You can see the original amber colored pipe below. It’s cloudy as a result of gas emulsifying over a period of time. This will happen when gas in the pipe is left for a period of inactivity, typically over the winter. This is why when you prep your scooter for winter storage many scooterists (and motorcycle riders) recommend running your bike dry by letting the engine tick over with the fuel valve off until the carburetor dies as it sucks up the last drops of fuel. Doing so drains any fuel from the pipe and carb that could potentially sit there all winter.

Emulsification aside, the pipe was adequately letting gas flow through and not ‘starving’ the carburetor. That said, the pipe had become brittle and wasn’t providing an adequate seal at either end. I had tried some plumber’s Teflon tape on the threads to try and stem the flow but it wasn’t working. Every time I returned to the bike and pulled the cover I was greeted with an overwhelming stench of gas and a pool of the stuff on the ground. The poor fit was causing a noticeable gas leak which – needless to say – is neither fiscally nor ‘flammably’ responsible.

The photo below shows the new pipe. I bought mine from Scooters Originali but it’s pretty standard and widely available from a number of sources. A length a little longer than I needed cost a couple of bucks and is easily cut to length with scissors. New color aside, this one is not only clean and clear but flexible enough to provide a nice seal

New pipe. Leak ended. Now if I can just find a replacement air host (left in the photos) then I’ll be golden. As you can see above that is also looking a little sad with cracking and electrical tape patching the holes. Another small victory lies ahead…

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Most modern scooters run a disc brake on the front wheel and a drum-brake on the back. A drum brake is cable operated. Pulling the brake lever pulls the cable which pivots an arm that pushes the brake shoes against the inside of the wheel (or drum.) Cable stretch and brake shoe wear require occasional tightening.

If your rear brakes are feeling spongy, check out her video below. Them’s some clean rims. Wish I rode daily in Florida. A polite suggestion Maureen – work on your torque wrenching technique:

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The job is a full day’s work but with patience and the right tools at hand it’s relatively easy. Remember, I already have a disc brake on my front hub, so this was just a matter of hooking it up to a brake line and installing the new brake lever and hydraulic fluid master cylinder in place of the old cable lever.

First, let’s take a look at the ScootRS solution:

The image above shows three of the four combined components that make up the solution (the fourth is below the unit out of site.) Central to the design is a stock Nissin master cylinder (MC) that contain the brake fluid. This is solidly cast by a Japanese brake company with a solid reputation. The unit also includes a threaded recess for a 10mm wing mirror which you will need if you want a throttle-side mirror, given the installation will partially obscure your regular mounting point.

The second part of the set up is where ScootRS comes in with their proprietary cast bracket that bolts to the back of the Nissin MC with two hex bolts. This is designed to plug into your handle-bar and set the brake at the correct angle for use following some cutting to make it fit. Scooterists who are more enterprising than me could make one of these brackets themselves, but it sure is nice to have it ready to go.

The third part of the set up is a cast brake lever that also includes a cast lip that in addition to pumping the master cylinder operates the fourth part of the set up, a small electrical brake switch bolted to the bottom of the MC. The lever is one of my only small niggles with the set up. I found it a little loose for my taste in up and down play on the bolt. Nothing a thin spacer washer won’t resolve.

Here’s a look at the back of the unit, and in particular the ScootRS bracket. The hole on the far-right is designed to accept your existing brake lever pivot bolt. The hole on the left of the bracket is threaded and requires a new hole to be drilled from the underside of your handlebars to help lock the bracket in place. It’s actually a pretty elegant solution because once it’s done it’s not visible from the top of the scooter. In addition, the bracket is angled to cosmetically fit the existing form of the lower headset on your bike.

Again, only one small niggle here, and that is that the unit didn’t come with a bolt and lock washer for the new hole that needs to be drilled. A trip to the hardware store fixed that, but it would have been nice to have it out of the box. Niggles aside, it’s a nice set up, that you’ll see below it works very well on the bike once everything is in place.

On to installation. ScootRS claims on their website that the bracket requires a small cut to the existing headset on your bike. In reality, that’s a little generous. It requires a size-able cut followed by plenty of filing and finishing and a hole for the new bolt. A Dremel is handy to help remove material if you have one but not critical.

