Modern Vespa

Hello everyone I'm very new to the Mod scene and have only been an owner of a Vespa for 4 weeks now and I'm not sure if my scooter is working correctly?? When I change gears, is the gear selector supposed to click into place or is it supposed to move smoothly through the gears?? I just have trouble knowing what gear it's in or if it has gone into gear without looking at the selector. I have a 2005 Vespa px125.

Welcome to MV. I've moved your post to 'Not So Modern' as that's where the shifty guys hang out, and they'll be best placed to offer wise words.

It kinda clunks a touch into 1st, and then should go through the rest of the gears as you drive. Don't shift through the gears when sitting still.


Is this what you are asking?

As for knowing which gear you are in you'll just have to learn to pay more attention than when driving a car. 8)

You can minimize the 1st gear clunk from neutral if you slightly push off while shifting from N to 1st. That way the gears are already starting to rotate before you move the shift cross into them.

If need to shift to the first gear as soon as you press the clutch otherwise you'll have difficulties ( re:pdxjim).
When you ready to up shift: let the throttle go, disengage the clutch and move the shifter; try to feel a click, the first one will be a neutral, the second will be the 2d gear. You'll feel the difference and it will help you to find a neutral without looking at the handlebars. Try not to look at the handlebars, it is dangerous. Just practice. You'll get the idea in a day or two.
If you experience a slight single jerk when you shift to the 1st gear, it's OK.
Ideally- try to find this article "The Gentle Art of Shifting a Bajaj Scooter and Maybe More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about a Scooter Transmission," by Scooter Swami. It used to be on bajaj USA website but now it's gone. Find the article and you will find the answers to all your shifting questions.

This baffled me as well, at first. Check out this animated graphic from Japan...

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~lv4k-snhr/libraries/mechanism.html

... the dot is N, the arrows shift up 1,2,3,4 or down. Even though you don't really select gears that way, the animation does show the mechanism accurately.

This is what happens...
If you have it in neutral when the engine is on and you're hand isn't pulling on the clutch, even though the drive shaft isn't turning, the gears still are because you have not disengaged the clutch.

When you pull in the clutch to disengage it in anticipation of shifting to 1st, the gears begin to slow down but they don't come to a complete stop because of slight clutch drag.

Next, as you move the shifter into 1st the shift cross on the non-rotating drive shaft is suddenly jammed into the slowly rotating 1st gear and thus you get the <clunk>, which doesn't do any harm as long as the gear isn't turning too fast.

This explains why, if you shift from N to 1st in a hurry you'll get a louder clunk than if you wait a bit for the gears to slow down before engaging 1st gear.

If you'd like to minimize the clunk or even eliminate it, all it takes is a slight push off forward with your feet before moving into 1st. This sets the drive shaft turning a bit so that as you shift into 1st it engages with the slightly rotating gear much smoother, or even silently.