Vespa Mods

Took the plunge today and ordered the upgrade kit for my 1983 Vespa PK50XL. Its not much of a bike cost me 75 of your best euro. Sometime in its past somebody thought it was a great idea to hand paint metallic blue paint over the original white coat. Its not a very a good job as you can see the brush strokes. The clutch was broken when I got it but it was not much of a problem and easy to fix.
The scooter had some 24000 clicks on it but not sure how good an indication this is as the speedo cable was bust. I’ve been using the bike most days for just over a year and must have added something like another 6000 to 10000 clicks to it. I’ve spent a little money on it over the year replacing a headlight and rebuilding the carb. I’ve noticed that performance is dropping no doubt down to the fact the cylinder head is in desperate need of a polish/clean.
Seeing as I have decided to strip and rebuild the whole engine I have decided to breath on it a bit. The Dutch scooter shops are not aloud to sell performance parts any more so I had to fall back to a trusted UK supplier. I’m upgrading the cylinder to 110cc which will require a new head, cylinder and gearing. The carb will be upgraded to a 19/19. The scooter was designed to do around 50 clicks and by the end it will be closer to 90/100 so a bit of work on the breaks has to be done. To this end major break upgrade to take place and of course new front/rear adjustable shocks. Whilst this work is undertaken I will naturally replace all cables, gaskets and rubber components. The front mudguard is a bit knackered so that’s coming off and a new one putting on. I’m debating with myself if to leave the bike in its original beat up state or have the frame bead blasted and powder coated. This will make the bike look great but then it will draw the attention of the local bike thieves. Scooter theft is more of a sport than a crime in downtown Amsterdam. The advantage of having a beat up looking pile of crap on the road is that people tend to leave it alone.
This weekend the plan is to strip out the engine and clean up the bike. If I have time I will fit all the cables, paint up any of the rust spots and fit the new shock absorbers. Then next weekend one of my buddies is going to come over and we will take care of the work on the engine. Should not be too tricky a job. If I remember I will take a load of photos and post them to the site, perhaps somebody might find them useful.
I ordered the bits I need for the speedo so will report on new top speed (if I dare push it that far).
Next will be fixing up my Kawasaki KT250. I got it a couple of years ago as a gift. It does not need to much work had a go it a year or so ago but there was some problem with ignition. Had no meter to find out what was wrong so pushed into the back of the garage and its been there ever since.