Let me tell you a little story about this Vespa. Me and Dean were hanging out in April last year at the excellent Speedfest show in Barcelona, drinking some beers with our friends, as you do, and trying out my dodgy Spanish. Funny how after a few cold ones my Spanish gets better, weird that. Anyway, Jordi wheels in this very nice, fully restored, 1969 Spanish built Sprint 160. I clocked it right away, it was love at first sight. Jordi tells me he also replaced the 160 motor with a fully rebuilt and chromed out P200 and has rebuilt the original 160 too! That was the last straw, I worked on him all weekend, his English is as bad as my Spanish, all sorts of bartering went on. By the end of a drunken Sunday I owned it. My plan was to get it to my stepmothers place in Mallorca, just a short boat journey from Barcelona. So I get the phone number of this bloke called Keith out of the back of an English Mallorcian newspaper. He has a van and goes back and forth from the the island to the UK. He says he will pick it up for me and drop it off for 100 Euros. Sweet. He goes and gets it some 3 months later (?!) then just disappears, with my bike, spare engine and all the paper work. He doesn't reply to my emails or phone calls, after 8 months of this I'm starting to get pissed off. 4 weeks ago I was in Mallorca so I paid him a visit. Some old geezer with no teeth and bad breath is there and says Keith has done a runner, apparently he owes money to the bank and some well dodgy people and no one knows where he is. That's when I notice Keith's face on wanted posters all over the town. I forced my way into the house and there was my Vespa and everything else under a blanket. Just as I'm getting it out of there and driving away a van full of heavies turn up to repossess the house. I got it out of there by the skin of my teeth. I drove away very fast indeed. I then spent the next 4 days riding it around the island which as you can imagine was completely brilliant. Actually reading this back to myself I realise it really is not that interesting but what the hell.
Brilliant! I'm more of a Lambretta man, but a late model Vespa engine in an early frame is hard to beat in scooter ters. I'd replace the chequer plate with proper runners on the floor boards, but it's probably better not to bother and to just enjoy riding it with your bag of fresh squid stuffed on the legshield toolbox (no, that isn't prison slang). G
ReplyDeleteNo no great story,crap vespa sorry i just hate the things ,yer should have been wary at the 100 euro lark!! never trust anyone (isn,t that sad)...actually you had a lot of luck if the heavys got heavy.
ReplyDeleteawesome. both the vespa and how you got it.
ReplyDeleteOld Vespa's are chick magnets anyway so n-joy "The Ride" ^^
ReplyDeleteI dig it. Cool story and nice scoot.
ReplyDeleteGot a 1960 Vespa T4 (a german license build) with a hopped up PX80 engine. It has a 139ccm Malossi cylinder and modified clutch.
I still have a vintage rear luggage rack that should fit your Sprint. Some rust but nothing that couldn't be handled since it's pretty solid chrome.
Let me know if you want it, I could bring it to BKK.
quite a story! glad u got it back
ReplyDeleteI'll just do some trolling. There is no Sprint 160, but there is a 150 Sprint. The GS is a 160, the same engine was a 180 in the SS. They are however a design fault compared to the 125/150 engines. The later PX 80/125/150 engines is a very nice engine with a kit/electronic ignition and a 200 carb. Faster than a 200 and a much nicer character. Go Scoot!
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. Seems Yours is also of the design fault type. Basically a spanish version of the GS engine in a Sprint with a electronic ignition kit..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scooterhelp.com/scooters/spanish.vespa.160cc.html