STORY OF AN ALLSTATE: NUMBER 14 This month we complete the story of the owners of a Sears Roebuck Allstate Vespa, first brought into New Zealand in 1963 by an emigre from the United States.
When I bought the scoot from Matt I loved the classic rounded look but didn’t think I could ride a weedy 3 speed 125cc back to Palmy so elected to upgrade it a little in the evenings while living in Wellington. Hence I fitted a 4 speed Sportique engine with a ported barrel, domed piston and matching head then put on a 20/20 carb and Sito+ exhaust . As the original scoot had no front damper I fitted a Sportique front fork with new damper and 10” GS wheel rims with 90 x 90 tyres. This certainly improved performance and handling to a more useable level and it was in this configuration that Matt rode it to Palmerston North where we completed the exchange on the PX200 I had. Over the next few months I upgraded the lighting to 12 volt, repaired the speedo, fitted a new seat cover and a Pinasco 177cc 2 port cylinder. I didn’t like the Sito + so fitted an ASC big bore exhaust when I fitted the Pinasco kit. That combination works really well. These improvements were done while using the scoot daily, putting about 2,000km on the clock.
5
My original plan had been to keep and use the scoot in this configuration but being a habitual restorer I couldn’t help myself. I then took off the pods and front guard for panel and paint prep, quite liked the stripped down look too. I had a water colour painting that my mother had done of Clare and I on an old dark red scoot so decided I really should have something to match the painting.
