Modern Vespa

... put a Motobat in the 79. Yay, turn signals for the Saturday ride out.

Then put the rear hub back together on the Rally, but shredded the rear seal I had. Gack. Waiting on the postman now...

Anyone who's interested in picking up some goodies from Trail Tech, they have a November sale with 20% off.

When checking out punch in the code: TURKEY14

Today, I drop down 2pts off the main and ripped around the town before sun went down.
I wish we could just stay on DST. The CHT was on the safe side topping out at 260ºF.

Just placed an order at SIP for amber/black turn signals, black trim taillight, black fender crest, black fork link cover, a 2011 PX horncast (since I realized the P horncast's mounting holes are different, plus my badges wouldn't fit)...








and a Polini 165cc cylinder.

Oooooh polini!!

I saw this and was reminded that I needed to order a couple of CHT sensor extensions, which was good.

But I then I forgot to use the code, which was not so good. Oh, well. That's three bucks I won't have, but at least my CHT won't have to be taped to the floorboards any more.

Too bad I'm all Trail Tech'd up now on my Lammy and the smallie. I too wish for permanent DST in San Diego. I'll happily trade sunlight at 5:45 AM for the benefit of keeping light until 6PM rather than 5PM.

Sounds like we're at the same place!

I put a new battery in the "new" 79 P210. Tail, brake, turn lights and horn all working now. I took it out for its first shake down ride. There was some oil on the rear wheel so I'll be looking at the rear hub seal and clutch cover to start. I'm not surprised as it was last registered in 97

Choke cable isn't hooked up on the 30mm PHBH so I had to pull it manually with the cowl off. I didn't hammer it hard but I did wind it out. When the PSP2000 kicks in it really kicks in. I took it up to 55 mph indicated (yeah...the speedo works) but there was a ton of throttle left.

I haven't been a big fan of P series ...OK...I like the motors...but I may be on my way to being converted....this thing is fun fun fun...fast fast fast! It feels heavier and a bit more "planted" than my older Vespas.

I found some bolts at work to attach the cowl bumpers that came with my P200E yesterday and went for a short ride. Looks like it's a good thing I did.

Yeah, the forecasts across the Lake over here are talking 4-6" of snow overnight on Monday.

Yup, Ps aren't as pretty , but they are a treat to ride fast.

Heh heh, would love to put you on my Cosa & point you to the freeway. Pretty sure you'd find it 'feels heavier and a bit more "planted" than' even your P.

It's only 34 degrees here tomorrow ... Celsius that is.

SIP is pissing me off. First I canceled an order, but they still shipped it out with only one item out of 6. The item is an airfilter, that I placed on another order after I canceled the original order. So I'm paying for two air filters and paying shipping on both orders, even though I canceled the first order. It was off my account, but suddenly reappeared saying it shipped. WTF? Second is they changed the shipping price on both orders after they were placed and shipped. One order, the one I didn't cancel, went from $24 to $40, if I had known it would cost $40 to ship, I would have bought everything elsewhere. Only going to order from SIP if I have no other choice from now on.

For SIP orders, there are better way.

Talk to Rob Hodge.

I shaved an old DR head down a millimeter and change to see what that would do for me, performance-wise.

Compression went from 120 psi cold to 140 psi and it shifted the power band power down a little. Doesn't rev out quite as much, however. Maybe 8,500 vs 9,000. I need to feed some top speeds into the gearing calculator to be sure, but this is worth playing with. I might spend the few bucks for a dyno app for my phone, too, before I play with my tuning any further.

I also took it out on the highway to see if I could find the top speed, but there was too much traffic so I was only able to get up to 65 mph (GPS), but it is definitely capable of more.

I also ran a pair of trailtech CHT's, one on a cylinder stud and one on the spark plug to see how much the differed in their readings. The spark plug ring was about 50-60f hotter than the cylinder stud at the high end (top temp 322f), but they idled about the same temp.

A good fall day for scootering

Yep. That tallies exactly with what Subetherbass found a couple of years ago. Have you seen this - CHT Location ? You can get the temps even closer if you use the stud closest to the exhaust.

Interesting results and thanks for the comparison! This thread: CHT Location documented a max of 17ºF difference between the stud and ring. I run my gauge under the furthest stud away from the flywheel and figure at least adding 15ºF to the current reading. ^^^Ahh Ginch beat me too the punch. Hmm closer to the exhaust you say? I may relocate the sender ring the next time the engine is down. Thanks for the tip!

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Today, I headed down to Motorsports to pick up some 2T oil and chatted a bit with some local riders. The scoot handled the Washington St. hill well and I actually had to slow down for traffic. The DRT short 4th is a nice upgrade to keep the engine on the pipe especially on ascents, the CHT peaked at 287ºF during the spirited ride out. Indeed!

