Almost a year and a half with my Stella (6000 miles)

[Red1983RedPX150Rider]

Just a note to all out there who now own, or are considering buying a 2T Stella. First off - great scooter. As many of you know, LML built these for Vespa in India since around 1980 until around 1986 when Piaggio decided to pull the plug on the relationship. LML fought them and won the right to continue to build the scooter for their domestic market. Enter in Genuine scooter Co, who worked out an agreement to import them to the USA. The same bike (also in 125 CC size) is imported all over the world under different labels (Star, Star Italia, Bella Donna and a few others).
For the first 4000 miles or so, no issues, or major problems. Changed the gear oil myself ever 500-600 miles, had the cables adjusted and nothing else. The fuel gauge stopped working, was replaced under warranty, and then the new one stopped working 500 miles later. One minor well documented problem on many Stella blogs and forums. After my one year warranty was up, I ordered one from Garners Classic Scooters in Texas, since Genuine would not sell me one direct. (Dealer favoritism, which is a huge problem with me, not a fan of Scooterworks, owned by the Genuine Scooter Co, more on where I now buy parts from on another post) Then a little after this, out riding around in a residencial area, I hear a loud, high pitched whining noise coming from the engine. Pull over and kill the motor, and walk the nearly 2 miles home. Then I trucked it down to Scoot Over in Tucson (great group of folks, by the way) and they replace the failed lower crankshaft bearings, another well documented problem on Stella blogs and forums. It seems the cage that holds the needle bearings in place is made of an inferior metal, broke apart and sent pieces and loose bearings helter skelter inside the engine, damaging the piston and entire top end. While the engine was all apart, Scoot Over replaced the stock parts with a new Pollini 177 CC top end and a Mazzuchelli full circle crankshaft. This did make a big difference in performance, both off the line and on the top end, now an actual 60+ MPH is easily obtainable.
The moral of the story is if I had to do it all over again, wanting an old-school shifty scoot as I love, I would have scouted around and spent my neary $4000 on a solid used REAL Vespa PX 200, and I believe I would not be out the extra bennys for the major motor work done due to the weak bearings that are used in these scooters. So now, over 2000 miles after the new parts are in, no problems to date, and I have what appears to be a very solid engine and a great scooter in the end.