1962 Sportique update 3
The little bike has been out on a few rides lately, as our weather here, has been pretty good.
The original seats that came on the Sportique were made for the 152L2 scooters, that preceded this model. The seats were very distinctive in their pointy nose shape, their 2 tone colours, the aluminium strip around the bottom edge and the helmet hook location. All other Vespa scooters have the helmet hook on the body, underneath the front of the seat. The seats were well sprung, with a lever design seat catch and a strap. The seat catch system incorporated a different type of latch that was fixed to the body of the scooter. Newer Vespa seats had the latch incorporated into the seat, with a sprung push design, that opened the seat. A different mushroom type latch was fixed to the body.
This scooters seat, was in pretty bad shape with the cover badly ripped, a few broken springs and the catch didn’t work. It was also missing the Douglas badge and the alumimium trim was in poor shape. I replaced it with a generic VBB/Super type seat for comfort reasons however these seats and subsequent copies are taller than the originals. Trying to find an original seat in good condition was an exercise in futility. Some of the repro ones are expensive and don’t actually look like the original seat.
A seat eventually came up for sale from a long-time scooter friend. It was an original 152L2 seat that had been painted and was missing a few bits and pieces but was in pretty good shape. Over the years I have collected a few seats for parts and was able to improve the newly purchased seat to a used, original condition one.
I had planned to take Sportiki to Slope point, for a rally organized by The Scooter Division from Dunedin. Riding on 8″ wheels any sort of distance, has its challenges. Especially if the tyres are only cost-effective Sava whitewalls. Road works, gravel, potholes and the general condition of some of our roads, here in New Zealand, can be poor. Some Sportiques had rear racks for a spare tyre and some had a bracket, that attached to the cable/wiring tunnel on the rear of the leg shield. I had managed to find a bracket recently (another quite hard-to-get part) and decided to use that just in case of a puncture.
There are two screw holes in the frame, that hold the bracket on, and more often than not they are empty and you can just check the threads and attach the bracket with two screws. My one had 2 screws with broken heads and were rusted into the frame. Eventually a cold chisel sorted out the old screws and I just had to drill and re-tap some new threads. The wheel rim attaches to the bracket with a lever shaped screw.
I thought there may be less room for my knees, but you just move back a bit on the seat.
I’m liking the look of the spare wheel and it’s a handy thing to have, so may just leave it on there.
1962 Sportique update 3
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