'04 Piaggio Skipper ST 125 (HUGE PROJECT!)

[StandUpGuy]

Any help and/or advice would be desirable and appreciated as I am a novice.

So basically, I bought myself a scooter as I am currently working on scooters delivering sushi in the posh parts of SW London, and although I enjoy my job the pay is not good at all.
I paid £800 for a second (probably fourth or fifth) hand Skipper ST, with the intention of leaving my current job and using my own scooter to get a similar job, only that paid A LOT more p/h.
I found it online via Gumtree, and bought it from a Eastern European guy in Wembley. On the day I started the engine, checked lights and gave it a quick spin around the block and tbh I didn't need to see more than that before I handed over the money.
Two reasons I was hasty to buy: 1) I have always wanted a Piaggio Skipper. I love everything about them. You'll see what I mean anyway. 2) It was so flipping cold that day, and I was standing outside this mans house shaking thinking 'I wanna go home NOW!'
I took the bike home with no issues, even stopped to fill up on the way. However I have had nothing but trouble with the this machine since.

PRO'S & CON'S of my Skipper
PRO'S : No cracks in the bodywork, Just over 12K mileage, Perfect size and weight for delivery work, Newly reupholstered leather seat, Came with original Piaggio top box
CON'S : The speedometer is completely foook'd (Only MPH gauge works the way its supposed to), The mileage is suspiciously low for its age, Does not provide any charge to the NEWLY purchased battery, Will not start and I don't know why , Mechanics across London have informed me that Skipper's are crap and made with dodgy stuff that always deteriorates - Some even refused to work on Skipper's! Oh, and the steering's a bit too heavy for my liking.

I am determined to restore this old thing to full working order, in fact I plan to modernize it somewhat once the engine and electric work is complete. But I am doing it all by myself

HELP ME!!!
(P.S. I'll have lots of pictures along the way)

[coaster]

That's a lot of things to deal with in one thread, concentrate on getting it running first. Describe the symptoms accurately and take it one step at a time.

As for Skipper longevity, my daughters boyfriend bought one brand new way back in 1998 and used it to commute from Felixstowe to Colchester (30 miles each way) 5/6 days for around 2 years which equates to nearly 30k miles It was well out of warranty when it started getting difficult to start and the garage he bought it from told him to scrap it as it was beyond economical repair

[StandUpGuy]

Cheers for the advice.
Since I've had this thing, I have only had it start a few times. All of those times, I've had to manually charge the Brand New YUASA battery. I managed to get it to a vespa specialist not to far from me. They had a look at it and diagnosed that the Skipper is not charging the battery, however could not be certain as to why not. The mechanic checked the Regulator Rectifier and even tried a new one. Apparently my rectifier is fine and not the issue.
My first guess was that my Alternator was knackered and is not providing power to my battery, but the mechanic was not sure that was the issue and told me because it's an old scooter it could be a number of reasons, including dodgy wiring.

However just two days ago, I tried to start my bike as I usually do, and it backfired. It was quite loud. I had no idea where the noise came from as I was sitting on the bike, but when I tried to start it up after it made a weird noise. I have never taken an engine apart and I am completely novice, but it sounds like something is spinning in the engine, my guess is the starter motor. The engine will not ignite, another random guess would be I need a new Spark Plug.

I will fix this bike, I've even got myself a Haynes Repair Manual for this exact version of Skipper. (LEADER Air-Cooled Four-Stroke Version)