For some of us, usually, when we
got something for the first time its hold dome special value or meaning for our
self, either first kiss, first girlfriend, first job, achieving our first
dream, and so on. That thing leaving a special feeling within ourselves and
sometimes even when that thing is not very pleasing to us it’s still hold a
special value within ourselves.
This is a story about that
feeling, about something valuable to me, about my first scooter. About a Vespa
that always broken, but I loved it very much.
Vespa is quite popular among high
school student in Indonesia, whether it’s the modern type Vespa, or the older
model. My Vespa is kind of special, my Vespa is the mark of the transition from
old school manual transmission Vespa toward the newer kind of Vespa with
automatic transmission in Indonesia and it’s the first kind of automatic
transmission motorcycle in Indonesia. The model of my Vespa is called “Corsa”,
it’s not quite automatic but it’s not a manual either, because it’s still had 2
kind of driving transmission, neutral and drive.
It’s not a special type of Vespa,
it’s production cycle start from 1991 until 2006. This model is famous for it’s
hard to maintain engine, expensive and scarce spare parts, reliability issue,
and other bad things. With all that problem and Japanese automatic scooter
invasion later, make this type of Vespa not very appealing for Indonesian
customer and market, so this type of Vespa is not selling well. But the fun
starts from there.
Like I said before, there’s
nothing special in this Vespa, from performance perspective this scooter had a
small engine displacement with only 121cc, not only that, the combustion system
used by that small engine is relatively primitive, because it still using the
two stroke system, which make the engine more noisy, produce a lot of smoke,
and the owner must mixed some oil in the gasoline to lubricate the engine. With
that small displacement, this scooter only produce 7 horse power, relatively
small if you compared it with standard motorcycle that commonly used in
Indonesia. So some people relating this Vespa type as a “scooter for the
ladies” because it’s relatively docile performance and semi-automatic
transmission.
I got mine around 2012, when I
bought my Vespa, it’s not in a good condition, if you only look at the bodywork
there’s not thing wrong on it, but if you know the engine and it’s component,
then you know that Vespa had a serious problem in the engine department. The
piston and engine block not original, the carburetor is clogged and leaking,
the engine electric part is not charging the battery and the list goes on, it’s
a hell of a mess. I just knowing this problem later on, because I’m not the one
who bought it, the Vespa itself is a gift from my father because I’m behaving
myself in senior high school, after I’m acting up like an asshole on my 1st
year in senior high school.
That sort of problems affecting
the Vespa and it’s performance badly and heavily. I can’t start the engine
easily, the battery just run out of juice after few days, and the worst part
is, my Vespa performance behavior is very bad, the acceleration is slow, very
slow, the engine is rumbled so bad, and it’s had a very low top speed, if I can
recall correctly the Vespa can’t go much more than 40 km/h or so, yes it’s a
hell slow Vespa. Oh yeah, not only that, the Vespa is likes to break down every
time it like, so I can’t ride it too far without knowing if there’s a garage
that I can rely to fix it when it break down.
And I had another problem when
I’m ready to fix this bad behaving Vespa, because the difficulty of working on
the Vespa engine, there’s not a lot workshop that can fix the engine. It took
me almost a month before I meet a trusted workshop that can restore it’s engine
to a more reliable and dependable condition and another month to search the
component and spare parts needed to fix it. Indeed it’s a slow, patience, and
delicate process, but I don’t mind it, because I love this Vespa so much.
When this Vespa is fixed and can
behave itself, I started “giving” it a name, I called the Vespa “Batman”. Maybe
this Vespa is fixed and more reliable, but the true potential and capabilities
of it’s problematic engine only achievable in the night, when the temperature
is colder, significantly colder than the day if you know how hot Jakarta is.
Because of the colder and denser air, the engine can achieve more top speed and
accelerate faster at the night, even when I used some high octane gasoline and
run the test after a rain at dusk, it can reach top speed of 90 km/h, that
number is not significance if you compared it with more modern and powerful
automatic motorcycle this day, but for this rascal and old unreliable scooter,
I think it’s already a big achievement itself. So that’s why I named my Vespa
Corsa: “Batman”. It’s just like the Batman, only showing himself at the night,
fighting the crime, in case for my Vespa, it only accelerate and achieving
higher top speed at night, showing it’s true capabilities.
If you asking me why I keeping
this unreliable and problematic Vespa, it down to some reason and value it had.
First of all, it’s a gift from my father and my first motorcycle. I rode it all
the then when I’m in senior high school, not the best motorcycle, but it’s fun
to ride scooter. Secondly it’s a memento for few special girl, 3 in particular,
one of them is a kid and I almost every day riding it with her, taking her to her home every afternoon, she’s the most
frequent passenger of this Vespa besides me, the second girl is the one that
can tame my stupid behavior, she’s not a frequent passenger, but she’s still
giving me some best memories and impression until this time, and the last one
is the most special one, I forgot if she’s ever ride this Vespa or not, but
this Vespa registration number is exactly the same as the girl date of birth,
so that’s why I refuse to sell and a bit sentimental with this Vespa.
So, there it is, the story of me
and my Vespa, “Batman”.