ScooterAZ – HCMC
Website - http://www.scooteraz.com/
By: ScooterX
Review
I have been receiving a lot of inquires asking about ScooterAZ in Saigon. I guess ScooterAZ has been selling scooters recently on ebay. I had seen one of ScooterAZ posts on LCUSA and I wanted to investigate this shop since I had to go to Vietnam. I emailed the owner and we agreed to meet. I met with Nguyen a.k.a Mathew at his shop which is out of his Father rice factory. Nguyen back ground is mainly Vespas and not a lot in Lambretta. Nguyen was gracious enough to pick me up from my hotel. The scary part was that he picked me up on his scooter. I normally enjoy scootering when I am steering but being on the back of a Vespa for 45 minutes to the parts house, with Saigon traffic and no helmet made it a bit of a white knuckle ride. It is not very relaxing riding 6 inches from a moving bus while going over pot holes.
Nguyen Specializes mainly in Vespa Restores. Here are several from his shop.
After my meeting with Nguyen and seeing the quality of his work I decided to purchase a LI Special. I figured that I would have to spend some additional dollars to get it up to snuff once he was done but Nguyen was eager to build a quality scooter. I did ask Nguyen not to rebuild the motor. Given the complaints from most purchasers of Viet scooters are that that the motor takes a dump after 10 to 100 miles. Since I was suspicious of what parts are used with the engine rebuilds and some of the horror stories from other shops, Inegotiateda price without the engine restored. Also, the motor in this scooter was runningbut it was a Series II motor and I wanted a Series III motor in the scooter. Here is the scooter before the refurbish
The Lambretta was a Little rough but the LIS had potential
Nguyen was very responsive when I asking for what I wanted in the restore. Basically I wanted an all white LIS with no extra SS assesories. I wanted to get as close to stock as possible. I sent him a picture of what I was looking for and he went to work. It took about a month and the scooter was close to being done. I caught several issues during the painting process and he quickly fixed the problem. I also asked for ScooterAZ not install the emblems since when I received the other scooter, the emblems looked real bad because they where bad copies. This important with and Viet Scooter shop since the source is real bad in Vietnam. Have them leave off and order a good set from Casa Lambretta. Here are several pictures that he sent me on the restore.
When it came to shipping, Nguyen asked for shipping up front of $300. This was different to purchasing from Huys Scooter where the shipping company billed me for shipping which came close to $500. dollars. I was pleasantly surprised that the shipping came real close to what Nguyen had quoted. The Scooter came in as promised and when I picked it up, I was a bit nervous since I had received a piece a junk scooter from Huys a month earlier and I was still trying to rectify the warranty issue with Hiuy. ScooterAZ scooter was much better than Huys at half the cost. Here are some pictures after I pulled it out of the crate and washed it.
So the scooter was not perfect but in the good condition I received it in, I could not have purchased anything similar at the price I paid locally here in California . Here are some of the issues / negatives I ran into with this scooter.Paint was not perfect. There where some runs in the clear coat or dull spots on the body, (hard to notice but they are there). Since I receive my scooter, Nguyen has gone to a new painter and has told me that he is spraying much better than the previous painter. I will update this section when I hear other recent reviews.
- New Rear Shock
- Replace misc nuts and bolts to correct parts
- Chrome Emblems
- Cabling
- Rebuilt headset because of warn parts including shifter since it was polished way to much and it was paper thin.
- Headlight assembly was not stock or close to stock and needed to be completely replaced.
Overall the scooter is nice and I like it especially after I rebuilt the motor and added a 190cc kit to it. The old engine had very few parts I could salvage since it was a real worn motor.
Conclusion, I guess if anyone is to ask me if I would do it again, I would say sure. If ScooterAZ wanted more money for the scooter, (Over $1800.), I would probably look at Saigon Scooter Centre or ScootRS for a restored Viet Scooter
Review II
Reviewed by Ash in the U.K.
Lambretta TV175 series 3
1) The handlebar on the throttle side had been rivetted on after a fracture and basically made me have to replace the headset due to its real bad safety aspect.
2) The forks had to be replaced due to the stem being off a different scooter and the steering bolt notch in the wrong place.
3) The paint had rust coming through everywhere after six weeks on a ship, making think the paint was real thin.
4).Bad paint on the tank, airfilter and toolbox.
5) Headlight was off some other moped and just strapped on with wire & the headlight rim snapped
6) A rubbish spaco carb was fitted.
7) The Head cowling had been reshaped to fit a modified magneto flange thus rendering both usable but totally not standard, plus flycowl was bin material.
8) Headset top and bottom was a different colour to the rest of the scooter.
9) Rear shocker un safe.
10) A different section of the frame loop had been rewelded on the rear where the rack mounts
11) I had asked for the engine not to be restored & noticed it had push bike parts inside on rebuilding here.
12) Tank rubbers were bodged pieces of scrap soft material.
13) Ignitition switch was off another moped.
14) All cables had to be replaced, bodged outers and even clutch cables as gear cables.
15) RUST RUST & MORE RUST
Not the happiest with the scooter or the warranty