Modern Vespa

me thinks opinions will change when you see the finish product. please wait for that. but I have thick skin. so negative comments are always welcome.

had to order rear tire from germany. they dont sell this model here. bought two to make cost per tire more reasonable. the shinko worked quite well if you ask me. I did burn through it 4000 miles. so I guess I am looking at 8000 miles for these tires. hope I like it.

Last edited by jerryd on Sat, 05 Oct 2019 20:30:51 +0000; edited 2 times

I've been around this transformation from the start. It certainly won't strike everyone's likes, but it will certainly be a discussion starter anywhere it goes. It's something pictures can't really catch but needs to be seen in person. It's very tastefully done and once the bike is painted, it will be pleasing to the eyes. I, for one, can't wait to finally see this thing completed. It's been quite the project from start to now.

I like where this project is going.

Looking quite great already!

soooo I didnt get finished on the schedule I wanted. its always more work than planned so that is of no surprise.

in order to get finished up there is an order to things at this point.
kickstand needs welded.
then floorboards can be finished.
then lower spoiler built
then we can paint.
new wheels, seat cover, exhaust ,led mods, audible blinker ,misc small finishing touches.

about six hours work fitting side stand. came out nice. its a leaner standing still.
bike should be 499lbs now if my math is correct. only place left to shave weight is muffler.

Cool! 8)

Reali like n will put on the side stand some day!

499lbs? Damn, that is light! Might see 475lbs after muffler change! Time to bring it to the dump and weigh it! It looks awesome on the side stand!

I think the bike looks better parked on center stand. parked looks wasnt really a consideration here. only drove bike for about an hour and a half last nite. which included maybe 8-10 stops. all I can say is I am in love with this mod. I think I hate center stands now.

Welcome to the club 8)

I remove centerstands from my bikes and keep 'm in the garage, only to be used when working on the bike.

discovered the tilt ECU has a tllt sensor inside that provides data to engine ECU. the engine wont crank when its on the side stand. the bike needs to be righted first.

edit: turns out I have no idea why bike wouldnt start when on side stand. bike stalled on ride today. had ordered a new kill switch just to get rid of pink color. apparently the kill switch was failing. but not even sure of that diagnosis. I am beginning to think piaggio doesnt use the greatest quality wire for harness and problems arise once harness is older and gets moved around.

the dipstick has to be used slightly different. when level is topped off there is no oil showing on the sidestand. so its just a matter of righting the bike for a second before pulling dipstick.

I changed plugs this morning. found there were no high performance plugs installed. It runs amazing now. cant get over how much smoother running the engine is. and how much power it gained. pretty remarkable for just plug change. I think very important twin plug cylinder have plugs in top condition. probably gonna change mine sooner than the 6k the factory recommends.

found a blue I think I like better than the BMW blue. volvo bursting blue. its a bit darker. a little more serious color. I think it will fit better.
plan was to install new wheels last. but rear tire is getting really low. rpm is getting annoyingly high. so i think wheels will be next. I want to see what the red looks like with bright wheels. may just stay with red since its gonna be hard to choose a blue.

Guess I'll have to see the color in person as the picture might not be doing it justice for me. That's got to be a new color for Volvo!

you know how blues are on monitors. the bmw blue looks pretty much the same. but the bursting blue must be seen in person. monitors change it.

Yea, I figured as much. Sounds like we need to go to a Volvo dealership so I can see this color up close.

skipped a step and decided to cover seat. first was to address the sliding forward issue on these bikes. I consider the factory seat horrible in this respect.

what I did:

lower rear shocks one inch
lower rear tire 140/60 (not for everybody but I LOVE it)

raised front bucket by .5 inch. I did whole bucket so I wouldn't loose my compartment seal. my bike is semi-naked. everyone else can raise front of seat bracket but seat bucket will not be sealed. no idea how fast dust would get in.

recovering my seat. I grind away about .25 of plastic to make seat area more bucket like.

