I was just clearing up my laptop's hard disk when I came across these pics of my scooter. They were taken sometime in the summer of 2008.
The sticker on the frame (under the seat) says "Verde 112". A quick check online confirmed that this refers to the original Racing Green colour of the scooter. I haven’t a clue what the original scooter looked like when it first rolled off the production line in Pontodera but, what I do know is that it has since lost its original seat and engine. The seat you see now belongs to the newer Disc-type PX while the engine I’ve been told is of the EFL variety.
The sticker on the frame (under the seat) says "Verde 112". A quick check online confirmed that this refers to the original Racing Green colour of the scooter. I haven’t a clue what the original scooter looked like when it first rolled off the production line in Pontodera but, what I do know is that it has since lost its original seat and engine. The seat you see now belongs to the newer Disc-type PX while the engine I’ve been told is of the EFL variety.
The lighter green on the side panels and horncasting is my later “contribution” to the look you now see. I wanted to stick with Piaggio’s original colour scheme but wanted to go two-tone. After much deliberating, I opted for a tone which was used on the automatic Vespa ET’s. A few people have come up to me and said that the combination looks surprisingly good. I’d tend to agree!
The scooter gained the colour after I had my first accident on it. A newbie’s mistake really. I was stuck at lights going uphill and when the lights turned green, I was only too eager to twist the throttle. I lost control of the scooter and fell on the slippery road with my full weight on my right hand. I only found out about two days later that my wrist was actually fractured.
My Vespa was in worse shape though. There was a kickstart-shaped dent on the right-hand side panel, to top of the fact that it was all scratched-up. The other panel although not affected by the fall, was already in a horrible state. So, with some spare cash at the time, it was due a well deserved facelift. i.e. the new two-tone look.
I thought some side panel crashbars and a footrest would be a nice addition so, I opted for Vigano chrome and rubber ones. I was going to go with black but went with the chrome ones as I thought the scooter needed some bling on it. The crashbars lived up to its name when about a year later, a nice lady in her Nissan Micra decided to swerve right (for no particular reason), hitting me while I was filtering through traffic.
The Vespa fell on its side while I landed relatively safely on the opposite side of the street. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single scratch on the side panel. The crashbar itself was visibly bent with the rubber on it pretty much shredded to pieces. The chrome had scrapes on it but other than that, the scooter was fine.
A few weeks later, I couldn’t stand looking at the way the crashbars sat, non-symmetrically on the frame (one being farther out than the other as it was bent and all) so, reluctantly, I took them off. I didn’t like the bare look on the panels so, on went some Utah look-alike side panel rubbers which have stayed on to this day.
The Vespa fell on its side while I landed relatively safely on the opposite side of the street. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single scratch on the side panel. The crashbar itself was visibly bent with the rubber on it pretty much shredded to pieces. The chrome had scrapes on it but other than that, the scooter was fine.
A few weeks later, I couldn’t stand looking at the way the crashbars sat, non-symmetrically on the frame (one being farther out than the other as it was bent and all) so, reluctantly, I took them off. I didn’t like the bare look on the panels so, on went some Utah look-alike side panel rubbers which have stayed on to this day.
That was almost two years ago. I wonder what my Vespa would look like in another two years. One thing I do know for sure: the sooner this recession is over the higher the chances of the scooter getting some more work done on it. And, that can only be a good thing!
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