Modern Vespa

Yesterday, once I'd determined that the Flytech was not going to be moving from the VBB back over to the Stella, I decided to give the Kytronik one last try and was pleasantly surprised when it worked.

I've set it on Curve 7, which is an 8 degree curve from 4,000 to 7,000 RPM's and it's running quite nicely. I took it out for a little spin and it felt really nice, adding a little bit of torque back on the low end.

Now that the bike seems to be back at 100%, I may try to get out and cover some miles today even though the weather is looking kind've marginal--mostly sunny, but a high only in the upper 40f's.

And as long as I'm posting...

When I was re-re-building the VBB's motor, I managed to crush the cylinder head o-ring on the Malossi 166. This was obviously irritating, since a replacement was going to be $6 USD plus shipping, so it winds up being a $13 mistake.

Instead, I grabbed my calipers, got the measurements on it, then took to Google and was able to order twenty(!) 70mm x 1.5mm Rubber O-rings made of heat-resistant material, with free Amazon Prime two-day shipping, for $8.

While the original o-ring was closer to 1.7mm, these passed a leakdown test with flying colors and I now have a lifetime supply of o-rings for the Malossi (along with the resulting storage problem ).

This is not to say I'm not doing my part to keep the various scooter parts specialists in business, but there are some cases where I feel it just makes sense to order generic industrial components rather than paying ridiculous markup just because it came from, in this particular case, Malossi.

Good on ya chandler, having two running scoots ... just in time for the Spring thaw.

p.s. Buying in bulk makes sense. Back when the smallie was blowing bulbs daily, I bought a lifetime supply of 5w festoons for something like $10

Yeah, it feels kind've weird. Fortunately, there's no shortage of tasks still out there. The VBB's speedo still doesn't work; the clutch side cowling has both loose & missing holding bolts; I want to fab up a new bracket for the CDI on the Stella; and they could both stand to have their I'm right there with ya. I bought a dozen fly side woodruff keys a few years ago after I sheared three in a row forgetting to torque down the flywheel while setting points timing and still haven't gone through all of them.

Bulbs, even relatively exotic ones like festoons are easy enough to get on Amazon that I don't hoard them like I used to, though.

I need to find a source for the thick (tall?) M7 hex nuts and M7 washers, too. Seems like I never have any/enough of those.

My difficulty is I know I bought something 2 years ago, but where is it now? Long (12.5mm) and flanged, $25.69 for 10 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nut-M7-Flange-Nut-Long-12-5-High-BMW-Car-Motorcycle-10-pcs-Nut-M7/323172847136?hash=item4b3e9a4e20:g:qm4AAOSw-0xYPVpU

I was thinking of the non-flanged nuts that are about 5 or 6mm tall that come stock on LML's. Still can't find a good source for those.

And in other news, I just got an email that the new DRT seat I ordered is going to arrive tomorrow rather than on Thursday when the family head out of town for a long weekend, so I'll have some 'splainin to do about that tomorrow.

Over the weekend, though, I got out and did a little highway time on the Stella. It easily held 70mph (GPS) into a headwind at about half throttle and even with heat soak, the CHT never got over 355f (BGM 177, so aluminum), which I was pretty pleased with. I had it up over 75 at one point, but that was a little too exciting with air buffeting from traffic.

Unfortunately, my old P200 system plus the Kytronik seems to have failed entirely after I got home. I guess that was just more than it could sustain. I tried pulling the Kytronic and resetting timing to static 18 BTDC, but nothing. weak, inconsistent spark and jumpy timing, so I guess it's done.

So I pulled the trigger on the new SIP Variable Timing DC ignition this morning, because...well...if I have to buy something, I might as well buy something good.

It should arrive later this week, so I'll have a write-up on it once it gets here.

Happy Monday, everyone!

I learned a valuable lesson about sweeping up cable clippings in the garage. Never did I imagine a tiny, thin wire could migrate deep into my S83 and puncture my tube. But yet, it is so.

Should be an impressive thing! What are you going to do about the DC? Are you set up for that at the moment?

I'm semi-set up for it. I have a 12v regulator that's not doing anything, I converted over to LED for most of my lights and am sick of the flicker, especially at idle.

I think I'll just need to swap the regulator/rectifier for the regulator and combine the different circuits coming off the r/r onto the battery.

Now for the real dilemma..I realized that I just did the dumbest troubleshooting thing ever. The whole issue I've been thinking was some sort of electrical issue turned out to be...that I was out of gas.

So I don't need the new ignition and could still log in to SIP and hit "cancel" on the order. But I really do want it, even if I no longer need it...

It takes a big man to admit that!! Let's not call it a dumb mistake, let's call it fate. Or maybe kismet.

