Since I live a good 2-hour Vespa ride to the dealer in Ottawa and a 50 Minute Vespa ride to a dealer in St. Zotique that will not speak English to me and was not to enthused to serve me, I have decided to become a “Vespa Mechanic” in my spare time. After all, from what I understand about past Vespa riders is that they all were mechanics of some degree and carried tool boxes on the back of their Vespa’s. Obviously Vespa’s of today are far more reliable and carrying a tool box is not required. But, in order to properly maintain the GTV-300, certain maintenance is required at various intervals.

I have the Vespa service manual and for added insurance I also purchased the Haynes manual. Today I am planning an oil change that I will perform before I put the Vespa away for winter storage. This may be in a month or hopefully two. But planning and preparation is important.

So here is what I have done…

I purchased the following Items:

1- A LiquiVac. These can be purchased on-line if you live in the US but their online ordering system does not take to kindly to foreigners like us Canadians. So I took a ride on my Vespa to Massena New York and purchased one at Home Depot for $ 38.00. I have watched a few YouTube videos (one at the end) and thought that this is definitely a good investment because I can never keep a white shirt clean at the dinner table so changing oil could turn into an environmental disaster if the oil is not securely contained.

2 – Max at Scooter West took care of just about everything else I needed and shipped it promptly to my US PO Box. This what I ordered:

826165	Oil Drain Bolt Most New Vespa’s	1	$13.95
TOOLOF	Oil Filter Tool Fits Piaggio 150-250cc & Buddy 125	1	$19.95
TOOLFUNNEL	Red Line Funnel	1	$12.95
285536	O’Ring for Oil Drain Nut	4	$7.00
843568	Oil Screen GTS-GTV-Piaggio 250	1	$10.95
82635-PA	OEM Piaggio Filter w/ Slotted Head 82635-PA	2	$19.90
Subtotal			$84.70
Shipping			$15.83
Tax			$0.00
Order Total			$100.53

What do these look like you may ask? Well below is a photo show…

The last thing I needed was the oil. I purchased Scoot 4  by Ipone that is a synthetic 5w40 oil made specifically to meet the demanding standards of today’s 4-stroke scooters. This oil is a bit expensive at $ 17.00 for a 1 liter bottle. One oil change will use 1.3 Liters. That works out to be approximately $ 25.00 worth of oil after taxes for each oil change.

With the 200 piece mechanic’s tool kit that I had purchased earlier I think I am prepared for every possible oil change scenario. Now, considering that an oil change at the dealer means 4-hours of riding to and from plus an invoice of at least $ 150.00, I do believe that this is the smart way to go. $ 25.00 worth of oil, a $ 10.00 Oil Filter, $ 1.30 O-Ring plus my time equals $ 36.30. The next big maintenance will be changing the belts and I am about to plan for that .

I will use my windows 8 Tablet outside connected to this You Tube video and I will follow it step by step. Thanks Mitch!