Modern Vespa

It was in the upper 40's over night, 51 when I got on the bike this morning.

I only have a 2.5 mile drive to work. I stopped at a light two miles into the commute, locked the front end and put my feet on the floorboards, I then heard two beeps. I didn't fall over but I worried for a few seconds until I figured out what was going on. My Idle was still high because it was not fully warmed up yet. When the idle reaches the correct threshold it unlocks the front end, that threshold appeared to be around 2500 rpm.

I assume this wont happen when I'm not sitting on the bike. The passenger present sensor will assure that.

When I got to work the bike was still idling too high and I couldn't kick it down, so I had to lock the front end and quickly hit the kill switch before it unlocked again.

I guess I will need more warm up time before driving off in the AM.

Please let me know if you figure out

- you are idling high because its cold and not for some other reason
- that the RPM being high alone will always unlock the wheel-lock

I plan on riding my MP3 in cold weather and I don't want any surprises! I can't stop the MP3 from tipping over once it reaches a critical lean angle (angle is very small).

Mona

Hi Mona,

I believe that this is strictly a high idle because the engine is not fully warmed up. If so, the cure is to warm it longer before your ride but don't mount it before it it ready or you will have my trouble keeping the front locked.

The bike is designed to keep the front locked if there is not a "rider present" as determined by the internal seat sensor. When you are sitting on the bike it will unlock somewhere around 2500 rpm though!

If you let the bike warm up "enough" you should not have to worry about "my situation" I would think because I had not warmed it enough due to lack of cold weather experience.

Rules as I understand:
A. Bike rider is sitting on the seat as told by the sensor.
then these rules apply.
1. Bike needs to be below 10 mph to lock when riding.
2. Any RPM above 2500 rpm unlocks the front.

So when two is true the front unlocks. Which happens sometimes when the bike is not warmed it appears.

For the record the Temp Gauge displayed 5 bars but after five minutes from start to the unlock episode leads me to believe it the engine needs more time to reflect the coolant temp the gauge is indicating.

Mona, remember that Missouri is a heck of a lot colder then where we live. If you garage your MP3, it'll never get as cold as a bike in the East. Here, in California, our politics might be "out there", but our weather is second to none. Heck, we can ride in comfort pretty much 12 months out of the year.

You can lock the front without the motor running.
Just have the key in the on position and push the button.
You do not have to sit on it to lock the front, you do have to sit on it to unlock it.

Greets

My wifes MP3 has spent quite a bit of time running when temps were below 38 degrees F. She got it just before a major snowstorm and has taken some early spring time runs in Northern WI along the Mississippi.

There has never been a problem.

We are anxiously awaiting our first frost of the season. We don't anticipate any problems with the MP3 due to the cold.

Ours doesn't seem to idle high at warm up. Maybe you dealer adjusted something.

I do know that if your only going 2.5 miles to work that condensation will become an issue in your exhaust pipe and muffler. Won't get hot enough to dry it out. It also won't dry out the condensation that forms in the crank case.

My wifes MP3 has spent quite a bit of time running when temps were below 38 degrees F. She got it just before a major snowstorm and has taken some early spring time runs in Northern WI along the Mississippi.

There has never been a problem.

We are anxiously awaiting our first frost of the season. We don't anticipate any problems with the MP3 due to the cold.

Ours doesn't seem to idle high at warm up. Maybe you dealer adjusted something.

I do know that if your only going 2.5 miles to work that condensation will become an issue in your exhaust pipe and muffler. Won't get hot enough to dry it out. It also won't dry out the condensation that forms in the crank case.