This photo was taken just after restoration but before the disc brake upgrade and rear rack addition.

Regular readers of the site will be familiar with this baby – a 1985 Vespa PX150e – and now it could be yours for $1500.

My move from Brooklyn means no longer having off-street parking and that means I’ve recently spent my weekdays juggling this baby to alternate sides of the street while invariably jumping on the Lambretta for daily tasks.

I’ve come to the conclusion then that the Vesp’ is just not getting the daily love she deserves and as such should go to a good home. My loss is your gain. Let the Vespa/Lambretta flame wars begin.

As has been well documented here at NYCScootering.com, this bike has undergone a whole host of upgrades and restoration during the past 12 months as our project bike for P-series mods and maintenance posts making each one of these wrenching additions less than a year old. The bike has had about $2000 sunk into it during this time on top of the original $1500 for the scooter itself:

• New paint job
• New battery
• New rims
• New tires and tubes
• New front fender
• New front shock
• New cable ‘inners’ and ‘outers’ throughout
• New rear brake shoes
• New headlamp and halogen upgrade
• New bulbs throughout
• New rubber trim throughout
• New floor rails
• Carburetor rebuild
• Regulator replaced
• Chrome rear-rack installed
• New wing mirrors
• Gear oil replaced

And the big one:

• Upgraded to fully hydraulic front disc brake, brake lever, hydraulic hose, and master cylinder. Grimeca disc brake. ScootRS lever.

The bike itself only has 8,000 miles on a replacement LML engine that was installed two or three years back by a previous owner this has since been given a once over and has been regularly maintained.

The bodywork has a couple of dings and scratches since the paint job resulting from daily use, but nothing any self respecting Big Apple commuter wouldn’t have. Starts on first or second kick or on the electric start.

If you’re thinking of “upgrading” to a classic geared Vespa this riding and rally season or even a Stella but didn’t think you could afford the real thing? Then $1500 and it’s yours. Clean title in hand. Email me to learn more and arrange to see the bike. I’m located in the East Village.

Related posts:

1. Vespa Semi-Hydraulic: An Update Experienced scooterists have said it. If you want to upgrade...
2. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 1 The front drum brake on vintage Vespas has never been...
3. Modern Vespa Drum Brake Adjustment Maureen's back with a simple but important maintenance consideration for...

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…

Related posts:

1. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 1 The front drum brake on vintage Vespas has never been...
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...

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:

1. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 1 The front drum brake on vintage Vespas has never been...
2. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 3 Part three wraps up this mod with the installation and...
3. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 2 In part two we walk-through the process of removing your...

Following an immediate carb rebuild I was able to bring her back to life. The previous owner couldn’t get her to keep from dying without choke. An early success that left a promising taste in my mouth.

With the engine running nicely, the next step was to take a look at the pesky front hub, which had seized during winter storage out on the mean streets. I have some replacement brake shoes on order from West Coast Lambretta Works but even without opening up the hub I’ve been able to un-seize the brakes and embarrassingly even though they are far from perfect they’re probably more effective than the semi-hydraulic disc front brake I installed on the PX earlier in the year.

With the bike idling without dying and the front wheel spinning and the brake operational it was finally time to take her out on the streets. I decided to use her for her first ride – a short commute to work between the East Village and Union Square on the side streets.

A quick snap of the Lammy taken with the iPhone "Hipstamatic" app.

First observation? Boy do I feel low to the ground. Bicyclists are riding past me looking down on me. The riding position is much lower than my PX and in turn much, much lower than a modern twist-n-go.

Second observation? Not being able to see behind me with no wing mirrors in place is real nerve wracking so I’m taking it slow and I’m doing nothing but annoying cab drivers stuck behind me wondering what the hell I’m sitting on. A “Lawn mower?” one person sarcastically asks. Other by-standers cheekily yell “Taxi!” noting the similarity between the mustard yellow livery of the Serveta and the TLC’s fleet of cabbies.

Third observation? Quack. The six-volt Lambretta horn sounds like a squashed duck farting. Worse yet, there seems to be a spring missing inside the horn switch so the horn is turning itself on and off at it’s own leisure with the vibration of the bike (note to self – fix this)

Fourth observation? Boy this throttle is stiiiifff. Worse yet, it won’t spring return forcing me to manually twist it back to drop the revs.

Fifth observation? No taillight, no brake light. Low NYPD profile needed.

Sixth and final observation? These tires have to go. There’s barely any tread left on them and they’re of questionable Chinese origin. I don’t trust my life to these with anything more than the local commute I’m making.

Sweating I finally arrive at work and while it’s clear that while the bike now “runs” there’s a lot of other things it’s supposed to do that it’s not. doing What I am pleased about is the bike feels solid. The suspension is nice and stiff, much stiffer than my PX and for my height (I’m 6’2”) the riding position is much more comfortable. The brakes are also sweet and provide plenty of stopping power without any of the sideways drift my Vespa likes to pull when heavily braked.

This photo isn't doing justice to how much I've cleaned her up. A past legshield sticker though leaves residue.