I had the stud ring on the lower-right (so clutch-side, closest to the exhaust).

While I was riding in traffic and not hard on the throttle, temps were typically in line with the CHT Temperature thread--10-15f difference.

The WOT was where I saw the difference and where I was concerned about blowing something up, too.

One other factor that might be worth mentioning is that I'm running a P200E flywheel and I'm pretty sure it has larger fins and moves more air than the stock flywheel did.

I suspect that if I'd had more time on the highway, the cylinder stud temp would have come closer to the spark plug temp, but the lag time is still a little bit scary to me from a temperature management perspective.

what timing are you running? retarding it a bit may bring the power back at the higher revs.

Hello! Wondering .... when you placed the CHT on the spark plug, did you put it above or below the spark plug's alloy compression ring? Thanks

I did this little description of my new bar ends and put it up in Project Reports - Bar end indicators - how I fitted mine

Love bar end indicators, too bad my Stella has cutouts in the leg shield and cowls for the turn signals, so would require some work for a clean look.

below. You're supposed to cut the crush washer off, but I never do. It sat directly against the cylinder head, though.

I'm dead-on 18 degrees BTDC right now, which is what the kit calls for in its stock state.

You think 17 degrees? 16? Or even more?

I'm a little afraid of putting a hole in my piston.

The only downside (other than that changing timing is a bit of a PITA in general) is that I think I'll have to dremel longer slots into the stator. I think I'm right at the end of the slots right now.

Figured out why I thought I heard detonation on the Lammy - 155 PSI compression! Leaking under the CHT ring on the spark plug too. Time to pull it back apart and use a fatter head gasket. I think I want to go to the head bolt instead of the spark plug on this one - there's not much room to work with on this head.

The more advanced you are the more likely you are to get detonation and hole a piston... so as you retard the safer it gets. That's my understanding.

I know it's a bit off topic and should be posted elsewhere but went on the WASP ride of remebrance today. Utmost respect. Thousands of people, thousands of scooters...Sadly hundreds of thousands of popies to reflect on.

Had another run at trying to find top speed on the Stella today. The highway was a little less congested but I still wasn't able to top it out. 67 mph on GPS was the fastest I saw, with more room to run, but traffic and the limits of my suspension made me decide to leave it alone for now.

The Zippy 1's that are on it are only rated for 62mph as I recall, too.

Max temp on the CHT was 350. I may up-jet before I hit the highway again, just to be on the safe side.

No messing with timing. It was cold enough out to make that seem like more work than it was worth.

It was revving out to 9,000 RPM's again, too, so I'm not sure what was up with that yesterday.

Still to-do is pull and inspect the plug, which looked nice and chocolately yesterday, and also confirm no evidence that I might be burning a hole in the piston with the milled head and no top-end air leaks.

Assuming that's the case, this bike is probably done with wrenching until the spring. It's about to get cold here and stay that way, it looks like.

Any fix for a lower rear shock bushing that likes to move around? Both the bushing and the metal tube inside the bushing shifted to one side. I tried to center both using a rubber mallet but failed, going to pick up a nut, bolt, and various washers to try to make a press to center them. Should I be worried? The bushing looks new, and the swing arm bushings also look good.

Sunday it was 36ºF with a hint of a sprinkle, but much better than the weather report had predicted. Since I plan on spending the winter months working on the Vespa, I decided that it was as good a day as any for a final ride this season. Blast you, Polar Vortex!!!

I accomplished two things. I ran it out of gas (which was intentional), AND I successfully navigate the "Petcock Boogie". At about 45mph it cut out. I knew I was low on fuel and expected - nay, hoped for - that to happen. Clutch in, fumble-fumble-fumble, switch to reserve, clutch out and hardly slowed down in the process. All while wearing mittens!

I also cleaned out my area in the workshop in the back of the garage to park her for the winter. My workbench is clean (or as clean as it gets). Here's where the P200E will reside this winter.



I even had a chance to take the ZNEN out for a nice long ride yesterday afternoon. Nice way to wrap up the season.

Fri/Sat was RVM Houston VI.

Every year there are less and less vintage scoots and more and more cafe racers. Had a blast, but lament the dying breed... there were probably 50+ cafe racers surrounding those 3 Vespa's.

How do you get more vintage riders at an event these days? Inquiring minds....

Get a big piece of cardboard and a Sharpie :


"FREE BEER FOR VESPA RIDERS"

Fixed it!

today i made my bike to be more personal so i add this to the bike

have a nice rainny day to you all and cheer

Nice Ebeth.

Yep.. Ebeth always delivers the goods.. and cheer!

That looks great! I like how the brake pedal turned out...and with a spare plug holder!

How did you make the custom legshield badge? Nice touch!

Love your work E!

ooow, that's nice Ebeth, love the yellow. You build such nice scoots.

That pedal is positively electrifying!