Modern Vespa

Hi,
I teach high school automechanics and we are building a supermileage vehicle for competition. We purchased a rear wheel from Ebay to use. I was told it was a Vespa but can't seem to confirm it. It has a racheting sprocket on the outside of the axel and a drive sprocket on the inside. We do some coasting and get less resistance if we can use the racheting for the actul drive. We need to identify it so we can get parts and even a backup hub. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you

Can't help beyond the fact that it certainly isn't a Vespa.

Good luck.

Could that be a Vespa moped wheel? One sprocket for the engine, ratcheting sprocket for the pedals?

Definitely a moped wheel.

Happy to stand corrected. Every day's a school day.

Try this

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=ciao+wheels&_osacat=0&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xmoped+rear+wheel&_nkw=moped+rear+wheel&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Not a Vespa wheel , could be Piaggio.

You might try posting a pic over here. http://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/list.php?1

And please post some pics and info on the supermiliage vehicle project when you can. We love that kind of stuff here.

The wheel looks a lot like a 17" front wheel of a Piaggio (Vespa) Ciao moped. Can't go by the wheel alone, several moped manufacturers used common assemblies from vendors like Grimeca, Leleu, Magura and CEV. The exception would be the Piaggio moped rear wheels (non-Vespino); they had a huge rear drum to house the brake and final drive assembly and had no bearings in them, just a splined collar for the axle to fit through.

The brake plate is similar on the 16" and 17" Piaggio moped spoked wheels; looks reversed though. The orientation of the brake arm and adjuster suggest a brake cable coming down the left fork leg (from rider's POV); the Piaggio mopeds have their cable down the right fork leg.

Looking at the big sprocket, I think I've seen that before. I'd wager this wheel came off the back of an Intramotor Gloria "Blanco" moped. Intramotor used the same rims, brakes and nearly identical fork setup to the Piaggio Ciao (hence the confusion about the origin).

So you are saying the wheel with that big assed sprocket is a front wheel? Really? It's pretty obviously a moped rear wheel, and given how many of them there were back in the day it could be off practically anything .

Please refer to my final comment. My other blathering was trying to describe why it was originally identified is a Vespa wheel. I have four wheels that are really similar to it (less the big sprocket) and they're all off of (or attached to) Piaggio (Vespa) Ciao mopeds.

Thank you for some of the leads to identify the wheel. I will persue them. Any more suggestions would be appreciated. You asked, so here are a few reasons why we need the wheel. The red one is our first attempt. It is designed with VERY high gearing using a B&S engine. To date, we have achieved 178MPG non stop. Scary top speed if we ever opened it up. The green one we do start & stop with some coasting and we have gotten 381MPG. We are building our 3rd car now, all aluminum. Its a lot of fun. Makes engineers out of these kids. We are the only ones with IFS.

definitely a moped wheel but I don't think it's from a vespa moped.


Best bet would be to look through photos at moped army:

http://www.mopedarmy.com/photos/

The sprockets are most likely on the left side of the bike.

I wish my HS shop class was as cool as that. We just messed with engines and used the metal lathe to make rings out of nickels for our girlfriends.

I try my best to get them into some pretty cool stuff. We have done sheetmetal work, IFS's, brakes, engine installs on a few street rods, built a Model A sport coupe for resale, customized a '64 Falcon convert from the grave (built our own chassis, sheetmetal from bumper to bumper, with 4.6 sohc EFI), in addition to all kinds of modern mechanical rebuilds. We have even had a real Lombo in the shop for a show & tell and a V8 kit Lambo for some build work. I like to keep the kids busy. If you have their interest, they want to learn. The high mileage cars are a good way to end the year. I run the shop the way I wished I could have had high school automechanics.