Day Two, and it’s clear some fixes are necessary before I chance it out on the road again:

First up, my trusty can of WD40 immediately un-seizes the throttle and allows it to naturally return with the force of the spring close in the carburetor. Much, much better and much, much safer.

Second, an investigation of the horn switch reveals that yes in fact there is a spring or something missing from inside the switch. Without this part at hand, I wrap the switch contact in electrical tape, so while I may not have a horn (it’s useless anyway) I am at least not making a constant farting duck noise on my next ride. This will need to be fixed before my inspection because a working horn is an inspection requirement. At least it’s a mechanical issue, not an electrical problem. This I can fix.

With both these simple fixes behind me day two’s ride was much more pleasurable allowing me to focus on the simple stuff like not getting run over instead of fighting with an independently minded throttle and an even more independently minded horn.

Over the past two weeks since these initial rides my first order from West Coast Lambretta Works came in allowing me to install a rear-view mirror and secure a new taillight bulb. My running light now works but the brake light is still as dead as a dodo. I’ll take a look at it this weekend but it’s likely the brake switch located under the footboard, which is known to have a high failure rate. The wiring at the rear junction box looks suspect so hopefully there’s a solve in there somewhere even though I’m a dunce when it comes to all things electrical.

I’ve also cleaned her up some, removing the rusted chrome luggage wrack and reinstalling the original spare wheel holder and spare wheel that the original owner still had in their position. A nice way to bring back the classic lines of the Lammy. Some clear shoe polish has also brought some life back to the leather seat which had lost its natural moisture and has suffered some weathering.

Cosmetically I’m planning to leave her in her original livery and current patina. The only thing I do want to clean up is the top of the headset which has two hastily filled holes from past wing mirrors (I’ve attached my new one below the headset.)

The seller told me that the mirrors were ripped off at some point and had damaged the headset. His use of Bondo to fill the holes helped keep the rain out, but the fact that he used it like chewing gum and never sanded it down is a problem. The headset top is also warped slightly from this past “event” and doesn’t sit well on the clutch side of the handlebar but I’m confident I can straighten it out to fit better. Ultimately though this will need to be repainted once I’ve gotten it cleaned up and will likely remain the only fresh paint on the bike.

Once I can get the brake light working it’s off to Robbie and Kevin at Scooter Bottega for an inspection. Ideally though I want to put new tires and tubes on the bike before I ride over to Red Hook from Manhattan. Again, I’ve got these on order ( a pair of Michelin S1s) but a back-order is delaying them.

Well that’s all for now. More Lammy news to come.

Related posts:

1. Vespa Semi-Hydraulic: An Update Experienced scooterists have said it. If you want to upgrade...
2. Shake, rattle, and roll – part two The advent of warm weather in a Lambretta owner’s life...
3. Looking good but tire trouble A washed and waxed scooter is a beautiful thing. But...

Last Wednesday evening on my way home from work during the sudden NYC mid-June downpour, my PX decided it would be the perfect time to snap a clutch cable.

To be honest, it’s my fault. I had needed to tighten up the slack on it for a few days (more on this below,) and my laziness was putting more and more stretch on the cable as it was having a harder and harder time fighting the clutch mechanism.

I pulled over to the side of the road in Midtown and on to the pavement to get (some) shelter from the rain next to a building.

Luckily I had a replacement cable and a set of tools on the bike, but once I got the headset off the bike it became apparent that this was not going to be a simple matter of threading in a new cable inner. The existing cable outer was so badly gnarled that I couldn’t thread in the new inner. Frustrated, I pulled out the entire cable, outer and all. Big mistake. I spent the next hour desperately trying to thread through a new cable in the dark, wind and rain. Impossible.

Eventually I gave up and pushed the scooter back home 45 blocks in the rain. It sucked. I was stuck in Midtown and there was nowhere to leave the bike overnight without it getting towed. Taking it back to the East Village was my only option.

By the time I got home I was drenched. In the process of attempting to fix the bike my bag of tools was also soaked through, and the photo above is me drying out each tool on the kitchen counter so they won’t rust. I never realized I was carrying so many doodads in the glove-box.

The next day in the daylight I was able to thread the new cable relatively quickly. I threaded through the new outer from the back of the bike and removed the plastic horn-cast to make fishing out the end of the cable at the front much easier. I was then able to direct it up and out of the headset to the clutch lever on the handlebar.

Here’s the secret to the clutch on these Vespas:

If it’s getting increasingly tougher to get the bike into Neutral or First at stand-still, chances are your clutch cable needs tightening.

If you sit on the bike at standstill and put the bike in first gear and then pull the clutch lever all the way in and the bike wants to roll forward, your clutch cable DEFINITELY needs tightening. The gear is engaging.

First: Inspect the cable at both the lever end and clutch ends of the bike to see if the slack in the cable is due to the cable fraying. If you have any doubt, replace the cable outright. Think to yourself: why has the clutch changed?

Either way, you need to cinch up the cable (existing or new) at the engine tight enough so that the clutch disengages completely with the handlebar lever pulled in. Pull the cable taught with a pair of pliers or a fourth-hand tool at the engine end and tighten down either the pinch-bolt or alternatively (if you have it) you can turn the slack-adjuster nut a few turns to take up the slack.