At the very least you’ll need a junior hacksaw, a 1/8″ or so drill-bit and a flat file. Fortunately the metal you’ll be working with is relatively soft and once the set up is complete it looks tidy. It took me about three hours to get the cut I wanted, with a snug fit and a clean finish.

When you order from ScootRS they include a link to a web page that gives decent installation instructions including a clear photograph of what will need to be cut. In retrospect, I recommend that like a plastic surgeon, you reference the photograph they provide and use a felt pen to mark on the bike the area you will be cutting away before making an incision.

Here’s the area you’ll be dealing with and the old brake lever removed. I’ve also removed the top of the headset to get more access but all cuts will be made to the visible bottom of the headset only. That existing brake lever pivot hole will be used as one of the securing bolts for the new bracket so hang on to the bolt and nut you removed from the old lever, you’ll be using it again later:

In the photograph below I’ve made the first cuts. The point of no return so to speak. The metal cuts easily along the existing cast lines with a junior hacksaw. Also, thankfully the angles of the cuts you need are easy to get at without contortion. At this point, take it from me, cover the front-end of your scooter with a shop cloth, or plastic. The metal shavings get everywhere. Here, I’m working on the NYC sidewalk – Vietnam style:

In the photograph below you can see the entire area that needs to be removed. It’s partially filed but not yet cleaned up. Some wet and dry paper will help with the final clean-up.

The yellow line marks where I made a mistake, and should have cut for a tidier finish. It’s something I could have avoided if I had marked on the bike with a pen where to cut which is why I mentioned this above. Instead I kept glancing back and forth at the photograph supplied by the ScootRS tech help.

The brake will install fine either way but cutting along the line would have meant a cleaner looking set up from the top. Mistake or no, the job is a matter of repeatedly offering up the bracket to check your cut and fit. In addition to what you can see in the photograph, there’s a decent amount of material inside the recess that needs to be removed where the original cable outer recess sat inside the headset. I used a Dremel to do this but a file works just as well but naturally requires more elbow grease.

You can also see a scratch where I slipped with the file. Obviously I could have done more to protect the paintwork but unless you are super careful, you’re going to need some touch-up paint anyway. Thankfully much of what you see here ends up out of view once the lever is installed.

Here’s another angle of the same area. It took me about three hours to get this cut the way I wanted it using mostly hand tools. Patience is the key here, again some slips with the tools on my part could have been mitigated by covering the paintwork around the work area. No matter, I knew that I have some touch-up paint available so I knew I didn’t have to be anal about nicks or scratches. I’ll buff these out later but for now I’m keen to get this brake installed:

In the photograph below I’m offering up the bracket to the recess so you can see how the bracket is the secret to the ScootRS solution. You can also see my mistake in the cut to the left of the hex-bolt hole on the top of the bracket. No big deal, but learn from my mistake and measure twice, cut once.

The hole on the bracket just peaking out of the left-hand side will naturally line up with the hole on the headset once the bracket is fully inserted and installed. You can also see how the bracket is angled to cosmetically match the front of your bike:

In the next photograph, I’ve fully  installed the bracket and master cylinder. In the top half of the image you can see how the cast bracket fits in the recess I started with the first two hacksaw cuts:

Below, the yellow circle shows the new bolt you need to drill for and install from the bottom of the headset. On the top-left of the photo you can see the nut from the original nut and bolt you save from the old lever set up.

You can also see where the hydraulic hose feeds through into the throttle handlebar along with a wire I installed connecting to the brake switch (more on this in a moment.) I found I needed to remove yet more material from the headset to get the clearance I needed to feed both the wire and hose through, but again, it’s out of sight in the final set-up. I eyeballed where to drill the hole for the bolt, but making a quick paper template is a good idea too.

With the brake and master cylinder in place, it’s time to talk about the hose that will connect the master cylinder to the brake caliper on the front hub.

I ordered a 125cm stainless steel braided hose from ScootRS along with the lever. It’s nice quality and comes with removable banjos at either end – these are the connectors that form an air-tight seal at both the master cylinder and brake caliper. They’re banjo shaped hence the name. Removable banjos aren’t required with your hose, but given you need to feed the hose into the headset and later through the top of your front fender, they allow you to cut smaller holes just big enough to accept the diameter of the hose.

