What a Del Monte juice can is to a Vespa rider (a tutorial)

Whenever a new rider asks what tool should be in his Vespa glovebox, there’s always mention of the mandatory wrenches and screwdrivers, spare sparkplug and this one other item that seems out of place — a can of Del Monte juice drink! No, it has nothing to do with thirst-quenching, but rather, as an aid in lifting the scooter to replace a flat tire. An improvised jack, if you may. You see, the classic Vespa has a spare tire. It’s an amusing fact to those not familiar with the scoot, but a very practical necessity for any vintage Vespa (and Lambretta) whose tires are NOT tubeless. Once the inner tube (‘interior’ to most of us) gets punctured, a Vespa rider has to stop at once and change it. A far cry from the modern conveniences of riding on ‘tubeless.’

Most say that you haven’t fully experienced riding a classic Vespa if you haven’t had a flat tire. I (un)fortunately had this experience in December of last year, but the circumstances weren’t so easy. It happened during my very first out-of-town ride, atop the Sierra Madre mountains, amidst rain and strong winds brought about by the tailend of a super typhoon which reportedly had left days ago. The only thing good about it all was that I’ve got company who helped me got through that ordeal.

Here’s a picture from that fateful day taken by Minggoy. That’s me in all-black raingear. Note the Del Monte can lifting the weight of my scoot’s rear.

As soon as I learned that my rear tire’s flat, I pulled over and so were the rest of the group. In theory, I knew how to change a Vespa tire but I haven’t really put it into actual practice, so you could imagine the pressure. Add the fact of the f**kin’ rain and the feeling that I was causing the delay for the rest of the group to go home before the rain gets any worse, and you get the picture. Hiding my panic inside the helmet, I got my tools, remove the crash guards (those chrome thingamajigs on the ground) and… Joseph (a Vespa mechanic who spearheaded the group) came by to help. *whoo!* In the process, I think Louie lent his Del Monte can and tire pump. In the midst of our rush and attention to job at hand, a strong crosswind toppled-over Mike’s Vespa (the last Vespa in the pic with headlight on). Remember: a Vespa has an all-steel frame, so the wind up there was really nasty. In panic, everyone went back to their own scoots and tried to secure them. Joseph told me not to help anymore and just be by his scoot. By then, I hit a new low feeling more guilty now because for the crash. I know it wasn’t my fault, but the feeling that it wouldn’t have happened had I not been flat lingered that time. Anyway, in a matter of minutes, things were okay and we head back home. End of story, right? NOT!

Truth is, FLAT TIRE SUCKS! Long rides never felt pleasurable since that time. At the back of my head, the fact that I would get another one when I least expected it got me paranoid. (Of course that’s just me. For others, I’m sure it could be as easy as jump starting a car — which I also suck in, by the way). So, as soon as I learned that tubeless rims for Vespa PX are already available in scootrs.com (a Vietnam-based scoot shop), I ordered a pair and bought a pair of tubeless tires (IRC) locally. Though the additional cost of shipping made made the purchase not exactly cheap, it was a worthy buy for my peace of mind. It was an upgrade I never regretted.

For those of you who haven’t experienced a flat tire with your Vespa PX, don’t pray that you won’t get one since it’s practically unavoidable, unless, you don’t use your scooter. You really need to know how to change it. With the front, there’s no problem because the front tire is suspended automatically while center stand so there’s easy access. It gets tricky once it’s on the rear. Below is a simulated video tutorial how to remove the spare and change the rear. Note the Del Monte juice can “requirement” in this exercise. By the way, the clip’s courtesy of rolodge, a Pinoy who has other handy video tutorials (mostly concerning Yamaha SRX).

Easy does it? Don’t ask me, I never enjoyed the experience! *hahaha!*

Gulong… gulo,

-o-
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J0HNRANA

john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com