Sit on the bike, start it up in Neutral. Pull in the clutch and let it out G-E-N-T-L-Y without gas. If the bike begins to pull but then splutters and/or dies as the gear engages you are at the sweet-spot and all set.

If the bike wants to creep forward in first gear even with the clutch lever pulled all the way in, you need to take up more slack.

Be careful to take up as much slack as you can before testing this. If the cable is too slack and you put the bike in first gear, it may immediately jump as the gear engages immediately. If this happens and the cable doesn’t feel slack, make sure that the clutch arm at the engine can’t be moved by hand. It also has some natural slack in its range of motion before it operates the clutch.

If it’s a simple slack adjustment on an existing cable and you have the tools, it’s a 10 minute side-of-the-road job at most. If you need to replace the cable inner, you’ll need to open up the headset and it’s about a half-hour job. If, like me, you need to thread a completely new cable, put the coffee on – you’re going to be at it a while.

For non-P-series clutch help, there’s an excellent how-to over at ScooterHelp.com. For P-series Vespas or Stellas, there is a similarly great step-by-step over at VespaMaintenance.com.

Related posts:

1. Installing a semi-hydraulic disc brake on a P Vespa: Part 3 Part three wraps up this mod with the installation and...
2. Vespa PX150e restoration ­– step 9 Never replaced cables on your manual geared scooter? Take a...
3. Vespa Semi-Hydraulic: An Update Experienced scooterists have said it. If you want to upgrade...

This Stella (one of only 150 made in an Atomic Fireball limited theme) was spotted in the East Village.

Is it a Vespa or isn’t it? We’ve talked quite a bit about the Genuine Scooter Company’s Stella but we haven’t fully covered its origin and its versatility as a practical everyday scoot for New York City, until now…

Indian motorcycle and scooter manufacturer LML (Lohia Machines Ltd.) entered a technical collaboration agreement with Piaggio in 1984 to develop a number of scooters for the Indian market beginning with the LML NV in 1986, a licensed copy of the Vespa PX 150e. Over the next few years additional refinements and takes on the PX design were launched including the incredibly successful LML Select.

By 1999 however LML’s relationship with Piaggio came to a close but LML continued to manufacturer a scooter based on the Vespa PX tooling – the LML Star.

In 2002, Philip McCaleb – founder of the Chicago-based vintage Vespa and Lambretta mail-order supplier Scooterworks USA – formed the Genuine Scooter Company to license the LML Star and import it into the US under the “Stella” name. By 2003 the first Stellas began entering the country and the Stella instantly became a cult favorite among US scooterists.. When labor strikes at the LML factory interrupted production of the LML Star/Stella in 2005, the Genuine Scooter Company began to expand it’s line up beyond its LML reliance, but soon returned to importing the Stella once the disputes were resolved in mid 2006.

In 2009 LML, after several years of internal development, unveiled a four-stroke version of the Star: completely revolutionizing the engine while maintaining the classic PX silhouette. Shortly thereafter Genuine announced that it would bring the new 4-stroke to the States in the form of an updated Stella for the 2010 season. The first of these bikes have slowly begun to appear Stateside at dealers across the country and energetic initial pre-orders have sold out the first US shipment in advance of its arrival. In the meantime, Genuine is continuing to sell the 2-stroke model “while stocks last.” Certainly LML are continuing to manufacture the original 2-stroke Star in India and are currently modifying it to meet the latest Euro emissions laws. Ultimately the success of the 4-stroke Stella Stateside will determine whether the 4-stroke model replaces the 2-stroke model outright.

So how does it ride? Given it’s one of only a few geared (manual shift) scooters currently in production and follows the classic lines and heritage of the Vespa PX, the Stella is a popular ride among scooterists.

After many many years of iterative mechanical and design improvements, the Vespa PX is considered the epitome of Piaggio engineering. The model is also popular because it remains true to one of the initial tenets of the scooter, to be easily maintainable by the owner, something that is becoming increasingly tougher since the advent of 4-stroke engines including LML’s own. Further, given the Stella is based on Piaggio’s best selling Vespa aftermarket parts and accessories remain abundant and are mostly interchangeable.

The Stella also includes a number of updates to the PX spec sheet including a better fuel economy due to it’s updated reed valve induction, and a little more pep due to a higher compression ratio, and 5 port cylinder.The Stella also betters the PX with adjustable load gas shock suspension.

Features

• 5-port 2-stroke engine.
• 4-speed manual transmission with “twist grip” shifting.
• Gabriel performance shocks.
• Front Grimeca hydraulic disc brake, rear drum brake.
• 60+ mph, 90 mpg.
• 1 year / 5000 mile warranty.

Options

• Black
• Red
• Light Blue
• Avocado
• Orange

Thankfully, a good amount of Stellas are seen on the streets of NYC (and available on CraigsList) thanks to the Genuine Scooter Company’s early partnership with Gowanus’ Brooklynbretta one of it’s first national dealers.

While Brooklynbretta has since closed, the Stella is still available locally through Brooklyn Scooter World, part of the Brooklyn Harley-Davidson dealership. The 2-stroke model sells for an MSRP of $3,599 and we are still waiting for word on when the Brooklyn dealership will receive the 4-stroke model.

