Spare Wheel Sunday

To those of you unfamiliar with the ways of scootering, don’t be too alarmed about the Vespa PX lying on the ground in the picture above (oh, I’m just fine by the way). That’s just me getting the rear wheel off so that I can replace the damaged tube on it with a new one. Low-tech it might be but it works especially when it’s just me working on the thing.

I woke up bright and early that morning (by Sunday morning standards anyway) to focus on getting my spare tyre fixed. The tubeless rim that was previously on the rear was being sorted out by Modern and Classic Scooters. That would take them a few days considering I only dropped it in to them on Saturday. But, not wanting to spend another week using the bus service (however excellent they might be of late), I decided to do some work on the spare tyre myself. Besides, I needed a spare at some stage and a flat spare was obviously not much use to me.

So, I bought myself a tube and started working on it diligently. The plan was to take pictures along the way and post a guide of how to do this here but, I realised that this wasn’t possible unless I wiped my hands clean of grease and grime every few minutes - a must when my only decent picture-taking device is my touchscreen mobile phone. So, as a Plan B, this is a good guide on how to disassemble your scooter’s old (split rim) wheel and on the same site there’s a step-by-step guide to re-assembling it.

I know that there are at least a dozen or so differing views on how to do this but the one above works for me so, I’ve used it as a guide for the handful of times I’ve had to fix my Vespa’s wheels. On the other hand, as with most things, I wouldn’t attempt doing it alone for the first time (I had my brother-in-law who knew more than I did about scooters around) but if you’re stuck, it’s definitely a good starting point. Just remember to read every line of the guide carefully.

Anyway, watch out for the next post. If all goes well, that one should be from Liverpool...