Not counting adding some bling and much needed utility in the form of a rear-rack last week, this week I performed my first mod. Removing the U.S. turn signals below the handle bars, commonly referred to aspods, and rewiring the bike back to its originally European imagined form, with turn-signals in the leg shield running lights.
Turns out that on the Vespa S and LX at least, the leg shield turn signal/running lights are considered a half inch or so too close together to comply with US road safety, so it’s not surprising that the plastic turn signal pods that come as standard in the US under the handle bars look and feel like an afterthought, because that’s exactly what they are.
I’m not going to go through the step-by-step of how I did it here, but rather thank Modern Vespa forum member Blaksvn from New Mexico for his excellent step-by-step guide using Motorsport Scooter’s LX150 Euro Turn Signal Kit.
In fact, Blaksvn’s guide is so good that I ended up not using Scooter West’s packaged instructions which although clearly stepped out, have such small photographs they’re a little hard to determine.
Everything went smoothly except causing a small piece of the plastic (yes it’s plastic) headset/lamp housing to snap off while prying it apart a little too eagerly. My mistake? Not ensuring all the retaining screws, including the one under the headlamp were removed before tugging on the thing. No matter, per the photo below, a small amount of epoxy glue fixed the problem. Don’t make the same mistake.
All in all, the entire job including re-assembly took less than an hour, and the S150 really benefits, cutting down the bulk further to a svelter scooter. The kit even includes a set of nifty plastic plugs to close the holes left by the removal of the pods, although I felt I needed a little epoxy to secure them in place.
Visit Blaksvn’s excellent post for the full shake-down, plus a short video of the end result. The turn signal kitis available for $59.95 plus shipping from Motorsport Scooters.
0 comments:
Post a Comment