How to Restore and Maintain Your Vespa Motorscooter (Motorbooks Workshop) (Motorbooks Workshop) Reviews

• Rave from a recent Vespa addict.

  
  By A11K172LRH98OQ on 1999-12-16
  A must book for the Vespa owner. The perfect companion to a Haynes' manual for your particular scooter. Between the two, you should have all the knowledge you need to tackle everything from routine maintenance through a major restoration (including a pretty tasty chapter on performance improvements).

  The information is very accessible presented in an engaging style that encourages both a cover to cover read, or skipping about gathering bits here and there. If you ever considered owning one of these classics, but were abashed by the prospect of doing your own maintenance and restoration, this book makes it easy. There is a scooter mechanic within each of us. This book lets him loose.
  
  

• A "Must Have" For Anyone Restoring or Maintaining a Vespa

  
  By A3KVE5QMPOZKYL on 2001-11-28
  I am currently restoring my 1970 Rally 180 and this book has been a priceless resource. I am somewhat handy with tools but don't know all that much about engines and all that. This book helped me with everything I was unsure of. It contains just about everything you need to know in easy to read steps. In addition to the restoration section it also give tips for maintaining your scoot. Also, it has a nice little history of Piaggio and the Vespa motorscooter. This book is necassary for anyone who is restoring a Vespa. Especially if you are not as mechanically handy as you would like to be like me. The only downside to this book (and it really isn't a downside) is that everything is generalized for either large frame or small frame bikes. It doesn't really get into individual models very much. This isn't that big of a deal since they are all very similar. Just combine this book with the Haynes Manual for your bike and you are good to go.
  
  

• Not at all for beginners

  
  By A3H0WP6P80MONQ on 2005-02-18
  More than a book teaching you how to "restore and maintain your vespa," this is a history book about vespas. Also, this book should have been called "Tips for restoring and maintaining your vespa motorscooter assuming you are already familiar with vespa mechanical systems and jargon" because it does NOT cover even the most basic of things in a way comprehensible to anyone but those already familiar with vespas. For example, in explaining how to remove the engine, the instructions say, "Before putting in the pinion axle, make sure the zerk fitting is installed in the proper direction. One way will clear the speedometer cable, the other won't. That's why the hole in the trunnion is cast at an angle." Too bad it doesnt tell you what a "pinion axle," "zerk fitting," or "trunnion" is, nor does it provide any pictures.
  
  Speaking of the pictures, they are so random and are rarely, if ever, useful. The step by step instructions are also not nearly as comprehensive as they need to be. Anyone who works on vespas can tell you that dropping the front fork (without pulling your hair out) cannot be distilled into one page for a beginner.
  
  Complaints aside, there are a handful of useful pointers that can be culled from here or there. But it's probably a lot easier to get that information from a vespa message board or from your mechanic than from buying this book. Online vespa communities have made this book largely irrelevant.
  
  

• General, but very good to have.

  
  By ANZ61XFDJEZYF on 2002-12-17
  As noted in previous reviews, this is an excellent resource to use along with a more model-specific manual for your particular scooter. I am restoring a 1955 150cc and found that much of the information is specific to the GS, small-frame and P-series scooters, with not nearly as much for the less common models like my own. You can get a long way with this book and it's a very good reference for Vespa history and all, but you'll still need something like a Haynes as well if you're going to get elbows-deep in scooter innards.
  
  

• An insider's book, oganized badly and missing details.

  
  By A3007HHAFNORAJ on 2004-02-05
  I'm looking for a scooter to restore. I bought the Vespa book because I know about Bob Darnell's reputation as a scooter restorer and have seen his work personally. For years I lived in Phoenix and knew that Bob Golfen is an excellent writer and very knowledgeable on things Automotive. I've restored 26 European cars and have read many "how to restore" books in the past. This book seems to be aimed at people that already own scooters and know most of the information in the book already, reinforcing or clearly presenting information that is probably available elsewhere.

  "Vespa" is an excellent resource for solid information about the various scooters. It shows what engines came with which, what the serial numbers are, and an excellent description of the history of the models. It contains excellent sections on fixing various components of the product, logically arranged around the system (engine, electrical, body, etc).

  Where the book really misses for me is a no chapter for "What scooter is right for me." I've never owned a bike before and I am puzzled about what to buy, and there's very little information about this, other than what the various performance levels and parts availabilites are.

