Reader’s Ride: Pradesh Project PL170
Banbury Scooter Club member Mark Kendall has harboured something of a secret desire for some years now – to build a smallframe Vespa custom. This scooter is the result. What a peach!
Banbury Scooter Club member and habitual custom Lambretta builder, Mark Kendall, has harboured something of a secret desire for some years now. He has, for as long as he can remember, fancied building a smallframe Vespa custom, and that’s despite him being a renowned Lambretta man. When an unfinished smallframe Vespa custom recently became available, it was at exactly the right time (for Mark). Needless to say, he snapped it up more or less there and then as it was an unmissable opportunity to satisfy a longheld desire he had suppressed for years. An added bonus being it wouldn’t take too much of his time, or additional finance, to realise his ambition either.
Trim and tidy
When it comes to acquiring scooters, Mark seems to be one of those lucky people who are always in the right place at the right time. This unfinished smallframe Vespa custom project which he ‘picked up the mantle’ on wasn’t based on a common Italian or Spanish model. Instead, the base scooter turned out to be a rather rare Vespa of Indian heritage. Based loosely on a European specification 100cc Vespa, the PL170 was produced by Andhra Pradesh Scooters Limited in the early 80s, via a manufacturing licensing deal between the Indian government and Piaggio. Mark explained: “I bought it half done, it was in need of a bit of TLC, as it was looking a bit tired, as well as needing finishing off. To be honest I think the previous owner got quite a way into his project, then, at some point, lost interest. It took me about a month to clean and tidy it up, source and fit the ET3 type electronic decal stripes, obtain, paint and fit new split rim wheels and finish off the trim in black, to how I wanted. It came with a metal PK horncasting, which I changed for a plastic 50 Special one. I just didn’t like how it looked with the PK one; to me it looked wrong. I have kept the metal PK horncast. Should
I, or anyone, want to put it back to a stock PL170, it would be relatively easy to do.”
It is a fun scooter to ride – though, being used to fast, powerful Lambrettas with stopping power to match, I can’t help thinking it might benefit from having a good front disc brake set-up.
Pocket rocket
In place of the 12v electronic, 100cc, 16/16 Dell’Orto-carbed engine fitted as standard to an APSL Indian-made PL170 Vespa is a motor that had been given a complete makeover… “It came already rebuilt and upgraded, with a Polini Evo 133 top end kit, Mazz crankshaft, Vespatronic ignition, 25mm Dell’Orto and a Franspeed exhaust. It just needed bedding in, and I can confidently say, it pulls like a train.”
Despite being one of the fastest custom projects that Mark has turned around, are there any changes planned or additions he has in mind? “It is a fun scooter to ride – though, being used to fast, powerful
Lambrettas with stopping power to match, I can’t help thinking it might benefit from having a good front disc brake set-up. Putting considerations about changing the front brake to one side, an addition I’d quite like is a bit more on the knowledge side of things. Information about the Indian PL170 Vespa is a bit sketchy, searching online doesn’t provide many results. I’d have thought that there weren’t a huge amount of smallframe PLs made in total; what I would be interested to know is, how many PL170 Vespas made their way from India to the UK?”