a bit of a concern.

This is one of the rims that came with the bike, I was going to pull the others apart and will in time, but this one had the most rust in the join that I could see, now I didn't really expect brand new rims but they could've been in better condition.

Pic one. Indentations where the rim is bolted to the hub, some of these were at least one or two millimetres deep, I'd go as far to say that the shiny new paint on the outside may have been done with the wheels on the bike, bit of rust in there too.

Pic two. same deal.

Pic three. the 70% half of the rim pulled, quite a bit of rust, one of the fixed bolts was turning with the nut as I pulled it all apart, I had to clamp it with vice grips to get the nut off, rust rust rust everywhere, on the tyre bead, the tube had to be physically seperated from the rim, my concern is this was the tyre I had on the rear for the last 1340kms.

Pic four. the rim, speaks for itself really.

Pic five. The Kenda tyres that came with the bike, the top was on the rear and I was quite surprised to see how much it had worn after only 1340kms compared to the front, bottom tyre, only one of the three had a date stamp, it was made in early 2008 they others look newer but without a date stamp, who knows, they will do as spares anyway.

The new Michelin tyres dont have that "classic" look but I have a lot more peace of mind and confidence knowing that the tyres, rims and tubes are all new. Will take a pic of them today.

Now I understand.

The thought of having, God forbid, time to actually sit down and go through the motions of repairing, replacing, troubleshooting, nutting out the small problems on this bike, is beyond fantastic. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife and both my boys, more than I can say, but to have a couple of days to myself is, as most parents with young kids will agree, rare as the poo of a wooden horse, so I have tried not to waste it.
Shall I go on.

pic one & two. the before and after of cylinder cowls, I must say that the new one came with the standard original part sticker, it is made from plastic that is a gauge or two thicker than the busted bum one that came with Gloria in the first place,,
OK, the third pic.isn't that flash but it is my sparkplug, it's black, expected I suppose given the amount of oil I was running, Now I am running approx. 2.5% and G is going ok.

Home alone.

pic one. the cluch exposed, there was a bit of ding in one of the plates, but it's all working so I'm reluctant to fudge with it.
Pic two.  the seedy underbelly, to me it all looks ok, it's 40 years old, give it a break. my belly has a few dings too.
Pic three. There is a few interesting bits here, mainly the circular indentations near the breather?? WTF. why?

O-Ring schmo ring

Today has been a very interesting day, I had a few things I wanted to attend to, where to start?

The oil leak I suppose.
First pic. No body likes to see a lady in this position on her own, I did think of spooning her but.....she needs some work done to her nether regions.
Second pic. before I cleaned up and pulled everything apart.
Third pic. The top O ring is the problem, it is all worn and fibreous as seen in pic four, I replaced it, as you do, and found it was hard to put the clutch cover back together, nothing a bit of oil didn't fix, a wise man once told me if it doesn't fit, oil it and push a bit harder...
Anyway, it took no time to pull the clutch cover off and sort the o-ring, getting it all back together was a little more time consuming, getting the little brass clutch jibber jibber to sit in the right spot was proving troublesome, I ended up putting a small dob of grease on it to hold it in place and it was sweet. Thanks to the advise on Modern Vespa, job sorted.

Word check

I just read over my last post....WTF! is unseasonable even a word? It should say unseasonal, I think unseasonable probably means that you can't put salt and pepper on it and everyone knows the rain hates pepper.

EDIT: Turns out it is and I was right.

un·sea·son·a·ble

  /ʌnˈsizənəbəl/ [uhn-see-zuh-nuh-buhl]

–adjective

1.

not seasonable; being out of season; unseasonal: unseasonable weather.

Bring on the weekend

I have the box of parts so I can't wait to get into it. I have the scoot over 1300kms now and still haven't had any problems, well except that my whole headlight gave up the ghost yesterday, luckily the little parking globe puts out enough light for drivers to see me, that and the plume of two stroke smoke out behind me and the sound of someone strangling a chainsaw at 100 paces. The only big problem I do have is the weather forcast, stormy for the next week, very unseasonable, especially for Victoria at the start of summer. good workshop weather though.

Box of goodies.

Well I made a call yesterday to GPS Imports and my package is in the mail, it's been a month since I ordered the bits and pieces and I must admit I am looking forward to next week, my wife and boys will be away for two days in Melbourne, they are going to a Wiggles concert, cue Toot Toot Chugga Chugga, on Sunday and to the Zoo with my wifes family on Monday and home Tuesday. I will be fixing my oil leak by attempting to change an O-ring that is in a slightly difficult spot, I will be putting together 3 brand new tyres, tubes and rims, taking off and pulling apart the old rims, out of interest, to see just how rusty they are, stopping the headlight from twisting around, again, replacing the headlight globe that has blown the low beam element and causes the tail light globe to blow everytime I put a new one in, might change the gearbox oil and clean the sparkplug and probably give her a wash to get the bugs off the leg shield, then I might crack a beer and just sit there and look at her.
I've clocked over 1200kms now and the old girl will sit on 80 nicely now after that though the acceleration is slow, the engine doesn't feel as tight now and when kicking it over the compression is still very good. the most kicks it has taken is 3 to get it started and that was on a cold morning, she idles well and the bottom line is i couldn't be happier with the scoot. Ive still got about six weeks left of my warranty period and intend of getting as many kms as possible behind me just in case, the trouble isj ust about every chance I get to ride her, it bloody rains.