. Anyway, we found our way to the Vespa section of the dealer, and we were greeted by a man in what looked to be an expensive suit, probably more expensive then the scooter itself. They were expecting our arrival and he seemed pretty happy to help us, until we opened up the van door to reveal the vespa. I observed the "what the hell is this" look on his face as he saw us pull it out. He then told us he would return shortly as he went inside the main office. When he returned he told us they would be able to take it, put their mechanic is in and out of the place so he had no idea when it would be looked at. The Vespa ended up sitting there for a month surrounded by cars with engine compartments that could eat it alive, lonely and unattended. I don't think I will ever make a return visit the BENTLEY ROLLS ROYCE vespa dealer. Not because they are bad people, but because they have no 2-stroke soul...and we found an awesome mechanic in Salt Lake City.

Vespa Releases New Retro Styled Helmet

Not sure if it's available in the states yet, but the UKs MCN magazine has reported this new vespa retro helmet. A bit nicer looking than the helmets available in the states now. This helmet will also have optional goggles with either a clear, blue, smoke or yellow lens.

Link. via thescooterscoop.

How to make a waterproof boombox backpack

If filling your vespa or stellas glovebox with speakers, cables and an amp doesn't suit you, maybe you should check out this awesome waterproof boombox backpack.

Link via make.

Yahoo! to include traffic reports on maps

Hopefully it's more accurate than weather reports, but Yahoo! is now including traffic reports on their maps. This could be a great help in choosing that route to wherever you'll be heading on your scoot. I know the traffic in my town is so bad right now due to construction, there will be some ridiculous type of road work on every street you try. Such is life, eh?

Link via lifehacker

Las Vegas High Rollers Rally Feb 16-20

There is much need to rejoice! The High Rollers Scooter Rally will be taking place in Las Vegas February 16th-20th! This will be my first year in attendance, and I am tickled. Expect a slew of new posts featuring photos, events and products. How many of you will be able to attend?

The Greatness of eBay.co.uk

I figure since the Vespa movement in the U.K. was so big, I'd give eBay UK a shot to see what kind of vespa items I could find on there. I found a lot of great items! Items I've never seen on the U.S. eBay. Wacky accessories, all sorts of helmets and almost every spare part you could imagine. You have to consider the exchange rate when bidding, but many of the items you can still get for a good deal, and a majority of the sellers ship worldwide. If you're having trouble finding that part, I'd give the UK eBay a shot.

Piaggio won't buy DaimlerChrysler's troubled Smart unit

I would never really buy anything from Daimler Chrysler, at least the things they release in the United States. Personal bias I guess, but it looks like Piaggio was given an offer to purchase their smart unit, and declined due to it having problems "far to expensive for them to tackle."

via thescooterscoop

Vesputer

It brings me great joy that one of my favorite blogs, engadget, posted our submission about the vepsa stereo mentioned before. We also found a sweet link on their site about a Vespa with an installed computer and webcam. You can check it out further here.

Stereo System for P-series Vespas and Stellas

The fine folks over at scooterworks have released a complete Stereo system for P-Series Vespas and Stellas! It includes everything you need to get your system bumping those tunes. 2 4" speakers, gloveboox door with precut holes, amp, ipod cradle and connection for ipod and other mp3 players. If anyone get's their hands on this, please let us know how it sounds!

International Motorcycle Show

Looks like the International Motorcycle Show has been going on for awhile now, since november. Right now the show is in New York and will be heading off to Ohio next with three more stops in Minneapolis, Chicago and, Atlanta. Can anyone tell us of any cool new products they have seen there that we could use on our vespas?

Link

Vespa Releases New Accessory

It's a bag that is designed to be used inside the standard case. Expect it to be nice, and expensive. Looks like you can only get this through your authorized local dealers for now.

Link

Vespas 4 Sale

Old School Vespas seem to have from pretty nice vespas available for those who have the money, but not the time to restore a scooter of your own. With a warehouse in California and a 90 day warranty, it sounds pretty promising. Has anyone had any experiecne with them? Let us know.

Vespa and Lambretta shirts galore

I came across a nice site selling cool Vespa and Lambretta shirts in all sorts of styles and colors.

History of Vespa

Gizmag is featuring a nice article about The history of the Vespa. It includes stories about records that have been made on Vespas, in movies and elsewhere. They also have 23 pictures showing some on the rarest and pinnacle points in it's history.

via vespaquest.

Scoot.net is Excellent

Since this is a new blog, and maybe a few of you out there are new to the scootering scene, I want to tell everyone how great scoot.net is for an all around scootering site. It has great classifieds section with an occasional rare item you can find. Scooterist profiles, ride calendars, jetting database and more. I have found useful things on there numerous times. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Vespa Releases new GTS 250 in the U.S.

Kinda old news for some but...Vespa has released the new 250cc GTS here in the states meaning:
You can pass up plastic 49cc scooters even faster
You can intimidate Harley Riders?
You have a good reason to max your credit card (it helps the economy grow, right?)

Whitewall Tire Paint Application How-To

I finally found time to paint my tires with the whitewall tire paint mentioned earlier. I was pretty impressed with the results.

Materials needed:
1 can tire paint by Örn Sigurðsson
Flathead screwdriver (to open the can)
Goo Gone (for cleaning tires)
Paintbrush - I used a 1.5" from my hardware store
Stirring stick
Turpentine - for cleanup

I started by taking off the tires and spraying them down with my garden hose, then I dryed them with a lint free cloth and cleaned the brake dust and grime using the goo gone.


I applied one even coat to each side, setting a bowl inside the tire to elevate the side that was already painted, so it could dry horizontally rather than taking the risk of having it dry vertical and drip. Remember to wait 24 hours inbetween coats and before riding. It may also help to use some kind of spray tire protectant like armor all or black magic.


I painted 2 coats, but there was some browning of the paint as mentioned by Orn. Adding a couple more coats should cover up this problem and will make your nice scoot look that much classier.


I suggest throwing the brush away and using a new one for the time inbetween coats. The paint is an oil/rubbery base, so water will do nothing to it and it will leave you with a nasty mess. If you must keep your brush though, use turpentine to clean it.