For a side-by-side comparison of the subtle differences between a late production run Vespa PX and the Genuine Scooter Company’s Stella, click here.

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Heading home to Brooklyn after work in Manhattan I figured I’d shave a few minutes off my ride by taking the Manhattan bridge instead of the Brooklyn bridge. For me the pros and cons are as follows: the Brooklyn Bridge is the safer of the two, with an even road surface and a very civilized entry and exit, however it’s a trip further south on the Manhattan side and a few blocks back north on the Brooklyn side. The Manhattan is just the opposite: It’s got arguably the worst road surface of any street in NYC on the Brooklyn side, the exit (on both sides) is a chaos of shifting lanes and sometimes you’re forced onto the exposed upper ramps.

On Sunday as I was leaving the Bowery to get onto the bridge in the dark and rain I realized that with the lower deck closed to traffic I was being forced onto the upper decks. I should have used that moment to check myself and skip the bridge and head further south. Instead I committed.

It had been raining since I’d gotten on the bike but not enough to concern me. I hadn’t even bothered to put on my rain gear, confident that it would stay that way. Heading skyward on to the exposed upper deck was suddenly a whole new story, without cover the rain came beating down and worse yet, high winds began to knock me around. Within seconds I was forced to a 25mph crawl on a bridge where 60 is considered the norm by cab drivers regardless of weather.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, with cars zipping past me, a cross wind hit me just as I was crossing one of the metal toothed plates in the road that joins road sections. I lost traction for a second and the bike’s rear wheel fishtailed. Luckily I was able to plant a foot down to stabilize myself as I caught control of the bike. That could have been a very nasty accident right there, and an experience (and a lesson) I’ll never forget.

Still shaken, and at this point now down to about 15mph I begun my exit from the bridge. As the Flatbush Avenue intersection crosses Tillary Street, 4 lanes squeeze down to 3 on the bumpiest road surface imaginable. Even though I was now only driving a few miles an hour, as I crossed lanes looking over my shoulder and applying the brakes in the rain and wind, I got that sickening feeling that “I’m about to go down” and I lost control of the bike.

The scoot and I skidded to a stop a few feet away. Luckily because traffic was so jam packed at this point I didn’t have anyone racing up behind me, but you’d better believe me when I tell you that I sprung to my feet quicker than I’ve ever done in my life. You don’t want to be lying in the middle of the road at this junction.

I pushed the bike over to the side of the road, checked her over for major damage and then spent the best part of the next ten minutes kick-starting the spilled gas out of the carburetor to get her going again. Oh, did I add that this was still in the dark, still in pouring rain, still in high winds?

My second mistake after choosing the bridge? Not calling it quits right there. I should have pulled the bike over, parked it and caught the subway home. Instead I decided to push on, riding down Flatbush like I’m riding a bicycle – less than ten miles and hour and as close to the curb as I could squeeze. Cars beeped and shot past me. Realizing my vulnerability I managed to get onto a side road and took as many as I could home to Sunset Park.

In the clear light of day Monday morning I had a chance to assess the damage. Luckily it’s nothing major. The engine-side cowl and part of the front fender will need some paint, and the legshield trim has partially broken off on the same side. I also have a broken front brake caliper to replace (cosmetic only.) The worst insult? The brand new replacement legshield “Vespa” badge I had put on a couple of weeks prior had gone flying god knows where. I guess when I replace it next time, some heavy duty epoxy will be added into the mix.

Me? Well I got off lucky. It was cold so I was wearing a Parka jacket over my regular armored jacket. I also had jeans, over the ankle boots and a full face helmet on. I literally didn’t feel a thing when I hit the deck, and my head never took a hit. I’m wearing some bruising on my left ankle from where I’m not quite sure. I think the bike might have caught my leg as it came skidding after me because I certainly didn’t get caught under it.

The important lesson coming out of all of this is the lesson itself. It’s time to retire the PX for the winter. It doesn’t have anywhere near the stability of my 2009 bike in these kinds of riding conditions. I’m also going to think twice about a number of things moving forward. Next time it rains that heavily, I’m going to pull over and wait it out. I’m also going to think twice about hitting that upper deck in any weather condition.

Stay safe…

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Following last session’s final closing of the headset and one or two cosmetic closures, all that remained in this final session was to wheel her back outside, attach the wing mirrors and fire her up. Read on after the before and after photos to see how everything came together in lucky step number 13…

Left: Before the rebuild. Right: After.

Before the rebuild. Solid mechanically, but lacking in the looks department.

After the rebuild. Rust-oleum "Signal Red" proves a close but pluckier color.

L-R: The headset before and after. Goodbye two-tone. Goodbye rust.

L-R: The floorbaord before and after. Maybe now the board won't fall out.

L-R: The front fender before and after. This was replaced outright with a new fender and painted to match.

L-R: The engine-side cowl before and after. After a waxing you can see your reflection in it. A huge improvement.

Before heading out on the road for her maiden voyage I took the opportunity to do three things: grease, wax, and the photos you see above.

