Out With The Old, In With The New

Just wanted to share a quick update: My new piston is in! Vespa Motorsport hooked me up with (and by “hooked me up with” I mean, “sold me”) a new piston, rings, circlips, gasket, and rebored the cylinder barrel to make sure it was all a good fit. Ps. the gasket is paper, how crazy is that? Why did I think it would be metal? Paper seems like a weird choice. Anyway, here are the goods:

They also did a really nice job of cleaning up the cylinder head and barrel; Thanks guys! The piston has an arrow pointing which direction faces the exhaust, because apparently putting it in backwards can cause you to lose power really fast.

I’m looking forward to putting it all back together, but first I have to go to the store to get some 2-stroke oil for lubricating.

Also, my birthday just passed and I got some very nice gifts from my loving family members who are so wonderful and supportive of my Vespa undertaking! My dad printed me this homemade certificate:

(Maybe I should take him up on that new Vespa offer?) My in-laws got me a gift certificate to Vespa Motorsport (that will be used quickly!) and my husband got me a helmet!! (My mom is also wonderful and got me something too, but it wasn’t Vespa related. Love you, Mom). I’m worried I won’t be able to wear the helmet for a while but Brendan said he believed in me that I can make Betty run and was worried about my safety. He’s truly the best. I make fun of him a lot but come on, could he be any greater? The helmet might be a little small so I’ll take a picture when I find the right fit. My family is the best. How did I get so lucky?!