lucacayman

Yes, a thoughttful and kind soul suggested this site. Thank you for the welcome. This place is definitely more populated than I first thought. Please notice my change of nickname to reflect the one on other sites. As far as the history of my Vespa and why it needs restoration: I bought the Vespa in Italy in 1999, put it on a pallet and shipped it to Cayman. Anyone who has done business in Italy would know it was not as easy as that. Why does everything have to be so complicated???? I loved my vespa, drove it to work every day and it reminded me of my youth in Genova, even if, when I lived there, I drove my father's lambretta 50. A lambretta in Genova, the temple of Piaggio! You can imagine the ribbing I had to endure from my piaggio crazed friends! It was brutal, but it built character... I thought I was the first to own a vespa in Cayman, but when I took it to registration the officer told me he had just registered one the week before. I eventually met the owner, a bloke from London. We are still great friends and visit each other often. There are now a lot of vespas here, and even a dealership that sells the 4stroke models. In 04 Cayman was hit by an historical hurricane. I was vacationing in Italy, but the vespa was flooded with salt water as she sat in a wharehouse. I could not return for 7 weeks, and when I did I took it apart, cleaned it as much as I could given the circumstances (no power, water, limited resources) and put in storage until I had the time and money to deal with it. This brings us to the present. I have a little spare time now and I am in the process of restoration. I will need your help and encouragement, but I am looking forward to the challenge. Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading, Luca

I have just ordered all (most?) parts necessary for my restoration, and the vendor came back saying that the Leovinci exhaust I mounted in the past is not available. Knowing nothing, I liked the old exhaust. Nice noise and it felt faster. Now, after reading some opinions on a couple of forums I wonder about what exhaust to order. A sito plus? A simonini? polini? A standard one? Here is the page from the vendor with what is available. http://www.scooterworks.com/Performance_Exhausts_C207.cfm The PX200 is purely stock otherwise. Which brings me to the next question. Seen that I have the cases apart, and I will have to wait at least a couple of weeks to get the parts, is there anything I can do to improve performance without compromising anything else? I am thinking something simple, like polishing with a dremel, etc. It is not too late to get a performance kit, but I am very worried about reliability and opening a can of worms I may not be able to close again. Thanks Luca