One year on.

A year ago today a rickety crate was man handled off the back of a ute in my driveway and a new chapter in my scootering life began.
It has been interesting and frustrating, fun yet challenging, a learning curve higher than I expected and I have had help and encouragement from all corners of the globe, I have tasted the camaraderie that exists between vintage scooter enthusiasts, as they tweak and tune, break and fix and most importantly the passion for such a simple yet hardy, confusing and yet so beautiful little machine that has withstood the ravishes of time, and  the crafty workshops of Indochina, only to enjoy a resurgence in popularity that can only grow further.
The year in a nutshell. Brilliant, loved every minute, mostly.

I have built up a knowledge of the scooter through reading, asking, guessing, but mostly by pulling stuff apart to fix something that has broken or find something odd whist pulling it apart and the can of worms is cracked and the fun begins.

What I have spent to get where I am now, I couldn't say, but I have a box full of old, broken, useless, mismatching parts that I may make into some form of contemporary art piece one day, I'm keeping it to remind me where the Sprint was when I got it. I have replaced just about everything you can without pulling the whole bike apart.

The engine, I haven't touched it, save pulling the head once and the flywheel 3-4 times and cleaning it occasionally. Once it dies I will split the cases and see what exotic workmanship I find, until then as long as it runs, I'll maintain it and enjoy the riding. Speaking of riding, I have had a busy week or so with the new addition to the family and the things that go along with that and juggling work and two other young boys, the weather hasn't been the nice sunny, cool spring weather it should be. The scooter takes a back seat. I have managed just over 3200 kms on the clock and about 180kms when the speedo was broken, not bad considering it was off the road for at least 4 months. I've soft seized 3 times, forgot the fuel tap half a dozen times, stalled at the lights, tightened an exhaust bolt up on the side of the road, ask me how I knew it had come off..... walked the highway looking for a dampener bolt, a new one, that had come out, pushed the scooter to work on the footpath like an actual scooter because I thought I'd broken a gear cable, I didn't, it was a two minute fix. and numerous silly things that you only do once, learning the sequence of which the parts go back on...it goes on.

My favorite moment is giving up on the waiting for the wiring harness to arrive and just doing it myself. I wasted three months, still waiting too by the way, when in an afternoon I made up the harness, put all the bits back together and it worked, well a minor brake switch issue and the horn doesn't work since I haven't touched it since, and I was running a full set of working lights. That was very satisfying and had I listened to the good advice from a Mr Porter from MD, USA I'd have been on the road three months earlier. Thanks to everyone else who have offered advice when I have been lost in a head scratching moment, you know who you all are.

I do have a small list of things to do, but since the big move across the state is about six weeks away I'm reluctant to do too much while the GT200 is off the road, I need one running. Gloria is also due for a once over, grease this, clean that, check those too, that sort of thing.

The future....well the next few weeks will be busy, finishing working full time, packing up the house and moving, preparing the house for renting, actually moving, settling the young family into a new temporary home on my wife's family property while we look for land and build a new house, start a new job, thankfully I have one lined up, and the next chapter of our lives.
One thing I am excited about the move is being closer to Melbourne and being able to participate in the activities of the new Vespa Club of Melbourne and even closer is Geelong, where there is also a growing group of Vespa riders planning regular ride outs, these guys are connected to the Melbourne Club also and the future looks bright as the Club is rapidly growing after only a few months and there is always something happening.
http://www.vespaclubmelbourne.com.au/

The Sprint V's future is in the hands of the gods, what the future will bring, I don't know, what I do know is that as long as I'm riding, from now on if it ain't broke, I'm not going to try and fix it.
If it does break, you guys will be the first to know.
Cheers for reading, hope you have enjoyed it so far, I do feel that it is far from over though.