Modern Vespa

I run the original vario.
This contains 8 x Dr Pulley sliders 18Gr (2517-18G)

A Dr Pulley hit clutch, with 2 spacer rings under the original compression spring.

Ceramic coated downpipe from a Mp3 500.

Mivv exhaust.

The new HPE cilinder and piston from the newest type Mp3 500.
Compression ratio was 10,5 : 1.
Compression now is 11,0 : 1.

The rest is original.

The thin rear tyre is now 140/60-14.
The original high tyre was 150/70-14.

I see you put a lot of thought in your setup. What is your tuning target? The dyno diagram shows the acceleration rpm around 6500.

Did you see differences between the old and HPE cylinder?

For the HIT clutch there are different opinions to find. The theory sounds convincing to me, but I have not found proof (like 0-100kph comparisions) that it delivers higher acceleration. What is your experience with it?

Thanks for sharing all your project and insights!

With the hpe i can feel it has more torque.
I have driven the donor Beverly with the standard, and later with the Hpe cilinder.

The clutch works verry good, when the clutch bites, it bites and does not slip.
With the original clutch, tested in the beverly, it could slip through.
This is mostly from a stop to full throttle launch.

This is the setup, all the power is where i want and need it.
Setup is perfect.

You did serious project and built it almost from scratch. Glad to see that you had idea, good will, tools and needed knowledge to do all this. I know exactly how you feel when have produced your own dream-scooter since I build and drive something similar (Sportcity 350ie).
Enjoy;-)

Reposted your project here on croatian local scooter forum and one older member told that one guy had similar but less "polished" project here. We fould old resales offer from 2nd owner after "project". Here you could see photos:
https://www.njuskalo.hr/skuteri-preko-50/gilera-runner-vx-500-cm3-oglas-8886416

Hello, yes i have seen that bike.
The donor for that was a 460cc Piaggio X9.
That was a more 'easy' build.
With big wheels, and a engine that is outside the frame.

I have seen more of these easy builds, that could have been mutch better if they took more time to do the build.

But most people don't care, they just want it to be fast.

You're totaly right- difference between your and this build is really big. We could see that you started with this project after longer research with almost unlimited tools availability, knowledge and experience. I'll say that budget wasn't bottleneck too;-)
I had issue with steering angle since my scooter wasn't projected for such speed- so had to increase steering angle from 25.5° to 26.5°. I hope you'll not meet this issue but take care during first top speed testing.
Also glad to hear that in your country you didn't had more problems during "homologation". In my country they expecting so detail project with all posible calculations that's almost imposible to pass;-)
Stay well and fast and receive my congratulation one more time!

I have been secretly following this topic since the day you started building it but made an account to share some info with you today
The only reason why i liked this project so much is because there was 1 in croatia built years ago that was sadly crashed
It changed many owners throu out its life and the last owner was here in my city of Rijeka

https://www.njuskalo.hr/skuteri-preko-50/gilera-runner-vx-500-cm3-oglas-8886416

https://www.njuskalo.hr/skuteri-preko-50/gilera-vx125-500ccm-500-cm3-oglas-13332474

https://riportal.net.hr/foto-krs-i-lom-kod-ztc-a-ovo-je-za-ne-vjerovati-nocni-jahac-se-motorom-zabio-u-automobil-i-pobjegao-vozacicu-odvezla-hitna/

Sad news- I didn't know.
Now I'm almost sure that this is only one in the world and based on owner dedication would run for many years...
I'm also almost sure that based on her car damage lady didn't had injury but just made insurance scam...
dOmo greetings from Zagreb;-)

it was pretty obvious
anyway the bike sits at a impound lot, bent beyond repair

Had some small jobs to do.
Had to change someting in the cooling system.
When driving verry slow, and running idle, the engine temp was getting to high.
I first thought that the original waterpump had not enough flow for the crossflow radiator.
But it truned out i had 2 airlocks in the system.
Changed the system, made 2 extra points to bleed the system and now it is all okay.

