La Dolce Vita - Autumn '96
P200 Warning
Dear Fellow Scooterists,
I had a very serious scare recently and wanted to let everyone know.
It seems the rear axle on the P200 holds the rear brake drum/hub by a castellated nut. The nut is secured by two holes drilled thru the axle and a cotter pin inserted thru the castle openings in the nut and thru the holes in the axle. The axle is also machined down the tread root from the end of the axle to about a depth of 3/16".
One day, on the way to work, at 25-30 mph, the rear wheel became free from the engine. The castellated nut had backed out and came off...the ER staff was great...thank heavens for good helmets. I'm on the mend.
Upon inspection, it seems the axle had broken where the two holes were drilled to hold the cotter pin securing the castle nut. Why it broke is conjecture, but when I bought a replacement axle, I noticed Piaggio had enlarged the diameter of the threaded portion and had only one hole drilled thru to hold the cotter pin. I can only assume my incident happened often enough for Piaggio to make a change to prevent more occurrances.
To close, I would like to alert readers--when changing the rear axle, you might want to insist on the new one which is much safer.
Gordon Loui, VCOA# 286
Favorable Response
Dear VCOA,
I read with interest the article by Alex Cohn on brochures. For some reason in 1956 I started writing all the companies selling motorscooters and motorcycles. I took all the literature I got an put it in a box. I have stuff on some very unusual scooters and cycles. I have about seventy-nine original brochures from the '50s and early 70's. I am enclosing a list of them. I will be glad to copy some if anyone wants one for his scooter. I also have pictures from these brochures on my web site: http://www.rt66.com/mccleskd/index.html.
Dale McCleskey VCOA# 305
[Editor's note: Dales list is longer than we can print. But it covers several models of the following scooters: Cushman, Lambretta, Maicoletta, Moto Rumi, Mustang, NSU Prima, Vespa.]