New: 1954 Apollo Biet!

Yes, the collection has grown. Now the Swedish part is complete, I have just bought an Apollo Biet, a Swedish-built scooter from 1954. A joint venture with another Swedish manufacturer, Svalan. I bought their version, the Svalan Scooter, in 2009 and has been looking for the Apollo Biet since. They share the very spartan engine, 128 cc "big" and with only two gears. Actually a big failure, just over 40 Apollo Biet were built and maybe 100-150 Svalan Scooter.

Rare but pretty useless, this one was for sale at an reasonable price. The drawback is that it's situated 940 km's from my home...

Two head lamps is a trade mark, but one should be yellow.

Biet means "bee" or "ape". They avoided "wasp"...

Scooter rideout (not really...)

"Scooterfika" in Stockholm today. "Fika" means coffee and cake. Just a gathering with small talk, no one was keen for a rideout.
I rode my Lambretta TV 175, and was happy to see a Vespa 180 SS, with a P200 engine.
In the end six scooters participated, not a great turnout. Better next week?

A new Vespa GS - from Bandai

The month of May seems nice so far, one more Vespa bought. 

This time a smaller one. A Vespa GS 150 from the Japanese manufacturer Bandai. Now I only miss the red one, the green was the first I found.

The picture is not complete!

Vespa 180 SS: It's alive!

It's alive! I had to test the Vespa Super Sport 180. First I mounted the petrol tank, went very well. Then I checked the sparkplug; yes! After that I re-wired the electrics, not a big task, just followning the electrical scheme.
Wow, it fired after four or five kicks! And both the head and tail lamp shone. The tyres are very bad, not holding the air so the test drive was only abou 50 metres. It idled for approx 5 minutes, but I think the ignition has to be adjusted.
Furthermore I have cleaned it with some rubbing, some gleam are left in the old paint. Except where there are surface rust. Some more work is required...
I also swapped saddle, I bought a 180 SS-saddle some years ago and it is in better condition than the one that came with the scooter.

The running-in regulations are still there.

Here it is still dirty.

New: a 1967 Vespa 180 SS

It's been a while since I updated this blog. Partly because I was taken ill for while. Actually so bad that I missed the scooter premiere here in Stockholm about a week ago.
Now I'm feeling better! Especially since my "new" Vespa has arrived. I heard about this one a couple of weeks ago. The seller didn't know much except that it had a trapezoidal head lamp. Could be a 150 cc Sprint - or preferably a 180 Super Sport...
It was the latter, hooray!
Well, not in a super condition, but not bad either. Everything seems to be there and the engine is not seized. The guy I bought it from claims that an earlier owner had the engine overhauled. Although it in some areas seems untouched, someone has been fiddling with it. For example has the tank been out, and hopefully cleaned, but not reinstalled properly. The gears seems to work, as the throttle and brakes. The electrics has to be sorted though. There is some damage on the handlebar, but it's restorable.
As you can see from the pictures the original paint (Monza red?) is a bit faded. There is also a lot of period stickers, mainly from Finland, which appeals to me.
The plan is to just clean and polish it, and making it work well mechanically.

An old Vespa Club member

I got some pictures from an old member of the Vespa Club Sverige (Sweden). Pictures of his membership cards, from 1965 to 1972. First he lived in the centre of Sweden and then he moved up north to the town of Umeå.
The photo below is from a trip he made to Germany in 1966, when he was 17 years old, on his 1961 Vespa 125 Popolino (VNS2), a special model for Sweden for 16-year olds and under 75 kg (the Vespa...).
He travelled with a friend and the poor scooter had a heavy load; tools, tent, sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, spare tanks for petrol and oil, spare wheel etc.
He claims it reached 80 kph with no wind, 90 kph slipstreaming after a lorry. He traveled like this through Europe during two summers.

Street legal faro basso

07.45 this morning my 1953 Vespa 125, faro basso, passed it's MoT! Happy days!