softly seizing in style

NOT.
Last night I had half a dozen guys from the Vespa Club of Melbourne, as well as the President of the Vespa riders Club of Australia and a fellow non Vespa rider, stop in town on their way back from the national scooter rally they had in Sydney over the weekend, it was good to catch up with the guys I had met before, as well as meeting the ones I hadn't, we had dinner at the pub and good conversation about all things Vespa and about the adventures on the road, good food, wine, beer and company. A good night all round.
Breakfast was also a fun and soon enough they were on their way, I led them out of town and to a back road that would get them off the highway for a bit and as we scooted along at about 80-85kms, Gloria decided enough was enough and bogged down and locked up for a split second before I clutched in and rolled off the road, Not sure who was behind me but within a minute I had six guys there wondering why I had stopped before I said I would. I kicked her just to make sure it would start and she did thankfully, I bid the guys farewell assuring them I'd be fine and would get home OK, did a u turn and did just that, except at about 60kmph instead. Now it's one thing to seize when your by yourself, it's just you and the machine, but when you are leading a group it's a little embarrassing, sorry guys. I received a message that they made it home safely later that day, well done.
Now what to do.
First thing I did was pull the plug, black but dry, pulled the jets and made sure they were clean. scratched the head and thought it better to do a bit of reading before I do anything. I don't think any damage was done, but its the third soft seize I have had in just under 3000kms. I'm having issues with my GT200 and I really need one running all the time so I might wait and just not do any WOT riding over long straights.
Update to come.

Checking in.

With some great weather for riding, cool but sunny, I have put another 200kms on the clock and everything is going great, I have not touched anything except checked the plug and to be honest I don't plan on doing anything until something starts to go wrong, I have found part of the source of the noise, the headlight. So when I get home I will be doing two things, packing the headlight out with something and installing my new Dr Pulley sliders in the GT200 and I'll be back to two scooters on the road.
The Sprint V still gets plenty of attention and makes me smile every time I see someone stop and look, or the school kids waving, although I can't honk back this time, must get to that horn one day. This evening on the way home I had stopped off for some supplies and parked in the mall behind a big arse Moto Guzzi, the rider was gearing up when I came out and was suitably impressed with Gloria, "is that original?", "yep" well sort of I thought, "it's great to see old things all restored and running, don't see many things like that these days" A smile and a shake of the head and a short conversation later I left him in a cloud of two stroke and went on my way.
I have gone and invested in a new jacket, which was kind of a birthday/fathers day gift, a new black Armadillo Parka, see pics attached, as you can see I'm missing my calling as a Parka model, I wore it for the first time today and was impressed at how warm it kept me compared to the old one I was using, its a lot longer and has some armour in the elbow and shoulder areas, with provision for a back plate if I want one. First thing I did was put my new Vespa Club of Melbourne Patch on it, and I was good to go.
My wife has finished up work now in preparation for the birth of our new baby in a few weeks, so I will have two days over the weekends now to get out there and ride, which I plan to take full advantage of when I can.

Shake, rattle and hum.

I had a good long run into work this morning and have figured out that the rattle/buzzing sound is definitely not the engine, but in fact a series of strategic things on all parts of the scooter working in unison to provide a crescendo as the revs get higher, will I figure out exactly what those parts are, probably not, I went over every thing that I could get to and made sure it was all suitably tight and I did see the dust cover on the rear wheel brake drum has a wobble that could be the source, I also took off the rubber trim from the glove box door, a classic sign of a bodge and not originally there, this too could be another source, but I put my hand on it and the sound didn't change. All my tools are in a roll so they don't slide about.... its possible the stand may vibrate too. Unless it gets worse I'm not going to worry about it, between that and the Sito Plus, people turn and look when I'm 100 metres away, so I'll call it a safety feature instead.
Sorry you lost so much sleep Fanta....

Niggles

I have probably put 100 or so kms on her since I got the lights sorted and to be honest I couldn't be happier with the way she's running, there are a few niggles, itches that need to be scratched and the list grows. First and foremost is the bloody brake light switch, I have pulled it off at least a dozen times and tried everything, I've made gaskets, sprayed WD40 in there to lube it up, tried 5 different ways to get the connection to work, positioned the connections and wiring differently and the annoying thing is the switch works when I have it in my hand, but when I fit it nothing, zip, zero, zilch, nada, fuck all.....you get the point, I have promised myself and told the switch in no uncertain terms, that if it continues to misbehave, it will join the growing collection of "used museum worthy parts" I have in a box that I plan to to make some sort of art house piece from to acknowledge the Sprint Vs Vietnamese tour of duty....that and not having a brake light is just bloody dangerous. The front brake still needs a look at, its really spongy and I am certain the outer cable just needs to be seated, I'm just a little bit tinkered out at the moment, but....again not having a front brake is just bloody dangerous. There are a few other small things I have noticed after replacing everything except the engine, one, the engine at almost top speed, probably any speed over 50kmph, there is a buzzing sound, not a loud buzzing sound, but it wasn't there before, it's like, and anyone who has had a BMX, I'm pretty sure Fanta has, and used a peg on your fork to hold some footy cards so that they hit the spokes, making a loud sort of motorbike engine noise, well it did when you were ten, but cardboard was better back then..... anyway, the buzzing sound is there and I have no idea why.
Secondly, the front end just doesn't feel right, nothing to do with the front brake, but I'm not really sure how to explain it, its solid but feels a little sloppy, the only thing I have replaced is the pivot arm bearing, well not replace because it wasn't there to start with,  so maybe it's normal..nothing else done except I use proper grease and not the gritty paste I have found in most parts.
That's the latest, I plan on giving her a good run tomorrow, nice spring like weather, cool and sunny, a good long run will be the scratch for the itch that I have to get out there and ride.

