Modern Vespa

Howdy All

Not much to report. Today I put my new registration tags on the lic plate of my P-125X. We had blizzard conditions today so I stayed inside. Next Sat we are supposed to hit 80 Deg F! Maybe I'll get a chance to fire her up with the new Vape E.I. and resume jetting. Still a lot of sand and gravel on the roads though. Especially after today's snow storm. Spring can't get here fast enough!

Hec

Today I...

...got back from an amazing weekend ride we (Dark Lords) put on in Mt Beauty in Victoria's high country. So good! Best weekend ever of twisties, mountains, rivers and more twisties. Weather was perfect, and particularly yesterday (Sunday) there was hardly any traffic. Like riding for an hour and seeing maybe 2 cars and a handful of cyclists. And we were hammering it.

We called it Dark Side of the Mountain. Some pics -

I have our club season opener this weekend, then ROM next weekend. Seeing all the ride pics is getting me super-excited for both of them.

Also, I kind've feel like "the tallest *car accessible* mountain" probably isn't quite the flex it sounds like.

You guys that have clubs or friends to ride with… I envy you.

I'm with you FridayMatinee , I'm the "crazy old guy riding a moped" in town. . No clubs here.

All it takes is a plane ticket, FM. We'll find a scooter for you.

+1
You get to TX for Vibes of March next year and I will have a scooter gassed up and waiting for you.

Thanks guys!

I'll start saving for that plane ticket now. Fingers crossed for next year

You can ride the P200!

I don't know what flex means. It's a tall mountain in what is in winter under snow. It's 1848m compared to the highest in Australia at 2228m. Suffice to say, the view was fantastic and to get up there we had to ride over some pretty rough "roads", including having to move a fallen tree to do it.

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I've got to say - when I first did the Quattrini 252 I thought the very next thing I'd need would be a long range fuel tank.
This cylinder is just so amazing. Best scooter investment ever. So not only does it do 140kmh (with just a phbh30 and Polini box), but on the weekend I was using around 80-85% of the fuel that Marc (P210) and Craig (Stelvio 187) used. I have a non-autolube PX tank, and after we filled up I made a mistake thinking the next fuel stop was 120k away. Turned out to be around 180k, and I still had a litre, maybe as much as 2 left!! Incredible.

I was just giving you a hard time. Y'all do more miles over all sorts of wild terrain than pretty much anyone I know

"Flex" == short for "flexing muscles." Slang for showing off. Gotta stay hip to the lingo, daddy-o.

This got me searching, though, and the tallest car-accessible mountain in the US is Mount Evans at 14,130ft (~4,300m), versus a tallest peak of Denali at 19,685ft (>6,000m). I wonder how many times you'd need to re-jet to ride up Mount Evans... It's because you're probably running like 1/4 throttle to hold steady at highways speeds. It's a beautiful thing.

I still want to build a 252 or VMC244. That's been on the To-Do list for like four years now, though, and I don't really have a frame to put it in since I sold the Sprint. If I can ever find a Bajaj with the ginormous glovebox, though, it would be perfect for it.

Thanks! I'm hep to the jive now! I say it's a lazy motor because you can almost do everything in 4th if you want. However, it does actually spoil you for almost everything else because it's so capable.

If I did another one I would seriously think about doing the direct intake conversion, with a full circle Kingwelle crank.

Arm was finally feeling strong enough to ride again, took the rally out for the first time this year. Just a short trip across town, but the weather was perfect, traffic was reasonable, and the world suddenly feels a lot less gloomy.

^^^ Bravo, I can relate! 👍

Uh-oh... what did you do to your paw Patrick?

I got my scooter center package yesterday literally as I was walking out the door to pick up my wife from the airport, so she's none the wiser.

Given that SC used a huge box to hold not a lot of stuff other than the case gaskets, that timing saved me a lot of side-eye.

Wow. Now that's efficient.

Finished the bearing install on the Skate and Destroy P200.
Today I will test the gears/shims on the the axle and then hopefully close up the cases.

I bought a used P200 jug that was overbored. Thought the rebore was to first oversize. But, the piston measures 67.1 which according to Piaggio would be about 4th Oversize.* (Chart I have only goes up to 3rd oversize.)

Question to the team: Should I run this thing, or keep looking for a more reliable top end?

*Found some websites showing a 67.1 piston is somewhere between second and third oversize.

From the table you shared, that looks like the correct bore size for 3rd O.S. I'd chuck a piston at it for now.

Or rebore it with a malossi sport piston. Will go slightly better with little effort.

Am I reading it wrong?
3rd OS - Bore should = 67.1, Piston should = 66.89

Today I'm happy to say I wore the rear tire on my DS pretty throughly, i.e. all the way past the bottom of the middle groove. I'm usually pretty good at changing my tires when I get close to the legal low point, right before I get into "liable to get a ticket" territory. In this instance, last time I checked there was some meat left; then I made a few trips out to the country and apparently put some wear on them. Still, I was pretty surprised to see how much rubber was burnt in only a few weeks.

Looks like I ride the bike leaning to the left as well...

Well I didn't get them closed today… but I got the clutchside done.

I'll take it.

Slow & steady wins the race.

Tortoising along

First start of the season and....
Runaway air leak
And found the sorry remains of a gasket. Any ideas what caused this?

What sealant did you use?

Unfortunately I don't remember, motor was built about 5 years ago. But I do remember following the sip assembly videos religiously!

Did it need much cleaning up to look like that? If not I'd suspect you used grease? Maybe the Permatex aviation stuff? If it comes away easily then the paper gasket is not protected.
I really like Threebond 1104 (Hondabond/Yamabond) for areas like that. Stays put.

A guy I follow on YT said he finds his BFA noticeably heavy, a bit less balanced than his others. What's your experience?

I just finished assembly with hondabond,(so I guessed right).
The motor itself is noticeably heavier, the crank itself is a monster!
As far as balance, hard to say as it's in a GL frame.
But to me it's just as easy to ride as a stock Rally, albeit, with a healthy respect for the throttle

Typical BFA, they tend to leak easily. Friend has one, usually needs to tighten the cylinder after a ride or chase a leak or two. But it's a fun monster…

I guess that would help with smooth running? What do you put that down to?

Vibrations, quality. Cylinder doesn't leave too much room for proper flanged copper nuts…

I've never had much success with paper base gaskets. They seem to shrink then leak. Buy or make an aluminium one. Use with your favourite sealer and I expect it to last until you remove it.
Piston crown looks nice btw.

Today I....

Iwillll chuck spanners, mislay tools, hunt them down to find them right under my nose, question my life cboices that lead me to Vespas and if time allows..... work on the Spanish Money Pit.
😀

Same, with some variations..... "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. - Henry David Thoreau

I used to make my own with Artein gasket paper sheets. Several thicknesses from .30 to .70mm, and sheets big enough to cut both lambretta- and vespa-casing sized gaskets.👍


Haven't tried Victor Reinz's variant yet, but it looks promising.

First time…

Oiler tube needed a healthy dose of male enhancement pharmaceuticals. Not having a Rx on hand I went Allen wrench. It seemed to get things sorted:

How did that even happen?

No idea. Carb was in a box of parts with the jug. Maybe squished by the bits in the tub at some point?