When Peter Sanderson reads this, he may squirm, but what the hell, when generosity is your hallmark, and you bestow a kindness on a blogger, you're going to get outed.
Those of you who have taken the time to follow Peter's blog know that when Peter commits to something, there are no half-measures.
So it was when Peter set out for an adventure on two wheels.
First Peter bought himself a gorgeous Vespa GTV. For those of you unfamiliar with Vespas, the GTV is the top-of-the-line model. It has features that hark back to vintage Vespas from the 50's and 60's: exposed chrome handlebars, and retro-styled dual saddles.
Not content to leave a beautiful bike be, Peter set to work upgrading. Among other goodies, too numerous to mention, He swapped out the stock exhaust, shock absorbers, and brakes with high-end performance parts.
In no time, Peter found a Vespa GTS for his wife (how blessed is Chantal?) so they could ride together.
They documented their rides and I was pleased to follow their adventures.
In the fullness of time, Peter and Chantal, seriously bitten by the PTW bug, upgraded to motorcycles, and more recently, have purchased matching BMW GS dual sport-bikes, all decked out for serious touring.
Wow!
That left Peter with a bunch of stock Vespa odds and ends, including the OEM exhaust, and schock absorbers.
Guess what Peter did?
He sold me those precious Vespa parts for a song. And Chantal delivered them right to my front door.
That, dear friends is an act of pure generosity that will top the list for a long, long time to come.
Thank you so much Peter.
When the bike gets serviced in the spring, I think I'll swap exhausts and rid myself of the annoying loose baffle that rattles at low speeds.
Pretty cool, yes?
17 comments:
But then you'll spend all your time polishing the shiny bits…
Pretty nice ;-)
One man's junk is another man's treasure. and admittedly very valuable 'junk'. Congrats on the good deal.
Very cool indeed.
Good deal all around....is PTW same as RTW? I always like it when unused parts end up where they can be used instead of rusting in some shed!
Definitely cool. Congrats on your new to you farkles and to Peter and his wife on their next two-wheeled journey.
Richard, unlike many Vespa owners, I don't obsess on shining the bike.
That said, I do carry a bottle of Lemon Pledge in the underseat compartment. It's mostly for visors and the windscreen, but I have been known to wipe the whole bike down.
How true, how true.
There is something comforting knowing that I have a brand new exhaust and shock absorbers in inventory.
It's like the inventory of paper towels and non-perishable food stuff in our basement cabinets. You know you're not going to run out.
Cool? It's downright frigid...
Oh, right, it's not about the weather. How difficult it is to push the weather away from front-of-mind.
If you're wondering whether Peter and Chantal are slowly drifting towards a round-the-world moto adventure, I wouldn't put it past them.
There's a lot of that going around (or maybe it's just the blogs I'm following (Mike Saunders, Stephanie Yue, Michael Strauss...)).
Though there is a chrome heat shield on the exhaust, I wouldn't call them farkles per se. More like spare parts. :)
I occasionally get good deals from friends. For the past 10,000 miles, I have been using an exhaust that was given to me by my friend Russ. It had come off of his GT when he went to a Leo Vince. I bought a windscreen from Boris for $20.00. A nice fly screen for Vanessa. But your deal sounds even better.
Coming to think about inventory... how about a backup PTW?
As long as there's room for them, spares are a good thing. Be very careful.....:)
Wow! How nice!
Like pennies from heaven really. I find the moto-community to be very friendly and generous to a fault.
I think there's a good chance I'll be meeting some Floridian riders come February.
Ahhh Doug. Spoken like a man who has a happy barn chock-a-block full of spare bikes, let alone spare parts. I appreciate the word of caution, I know if could be a slippery slope.
Thanks Deb! How's the hibernation going out your way?
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