Mike Holland wrote:
Hundreds (thousands?) of GTS owners have fitted the Malossi V4 kit which makes their scooters slightly more powerful than the HPE. Hundreds have also fitted the Malossi ForceMaster ECU override which pushes the rev limit up by another 1000 rpm.
I have never heard of any problems caused by over-revving as a result of these mods.
I have never heard of any problems caused by over-revving as a result of these mods.
Yes, the Malossi kits are great. Lots & lots have been fitted & they haven't caused any issues yet that we know of. It's worth remembering these kits are racing kits. As yet I don't know anyone who has put more than 23,000 miles on the clock with one of those kits. They were never actually designed for road use as they do stress out the motor more than a factory engine design engineer would be willing to accept for mass production. And that includes me. Therefore, a tamer version as on the HPE made sense for Piaggio. But aftermarket stuff on the earlier GTS motors isn't necessarily a good marker for how a newly developed & largely upgraded HPE engine will behave overtime in the future with a kublar on it.
Any manufacturer has to be cautious with its upgrades such as this and that's why the rev limiter engages so early. After all, imagine what we'd all be saying if lots of us bought the HPE only to find its motor flying apart on a regular basis. Piaggios name would be mud!
So as above, not saying the kublar ring is a bad thing. Owners should however be fully aware of possible consequences reference warranty. Dealers seem happy to sell them, but I wonder how long that enthusiasm will last if issues with warranty occur. I notice some dealers don't even seem to know how the ring works. Even some of the suppliers of the ring are not explaining correctly how the ring works. There is NO SPEED LIMITER for example. Only the rev limiter. The two things are in fact different in engineering terms.
I've only posted in response to questions being asked & have tried to shed some light on all this from the engineering point of view. It's up to folks to make of it what they will. Folks with the ring will hopefully keep us all up to date with how well their bikes are going. I suspect most folks won't experience any issues. Enjoy!