Modern Vespa

I've been running the Malossi (Paioli) shock on my smallframe and love it so I decided to put one on my LX150 as well.

here's the step by step for getting through it.

1. Lift the front of the scoot. this can be done with a length of 2x4 under the scooter near the side stand mount. I used an aerosol can that was just the right length.

2. Remove the front wheel.


3. remove the two bolts securing the bottom of the shock.

4. Remove the screw securing the cable guide and the two nuts securing the top of the shock.

5. Transfer the top mounting bracket from the old to the new shock. I used blue loctite here because I'm paranoid.

6. Now it gets fun. The bolts that hold the top of the shock are being held by gravity and a slot on the top of the fork where they sit. They will not turn on you but they will lift making it hard to get everything in place. Note that only the brake line

7. Line up the bottom of the shock and replace the bolts. My shock did not have nuts welded to it like the original so I used a wave washer and nyloc nut.

8. tighten it all down, attach the lower cable guide and put the front wheel back on. you're done.

and ?

how do you like it ?


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Kill !

Is that the shock for the ET2/4? I'm guessing the same one fits the LX?

Where'd you buy it? ASC?

I have almost 2K miles and my front shock is noticeably worse than when I bought the bike.

It should be the same one that's at ASC. That's where I bought mine. I mounted the Paioli on my ET4 and found great improvement on handling. Still going after CBR06.

it handles great in my limited testing on city streets. very smooth, far less twitchy in the corners. I went with a fairly light preload and damping set to the middle for now.

When I put the Malossi front shock on, I was told they were different for the LX than the ET. Larger front wheel and longer strut cover, remember.

I put them side by side and the malossi shock was about 5mm shorter than a stock LX shock. Not sure how it compares to the ET4.

On number 5. it looks like there was more you wanted to say: "Note that only the brake line..."

If you remember, 'cos I notice this was 6 years ago.

Thanks for the blue lock tight tip. I have to try this. I too get a bit paranoid at times too.

7. Line up the bottom of the shock and replace the bolts. My shock did not have nuts welded to it like the original so I used a wave washer and nyloc nut.

If the shock doesn't come with nuts and washers, where did you find these? It's difficult for me to find anything metric around here.

Bringing this one back from the dead! I replaced the front (stock) shock on my 2006 LX 150 earlier this morning. The install went like the posts above suggested.

Step 6 is definitely the most difficult part. Not only do the bolts push up, but sandwiching the brake line bracket between the shock top and the mounting point on the fork was a huge pain! I wasn't able to get the brake line into the bracket after I installed it, meaning I had to put the brake line in the bracket and then sandwich it between the hock top and the mounting point on the fork. With gravity working against me, I ended up using some blue painter's tape to hold the bracket in place, with the bolts hanging down through it, and then I wiggled the shock top into place.

The top of the OEM shock is wider than the Malossi. This meant that I had to use the open end of a wrench to get the top nuts off, but I was able to get a socket on the nuts upon reinstallation.

Malossi is still not providing nuts for mounting to the hub. I bought some nyloc nuts at my local hardware store. For good measure I replaced the bushings with OEM Vespa bushings.

My initial impressions are that this shock is a huge improvement. It feels like the shock is actually doing something now! More confident in the corners and I don't feel every little bump in the road.