then I raise the very front of seat with .5 inch extra padding. I try the 10mm thick gel both over and under padding. seat comfort did not improve and it make me slide forward again. my but sink into the softer original padding better.

after all the tweeks I would say problem was about 90% removed. I weigh 170lbs.

uncomfortable seat just ruins the riding experience.

wife donate old leather jacket we got at garage sale for like 3 bucks. very supple leather. very stretchy. there is a flap that is sewn to underside of seat cover that holds the cover into the crease in seat. I didnt want to add a new seem so I used the buttons from the jacket to hold the flap on the backside. I like the way in turn out.





amazing how tires expand when mounted.

I like where your going wish i could get one for £250 never mind $250 . I'm suprised you still have the air filter housing i junked mine what a pita see my photos and junk the rear shocks there total c--p i proved it after fitting a pair of very old koni dial a rides that were past there best and it improved handling no end. It handled even better after i stripped and cleaned them out and refilled them with new oil. O and reading about your spark plug change that was the first thing i did ,you will also find if you use the best petrol/gas highest octane you can buy use it you will notice the difference.And as for petrol with alcohol in it ,avoid it ,alcohol is for drinking in moderation.

Did you just remove the entire airbox and use a foam filter? I'm certainly curious about a back to back comparison. What other modifications performance wise have you done?

the pod filter doesnt muffle. I dont think I would like it. next time I clean my filter I will ride it with the box open. but I think I already have my answer. the box was pretty noisy when the foam filter was broken open. cant imagine no box.

I have no tolerance for making my vehicles louder. I go the other direction where possible.

the 2016 shocks were pretty fabulous when first installed. no complaints whatsoever. but now just a year later its getting hard to hear the nitrogen charge. they loose smoothness without the air charge on board, people dont realize how fast that goes away. shocks are high maintenance if you ask me. I am already considering buying new ones already.

Yes i completely removed the air box and replaced it with a UK made Ramair foam filter . The engine breather pipe that originaly ran into the air box took abit of thinking about as i was wondering about the small amount of oil that used to collect in the original air box. What i came up with was to use a compressed air line water/oil trap there cheap to buy about £3-£4 i fitted this to the breather pipe at the inlet end and fitted it so that any oil that made it's way up to it would run back into the engine when stopped, the outlet end just runs to atmosphere and a small collector bottle (just in case) so far it works ok no problems at all. Will post a photo probably tomorrow. It is slightly noiser. Have done other mods main one was fitting that little adjustable screen which is on a level with doing the seat it takes all the buffeting away from my head. Forgot to say fitting the 13" later wheels and tyres improved handleing just as the Koni-dial-arides did. Still want to do something with the front shocks but time keeps getting in the way .

Last edited by 3legsofman on Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:49:32 +0000; edited 1 time

Sorry to hear that. I realised how bad they were very early on after buying the fuoco and also found out about the worn (but not wornout) rear tyre and how that affected handleing.

Definitely interested to see pics of your set up and also seeing you convert to 13" wheels/tires.

[/quote]
Definitely interested to see pics of your set up and also seeing you convert to 13" wheels/tires.[/quote]


Front wheel change is easy just remove 12" ones and fit 13" straight swop .It's not a cheap thing to do new but ebay came up with used wheels and tyres at a very reasonable price although i did repaint them as they were grey and marked. I do wonder if just fitting a narrower tyre to the 12" would give the same improvement in handling. The real reason for fitting the 13" was i liked the snowflake style wheels the 12" look very childrens bike/ pram to me. I do have the matching snowflake rear but am waiting untill the rear tyre is worn out on the original. I'm also going to try a 150 wide tyre instead of the 140 and see what its like. I'm a bit indisposed at the mo ,looks like i've been kicked in the mouth by my dentist yesterday and look like Homer Simpson today so will post photo of filter/trap as soon as i feel more with it (next few days).

