Hunting for a P200

In July 2011, after repairing and selling my wife's and my Bajaj Chetaks I started looking for Vespa P200s for sale. I found some commuter bikes in the $1800 range and even had Barry G., of SF Scooter Center, come down in price on a silver one to meet me at $1800. Thx Barry. A mentor of mine, Paul S., recommended I look for an excellent condition stock P200 with original paint and he predicted if I waited a couple months I would find one in the $2500 range. My wife agreed. Barry agreed. $3000 was our budget and I was no longer considering a commuter which was uber reliable for under $2000.

Paul said buying a stock paint job is wise, because you never know what lies beneath a new paint job.
For some odd reason the Bay Area was dry on P200s. I was one of three on craigslist requesting a P200. My ideal bike was the blue model. A bit of a rarer color. I found some great P200s in other areas that required a day long drive, but nothing local. I even found my ideal blue color one outside Annaheim an hour and considered driving there since I was going to Disneyland with my family. It was $2000 with under 8K on on the odo. It sold that day - before the weekend I drove down. I found a lot of bikes that needed paint and engine rebuilds as well as bikes that had been restored. Paul continued to urge me to buy a bone stock bike -- original paint and piston as my craigslist wanted requested.

With a 1962 Lambretta TV175 restoration in the works I only half considered project bikes. Had I bought one I would have hired Paul S. to rebuild the engine and kept the body as-is. I just don't have the time. My wife kept reminding me we're not buying a project, we are buying a dependable bike.

The first local bike suggested to me was a babied P200, owned by Mike C., who is an honest and good person. It had under 10K on the odo and I know it has been well cared for.
In the past, I was a huge of two-tone bikes.
Though, after restoring a 1967 Vespa SS180my appreciation for stock bikes grew very strong.
Mike C. had some mild modifications on his P200, including a modified pipe, up'd jetting in the carb, Sebac front shock, T5 horncast, and smoked colored signals.

Mike is the second owner and his reputation for babying his bikes is very strong. He was within my budget and offered me a fair deal. I was beginning to think that I would buy Mike's but I still really wanted a stock single color bike. The day I was to test drive Mike's scoot it didn't fire up, which is very odd because it was a first kick scooter. Mike called me. If memory serves me correctly, it was the rear hub seal (I can't remember). With a a new infant child he figured he would not get to repairing the bike for a while. His plan was to replace the seals and the bearings and the usual replacements since he was cracking the cases. He lamented the idea of selling the bike, but needed the space since he had just purchased a Rally 200. The bottom line is someone will buy this scoot and we'll see it on the road for many more years. I know it will run like a champ and require no fussing when Mike sells it. That means a lot to most buyers.