Comments on: Non-Riding Adventure

By: Bill Sommers

Bill Sommers — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:48:00 +0000

What's a cowboy without a horse? A guy that's going to do whatever it takes to get back in the saddle.

Good luck.
Bill

By: Biker Betty

Biker Betty — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:15:00 +0000

Steve,
Sorry to hear about the engine. Good luck with the lead on the engine. At least it’s winter.

By: Tim Presley

Tim Presley — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Sorry to read about your troubles. When you suggested that you might shop for a replacement engine, I was skeptical of availability. Then I see today you have an offer of an engine! Wow! You seem to get so much from riding that “enjoyment” simply is too faint a word. Get your ride back soonest. Riding is such good medicine.

By: Timothy

Timothy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:39:00 +0000

Steve--I've been waiting a few days to visit your site again, hoping to read good news. Sad to find out what happened. At least it made me feel even better about my decision to get a Stella with its manual transmission! But that's not Schadenfreude, just personal reassurance.
Sure look forward to hearing what you decide. Pretty neat you got an offer of an engine from Trevor Benesch. Maybe that's just the ticket.
Can't wait to hear what you do. And really can't wait to hear more riding adventures (after the promised cold blast that's coming!)
It felt so good to get out on my scooter here in Michigan today, knowing it might be a little difficult next week.
Best wishes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:05:00 +0000

Bummer! Look on the bright side. At least it didn’t happen on the first warm days in May. You have the winter months to work out the problem. Looks like you have a good start and have mapped out several options. Now — WWPD? (What would Pirsig do?)

By: Trevor Benesch

Trevor Benesch — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 21:06:00 +0000

Steve,

I have a motor!
Friends keep allerting me to your site, but I rarely have the time to surf. It’s a great site, and sorry to hear about the motor (it was this post that a friend allerted me to. Learn from the mistakes of others…). Anyway, I have an ET4 150cc motor here with I think 14,000 kms (8400 mi), I can verify that, but it runs and has been dealer maintained (by me). Email info@vespahalifax.com

Trevor Benesch

By: Lucky

Lucky — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:14:00 +0000

Wow. Just... wow. That is incredibly depressing.

I'm sure you'll be able to find the part you're looking for, though. I bet if you ask your wife really, really nicely she'll let you work on it in the living room.

The magic words are "If you let me, I'll stop twitching."

Best of luck with part-hunting.

By: Sam Perry

Sam Perry — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:40:00 +0000

I think if it were me, I'd lean on the repair side if it were possible. I tend to think of bikes more as old friends than inanimate machines though. Would the Lone Ranger trade Silver in for another horse if he had a broken leg.

On the other hand, practicality has to come into play somewhere, and if some good can come out of it, there's no reason not to make the best of a bad situation.

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:12:00 +0000

Hannah: I'm leaning towards repairing it somehow. It's the somehow that's the challenge.

tina: The dollar figure attached to the shiny new scooter just doesn't make sense at the moment. This Vespa is like a faithful dog, can't give up on it without a fight.

combatscoot: I'm counting on unexpected scenery on this trip!

punkelf: I'll have to figure out some otherway to reflect and meditate this winter. Stay tuned.

harv: Despite messing up the engine a bit (ha!) I am not turned off to the idea of trying to wrench it back to life myself. The repair cost is high enough that I figure what the heck, couldn't be any worse off than I am now right? I'll let you know how things are going.

gary: I had to stick a pin in myself to see if I was really alive . I didn't really react much beyond the dark moment of dread that swept over me when I realized the gravity of the situation. But that passed quickly.

The GTS is too far off, on paper anyways. Seems like a total uninsured write off of the scooter. I can get the parts for about 500 bucks. I can get a new GTS for 4100 with a trade. $500 doesn't sound so bad. Now if I could only rebuild this in the living room....

By: Tinker

Tinker — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:23:00 +0000

I could see something like this happeniing to me too. If you HAVE to make lemonade from lemons, can you at least make BETTER lemonade? That is more or less like the 6 Million Dollar man, CAN you make it better, stronger, faster, for only $6,000,000? Or transplant a "big block" engine equivalent into the vespa?

If you can perform a heart transplant, AND make it better (whatever "better" MEANS to you), I'd say do the transplant. If it will not satisfy you after it's all done, maybe you need to reconsider?