My only complaint with the hose is that while ScootRS recommend it for their disc brake set up, I found it was a centimeter or two just shy of the ideal length for my existing Grimeca set up. This is because the connection point on the Grimeca brake caliper is at the bottom of the front hub. On ScootRS’ own disc brake set up, it’s on the top of the back. My bad, not there’s. In my final installation it’s a little tighter than I’d like but it does have enough flexibility to allow the front wheel to turn without anything catching and that’s key. You may want to measure your set up before ordering a hose, and add a couple of inches to your measurement because a little slack is not a bad thing.

In the image below you can see how the hydraulic hose feeds inside the headset and down the steering column. Note – it feeds down alongside the front fork, not inside it like the old brake cable, although I suppose it could be wrangled to fit. I added some grease to the hose partly to help feed it through, and partly to keep it lubricated as it rubs whenever the steering column is turned as part of daily driving.

The yellow circle above is where I snipped the old front brake light switch that used to be in-line with the old cable set up. With a short length of lamp cord that I bought from Home Depot I extended the wiring out through the handlebar to connect to the switch under the master cylinder. After this photo was taken I used insulation tape to tidy up the job and prevent shorts. Given I just eyeballed the lamp wire as an appropriate gauge, and no less than nothing about electricity it worked a treat.

Below you can see a nice shot of the brake in place. I removed the horn-cast to help feed the hose down along the fork. You can see where it comes out at the bottom of the horn-cast just above the front fender.

And below is where I drilled a hole at the back of the fender to allow the hose to run from the bottom of the horn-cast, through the fender and down to the wheel. You can see the benefit of a removable banjo here. This is is exactly how it feeds through on the Stellas and the later disc brake PXs.

I added a rubber grommet from the hardware store. Unfortunately I found that because the hose is tight, it keeps pulling the grommet out of place. I’m going to revisit this later with a short length of rubber or something. What I’m looking for here is less about cosmetics, and more that in daily driving you don’t want the twist of the front fender to slice through the hose. Bad news.

And here it is hooked up to the existing brake caliper. As you can see in my set up it’s a little tight, but it does have just enough slack so as to not inhibit any turning. I tested this by repeatedly turning the handlebars to make sure nothing was stretching. I angled the banjo at the bottom to help keep the hose away from the tire during daily riding. If you have extra slack you can add a small bracket to do likewise:

With the brake caliper in place, and the hose hooked up all the way from the master cylinder down to the brake caliper on the disc, we’re nearly done. I cleaned everything up; put the headset back together, and installed my old wing mirror in the recess on the Nissin cylinder.

What remains is something of an art: hydraulic brake bleeding. The master cylinder is a reservoir for hydraulic brake fluid (DOT3 or DOT4 compliant) that is compressed by the brake lever, and passes that compression down through the hose to the brake caliper plungers to push the brake pads on to the disc.

I won’t go into brake bleeding here because it’s been demonstrated elsewhere. Basically not only do you need to feed brake fluid into your new set up but you need to expel any air in the system in the process. Air is your enemy because it can be compressed more fully than fluid leading to spongy brakes or, at worst, brakes that do nothing.

Mostly expelling air is a matter of periodically opening the bleed nipple at the brake caliper but I actually found that repeatedly depressing the lever at the headset not only forced brake fluid into the hose and down to the caliper, but also forced air bubbles up and out of the closed system, through the master cylinder reservoir and pop-pop-pop into the New York atmosphere.

It took me about an hour of expelling air and feeding fluid into the system to get a “good brake.” It’s immediately noticeable when it happens, instead of a slack brake lever you begin to get resistance making it harder and harder to depress the lever. A few more pumps got it nice and solid as the last of the air bubbles blew out.

With the brake now operational, all that remained was to refit the top of the master cylinder and take it for a cautious test drive.

The brake works a treat. It’s like night and day compared to the semi-hydraulic set up, and far better than the original drum brake ever was.