  The other glaring error concerns a paragraph on page 120 (the "body and paint" section). It states that you should never buy a scooter with a crease in this one area of the frame, going on to explain where it is (the explanation missed for me, because I didn't have an actual scooter in front of me for reference) and then they Didn't Provide A Picture For Reference! The authors continue by saying that this inspection is Very Important when you are looking to purchase your ride, yet it isn't in the buying section or anywhere up front where choosing or inspecting your scooter is located. If this is so important, why is it buried near the back of the book? What if you have one of these creases? How do you fix it? Nope, nothing there. I had orginally given the book 3 stars, but the hopeless organization and authors' inability to see their finished product through the eyes of the reader put me over the edge.

  I'm curious about real world issues. "What type of rider are you?" "How big are you?" "Where do you ride?" How often do you ride?" "How are your mechanical skills?" How reliable do you need your bike to be?" etc. Should be questions that are answered in detail to choose the right bike. If you're looking for this information, look elsewhere.

  Scooters have their own culture attached. I would have liked more information about the culture and what it is about. While this isn't directly related to scooter restoration, You sure don't want to show up at your first event with a perfectly restored Vespa looking like a goofball. The book kind of makes an assumption that you are already a "cognoscenti."

  In the performance section it gives very little information about engine swapping or what "works" and what doesn't. This seems to be a common practice, yet there is no information about stuffing a 200 engine in a 160 frame. Also lacking is what the differences in power are. A stock 200cc Vespa has around 12-13 horsepower. If I do "blank" to the engine, what does that do to the performance in real and "seat of the pants" numbers? What about reliability? The section on modifications goes into great detail on how to "do" the mods, but not very much in "what you get for your trouble".

  Finally, I was shocked at the number of spelling errata. From someone writing a column in a major newspaper, I was amazed at how many spelling errors and typos there were. It seems that this book was rushed, not very well outlined and underwent very little rewriting and no peer review. In this rush some really good information that I know that the writers had in their brains never made it to the page. I hope there are other books available to fill in the gaps.
  
  

• Handy book but not great
  By A38GJ4GZRKMJKT on 2005-11-25
  To be honest I was a little disappointed with this book. It does have some handy information and can help out every now and then, but I really think it is lacking in the details and the "how to" field. I would pick the Haynes manual over this book any day. At least the manual takes it through the process one step at a time. A handy book to have as an addition to your collection of books, but certainly not the main one that I now refer to.
  
  
• Decent Book but Not a Service Manual
  By A249EN5G8C5NB9 on 2005-06-27
  I bought this book to help me service my wife's 1966 Vespa VBC, which is a large-frame 150. The book has a great overview of the Vespa company and the various Vespa models dating back to the 1940s, and a lot of general information that I find helpful. It has very little detail about servicing scooters, and is quite lacking in illustrations.
  
  
• Ummmm, Modify?
  By A2XGNVUTWRO1X7 on 2005-09-24
  The title is "How to Restore and MAINTAIN Your Vespa Motorscooter" not Modify. although that would be awesome....
  This is an excellent book though. :)
  
  
• How to Restore and Maintain Your Vespa Motorscooter (Motorbooks Workshop) (Motorbooks Workshop)
  By A247VH782HZML8 on 2006-08-05
  Being a first time Vespa owner, I found the book very helpful and informative. This book should give any Vespa owner the right advice to perform routine maintenance, rebuilds and restoration as needed.
  
  
• THE ONE|
  By A30DRX9U2VURFT on 2006-08-14
  Great little book with lots of great info: from the history of Vespa scooters to tips about choosing the right model to (of course) information about restoring and maintaining the scooter, the book has it all!
  
  Pictures are all in b&w and the look is a little old-fashioned, but I don't think that is necessarily a big problem.
  
  If you really have to own ONE book about Vespa scooters, this should be it!
  
  

• Vespa Scooters Owners Workshop Manual: All rotary valve models 1959 to 1978: No. 126 (Owners Workshop Manual)
• Vespa
• Vespa: 1946-2006: 60 Years of the Vespa
• Vespa P/PX125, 150 & 200 Scooters 1978 to 2006 (Haynes Manuals)
• Vespa: An Illustrated Story