First, a liberal application of grease to all the moving parts in direct exposure to the elements, particularly around the front and rear hubs. I also put a liberal amount under the footboard over the rivets I used for the floor rails.

Second, a liberal application of wax. I used the classic go-to, Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell and man this stuff really brings up the shine on the new paint job. I made a point of waiting until the last possible moment during re-assembly before waxing to give the paint job as long as possible to cure.

After wheeling the bike into the open I definitely spotted some areas of the paint job that could do with a little more TLC – a small run here, a thin patch there – but overall it’s an amazing result given it’s Rust-oleum painted on with a roller, and the wax really buffs this stuff up nicely.

Car owners who have gone down the $50 paint job route have commonly said that it’s a “5 feet paint job,” in other words it doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny, and I’d have to agree. The bike looks like a million dollars from 5 feet and beyond, but you can definitely tell it’s not a booth spray if you press your nose closer.

However, I have to say that on the cowls where I was really anal about wet sanding and applying very thin coats you’d never know it wasn’t a spray job. So it’s a matter of the more patient you are, the better the result.

All things considered, given this was done inside my apartment without special paint, equipment, overspray or fumes I’m very, very pleased.

Third, photographs. There was no way I was taking this puppy out on the road without getting her on camera before I sully her frame with NYC’s potholed streets and my shakiness away from a shifty for a while.

After the photo session, she fired up after a couple of quick starts and belched out a huge cloud of white smoke into the bargain and I left her to idle for a few minutes without a hiccup. Once out on the road she handled nicely especially given some of my concerns over the new tires looking a little wobbly on the rims. Also, the front fork assembly turned smoothly without any judder, which would have indicated the need to tighten down the bearings.

I didn’t mess with the back brake, but the front brake is definitely more effective than it was prior to the rebuild. More likely this is more to do with a better cinch up of the brake linkage than the fact that it’s a new cable.

Talking of cables, the speedometer worked immediately, so no issues with my new cable there, and all the electrical works like a charm including the new halogen headlamp.

In fact, the only real problem I had were the wing mirrors that rattled loose a couple of times within the first day or so of riding. These just needed to be tightened down with the force of a thousand gorillas until they weren’t going anywhere.

So there you have it. No doubt I’ll post a follow up post or two once I’ve gone back through my paperwork and gotten a sense of what she cost me, but for now this chapter has come to a close. I hope these posts have helped any of you looking to restore a bike. I certainly did my research and owe a huge debt of thanks to the folks on the forums of the NY Scooter Club and Modern Vespa and a whole myriad of sites out there that either had or gave great advice. A special thanks also to Richard Hoar’s VespaMaintenance.com which proved invaluable in the front-end work and JPM’s painting tips.

For now? It’s time to get back out on the road before I have to put the PX under wraps for the upcoming NYC Winter. Honk if you see me out on the road…

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Painting the remainder of the headset
With the majority of the bike re-assembled all that remains in the paint department is the lower half of the headset. I’d left this alone when I painted the body of the bike because it needs a brush to get into all the nooks and crannies and I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of my roller work on the majority of the bike.

In addition it needed a lot of masking – the turn signal switches, clutch caliper, grips etc. Rather than disconnect all these at this stage I’d prefer to work around them hence the masking. I’ve decided to look into renewing the clutch and gear cables later once the bike is completely re-assembled and I know my front brake cable and speedo cable are operational so I don’t want to unhook them for now.

Masking around the area needing paint, and protecting the majority of the scoot with plastic.

Given that the majority of the unit is either covered by the top or the leg-shield, I felt I could get away with brushing the paint on and leaving a few brush-marks, but as it turns out it goes on quite smoothly if you take the advice of many of the $50 paint-jobbers out there and use a disposable foam brush rather than a bristle brush.

In total I gave the headset 8 coats over a 3 day weekend. I found that the paint was drying fast enough to put on a coat in the morning, at lunchtime and again in the evening about four hours apart so that sped up the process.

After a couple of coats of paint.

Once it was dry and unmasked I found a few areas where the paint had leaked onto switches, but these will clean up easily enough with paint thinner. More problematic is the top inch or so of the steering column is a little messy where some of the paint dripped onto the plastic sheeting and dried. It’s only cosmetic and easy to get to so for now I’m going to re-assemble the bike and clean it up at a later date with some sandpaper and fresh paint.

Headset re-assembly
The paint-job on the top half of the headset was finished several weeks ago. The speedometer unit clips back in very simply and then it’s simply a matter of reconnecting the wires from the lower half of the headset that connect up to the speedo indicator bulbs. These are  in the form of a plastic plug and only plug in one way so it’s foolproof. Finally, my new speedo cable plugs into the bottom of the speedometer. Again this is a simple click into place. This was also the time to bolt down the new halogen headlamp that I had previously tested successfully but had removed to make room for painting.

With everything in place, the headset top cinches down into place with four retaining bolts accessed under the lower half of the headset.

The headset re-assembled.

Front brake connection at the front hub
Different PX models have slightly different methods for connecting to the front hub. In my case it’s a small metal linkage that cinches the end of the brake cable tight with a nut and then hooks around an arm on the front hub with a pin and a worryingly tiny split pin. In my case the linkage comes in six parts, a back plate, front plate, pin, spit pin, threaded bolt (with a hole in it for the brake cable) and a locking nut.

