I found Philip Sunil’s flickr collection to be an interesting insight on Indonesian Vespa restoration. Not a WHOLE lot of details, and I didn’t see any beer can float bowls, washers made from coins, or fish oil filled shocks, but I don’t think Philip was going for an Exposé here.
Thanks for sharing Philip!
PS> I DID however see some floorboard surgery and improper protective equipment in use HERE.
23. December 2006 at 12:23 am
“and improper protective equipment in use”
Since when you start to care about that? Take a look at the tags on the clothes you’re wearing. Made in China? Thought so. Do you honestly think that they were made in good working conditions with the emphasis on worker safety and welfare?
23. December 2006 at 4:29 am
Hrm… I see mr/mrs Anonymous likes NOT my sense of humor.
With the common belief that Indonesian scooters are usually jury-rigged I was hoping to catch some jury-rigging in action… The best I could come up with was rusted out floor boards (being repaired to standard replacement kits) and guys working with flipflops on.
Of course, humor is lost when you have to explain it.
As to your question about safety and “When I start care about that”. The answer is, “the day I was born”. To see me playing football back in the day, I looked like “the mummy”. I rarely board my scooter today without covering every square inch of my body in safety equipment.
*Steve takes off shirt*
Hrm… Fuit of the Loom… Heavy cotton… Made in El Salvador.
*Steve takes off shoes*
Let’s see here… Adidas… Made in Indonesia. It’s no China.
*Steve shuts blinds… removes pants*
Oh kay… Levis low cut boot jeans… Made in Mexico.
I’m not gonna bother with the socks and underwear.
I’ll end with this. I don’t see the correlation between guys restoring old Vespas in their flipflops and poor working conditions in China, but you’ve had your moment on the soap box. Poor working conditions are no laughing matter. Maybe you should know a little bit about someone before you start making some sort of off-the-wall assumptions about them.
If you’d like to see something done to help humans in countries with poor working conditions, you should spend less time ranting and more time volunteering for supportive organizations like http://www.stophungernow.org or http://www.educatingforjustice.org. They could really use the help!
Ride safe!
steve