Month: October 2012

So here’s one of the things that’s been taking me away to IRL over the past few months.

It’s a 1997 Vespa ET4 and I’ve been fixing it up. It’s actually in fairly good nick, but the most noticeable issue was that the rear metal was all broken up. Stress fractures from being overloaded a lot on the top carrier. You can see the cracks in the metal I cut out. I got lucky and picked up an ET4 chassis with front-end damage off ebay for a fiver though and this past week I cut out the good metal and welded it into place.

It’s a little irregular, but for my first bit of cosmetic bodywork I’m pretty happy with it.

The donor frame also had an immaculate swing-arm on it still, so that’s been swapped in to replace the rusty one. (I think the donor must have been crashed almost fresh out of the shop! It was stored for a decade, rust-free.)

I’m waiting for some bits to fix the centre-stand and replace some rotted air hoses, then I’m going to fit a cheap pit-bike CDI because the immobiliser’s fucked. That should get it basically done. It’ll still need a new battery and a luggage carrier, so there’s another ~£80 to spend on it. Then another £100 or so on helmet and bike clothes, £100 on the CBT, and about £300 a year for insurance.

Maybe I’m just thinking like a kid here, but it makes me a bit sick this is considered very cheap. :P

Still, it’s getting there and depending on how money trickles to it should be long-range mobile by next year. @_@