I tried to call it "cancelled," but somehow failed to do it correctly. I blame trying to work off my phone before bed while my wife bugged me to quit messing with my phone and turn out the light. Or maybe this was the German Scooter Gods' way of telling me to buy more scooter parts.

Either way, it's in the post and so now I clearly have no choice but to drive on with the project, albeit in a less hasty manner than I was expecting this time yesterday.

Little Devil pieces of steel ! That happened to me once, most aggravating... But glad you are getting your scoot ready for Spring.
Now, how about those Honda CR80 corks?

I had enough parts lingering around to rebuild already. Next time I have one go out, It's Honda time. I'll haul over to your place with new diskies a case of beer.

[quote="chandlerman"] Heheheheheh , I love when I do incredibly "clever" stuff!

The DRT seat I ordered after the last wet ass from riding on my old split seat arrived yesterday. Fortunately, I was able to get home before my wife so she never saw the box.

And then she'll be out of town when the SIP box arrives on Thursday, so I may get away without having to own up to any of it.

I hope your luck stays good, the less packages observed the better.

It's about time something scooter-related went my way

today i check the tek tek sound in my rear tyre on the smallie and realize that its a worn bearing.. now the big question is, has anyone change the smallie rear wheel bearing without open the engine case? or it just like a large frame when opening the case is the only way

Visited the Voodoo lounge and saw the 3D printer, forge, scoots, had a few snacks and then got whooped on the billiards table 😝

Oh please Mr Modest, I did OK at 8 ball but I think you notched more 9 ball wins and I'm pretty sure you've played this game before. And thank you for muling that part down to SoCalGuy, very convenient!

Not quite spring yet...🙄

New toys came yesterday so I ducked out early and got it installed late yesterday afternoon. Proper write-up to come in a separate thread.

like the looks of that way more than the vespatronic.

Took my wife on a saturday night date

Back home again after a great National Rally in Canberra with 1850 more km on the scoot. Thanks to Nicky who helped us to leave town and discover the carefully hidden servo. Guess they didn't want it falling into enemy hands or something.
We came home via Cooma, Cabramurra, Corryong (camped on the golf course!), Mitta Mitta, Omeo, Bruthen, Maffra on to Berwick. The Omeo Highway was absolutely magical. I'm up to go back any time should someone ask...

Dude,it worked! thanks for the tutorial MJRally ! Camo Franken-smallie is legal! 3 week turnaround including postage time.....and I've been in Texas for the past week so who knows when it got here....

whoa! it's a working pool shark table? when I was there it was a scooter parts storage and work bench!

Its a magical transformer pool table !!!

this is awesome Brother M, thanks for the pics, 1850 more km.. its a yeahh

now have a good rest and cheer

Today I did a buncha gangster weaving shit through traffic... Then dumped my bike doing 20 on my own block....what a bitch...

That sounds about right lad.

Another fine adventure Ginchi!

Was planning on getting up early and riding the Guzzi to Canberra for Auto Italia but got called into work last night. A good few Vespas on show apparently.

Today I'm flying out to San Francisco for the week, but over the weekend, I finished up the turn signal swap-out to LED's on the Stella and fixed the throttle pulley.

The turn signals were a huge improvement. They went from, "I'm going to get hit because you can barely tell they're flashing," especially at idle, to "I'm going to get hit because I blinded the other drivers with my blazing turn signals."

The throttle pulley is a larger diameter aluminum one I put on after I got the 34mm carb because the stock pulley didn't have enough circumference. It had no stop on it, though, so it sheared off the throttle cable when I rolled it back past the idle stop.

I drilled and tapped a hole in the pulley for an M5 bolt, which then acts as a stop. Works perfectly.

I forgot to take a picture, but I need to replace the cable because I bodged the old cable to work in the interim and it has a loose strand, so I'll take one then.

Chandlerman. A question.... Apart from changing the indictor globes to led's was there anything you needed to do for this upgrade?

Sounds like a great improvement! My lml 150 indicators could do with some extra lumens for sure.

Cheers

specific to the turn signals, you'll also need to replace the blinker unit itself with one for LED's, but that's like a $15 part. Other than that, it's just the bulbs. I had previously replaced the brake & tail lights with LED's, too.

The bigger change was converting the overall electrical system to DC, but that's more about the headlight than anything. No more flickering at idle and it comes on with the key, so I can still see and be seen if the motor dies.

Thanks chandlerman.. I'll look into it. Sounds good.

Got some primer on the seat for the orange bastard. . . . . It kicked up in 4 after being sat nearly a year. . . .

Finally some nice weather.

Bit of fun in the sun in Dublin