Welcome back. almost a year to the day, well a week out.....
Over the last day or so, the ever present discussion about the pros and cons of scooters restored overseas, Viet Nam specifically in this case, has reared it's head again in the Australian Scooter scene. While I put my own grievances to bed years ago now, I feel compelled to comment, as I have on the forum that this discussion is currently taking place.
Planet Vespa has been the focus of the discussion and the person running the show out of HCMC is involved in the said conversation, this was always going to happen, this person has put himself out there to cop all manor of comments in order to put some faith back into the one or two restorers based in Viet Nam that stand by their work, while the dozens of other bodgy back yard operators give them a bad reputation.
My experience has been what most would deem typical, expected, that I should have known better and all that shite, it's true, that fact cannot be changed now.
I found out some information some time ago that I decided to keep to myself.
Through one of the many people that have contacted me over the time to ask questions, offer help, advice, racially based arrogant closed minded criticism, I kept in contact with one man who also got his bike from the same place, through the ordering process, the build, shipping to kicking the scoot over, riding it up the road, applying the front brake and flying over the handle bar to injure himself significantly enough that the time off work was substantial. During the process he mentioned this blog to the owner and wanted reassurance that he wouldn't be buying into the same experience. This is when the owner disclosed that my bike was in fact outsourced due to he needing to go home to Australia for personal reasons, A fact that would not have been shared with me had I not been chatting with this particular bloke. He showed me pictures sent from the PV workshop of the pile of new parts that were to be used, a frame spotlessly stripped back ready for painting. I contacted the owner and we exchanged a couple of emails, cleared the air and left it at that.
Now I am a fair and reasonable man, patient too, as some of the followers have pointed out, at the time I was a little taken aback by why someone, a fellow countryman with the same values as myself, wouldn't just say, "Mate, I've gotta head home for this reason, it's going to delay your build, I can get it done but it wont be done here, what do you want to do?
"Fucking wait, do what you need to do, I don't want one of those busted arse troublesome bikes everyone is bitching about on the internet."
And I'd have been pissed off about waiting, but sometimes things happen and everything else has to wait. I get that.
All that said, the next opportunity was disclosed once I had found out, the owner had seen my blog and still decided to not contact me, not even apologise at the very least and offer an explanation.
Fast forward to now.
The original mismatched engine is in bits and serving other purposes, I have given away some parts, thrown away others, kept some as a reminder. I have an original Sprint V set of cases 3/4 rebuilt and I have just done a rebuild on the P200E engine that had a few minor problems, clutch side seal being the main one. The speedo is reading 13138, the P engine has 3275kms on it and the other big reason for the overhaul is so I can ride 650kms interstate for the annual Australian National Scooter Rally in a couple of weeks time. I will be rekindling this blog for what is my first National rally, a long weekend of stuffing about with the scooterists from across Australia and turning around and riding the 650 kms home. cant wait.
Cheers.