That said, If you’ve got a decent drum brake on your bike I say leave it alone. The drum brakes on my Lambretta for example are very good even if they are old technology. But even with new shoes, I couldn’t get any stopping power so I needed to upgrade to a disc. What I can say after going semi-hydraulic and now fully-hydraulic is that yes – as many others have already advised – if you’re going to go to the trouble (and expense) of installing a disc brake don’t do things by half. Go for a fully hydraulic set up.

I’m very pleased with the ScootRS set up. It’s basically a jury-rigged Nissin brake wrangled to fit a Vespa P-series via their bracket. Once installed though it looks tidy and given the amount of Stellas and later Vespa PXs on the streets doesn’t look out of place on my bike. I’m also pleased with their hydraulic hose even if a couple more inches in length would have saved me some headaches. They also included with the order a 2011 calendar of Vietnamese girls draped over various scooters, something that’s hard to complain about.

Some scooterists recommend replacing your lower headset with one from either a Stella or a later PX when you convert to a hydraulic set up. This will give you the mounting holes needed to fit Piaggio’s Grimeca default master cylinder / lever set up if you prefer not to go down the ScootRS route. If you can find one for cheap, either new-old-stock, or an LML part I say go for it, but the ScootRS solution saved me some cash (and a good amount of time) by not needing to replace the lower headset. Plus removing the lower headset requires the removal of a good amount of bolts, cable, and wiring and is a job in itself.

I’m going to get some touch-up paint to finish the job in the next week or so, but for now off to ride, and more importantly to stop…

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2. Vespa Semi-Hydraulic: An Update Experienced scooterists have said it. If you want to upgrade...
3. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 3 Part three wraps up this mod with the installation and...

Maureen shows you how to tell when you need to top-up / bleed your brake fluid, and how to go about doing so. Her LX150 is the patient on the table, but the principles are equally valid for any disc brake scooter:

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The retro-fit PX hydraulic brake from ScootRS. Time will tell, but in theory, following a small incision, this will fit my bike.

Last Spring I took the warmer weather as an opportunity to address the front brakes on my 1985 Vespa PX. At that point, the bike still had its stock drum brakes – a set up that has never had a great reputation for stopping power. Even following new brake shoes, a thorough cleaning of the inside of the hub and a generous greasing of the moving parts, the drum brakes just weren’t giving me a satisfactory (or safe) stop.

It’s no surprise then that later iterations of the PX (and similar scooters like the Stella) moved over to a hydraulic front disc brake solution and in the intervening years a number of after-market manufacturers have provided replacement disc brake solutions for Vespa owners looking for a little more stopping power.

Perhaps the most popular of these was/is the Grimeca disc brake kit, so in May last year with the kit in hand from Germany’s renown SIP Scootershop I spent a morning hooking it up to my bike.

The kit accommodates two set ups. First, what’s known as the semi-hydraulic set up which is the option I went for: The first half of the solution is a brake fluid master cylinder that’s bolted to the front fork to feed the hydraulic disc brake caliper. The second half of the solution (and what makes it semi-hydraulic) is the existing brake cable coming down from the front brake lever, through the steering column and connecting to the master cylinder. The benefit of this set up is that it doesn’t require any modification to the look or operation of your existing handle-bar set up. You pull the lever, this pulls the cable, which pulls the master cylinder actuator which depresses the brake. At least, that’s the theory.

At the time I installed the beast I declared the solution better than the stock brake set up, but not miraculous, which is the general consensus of the wrenching community.

Over the course of the last twelve months however, the stopping power has continued to nose-dive (and not in the right way.) Various wrenching sessions to keep the brake cable as tight as possible following stretching as part of natural riding, and keeping air out of the brake fluid have had me pulling my hair out on a number of occasions.

At the time I decided to plump for the semi-hydraulic set up, more than one experienced scooterist claimed that the semi-hydraulic set up can be, “the worst of both worlds.” Twelve months in, I concur.

After replacing both the cable inner and outer this weekend, and bleeding the brakes I still couldn’t get a decent brake. The problem is further compounded by the fact that my PX has an in-line front brake switch part way along the length of the brake cable which operates the brake light. This switch adds further unnecessary mushiness to the operation. Even by-passing the switch entirely (the DOT would not approve) I could only either get the brakes to lock-on but not get the brake lever to spring to return (dangerous to say the least) or I could get the brake lever nice and springy but the brakes barely braking. I’ve therefore declared mission “Semi” over and have decided to upgrade to the full-hydraulic set-up before attempting any serious riding on the wasp this year.