You should never re-use a split pin so I had ordered a new one (and a couple of spares) online for a few cents. I also used this opportunity to buy a new back plate. The original one had been eaten into by the old front brake cable and was in danger of either breaking or shearing the new cable over time.

The arm on the front hub is the front brake slack adjuster. The idea is to pull this as tight as you can get it before tightening down the front brake cable. It took me a few tries to get it sufficiently tight. You need to get it so that once it’s locked in place, you can feel the pressure on the front brake lever and to only just be able to squeeze it down to the grip.

If you can easily squeeze the brake lever down chances are you haven’t tightened up the slack adjuster enough so do it again. It’s easier to do this with a friend. One person squeezes the slack adjuster as tight as they can get it between their fingers while the other tightens down the bolt on the brake cable while pulling the brake cable through tightly with their other hand.

Photo credit: Richard Hoar's VespaMaintenance.com. This is from old cable removal but it shows a good shot of the linkage.

Once I got this nice and tight I gave myself an additional insurance policy on the front brake. The Prima scooter cable set I had came with various pieces of hardware for capping off cables. While theoretically not necessary I added a barrel end cap to my brake cable. It’s basically a bolt with a hole in it. You thread it onto the end of your cable and then lock it tight with a nut. I tightened this up against the linkage so that if the linkage should ever fail, the barrel should be enough to keep the brake in place.

The rear-end
With the front re-assembled all that remained were a couple of minor cosmetic issues on the rear-end: putting on a new rear bumper, and …wait for it… a nice shiny new Piaggio badge for the back of the stock seat as the cherry on the top of the restoration.

I replaced the rear bumper with a new one. The old one had cracked and wouldn’t stay in place. It’s clear that these are easy victims of a misjudged parking. As supplier Scooter West says “If you own a P200E or P125X, odds are you need a new one of these. If you don’t, then buy a spare one while you still can.” The bumper easily clips into place with two grip washers.

Finally, the Piaggio badge is actually a delicate silver sticker. A few minutes with a flat bladed screwdriver was it all it took to remove the remains of the original, and the new one went in place after a couple of attempts lining it up.

The original Piaggio sticker before replacement.

Done and Done
Well here we are folks. Step 12 and the rebuild is complete. In total this took some on-again/off-again weekends and evenings here and there over about eight weeks. Fortunately this didn’t involve stripping down the engine and was mostly cosmetic so that’s one of the reasons it went quickly. In addition, remember I was going for a solid rebuild of a daily runner rather than an award winning exhibition scooter restoration. In fact it’s more fair to call this entire exercise a rebuild rather than restoration which insinuates achieving a factory or better than factory finish.

All that remains is to roll the bike outside, cross my fingers and fire her up. I can’t get the bike through the doorway with the rear-view mirrors in place so technically those will be the very last items to complete the bike. Again I bought replacements online given the original ones while in reasonable cosmetic shape were rusted into place on their brackets and so not adjustable.

Stay tuned to see if the final step, step 13 is a lucky or unlucky number…

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What I was hoping would be a relatively painless exercise was an utter pain in the ass. Time consuming, frustrating, difficult.

The new rails
I purchased a complete PX rail kit online to completely replace the original rails. The kit costs around 40 beans and comes with the six metal rails, a length of rubber to be cut as necessary, twelve plastic end caps and a whole bunch of soft aluminum rivets. These rivets are designed to be peened which means hammered by hand to secure them in place.

Doing the research
Like everything else in this restoration I did as much online research in advance as I could. In particular, I found a great posting about approaching the rails on a blog following the restoration of a ’67 Vespa SS180. My big takeaways from the article:

1. Lay down masking tape to protect the paintwork on the floor panel.
2. Dry fit the rails before painting (too late for that), bending them away from the scoot over your knee or by hand until they fit the unique contours of your bike.
3. Don’t bother with the peen rivets for those rivets that are hidden under the bike. Instead use pop-rivets, they’re quicker.
4. Use the peen rivets only on the end caps at the base of the leg-shield where they are visible, for aesthetic integrity.

The prep work
The first thing I realized is that in retrospect it would have been easier to do the floor rails as the first task after the paintjob. I needed to remove the exhaust before I could get clearance under where the back of the floor rails would need rivets. I had only just added this exhaust back on the bike in the previous session. This also required deflating the back tire to make room to pull the securing bolt out.

I also needed to cut an inch or so off the end of the leg-shield trim to make room for the floor rails. I did this by carefully cutting the plastic trim with a hacksaw but still did some damage to the paintwork in the process. This would have been a cleaner cut if it had been done away from the bike before attaching it in the first place.

With the clearance now available to get at all the rivet placements, I used this opportunity to lay down a good amount of masking tape along the length of the floorboard to protect the fresh paint from scratching as best as possible.

Fitting and shaping the rails while protecting the paint as much as possible. You can see where I needed to cut back the leg-shield trim on the right.

