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Sting In The Tail

Scooter details

Name of scooter: Sting In The Tail. Well it is a Vespa, which is wasp in Italian. And they have a nasty sting which I’ve felt a few times.
Model: 1988 Vespa PX 125 EFL.
Inspiration for project: I wanted to do something completely different for me, already having a mod scooter.
Time to build: About nine months.
Frame modifications: Drop handlebars, frenching and welding through a good friend Paul Crasswell. Mark did all the de-seaming of the frame and smoothed the side panels.
Specialised parts: Indicators sourced through Silver Lake car breakers (I wanted something that looked like insect eyes). Saddle was by club member Duncan Squire. Handle grips via the internet (I had seen these on a German rat scooter featured in Scootering some months before) and John (Scooty Loopy) Madison made new sleeves for these in brass. DR rim/hubs bought off local scooterist PK Tony. Forks drilled to take hydraulic hose through the tubing and SIP Gold
brake caliper.
Engine: Pinasco 177cc kit, casings matched, inlet/exhaust ports blended and polished, SIP lightened flywheel, Cosa clutch, T5 carb re-jetted, Pinasco exhaust system.
Paintwork: Nuttyboy Custom (07597 569207). Mark Cassidy and Stuart Foster, both excellent in what they do.
Engraving: A local engraver in Havant.
Chrome: Custom Polishers in Portsmouth.
Hardest part of the project: Getting enough courage up to actually start putting it back together!
Advice for anyone starting a project: Do lots of sketches and get ideas of how the colours will look and make notes on how your idea will come to life. Get friends and family opinions and totally ignore them, do what pleases you!
Anything to add: I have been thinking about fitting a set of chrome twisted forks... started to save up. Stuart is working on the artwork for the helmet... I hope!
Favourite dealer: Allstyle Scooters
in Portsmouth.
Thanks: Mark and Stuart, Nuttyboy Customs Paint and Artwork. Duncan Squire for the leather work on the saddle. Gary, Ray and Geoff at Allstyles Scooters. Paul, for getting the frenching and bead blasting done. JBT for the engine rebuild, John Madison and Sinks for scooter parts. Alan West for the legshield covers. Of course thanks to my long suffering wife Sandie, who again put up with late nights and weekends I spent in the workshop and my son Alex for the numerous cups of tea he brought out to me which were left to get cold!

Owner Geoff Osborne has subscribed to the mod outlook on life for almost as far back as he can remember. “When I was 12 my sister was in to music such as The Beatles. I had an older cousin, Richard, who owned a Series 3 Lambretta and seemed to always be going to see groups like The Rolling Stones and Small Faces, and looked great in what he was wearing. I remember looking forward to visiting that part of the family. An aunt of mine had a Series 1 Lammy, which I’d sit on, sometimes I’d get to ride up and down her garden on it.”