A full-hydraulic set up (as recommended by experienced scooterists) is the one used by contemporary scooters and motorcycles with disc brakes. A dedicated brake lever at the headset actuates a brake fluid master cylinder. This in turn feeds to the hydraulic brake caliper at the front wheel by way of a hydraulic hose running down alongside (or through) the steering column. Pull the brake lever and you pressurize the hydraulic fluid at the headset and, in turn, all the way down to the brake. No cable. No cable to stretch over time. It’s the set up that all modern Vespas have – be they PX, LX, or otherwise.

Joint owned UK/Vietnamese ScootRS.com out of good old Ho Chi Minh City have a decent reputation for after market parts in a sea of questionable ones. In particular ScootRS have built a solid following for their Lambretta (and later) Vespa disc brake kits. I’ve order two important pieces from their catalog needed to complete my fully-hydraulic set-up: A combination brake lever/master cylinder that’s designed to retro-fit to PX headsets that were never originally designed to accomodate one and a hydraulic hose to connect this to the disc brake caliper already in place on the wheel of my bike.

Providing the parts arrive before the weekend and the weather holds up, with Dremel in hand, I’ll be reporting back in a few days with how the conversion goes. Stay tuned.

Related posts:

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Photograph courtesy of Scooter Lounge.

If you’re like me, you may be using the advent of spring to attend to a few maintenance matters on your bike. If you’re a Vespa P-series owner or a Genuine Scooter Company Stella owner one matter on your list may be a new front shock absorber given we’re deep in the middle of pothole season.

Thankfully the excellent Scooter Lounge is here to help and they rightfully point out that it’s time to replace a shock (front or back for that matter) when it becomes spongy and bouncy. Replacing a front shock on these bikes is a straightforward affair that basically involves removing the shock’s top two bolts then letting it hang loose to give you access to remove the bottom two bolts and then rinse and repeat in reverse order with a new shock. All in all a half-hour job with a new shock ready to go and the right wrench.

You can check out Scooter Lounge’s article here.

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Following the issue I had a week or so back with the spark plug on my Lambretta gradually vibrating loose and eventually popping out, I’ve had cause to think about the importance of the humble spark plug.

Until I did some reading, I didn’t realize how much in the dark I have been about the importance of a correctly set up, installed, and maintained plug. All I had heard was that it is important not to over-tighten them because “threading” a spark plug hole can be an expensive proposition requiring an entirely new cylinder head.

As a result I’ve been guilty of under-tightening them and keeping them just “finger tight” – this has frankly also been because I also don’t have an adequate plug wrench that I can get into the engine to tighten it up.

Last night, I began to feel a loss in compression and a familiar sound of the pap-pap-pap of the exhaust changing to a fzzz-fzzz-fzzz which following last week’s fiasco I now realize is a loss of compression caused by a loose plug. Recognizing this sound I pulled over and took a look. Sure enough the plug had again come considerably loose even though it was still seated in the cylinder head with plenty of thread. With a rag (the plug is hot after running, duh) I tightened it back up and restarted the bike. The performance was like night and day, it was like riding a new bike. Before tightening the bike had felt sluggish with no torque and a lousy top speed. After tightening the bike pulled away like a bronco and had a considerably higher top speed. All this because of a loose plug.

In my last post, reader Peter recommended getting a plug wrench, which is now definitely on my list now that I’ve felt the difference a correctly seated plug makes.

It turns out, after researching, that in my over-zealousness for not over-tightening I was somewhat correct. You shouldn’t over-tighten a plug not just because you don’t want to damage the thread in the cylinder head but also because a ceramic plug can crack off in the thread with over-tightening. As far as threading is concerned, the important thing is to slowly begin screwing in the plug to ensure that you have it threaded correctly as it first engages. A correctly threaded plug should easily turn by hand without force.

Once you’ve got it threaded correctly, how tight should it go? Ideally – tightened by hand all the way to finger-tight, then at most a quarter, or half-turn tighter with a wrench to lock it in place.

