MOPED ARMY

You have an early Ciao. The side covers are meant for the more modern era Ciaos.

My early big wheel ciao has a similar placement to yours for the side covers.

Because of the age, your model also would have had a bracket that bolted on right above the RH side of the motor to utilize the center bolt-hole in that cover.

https://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/read.php?2,4001989

That bracket to be exact. (edited)

Thanks, Dillon. Exactly the info I was looking for. I figured it was an early model issue.

As PD says, I’ll just fab up a footrest bracket, now that I see how it’s “supposed” to be. And if it turns out the side cover rattles with just two bolts, I’ll deal with that the same way.

Oh, I forgot to mention, on the footrest I bought, the notch for the choke lever is on the wrong (left) side. No biggie, I had to cut another on the right. Has any Vespa ever had the choke lever on the left?

Cool. Good to know! Thanks for the info

So here’s my homemade bracket. Turned out just fine, if I do say so myself.

It does a good job of holding the floorboard in place.

On the side cover, I had to cut off the middle lug flush on the inside. It interfered with the coil. But the hole that remains is a great location to run the spark plug wire through.

Here it is all buttoned up.

Ha . Looks natural to me . ;)

Looks great, I love it when people use the side covers, makes the bike look so much better, nice ride!

Thanks, man! I also love a bike with plastics. Makes it look and feel finished.

Side note: This thing sure is bouncy!

It’s a springer, front and saddle. Hit a bump and bounce for blocks!

That’s nice! I like the simplistic, clean look of a hard tail, or full rigid, but age is quickly settling in my bones, and I’m afraid they would be too jarring on my spine, and too easy to dump if I hit a pothole or chicken wrong. (I hit potholes a lot, and chickens on occasion)