I came to your blog after reading your posts on Modern Vespa. WOW. Look at the welds through the back of that frame. It looks like five different areas have been patched. Look where the top of the rear shock sits... It isn't supposed to be like that. Look at the weld running across where the "x" appears on the side of the frame covered by the glove box. WOW.
And where did you get the information on your engine being original? Those are Indonesian/Jakarta casting markers. Serial numbers are stamped INTO the engine. Those Asian letters are "raised" indicating they were cast. In short, your engine has only seen Italy if it has sat in a movie theater during a showing of Roman Holiday. If you send me a close-up picture of the casted characters, I can compare it against the three other Indo engines I have in my shop.
You might not like knowing it and you might do your best to make it seem that YOU have managed to get the one Viet Nam bodge that isn't a piece of junk, but you really should pay attention while riding. Ride it and enjoy it, but stay sharp.
I doubt Piaggio had a separate set of molds for each country they planned to export to (assuming the country required some sort of indicator on the outside of the engine case). If this were the case, Piaggio would have 30+ different molds. Italians were notoriously cheap. They spent all their extra money on espresso and cigarettes.
I came to your blog after reading your posts on Modern Vespa. WOW. Look at the welds through the back of that frame. It looks like five different areas have been patched. Look where the top of the rear shock sits... It isn't supposed to be like that. Look at the weld running across where the "x" appears on the side of the frame covered by the glove box. WOW.
ReplyDeleteAnd where did you get the information on your engine being original? Those are Indonesian/Jakarta casting markers. Serial numbers are stamped INTO the engine. Those Asian letters are "raised" indicating they were cast. In short, your engine has only seen Italy if it has sat in a movie theater during a showing of Roman Holiday. If you send me a close-up picture of the casted characters, I can compare it against the three other Indo engines I have in my shop.
You might not like knowing it and you might do your best to make it seem that YOU have managed to get the one Viet Nam bodge that isn't a piece of junk, but you really should pay attention while riding. Ride it and enjoy it, but stay sharp.
I doubt Piaggio had a separate set of molds for each country they planned to export to (assuming the country required some sort of indicator on the outside of the engine case). If this were the case, Piaggio would have 30+ different molds. Italians were notoriously cheap. They spent all their extra money on espresso and cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteAnd who "blurred out" the welds on those photos? DUDE, even the photos are bodges.
ReplyDelete