The flexible hose that goes to the air filter under the seat was mechanically to weak.
After 1000Km there were already 2 small holes in the hose.
So changed the hose to a modified Gilera Nexus 500 hose from the 2005 model.

The new flexible hose is thicker, so the plastic cover that was above the old hose has to be changed.
Now i made this from metal.






















The Gilera Nexus 500 hose, with a 45 degree alloy tube.




The metal cover is powder coated, and placed the Agip Sticker.
The Agip sticker is more correct with the construction year of the bike.









And today i drove it for the first time this year.
This was also the first time after the dyno setup.
The throttle respons is perfect, and the power....... bwah, nice!
Top speed, not tested yet.

Washed and waxed the 500cc Gilera Runner today.
Also did a engine oil change.

It now is ready for the 2021 season.
When the weather is good, i and my daughter can take a ride

Looks great! Best wishes to you and your daughter for the upcoming riding season

That's simply amazing

hi Arno, i had a guy contact me last week who had fitted a 200cc carb version piaggio engine into his runner st, he had used the runner st cradle which was badly worn, I replaced the bearings and rods in it, i also had to alter a bracket that was close to the oil breather coming out of the head, which was close to catching when on the stand, i also swapped the rubbers on the top of the shocks around with the thicker ones on top of the shocks when fitted into the holes, that added another 10mm to the position and aided, it now has good clearance, obviously he had to cut the bottom out of the under seat tray to accommodate the top of the carb, but while doing all this i also noticed that a gts 300 fuel injected engine would also fit in one of these scooters with very little fettling. A project i may well have a go at when i have sorted the forks on my 1965 BSA a65 star.

I have done a little over 2000 km now with the Runner after the conversion to 500cc.

Top speed?

This

+burnout video would be nice

Man id hate to break it to you but you aren't the first. This is also in the Netherlands. A way simpler job than yours though, coming from a VX not SP. [/img]

What makes you think i was the first and the only then?
I know there were more build, but not like this way.
That one above is from Elan.

There was also a black one that was made from a X9 and is already crashed.

And one with chrome covers, and a few in England.

So yes, i do know there are more.
But they did it in a simpler way, and none of them is officialy registred as a legal 500cc.
Mine is, and when the Dutch rdw does that you know the standard is high.

Ahhh understood! Yeah I've seen loads in England, most common is the 300 carb conversion as it goes straight into a VX but they all stay as 125 on paperwork for licenses as you can ride 125 on provisional license and any bigger needs a motorbike license. However, to get it to come back as 500cc In England you don't need any inspections done, just send off a receipt of an engine change and tell them the new engine size. Weird how it's so different.

I have no idea why people do not register them as a 500 other than the fact they ride on a provisional licence, i mot'ed my scomadi i fitted an x9 500 in and then registered it with dvla with out any problems. My 500 is now at junction 33 developments being remapped, not for more power but so it runs as it was intended, all vehicles that come here to the uk are mapped to run lean, which causes excess wear and tear, not to mention run hot, I am contemplating fitting a fuel injected 250 gas gas enduro engine into a lambretta next.

Wow what an amazing build, more than two years from start to finish, is both a huge amount of work and an amazing achievement such timeframe
I appreciate a lot especially since I started on a liquid cooled 50cc two stroke (MBK nitro) which was quite similar to the runner SP50 in terms of performance, although the runner was my dream 50cc at the time. , and the last motorcycle I owned was a Piaggio X9 500 (After a couple of 600cc singles and almost buying a runner 180) it was destroyed in an accident (14 years ago) and I have only occasionally ridden a few ride sharing electric scooters since.
Ride safe, 500cc scooters are deceptively fast with the CVT (although speed had nothing to do in my accident, since I was stopped!) and I guess with the weight of the runner and the attention you have on the tuning and the power it makes to the wheel, it must be on a another level as a stock X9.