In my search for spark plug knowledge, I also learned some other useful information for vintage riders (or modern two-stroke riders for that matter.) Rather than re-print it all here, I’ve included some excellent links that provide lots of great information on choosing the correct spark plug for your bike, setting it up correctly (“gapping”) and “reading” a used spark plug to determine engine issues:

A spark plug overview
A site I’ve not come across before called Scooter Rider has an excellent download-able PDF guide covering everything you could ever want to know about spark plugs for Vespas and Lambrettas.

Determining an existing NGK plug
Generally speaking, Champion and NGK are the two plug brands favored by scooterists. The always excellent Scooter Help website has a nice guide that breaks down the lettering and numbering system used by NGK plugs so you can ensure you’re getting the right plug for your bike, and for your set-up.

Modernist?
If you’re a modern Vespa rider, then ModernVespa poster Chris has a short write up on changing the plug on your bike. Unfortunately getting to it takes a little more effort than a vintage bike which is line with the fact that these days vehicle owners are expected / expect to do less routine maintenance themselves.

Gapping a plug
Talking of NGK, they have some content on YouTube including a short video on the importance of setting the correct gap on your spark plug, even if it is brand new out of the box. Again, an incorrect gap on a plug can adversely affect performance.

Reading a plug
Finally, England’s Cambridge Lambretta Works has an excellent guide that applies as much to vintage Vespas as Lambrettas. The bike covers basic choices for a Lammy, how they work and an excellent guide on what the color and condition of your plug can tell you about your two-stroke engine regardless of make or manufacturer of your scoot.

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Anyone who has dealt with replacing cables will tell you that the easiest way to do this is to use the existing old cable to pull the new one through and into place. Methods vary from soldering the end of the old cable to the new one  – to using a long length of wire – to simply taping the two ends together. Either way, the thinking is the same: make sure you don’t loose the path followed by the existing cable as it disappears into the darkness.

Occasionally though you encounter a situation where pulling through the replacement is just not possible. That was last night’s situation.

I’d been having trouble with the front cable not flowing smoothly and once I had gotten the headset apart it was apparent why – the existing outer cable was stuck hard inside the steering column and pinching the inner wire cable, restricting its movement. I was left with no choice but to pull the old cable out, given that any attempt to pull a new one through would have ended with the new cable breaking loose part way through the pull. Even if I had of been able to pull the new cable through this obstruction concerns me and needs investigating. Validating my concerns, the cable only finally came free after some serious tugging and when it did, it came apart in two pieces.

The obstruction causing this? To be determined, and could be as simple as the wire clip that holds the cable routing against the frame, but it’s somewhere inside the steering column behind the horn-cast. The solution will be to remove the horn-cast to get a good luck inside and use the exposure this will provide to investigate the issue and guide the cable by hand.

Fortunately, there’s information out there on how to approach this thanks to lambrettarestorations.blogspot.com the self-proclaimed (and rightfully so) “complete guide to stripping down & re-building Lambretta scooters.” Paul, the owner of the blog even has a post on just what I need, disassembling the horn-cast.

Cables threaded down the steering column exposed. Photograph courtesy of lambrettarestorations.blogspot.com.

Like Paul’s project Series III lambretta, I have a fair amount of rust standing in the way of my quickly removing the horn-cast. While I’ve gotten most of the bolts loose that release the horn-cast from the leg-shield, a couple of rusty ones are currently refusing to budge. Hopefully a trip to the hardware store, followed by a generous dollop of Naval Jelly left overnight will help eat away the rust to allow me to loosen the stubborn bolts.

Ah, the joys of vintage. Now a half-hour brake change is a three hour dis-assembly…

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As I found out at the end of last week, that’s the noise you can hear when your spark plug works it’s way loose.

On a recent trip across Manhattan on my Jet 200 I found the compression of my engine dogging the further I road. Adding more anxiety to the lack of power was a noticeable change in the note coming out of the exhaust, changing from a healthy parap-pap-pap to more of a sput-sput-sput. Almost like water or oil or something making it through the exhaust. Consider this my take on the old Car Talk adage that the sound your engine makes is often the best way to get to the bottom of a problem.