Shaping the rails
The rails do come pre-shaped, but every scoot is different. They took some bending to adhere to the unique contours of my scoot. Fortunately the metal is soft and easily bent by hand. It’s a matter of trial and error until you get it. I got them close enough, confident that the rivets would pull the rails the final quarter inch or so in places tight to the contour of the floor and leg-shield.

Pop-Rivets
These are very straightforward. You insert a 3mm rivet into the gun. Push it through the body of the bike and the rail and squeeze. This squeeze spreads the rivet securing both pieces of metal together and then “pops” as it snaps off any excess metal on the rivet. The trick is to rivet from underneath the bike because with the “U” shaped channel of the floor rail you can’t get the “nose” of the rivet gun flush with the surface of the bike. The gun and rivets cost me $20 from Home Depot.

I started with the holes roughly half way along the length of the rails and worked outwards toward both ends. In places, the rivet didn’t get enough grip on the rail to secure it, so I needed to shear out the bad rivet with a flat bladed screwdriver and then knock it back out with a hole punch for a second attempt. Unfortunately this damaged the paint around the hole. Fortunately most of these were under the bike away from view. I think it’ll be worth adding grease around these later because they seem like a ripe opportunity for moisture to get to the exposed metal under the bike.

In the cases where I needed to re-rivet, I added a 3mm washer for extra grip so the order from the top down was washer, rail, floorboard. Then, squeezing a rivet from beneath effectively sandwiched the rail tight between the washer and the body of the bike. This was much more secure.

Problems
This entire process took several hours because unfortunately as I worked around the rails, some previous rivets popped loose as I added new ones. If they can’t stand this kind of torture test, they’ll certainly fall apart once the bike hits the road.

As a result I ended up removing almost all the rivets and adding the washer for extra grip to pretty much every one. This added extra time to the process, extra damaged to the paintwork, and extra frustration but at least resulted in much more secure rails. My tip? Use the washers from the get-go.

Happy with the clean look of the pop-rivets I decided to forego using the hand-peened rivets on the end caps. After all I’m not looking for an exhibition quality bike here, more a daily runner. So I finished up the ends of the rails with pop-rivets.

More Problems
Want to know where most of the cussing came in? The plastic end caps. They slid right over the pop-rivets I used and while they looked good and went on easily, they sat loose in the rails. Ugh. No good.

Turns out they are designed to work with the supplied peen rivets. They have a recess that means that as you slip them into the end of the rail they “lock” by sliding over the rounded head of the peen rivets.

I considered super-gluing them but realized that again you need to factor vibration in here. Superglue was never going to withstand the shaking of a two-stroke motor, let alone the potholes of NYC streets on a daily basis. After all, this is why Piaggio uses rivets not bolts for this job in the first place.

No other option than to do them the right way. This required me to go back to the pop-rivets I’d added to the end of the rails: shear them and punch them out just like I’d done with the bad rivets prior. This wasted yet more time and did yet more damaged to my pristine paint job. Worse still? This time on the visible lower part of the leg-shield.

With the holes at the end of the rails now free of the pop-rivets I went ahead and dropped in the soft aluminum peen rivets that came with the floor-rail kit.

More-more problems
With the correct rivets now in place it should have been a simple matter of sliding over the plastic end-caps. Wrong. Try as I might this was close to impossible. I just couldn’t get the damn plastic to slip over the rivet heads even after adding copious amounts of WD-40, grease and prying open the ends of the rails slightly with pliers.

I later found out after a couple more hours of this frustration that had I peened the rivet securely into place first, and then added the end-caps they would have slipped on easily. But I was trying to slip the end caps over the rivets not yet secured. Just the 1mm or so of play they still had in them meant that they were sitting too high in the rail channel to prevent the end caps from slipping over them. Once I figured this out things went much more quickly.

More-more-more problems
Hand peening? Translation: Whacking a rivet with a hammer until the soft metal forms a rounded head. This newly formed head means the rivet now has heads on both ends of the rivet’s length: The original head of the rivet (sitting in the floor rail) and the newly hammered head holding tight anything between them. In this case, the rail and the leg-shield. The big problem? Who wants to be whacking a hammer anywhere near a freshly painted scoot?

Protecting the target area for your hammer. (The rivet to the right has already been peened.)

The peen rivets that come with the kit are longer than you need them to be. So the first trick is to cut them down with a hacksaw until you have about ¼” poking through the body of the scooter. This is long enough to have enough of the material to whack flat into the rivet head that’s going to lock them in place, but not so long that you need to hammer more than necessary. This took me some trial and error before I found the correct balance. While it’s nerve-wracking sawing so close to the paintwork, I found it easiest to saw them short in place, rather than at a workbench.

The next challenge is that if you’re going to whack them you need some resistance to hit against. Remember, nothing is holding the other end of the rivet in place. I did this by using a metal weight from my workshop. Other folks have recommended the head of a sledgehammer, anything that gives you some resistance.

Basically you need to hammer the rivet flat from the underside of the floorboard/outer side of the leg-shield and use the resistance of the weight on the top side of the rail to hammer against. This is physically awkward and required me to get on my back holding the hammer in my left hand and holding the weight on the other side with my right. (I’m right-handed.)

