Notes on maintenance

I a newbie to sight glass oil reads so wrote Paul for clarity.

"If you can see oil in the sight glass, you are fine. When you see white in the sight glass add about half a quart. It is a fool proof system. Even when you can't see any oil in the sight glass (i.e. it is all the way below), you still have a lot of oil in the tank. Don't sweat it.

There is no "weight" to two stroke oil. There are several different versions, depending on how good the quailty of the oil is. All of them are fine. I only use sythetic though, it just provides much better lubrication. I think I usually use Motul 510, which is their mid-range oil. I think it costs around $15-20 per quart. -Paul"

With regards to oil Gianluca said, "I always use supreme gas for my scooters and the best oil for two stroke engines. The glass bubble shows oil when sufficient quantity is stored. Even after the bubble shows air, you still have a safe amount of oil to make it to your next re-fill.

Motul 710 is the only oil we use.

Spark plug replacement was performed in late June 2011 with 8,064 miles on the odometer.

Ciao, G."

I picked up Motul 710 and three spark plugs per Vespa P Series Maintenance & Repair. I believe I bought three B8ES. I am interested in checking out the Iridium spark plugs as I have heard they provide a little more power and a better idle.

Found my P200

My friend Paul S. sent me in the direction of his friend, Gianluca, who was thinning his collection.

I did not envision purchasing a scooter from a dealer, but in the end I purchased it directly from Gianluca at his home. Many buyers and sellers will list the selling price on the title as lower to lower the taxes paid at DMV to keep the price lower.

The scooter was absolutely perfect. Original paint and piston. To boot the original mileage was 8,402. It's a baby blue 1979 P200.

Paul vouched for Gianluca and said, "both owners are fastidious, and even if it has some mileage, I'm sure it has been well cared for and is in good condition. This is a good one for sure." I was rest assured and did not even haggle for the price. Nor did I feel the need to be OCD when looking over the scooter. I trust Paul 100% and test rode it and gave it a quick look over and bought it.

Gianluca is the second owner. He purchased the scooter from the president of Vespa Club America. As of August 2012, I am the third owner.

Afterwards I wrote Paul to tell him I bought the scooter and ask him a bit about the model and oil brand he recommended. Paul said, "Great! Congrats. I know that is a good scooter. The previous owner, Brian, was a long time scooter guy, and this one was just one of about 5 scooters he had. Brian was one of the first San Francisco scooter guys that I met, before I even moved here, almost 20 years ago. He didn't ride that one much. Gianluca has a ton of scooters, and I don't think he ever rode it. I'm sure you'll be pleased with it.

Yes, that is a P200E. The later scooters from 84 on, were PX200E. The PX had a gas gauge, electric start, locking cowls, a bigger glovebox, and some other internal improvements. Only the PX150E was sold in the US (and that, only a few for two years in 1984 and 2005).

I use only synthetic two stroke. I'm partial to Motul, but any good sythetic two stroke will be fine. Make sure that it is "suitable for oil injection", and not "premix only".

-Paul"

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.