Modern Vespa

I use my vespa as my only form of transport, and I have to go on an A road in order to get to work, which means having to have an open throttle to get to 60mph. Is this bad for the bike or should it be able to handle it? Cheers

You're lucky your LX reaches 60mph! I've driven my LX 125 with wide-open throttle on A-roads before for an extended amount of time. Nothing happened.

Haha, it takes a bit of time but it gets there (a slight downslope helps me too). Any idea whether this will screw the engine over time?

I don't think Italians would worry about that.

The smaller Piaggio engines seem very happy being at full throttle for extended periods - it's pretty much what they were designed to do.

"You mean, there's another setting other than WOT?"...says my ET2.

My Malaguti spends at least 75% of its riding time at full throttle.
And it loves it.

I have an lx 50 and she will happily go full throttle with no probs 8)

Russ

i go to work on mine in rain wind and sun
and winter and summer too
Throttle to the max at most times too till i hit a stretch with 3 roundabouts
But all good m8

Keep the oil fresh and the engine serviced, change the belt from time to time, it'll be fine. Mine is by no means a high-miler, but it's done 15,000 miles (not KM) with no problems.

Same here, just keep it serviced and looked after and I'm sure it's fine. Quite abit of my journey to work is fast a road too.

Same question I asked about a year and a half ago!

My comute is about 15 miles half of which is on a dual carrageway up, then down a steep hill. Full throttle up hill 45-50mph full throttle down hill 60 -65 indicated.

Change the oil each year and so far no problems.

hope all goes well

They have a rev limit.The RPM's will only go so high.I know what my scoots will do but don't ride them all maxed out.If I want to go fast I"ll ride a go fast bike.

I dont know the answer to.. But it stands to reason that you will wear something out faster... that is running more cycles and higher temperatures for sustained periods of time..

WOT is bad for the engine. It adds stress and wear.

Every time your piston cycles you're one more cycle closer to it's demise and just starting your engine begins another session of wear on your moving parts. That said, you can't get very far very fast without running your engine...so I think the spirit of the original question is 'will running WOT speed up the death of my engine to the point that I shouldn't do it'? I'm inclined to go with JIMC here...30,000 posts has got to mean something, no?

All I can say for this is that running at full throttle is better for the engine than leaving the scooter in the garage.

And if the conditions require riding at full throttle to keep up with traffic, it is much safer too.

I'll gladly take the risk to the engine and use my scooter as fully as I can.

Running WOT is the most stressful way to run the motor. Highest RPM, highest pressures etc. It is a continuum and when running WOT you are running clear at one end of that continuum. You can and expect a greatly reduced engine life.

You are probably right. I must be very lucky to have gotten to 57,000 miles on mine. Much of that at WOT.

Ran my LX150 WOT on a 20km expressway leg for my commutes for two years without issues other than more rapid belt replacement.

It actually ran better and smoother coming off an expressway leg.

I think Jimc summed it up best, they're pretty much designed for that.

If you want to witness a Piaggio / Vespa stress test, check out the old Apes in Italy chugging up impossibly steep hills with a full load of tools and materials or produce.

No way will your LX come close to that.

Had any servicing done on the engine at all?

The 4-stroke engine you have is not a highly tuned and fragile lump so I wouldn't worry about running it flat out. Just service it regularly and it will be fine.

Do you have any data to back that up, particularly for the LEADER 125/150 air-cooled engine series?

Remember, this engine is part of a whole series of engines for different Piaggio models ranging from lightly tuned, air-cooled 125s to much higher-output, water-cooled 200cc scoots. The bottom end -- the crankshaft and its bearings -- is identical across the whole range (and the rods and wrist pins may also be -- I've never checked). So the 125/150cc air-cooled versions are very robust with their lower displacement and rev limiters set to a lower maximum rpm than the water-cooled versions.

From a wear standpoint -- strictly, and given proper maintenance -- I'd suspect that the limiting factor would be total number of piston strokes combined with piston speed. With the relatively minor exception of lower gearing under hard acceleration, you will cover the same number of miles per piston stroke at WOT as you will while babying it. As the bearings are overkill for the smaller displacements and the piston speeds are lower than the max for the water-cooled versions because of the rev limiter, it would seem to me to be nearly impossible to stress a stock a/c LEADER 125/150 to the upper ends of its design limits.

In my own experience, small engines are much happier when they spend more time at full throttle and less at idle or being treated gingerly. They tend to "carbon up" otherwise.

The term "Italian tune-up" was coined for a very good reason.

I take care of my scooters. Oil and filter changes roughly every 5000 miles.

It is serviced now for the Scooter Cannonball Run. 4000 miles of mostly WOT coming up.

..30,000 posts has got to mean something, no?[/quote]

You catch on quick!

My last comment about this.

The internal engine parts see forces that are proportional to throttle position and RPM. The greatest forces occurring in an engine are at redline with your "foot to the floor". So, as far as engine wear is concerned, WOT and redline is the place where the most wear and fatigue happens. An engine that spends more time at WOT will typically not last as long before failure than an engine that's driven more calmly with an occasional WOT.

I am surprised that oil and filter changes only have achieved that mileage without at least valve work or such like.

That certainly is an excellent endorsement for the strength of the engine and your wrenching skills..

It did need to have the camshaft replaced at 40,000 miles, along with the accompanying rocker arm. It began making a shrieking sound that nobody could diagnose. My friend and mechanic Boris dropped the engine and found it. Repairs went well and it is running as good as new since. That is the only time it had the valves adjusted, until this weekend when it is getting it again.

We are quite certain that the damage was caused by the notorious carburetor issues on the GT. The carburetor drops parts into the engine after around 30,000 miles.

All wrenching skill acknowledgement goes to Boris, but I usually do the oil changes myself.

You catch on quick! [/quote]

I try!

I'm not knocking anyone with only a few posts but yeah...gotta give some life experience credit to the 'old-timers' if for no other reason than they haven't gotten themselves a Darwin Award yet. I've done quite a bit of reading around here since signing up & bad advice is a rare animal around here. I'm doing my best to put ET2 miles under my belt so maybe I can help someone some day. And yes...in my 50cc world, WOT is a WOL (Way Of Life). ha WOTWOL...sounds like a good sticker idea.

Thank goodness.

Guess you don't have much fun with your Vespa then, do you?

The nicest thing about riding a scooter -- compared to most other motor vehicles -- is that you can really wring its neck without getting yourself or the scooter into too much trouble... if you exercise just a little common sense.

Don't forget that the small physical size of a 50cc engine means that piston and valve speeds and stresses at 9,000 rpm are much smaller than those in a larger engine at the same rpm. Also, the performance of Vespa four stroke 50's is limited primarily by the small stock carburetor, so "full throttle" isn't all that it could be (maybe it's 2/3). An LX 50 going 40mph at WOT needs less than half the driving force that an LX 150 needs to go 60 at WOT, so smaller motors typically have a much easier time running for extended periods at WOT. A 50 would normally suffer less than a 150 or 300 running at WOT all the time, just as the bigger scooters would fare far better at WOT than a typical 2 to 5 liter automobile would at continuous WOT.

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Manchild has been ejected from this topic

I always was led to believe that most engine wear occurred from a cold start when the oil was washed from the bores by all that extra fuel.