Modern Vespa

Hi all - has anyone had any experience in or know of anyone who has changed the 12" Piaggio front wheels on a 2009 Piaggio MP3 400ie to 13" ? I'm curious to know if it is possible and if so is it a matter of simply taking off the 12" and bolting on the 13" wheels ? In the attached, I currently have the 12" and am wanting to fit the 13" that come from the 500 MP3. Thanks all.

As far as i know it's a straight swop as i did it on my fuoco and as everthing is the same wheel hub wise through the mp3/fuoco range go for it. It certainly looks better with the 13" and on both mine and 2 other owners who have done this on there fuoco's it make the handling of the bike better.

no problem but fit a 110/70/13 58s to the rim

Thanks Maksor - much appreciated.

Thank you, 3legsofman. When you did your change, were you able to use the existing mudguards for your 12" wheels ? and just swap the wheels ? or did you have to make mods to the 12" mudguards ?

Changed about 2 yrs ago and yes you can just use the existing mudguards. Everything is the same just put the 13" tyre as maksor says which is standard for the 13" wheel. The tyre is only about 1/2" taller overall over the 12". if you had been in the UK i could have sold you a good 13"wheel and a brand new tyre.

Awesome - thank you, mate I now start the hunt for 2 x 13" rims

how many do you want got 4 set of 3 in stock

Have sent you a PM, Maksor. Cheers.

Danger! The 13 inch hubs take 35mm stud, the 12 inch are 40 mm which bottom out before the 13 inch wheel is tight on the hub. A poor fix is to add 2 quarter inch washers to each stud. Better ask for 35mm studs or risk ruining the 13 inch rim.

Sorry i forgot to mention the bolt issue when i changed from 12" to 13 " you would have thought the bolts would be the same length on both sizes. Some of the bolts tightend up ok others did not ,so what i did was run a 8x1.25 tap down the holes it diden't take much.

I found out a bit harder. With hearing aids in I could hear a squeak on left turns and could see tiny black tracks on the rim. When you see black around aluminum, look for trouble. The wheel suspended could move slightly on the hub. The dealer checked the parts books and found the shorter studs. I think the 12 inch rims are going back on. Not a problem since I just bought a new 500 HPE.

Too bad the 500 HPE Sport Advanced are not available here in the midwest. I would have liked the Gold color, maybe the reverse not so much. Piaggio may be a while ramping up production after Covid19. Bet I could buy one in Paris. I just cannot get there to ride it.

I realised when i was tightening the S/H cap screws that something felt wrong.

My 13 inch rims were put on by a dealer. I should have checked them myself, as the dealer is mostly just Vespa with limited experience with MP3. It ran for months with the longer studs and the right side was still tight without additional washers.

There was another discussion on 13 rims where 12 inch were, but I cannot find it. Hope they also caught that shorter studs are needed.

Iowatrike, So I assume you are scraping the 13” rims and possibly getting the dealer to pay for new ones? I’m just trying to follow along since I wanted to do same thing for a 2008 mp3 400ie, versus a 2009 model. When I asked the dealer about the 13” front wheels conversion and before I read this thread better, he kind of blew me off by asking why, since the 12” wheels were fine. I guess that may be his way of saying he is not going to take responsibility regardless: but it’s like a model upgrade from where I stand(??) Safety First!

Thanks for any valuable insight in clearing this up for me. It seems like a well deserved risk for the ‘model upgrade reward.’ Thanks Greatly.

Buying used or even new rims for any kind of vehicle is a can of worms, due to loose parts tolerance specs. Good luck with your new bike.

Since 3legs could fix the stud length problem with a 8 smellameter tap, there can not be too much difference. My dealer is just ordering shorter studs. The problem now is supply chain. Covid19 here and in sunny southern Italy has slowed up all Piaggio parts and scoots.

A moment of silence for all the people we lost to this pandemic.

Will the 125/300 cc 13" front wheels be ok for fuoco?

We have very few MP3s here in the midwest flyover country. You need to find someone in France. They have half of the production of MP3s so I bet someone has tried the swap.

I don't see why not.The 12" fuoco wheels are the same as the ones used on the 125 cc along with everything else hubs,brakes ,suspension ect so i would have thought the 13" should be ok for the fuoco . I'm assuming your not talking about the "snowflake" design as i fitted and shown in the OP photo.