Something was clearly wrong and I wondered if it was the result of water-logged gasoline given I had recently gassed up but ultimately the Lambretta got me where I needed to go. Go that is until following my appointment I needed to start her back up again.

First kick with a little choke? The engine attempts a turn over. Second? It tries again. Third nothing. Fourth? KABLAM!

Scared the living daylights our of me and a number of passers by. Following the bang, nothing at all. No amount of kicking could get the engine to start. Running late I abandoned the bike at the side of the road and jumped in a cab for work.

Arriving back at the bike later in the day it turned out that the problem was a simple one, and had been caused by the scootering equivalent of user error. Taking the side panel off it was immediately apparent that the reason I had had compression issues and ultimately a bang was that the spark plug was clear out of the engine and resting near the spark plug hole. Presumably the plug had gradually worked its way loose during my ride earlier in the day providing less and less of a sealed combustion chamber and hence a drop in compression before finally popping out completely.

A couple of failed kicks of the bike and I had clearly built up a nice vapor of air and gasoline before the spark plug ignited the mix outside of the combustion chamber – BANG. Either that or the plug held on by a thread or half a thread before the final ignition spark blew it clear out of the combustion chamber.

A quick clean of the plug with the rag from my toolbox (a two-stroker’s best friend) and I was able to confirm that I had a clean spark by resting the plug on the edge of the engine casing and kicking her over. Screwed the plug back into place, turned on the gas and two kicks later the bike was back up and running like a charm.

The lesson? I’ve only been screwing in the spark plug finger tight since owning the bike because I have been overly cautious not to over-tighten the plug. It would seem I’ve been too cautious. I’m going to get my hands on a plug wrench and give her a full tighten down now (without overdoing it.) Furthermore I’ll be keeping a periodic eye on the tightness of the plug.

File under “Scooter Newbie?” Absolutely.

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As you can see from the photograph below, the original(?) feet on the bike have severely perished. If it were a cosmetic issue I wouldn’t worry so much but as a result the bike is extremely unstable on its center-stand and a nudge (by a parking car no doubt) would be enough to topple the bike over.

You can see I wasn't kidding about the state of the feet. You can see the pin just sticking through.

What’s neat about the rubberized feet on a Lambretta as opposed to a similar year Vespa is two-fold. One, the feet both have a metal pin that help keep them locked in place. Two, the feet are shaped in such a way that they can be easily accessed by your toe as you rock the bike back onto its stand, something that requires a but more Yogic contortion on other bikes.

The old feet were easy to remove and tore off by hand in pieces. I leaned the bike over (carefully) on its side and addressed each rubber foot one side at a time.

Unfortunately what’s not neat about the pins on the feet is that after thirty-five years on the bike they have rusted and “become one” with the center-stand, and not in a Yogic way.

No amount of pulling with pliers would pull the old pins free so I gave in and hack-sawed them off leaving about a 1/4″ jutting out in the hope that this length would be short enough to allow the new feet on the bike, but long enough to help keep them locked in place. If you have a drill or Dremel handy, better yet is to drill the old pins out a completely replace them with new stock, but this was East Village side-walk maintenance for me and I didn’t have the necessary tools at hand.

Thanks to the folks at Scooters Originali I had a new set of feet waiting in the wings. With the old feet off, and a quick wire brush to clean up the rust at the base of the center-stand it was just a matter of getting the new ones on.

New shoes.

Once I got the lip of the new rubber over the nubs of the old pins it was easy enough to twist them on to center-stand until I felt the old pins plop into place. Not ideal, not as good as a new set of pins but the rubber was sufficiently tight enough that I’m confident that these feet are going to fall off or shake loose.

With one side addressed it was a simple matter of leaning the bike over on its other side to rinse and repeat. Between this and the early morning wheel change the other week I’m seeing way more of the underside of my Lammy than any scooterist ever should.

The new feet on the bike.

I’m pleased to report that while I may not have done cosmetically the nicest job in the world (this is no show-winning bike) the Lammy is now super stable on it’s new center-stand feet and should be stable enough to avoid a fall or two.

The new feet solve the “Roll.” Stay tuned over the next few days for my wrenching to solve the current shakes and rattles. Until next time.

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