Edit. the final play with the brake switch worked a treat and I'm running with a full set of lights, The front brake also just needed a good hard pull and the extra length was enough to give me some stopping power in an emergency, so I'm good there too now. I fixed up the last sentence of the original post so it makes sense now and acts as a reminder not to blog after a few beers...
Fanta, yep at wide open throttle, will try a bigger jet and see, it didn't do it before I started messing with the wiring which is wierd. and I'm sure that is the plug I'm running too.

out and about

It was a beautiful winters day, after all the rain we have had it was nice to bask in the sun, I took Gloria out for a spin and other than having to adjust the gear cable it was good fun, I parked up under a tree on a quiet street overlooking the river, in fourth and tightened the cable anchor, as I did a Harley rider putted past slowly to see what was going on, I nodded and in typical fashion got no response, I guess he was thinking either...
1. wtf ! is that bloke actually doing something mechanical to his bike on the side of the road himself, isn't that what mechanics are for?
2. Should I stop and ask him if he knows a good cafe so I can go and sit and practice my snarly tough guy look whist sipping my latte.
3. Should I do the right thing and see if he's in trouble? mmmmm after what happened in Brighton in the sixties I'm kinda scared of hard nut scooter riders, I might just practice my snarly look, ignore him and go and find a cafe myself.
4. Suck shit Mate, that's what you get for riding a classic scooter and not a penis extension.

Anyway it was such a nice day I thought I'd do an impromptu photo shoot, just out of town there is a wildlife sanctuary for water birds, ducks, swans, frogs etc. there are a few hides and nesting boxes to promote breeding there and a few board walks and hides, the odd picnic table, It's called McLeod's Morass, The pics are above, it was nice and peaceful and with spring just around the corner, plenty going on, until I spoilt the serenity with my noisy, smelly 2T scooter.
When I got home I went about sorting the brake switch to get the brake light working, will test it tomorrow. It's nice not having so many things to fix, but not as nice having the wind in my face and the crackle of the exhaust behind me.

Disclaimer. I was sort of half joking about the stereotype Harley Rider. I'm sure the rider is a great bloke, and really wanted to help. Harley's are beautiful machines and their riders just as passionate about their rides as scooter riders are about theirs and I get that,  just not my cup of tea though.

another suitable time

My Friday off work didn't go to plan....My eldest son has an ear infection and a cold, one of the two roads into town was flooded, and being on the main highway caused massive traffic problems, in a country town of 15000 people it was as good as I've ever seen living and driving in Sydney, it took me an hour and a half to take my wife to work, its about 2kms as the crow flies, the diversion and traffic were horrendous and if it can it will and it did, my son's medication wore off half way in and by the time we got to the hospital, my wife is a nurse, luckily at times, it was straight to emergency and so began the day I'd rather forget, the emergency department was busy, it seemed every kid in town broke something, accidents, old people almost falling off the perch, the list goes on, happened today, and that's fine, they dosed him up on panadol and we weren't going to hang around with such a non life threatening case, we had a Dr's appointment later anyway, and after the vending machine took my last $2 coin, that was it. My wife called the medical centre to see if we could get in early, three hours early, the floods had stuffed everyone up and we could get in in an hour, we had a picnic lunch of KFC and he perked up, once we got to the medical centre ten minutes early all was good, until we waited an hour  after we were told to be there, by this time his panadol had worn off and he wasn't well. diagnosed, prescribed and picking up number two from child care on the way home.......five hours to do a 10 minute job.
Anyway, that's what you do as a parent, The Sprint V can wait and so can I.

Covers and others

Riding into work each day has been great, it brings back the things I was starting to lose touch with, like the looks the scoot gets, school kids waving and giving me the thumbs up, the sweet sweet aroma of the 2T while idling at the lights, giving her a fair squirt along the long flat sweeping bend just before I hit town. I even think that it's running a little better, the power is good and responsive and she has even become a two kick from cold scoot instead of a standard three, sometimes four and it's winter time here. I have lost a little confidence in the time she has been parked up in bits and have forgotten some of the little quirks. The front brake still isn't right, and I don't think I can adjust it any more, I suspect that the outer end isn't seated properly, the rear brake works well but doesn't feel right, sort of spongy and the gears don't feel the same either, now that I have the adjustment right the changes are smooth but different and I know the brake cable outer is a little longer than the last one so this might be one cause and all the cables are new so maybe they need to settle in a bit, stretch just a little and all will be OK. I have a list of double checks for Friday.
I had to get some medicine for one of my sick boys, so after work I go into the mall and get what I need and as I'm gearing up to leave a little boy and his mum walk past and he is so excited to see the bike I get distracted enough to forget to turn the fuel back on and after five o'clock in the busy mall next to the supermarket, it's not a great place for the scooter to die as I get into the roundabout....I got off and pushed the bike off the road and started it up, much to the amusement of passers by......I'd love to say that won't happen again.

I have painted up my dust covers and although not a great paint job, the colour match is pretty close, you can't see them under there unless you look, so I just won't. The middle pic is Gloria in her parking spot at work, lonely, but looking like a labrador you have just put outside in the cold after laying in front of the fire.