Dressing on the side: 1968 Vespa VBB 150 with Sidecar
The Vespa scooter made its debut in post-war Milan in 1946. Intended to get Italy back on the road, it sold poorly at first, selling only 2,500 in 1946. The VBA/VBB series replaced the original design in 1957 and went on to sell over 750,000 units. Find this 1968 Vespa VBB 150 with Sidecar for sale in Undisclosed, WA for $6,995 via craigslist.
The VBA/VBB refers to the prefix of the serial number of the scooter and has become the short hand for identifying this model. The VBA came first and was followed shortly by the VBB. They featured a new, larger frame than the outgoing model and a new design rotary valve two stroke displacing either 125cc or 150cc. The 150 was capable of 50 mph, given enough time and room. With a sidecar and passenger, I’d guess you’d be lucky to see 40.
This Vespa was recently restored and has only gone 300 miles since the rebuild. It’s said to retain its original pink and white paint scheme. In my opinion, Vespa’s don’t look right unless they are post-war austerity olive green. It also comes with a dog harness and a set of doggles for your best friend.
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Gianni is Daily Turismo’s Pacific Northwest correspondent. Go Hawks!
I would ride or drive most things vintage, but I think I would draw the line at this. Someone should call Barbie. I doubted that the pink was an original colour, but then I spotted that it was a 1968. Groovy, man!
I would love to see two Seattle Seahawks take this to practice.
Michael Bennett would have to drive.
[img] sports.cbsimg.net/images/blogs/Michael-Bennett-bike-virgin-01-21-15.jpg[/img]
Ok, so I don't mean to take a dump on that scooter…but the "manual to your restored scooter" in one of the pics is from modscooters.com, the domain is dead cause they didn't verify their contact info. But, if you look around enough you can find some old references to them. The short version is they get restored scooters from India (maybe other places too) and resell them here. Overseas restorations can vary a lot in terms of quality, so I'd wanna lay eyes on that before plunking down that kind of cash for it.
Here's an old thread from 2012 about the outfit:
ModernVespa.com
As far as the paint goes, I'd prefer a dusty red paint job on one of these, I have my doubts that white/pink is the "original color" here, but I could definitely be wrong.
Yeah not crazy about the paint color but maybe someone would see you on the road, only side car exp I have is riding a friends Ural about as fast as this Veapa I did own a newer PE 150 and 55 is about flat out. The PE 200 is the ticket here if your looking to do freeway speed and pretty snappy get up an Go…lol
Oh and I have a PX150 clone (Stella 150 2t) at home, it isn't fast, it's even less fast with a passenger. I can't imagine doing anything other than a parade with a sidecar.
Side car rigs are never cheap though, so maybe this isn't too far off money wise. But I can think of a lot of other things I could buy for that price….
I've been away for awhile but I'd be wrong if I didn't add a comment. Stay away from this Vespa and any that look like this. It's what we call a bodge – meaning a cobbled together piece of junk.
My creds in saying so? I've tuned (with 35mm flat slide carbs, reed valves, expansion chambers, etc) Vespas to hit close to 100 mph. I created the US's only vintage 2-stroke scooter race (between 600 and 800 miles over 48 hours, no GPS only paper maps, no support wagon, only the tools you brought), the CORSA: IFP (Italian Fancy Pants) which has been happening in a different state annually since 2009.
This is a death trap. It's spot welded two or three scooters and a fancy paint job. It has all the tell-tale signs just looking at the photos without even seeing the ad. Rather than make a longer comment, read this:
about the bodge
There are plenty of places to get a great running and restored vintage scooter, your local CL ad usually isn't one of them as they're trying to get rid of something they can't keep running because it's bodged all to hell and no shop will take on the liability of trying to fix it.
That thing is worth $6995 like I'm the King of Siam.
Oh, and the "rebuild" occurred overseas either in Pakistan, India, or Vietnam. The person bought it off e-bay and had it shipped here at great cost, and after 300 miles on that "rebuild" it has stopped working.
And the paint is definitely not an original color.