Yes i'm not all that keen to make my vehicals noisier but the airbox i dident like the look of and it was in the way of maintenance work i had /wanted to do and when it came to refit i decided to give a alternative a go,yes there is some more induction noise but not that much. It's like the original silencer it's quiet i like it for that BUT it does effect right hand low speed turns and as you have found out is HEAVY and it gets so hot it's i would say dangerouse to anyone getting to close to it when at a stand still so i thought i would try the leov and it is noisier unfortunatly if i could get it quieter then that would be great but it improves the fuoco in other ways.

Definitely interested to see pics of your set up and also seeing you convert to 13" wheels/tires.[/quote]


Front wheel change is easy just remove 12" ones and fit 13" straight swop .It's not a cheap thing to do new but ebay came up with used wheels and tyres at a very reasonable price although i did repaint them as they were grey and marked. I do wonder if just fitting a narrower tyre to the 12" would give the same improvement in handling. The real reason for fitting the 13" was i liked the snowflake style wheels the 12" look very childrens bike/ pram to me. I do have the matching snowflake rear but am waiting untill the rear tyre is worn out on the original. I'm also going to try a 150 wide tyre instead of the 140 and see what its like. I'm a bit indisposed at the mo ,looks like i've been kicked in the mouth by my dentist yesterday and look like Homer Simpson today so will post photo of filter/trap as soon as i feel more with it (next few days).[/quote]

The one main problem I would have with doing the open-filter mod that you've done is I ride my scoot year round. Weather here in Florida is very rainy, so having something like that definitely isn't an option for me. If I only rode with good weather, I would love to give it a try to see what the differences would be. Looking forward to seeing those pics.

I live in Scotland so we know about weather. I'll swop florida if you want scotland .With the rear hugger the filter does not get wet and it is waterproof to a degree. Photo's when i feel up to it my face hurts

When I first became interested in scooters and realized that not many in my neck of the woods rides them, I always wanted to move to another part of the country that was more fitted towards scooter riders. Haha. I'll swap.

got my money worth from the shinko. lots of smiles per miles. but looking forward to leaning on the new conti.

why not keep running it? I mean like you have at least another 500 miles left. That way you can brag even more when you wear it down thru ALL the cords as well.

I have replaced many worn out tires on high performance vehicles. Its never a pleasant day for me. when tread wears off tires it makes the tire far lighter and smaller. both of which I like. Bike was an absolute blast to ride with that worn out tire. putting the new tire on was a complete let down for me. it was like putting the 70 series tire back on the bike. which I now know I will never do. on cars the problem is so big I have been tempted many time over to shave my brand new tires. like race cars do.

I wasnt bragging by showing a picture of profile differences. but you are indeed an ahole for making such statement. there was no point to it all other than to show what kind of person you are.

pretty easy to lock front to do work

Nice ride Jerry. Looks like you've been very busy.

front wheels easy to service. just a scissor jack.

not nice weather. overcast takes the worst pics. but I think i like the new look.

Whats the new fronts off jerryd and have you changed the back as well?. I still think the snowflakes look the best though.

the fronts are primavera. the back is beo 500. the beo wheel is about 1 pound lighter than mp3 wheel. the original wheels dont really match either front to rear. so I was okay with it. I didnt see the 2019 primavera wheel. it would have matched the beo wheel better. was really after silver finished wheels. did first wash today and I am very happy.

The BEO rearwheel also got another ET spec so its off the centre now

so not true.

They certainly look better than the original fuoco wheels. Keep modifing jerryd. I still think the snowflakes look better

Still think you want to junk the original silencer the weight saving as you know would be considerable ,i know your thoughts on keeping the noise down. What about putting the silencer under the seat by cutting out the potty ( underseat area) just like some ducatis and others.

yes the silencer is near 21 lbs. somehow someway that will be reduced. it will be my first focus after the body is done. I am considering cutting open the stock muff and rebuilding with lighter materials. if I am honest I love the way the stock exhaust sounds. and I am not crazy about loosing any torque with aftermarket muffs just to save 10-12 lbs. we'll see how we end up.