As if this awkward position is not enough, you then need to hit the rivet many times over, slowly but surely flattening the head so that it grips the rails to the body of the bike. You need to hit it hard enough to flex the soft metal of the rivet and you need to hit it accurately because if you miss the rivet you just landed a hammer blow to your freshly painted leg-shield. And you need to do this over and over again. Hard. Accurate. Repeat.

Each rivet, even cut down to about ¼” took me about twenty minutes of patient hammering to lock down. Fortunately, while I did miss on a couple of occasions I didn’t do too much damage to the surrounding paintwork. I’d added masking tape around the rivet so that if I did miss, the tape would take the blow, not the paint.

The hardest part was applying force to the counter-weight while hammering. If you’ve ever tried to hammer a nail into a piece of wood that moves as you hammer it (like a fence) you’ll know exactly what I mean here. No resistance, no progress.

Unfortunately, while I had protected most of the paint job on the underside, and put all my concentration into hitting the rivet square on without missing I didn’t pay attention to the weight on the top side. I later found that in places the weight had eaten into the soft metal of the rails. Fortunately most of this damage would later be covered by the rubber but it was yet more damage I could have avoided.

In retrospect, unless you have some sort of air chisel or proper equipment to do this, you really need a friend to be responsible for holding the weight (or “dolly”) in place while you hammer from beneath. The tighter this is held in place, the less hammering (or peening) you need to do.

Final adjustments
After several hours of work, the rails, rivets and end-caps were now in place. The rails were dinged up in places but generally sound, and the peen rivets were, well let’s just call them, serviceable. Doing their job but not about to win any competitions. The real vintage enthusiasts spend a lot of time here even making custom tools to allow them to replicate the factory finish of an Italian peened rivet.

In places between the rivets, the floor rails were still not sitting flush with the floor of the bike. I discovered that by inserting an old chisel inside the rail and hammering it from above I could hammer the rail flat down against the floor where it wasn’t sitting right. This dented the inside track of the rails but it would be later hidden under the rubber grips. Given that the floorboard had originally been one of the more rusty parts of the scooter, you clearly want to do everything you can to avoid places where moisture might get trapped under the rails. I might even add a thin film of grease here before I take her out on the road.

Adding the floor rubber is relatively painless. Look closely on the left and you'll see I still have one more rivet to peen.

Time for the floor rubber
Taking some advice I had read online, I soaked the rubber in a bucket of hot soapy water before using to make it as malleable as possible. At first I tried removing one of the end-caps and sliding the rubber in from the end of the rail but found I could only slide the rubber so far before it wouldn’t budge. In the end it was much easier to leave the end caps alone and tuck the rubber into the rail inch by inch using a flat bladed screwdriver. Once I got close to the end of the rail, I then cut the rubber to length about and half an inch longer than I needed it with a pair of scissors.

Apparently if you don’t cut this extra length the rubber will end up contracting over time and leave a gap between the end of the rubber and the end cap. Given that the rubber is flexible it’s easy enough to cut it slightly long and squeeze it into the rail. In places however this pressure popped off the end caps, so I used a pair of pliers to tighten the ends of the metal rails around the plastic end caps to hold them tighter in place. I minimized the damaged to the soft metal by wrapping the pliers in masking tape before squeezing.

Adding the rubber was in comparison a walk in the park and took about half-an-hour to do all six rails.

The completed rails. Tip: vacuum away any debris. Brushing it away will scratch your paint.

Conclusion
Job done. Phew. In total this took two sessions. Probably eight hours in total. Much longer than I had anticipated. Time and frustration aside I think I did a reasonable job, but like so many things I could do it much better a second time (perish the thought.) More so than ever, I learned some valuable lessons with this part of the restoration/rebuild:

The most important lesson? Patience my young Jedi. You are about to start swinging a hammer, sawing a hacksaw and bending bits of sharp metal near your freshly painted scooter. This is no time to get frustrated and go for short cuts. These short cuts could end up in paint disaster. Take time away from the job and grab a coffee or something if you find yourself getting frustrated. I know there were a couple of times where I was close to giving the scooter a whack with the hammer out of frustration.

‘Til next time.

(VERY IMPORTANT) Lessons learned

• Make the floor rails your first priority after completing the paintwork. You may even want to dry fit the rails first before painting.
• Protect the paintwork with masking tape.
• Use pop-rivets for every rivet except the end caps (both front and back.)
• Use washers over the end of the pop-rivets for extra grip (these are later hidden under the rubber.)
• Use the peen rivets that come with the kit only on the front and back ends of the rails. 6 rails = 12 rivets.
• Practice your peening on the back 6 rivets nearest the engine because these are hidden from view.
• On the leg-shield end-cap rivets use plenty of masking tape around the rivet to be peened in case you miss with a hammer blow.
• Have a friend help you counter the weight of your hammer blows with some form of “off dolly” – a metal weight, another hammer, etc.
• Trust me, the plastic end caps are only going to slide on once the rivets beneath them are tight.
• Tuck the rubber into the rails with a screwdriver; don’t feed it in from the rail-end.
• Cut the rubber slightly longer than you need it to allow for expansion/contraction.

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