Ptown Scooters - Overseas Scooter Restorations Revealed. Are they really worth your time & money?

Steve recently had the opportunity to perform an autopsy of one of the typical "restorations" seen coming from overseas these days. This one happens to be from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, though others have appeared from other parts of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, India, etc. You know these bikes; they show up on E-bay, local bulletin boards like Craigslist.org after the unfortunate buyer realizes their mistake and tries to pass it along on some other poor sucker. Bondo and slick-looking paint jobs tease the eye, but all the pretty chrome accessories just don't look right...

There's really no proper "fix" for these bikes. Sometimes we're told to get them into running order. We do the best we can for their budget and we let them know their engine will usually detonate (i.e., catastrophic failure) after about 1,000 - 1,200 miles. If they're set on keeping the bike, we'll drop in a proper rebuilt engine, or a new engine like LML's 150cc 4-speed, the powerplant for Genuine's recently defunct Stella line. A brief note here: LML bikes were produced in India through 2006 and these are near as you can get to the great quality found in the Piaggio/Vespa products.

Last year, we had one customer with 2 of these problem bikes, a nasty result of bidding on more than one scooter at a time... The sidecar unit was pretty to look at, but funny thing happened during shipping. The tube steel holding the sidecar to the scooter body literally folded in on itself sometime during transport we figure. Your average pothole would have probably yielded the same results. Worse still, the sidecar's wheel assembly was the front end of another donor bike and just welded-up to the sidecar's sub-frame. We're glad the new owner decided not to put his kids in that sidecar as he had originally envisioned.

In general, we're skeptical of most of the overseas restorations. If you look at the transportation demands in these countries, these types of "restorations" may be just fine for a commute that rarely breaks 20 mph. But when these bikes get into the USA, they look pretty but can't take the daily use their new owners expect. That's not even getting into any of the paperwork hassles you may get regarding ownership/title/registration etc. you would need to get plates for the bike at your local DMV.

As for the USA people who import these bikes, we think many are looking to make a quick buck and don't know a thing about the scooters they are selling. If you find one that will stand behind the product, that's a rare bird. Think of a used car - will they let you take it to a reputable mechanic for an inspection? Will they correct any defects found before you buy the vehicle?

More than likely you can find a decent running bike in your area for close to the same amount that these basket cases generally go for. A bike which was legally brought into the states 40 years ago and has suffered from neglect is usually salvageable compared to many of the overseas restos we've seen come through our shop. Customers of ours who have bought these bikes have suffered for years with numerous repairs and even outright new engine transplants, but still don't have the bike they wish they had.

Guarantees, warranties, and long lists of new parts installed by quality mechanics in machine shops thousands of miles away don't seem to console unhappy customers very much. We were asked to perform a safety inspection "plus". That's right - split the cases and see just what's going on inside. Fortunately this owner will be getting his money back, but take heed the warnings seen below:


Wrong hardware on stator plate. They used beveled screws.	Screw too long; it hit the flywheel.	Worn-out lubricating felt-pad.	Worn-out lubricating felt-pad.	Aluminum can shim to fit P125 flywheel on crank.

Flywheel damaged.	Better view of aluminum crank shim.	Flywheel damaged.	Flywheel damaged.

Nice cable adjuster!	Actual hole in swingarm.

Not a "new" shifting cross. Poor job rebuilding primary.	Another view.	Damage to 3rd gear.	Damage to 3rd gear.	Three gear shims = gears all worn out.

Clutch actuating pad disintegrating (not "new"). Check out the damage on the clutch cover.	Looks like pressure plate escaped at one point and damaged clutch cover.	Wrong clutch nut. Check out the start of bad clutch parts.	Corks may be new, but metal plates are old.	Two non-brass clutch backplate bushing.

Not "new" hardware on cylinder.	Paper base gasket.	Check out the bad welding job and heli-coil sparkplug tip not flush with head.

Old kickstarter bumpers.	Old kickstarter bumpers.	mmm...brassy sludge.

Better view of re-welded rotary patch.	Another view.	Notice spring on seal; not seated properly. Rotary pad has been damaged, rewelded poorly (check-out bubbling). Also crappy job putting in new bearing race.	Flywheel-side bearing has a new race as well. Aluminum chunks missing. This bearing is damaged and rubs on seal.



Old-style 20/17 carburetor with breather hole. It didn't have a choke jet installed.	Top view, close-up.	Top view, close-up

There is enough welding visible that this might be two or three frames welded together. The under pan next to the shock should be lower and flat. Shock mount should look higher. The plate next to it should be where the nasty weld is. There is a weld along both sidewalls and rear of frame where the license plate mounts.	Nice paint runs.	The weld is not as apparent in this photo, but's it's there.

They said they welded on new floor boards, but they only put in new strips to fit P-style centerstand. Nice, already scratched-up paint; no clear-coat.	More scratches.	Close-up of inside rear-end.

Tailight assembly is mounted cock-eyed. Difficult to tell if this is from the assembly itself or from poor frame welding. There is no visible seam in this section of the body.	Another view.