Vespa Spot (1)

Spotted this Vespa on Teramachi Street (North of Oike) parked outside of the Al Matsuo Italian Restaurant.

By the look of the flat rear tyre, it seems to be a decoration rather than a fully functioning scooter.

Nice decoration though! Al Matsuo link can be found here. Sorry, Japanese only. http://www.hotpepper.jp/A_20100/strJ000108899.html

Arashiyama - 9 May 2008

Today the temperature in Kyoto reached an unseasonably but balmy 30 degrees Celsius. There is no better way to spend a warm morning than taking the Vespa for ride.

Arishiyama is less than 10km's from my house and is located on the Oi River. The river and mountain area is quite spectacular and there are many temples and shrines of historical significance in the area. Along with this, there are many traditional restaurants and ryokan's.

My favourite however is the residential district and you will see a photo of the Vespa outside a traditional Japanese House. The gardens are beautifully manicured and the azalea's are in full bloom.

The vespa is probably a little loud for the Arashiyama and surrounds, but its hard not to enjoy the ride when the weather is this good!

More about Arashiyama here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arashiyama

First Aid

The Vespa hasn't been without it's fair share of headaches. I mentioned below that after the first initial run it chose to no longer function. The initial reaction was one of panic, but approximately 400 metres from where I live, is the local Vespa mechanic. Shirai Vespa run by Shirai san himself was quick to rectify the issue and offered a full "going over" of the Vespa to ensure it was all good. Thankfully, other than a tight engine (it hadn't been run in) all was OK.


Soon after registering the bike, not all was good. Initially the bracket holding the front guard on cracked and eventually 1 of the 3 bolts holding guard to the forks fell out and caused the guard to rub on the tyre. Another visit to Shirai Vespa discovered that beyond the cracked bracket, another bracket holding the front shock absorber onto the forks was also cracked. This beyond being a hassle, was extremely dangerous as under heavy braking, potentially the bracket would brake and maybe it would be bye bye me!


Last visit to Shirai Vespa is for new tyres. The bike as you can see in the pictures came with white wall tyres however the quality was very poor and they began to perish. Shirai san offered two tyres, classic style and a more modern version. The difference being the classic has less grip than the modern one, however the look is right with the classic version.



Of course, I took looks before safety and chose the classic version. At the same time, Shirai san gave the bike a look over, made adjustments and again all is good....for now.

Where did it come from

I am not sure where the decision came from to finally purchase the Vespa, but generally like all males we need permission from the other half. When that was granted, off I went to Ebay.

Soon I found that most Vespa's these days come out of Vietnam as the French had imported bucket loads of them for the locals to get around on. Now I am no authority on Vespa's, nor am I trying to own the most original concourse model, I just wanted a cool little machine to get around on. So there are many of you out there that will say its not an original one, but I have orginal documentation, engine and body numbers confirming it as a 1967 VBC. Beyond that, who really cares.

To cut a long story short, I found a guy in Byron Bay, Australia that dealt with a dealer in Vietnam and he arranged for my bike to be delivered to Kobe Port in Japan. What was meant to be 6 weeks ended up being 8 weeks, but who is counting.

The real challenge came getting it through customs, and finally registered in Japan. I won't bore you with the details, but inserting pins in your eyes would be less painful. Anyway, the Vespa arrived, started immediately and a short time later (before registration), stopped working. Lucky for me, just down the street is the local Vespa mechanic (more about Shirai san later), and a quick clean out of the carburettor and she was back up and running.

In the beginning.......

Where do I start.

As middle age approaches with baldness well set in, the desire to spoil ones self takes hold. Some men buy a convertible, others find a young girlfriend. Me, I buy a 1967 VBC Vespa.

One has to wonder why grown men feel the need to ride a scooter when in general they are relatively embarrassing. I still ask myself the same question, but a Vespa is different. To learn a little about the history, click here to find out how the Vespa came about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa .

I think I always liked them. A friend from way back had a rusty old one up the side of his house. He told me that you changed gear using the hand grip and for some reason that sounded interesting. I always had traditional bikes, where you changed gears with your feet, but it never really drove me to buy one. But here we are, 20 years later, belting around the streets of Kyoto, sounding like a wasp on steroids annoying anyone that doesn't appreciate what I am riding.

150cc's of 2 stroke, blue smoke fun!!

This blog (at present) is just about my adventures on my Vespa.........and anything else that I may think of.