Modern Vespa

I have a 2021 300 Super HPE that needs its first oil change. This is my first time doing an oil change on THIS particular model bike. To prevent the dirty oil from running down the center stand and getting oil over my nice, sealed garage floor, I want to put a drain pain under the right side of the center stand and let the oil drain into the pan. Is the best way to get an oil collection pan under the stand to tilt the bike to the left and have someone slide the pan under the right leg of the stand, or is there a better way? When I lived in NJ, my concrete floor was nasty, so I didn't mind making a mess when changing the oil on my GT 200. Thanks for the help!

I think I have seen Robot do a video where he uses a small motorcycle jack so that he can leave the center stand up.

I don't know if it is your particular model or not but I would pursue something along these lines as a strategy to keep the oil off of the center stand.

I also have a couple of old inflatable camping mattresses that don't hold air that I have saved as my oil change drop clothes, easy to take into the back yard and hose off after wiping most of the oil drops off.

At about 4 minutes is where he talks about using something besides center stand to minimize clean up

Thanks for the link! I watched it in its entirety. Excellent video. Same model as mine. Robot is fortunate to have access to professional motorcycle lifts with front wheel chocks to keep his bikes upright and center stands up during oil changes. Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury. I'll have to figure something out. Thanks again!

If you've got a second person around to help slide the oil tray, then maybe you could just ask them to hold up the bike for a couple of minutes instead?

Wasn't there a trick where you could use the pet carrier upside down to keep a GTS upright without using the center stand?

Yes, upturn the pet carrier and place it under the belly of the scooter. Great for front wheel removal and checking the steering bearings.

Plus 1 on what Berto said. It only takes a few minutes to drain when the oil is warm. If no one is around, I tie it up against the wall to my kayak pulley setup with a moving blanket where it touches.

You can always lean your machine against a wall. Then you don't need the center stand and it's out of the way. Perhaps a bit inelegant, but it works.

This suggestion is definitely doable in my garage. I can lean it up against my work bench. Thanks!

I have made custom funnels from several layers of aluminum foil to route the oil around the center stand. I do the same things on the gear oil. I've been doing this for years and use the same strategy on my BMW MC and my lawn tractor oil and coolant. Works great. I toss the aluminum funnel after a single use.

Miguel

Cardboard on the floor is always a good idea.

Also if you are good with rope any tying knots if there is a couple good anchor spots in the garage you can tie it so it can't fall over.

Very important to get it secure and stable somehow for safety. Something just falling over is known in the industry as "stored energy" and can be catastrophic if it gets you just right.

I did not know about the pet carrier for a stand but a milk crate or home made box works well for that as well and probably not a bad idea to have it tied down when you plan on wrenching on it.

Yes yes indeed it would be nice to have his workshop. I see one video where he is holding the scooter with one hand and turning the crank with the other to tighten arms on the front wheel. The arms appear to be not much different a dimension than 2x4's. A couple 2x4's and a rope tied to itself to make a loop and then a stick to twist the rope makes an excellent clamp.

In middle school woodshop I made some speaker cabinets with mitered corners and we didn't have miter clamps at the woodshop so I used a similar technique with 4 scrap wood corner pieces to clamp the speaker cabinets together and it worked perfectly.

We had a really strict ancient old woodshop teacher who only gave out two A's on projects all year long and my speaker cabinets got an A-. The other guy made a violin and played it at the end of the year.

A long time ago a foreman I worked with said that usually whatever you need will be just lying around, it is up to you to figure out how to use what you have. And you have to remember somebody made all of those tools that Robot has and with time and ingenuity and some money you can create inexpensive versions for home use.

I use a Form A Funnel from Amazon

I use this wheel chock from Harbor Freight
https://www.harborfreight.com/motorcycle-wheel-chock-69026.html
Then jack up the body a bit with my hydraulic floor jack. Any scissor jack with a board on top would be fine too. Easy and neat.

One more vote for the aluminum foil funnel/trough method.

I leave the scooter on the center stand and pinch the end of an L shaped chute (made from milk carton plastic) between the center stand and engine. Placed under the oil drain, the dirty oil lands on this chute and is diverted a few inches forward of the center stand leg to flow into the drain pan. Easy set up and minimal mess.

Robot also has a video making a shop wheel chock out of a hunk of plywood, a 2x6 some 2x4 and two eye bolts. Plus two tie down straps. It was to address this oil problem.

I've done this. My problem with this solution is that you have to find a place to store it till you need it again and it's a bulky item unless you break it down.

Miguel

I like that!

there is. have a mechanic do it.

all kidding aside, you can fashion funnels and wrap center stands and lean bikes up. but the one thing that doesn't change is the working area. if you don't have a lift you're gonna be rolling around on the ground. which sucks under the best set of circumstances.

second part- there's just no room. so you're already on the ground and now you're all jammed up. so you need the right tools, or you need to pull your exhaust, or you need to do both.

as somebody that's changed enough oil to float a battleship, I can tell you it sucks to have to go it another way than having the front wheel secured and jacking the body up so you have access and tucking the center stand up.

a quick cheat: tie it down in the back of your truck, throw a 4X4 block under the rear wheel, snap the center stand up and have at it.

I lean my Vespa GTs up against my closed garage door and put bricks at both wheels to prevent it from rolling.

The center stand stays up, leaving lots of room for the pan to catch the oil.

It also allows me to lean the scooter to get the last drop out.

As for the oil filter, the exhaust is directly in front of the filter.

The newer slotted filters are hard to work in this configuration, but I always find a way using one of two tools that fit the slot.

The older filters with the hex bold on the ends are much easier to loosen and tighten.

My scooter that had a Leo Vince exhaust did not conflict with getting a straight shot at the slotted oil filter. Not sure why Piaggio designed it the way they did, but I always manage.

Bill

Greasy, I appreciate your candor and humor…..lol. I've changed a lot of oil and filters over the last 45 years and it's gotten much harder for me as I've gotten older. I have three fused vertebrae and two bad knees, so just getting down on the floor is a chore. I had a mc lift at my previous home in NJ, but I just don't have the room for it here at my new house in VA. I had a truck, but I sold it last fall. The bottom line is that getting down on the floor is my only option. I've changed the oil and filter on my GT 200 and my wife's old LX 150 many times, and I have all the conventional and specialized tools to do the job, so that isn't an issue. The giant oil mess is really my only problem. I'm gonna try leaning the bike on my workbench and see if that will safely work. If not, I'm gonna put it on its center stand, and try one of those bendable funnels to divert the oil into my collection pan. If all else fails, I can always take it to my Vespa dealer, but I hate farming a job out that I know I can do myself.

I truly appreciate everyone's suggestions. Thanks!

brake clean works great to clean up all the mess from the oil slopping everywhere.

the oil change is the same, the mess doesn't change man.

I hear ya. Thanks!

Mopedlar, I know what you are talking about. Two back operations and looking at a third soon enough. I work on bikes and scoots as well as maintaining my four kids cars, my truck and my wife's car. Creepers have never worked for me all that well for me, even though I have (thankfully) a 2 car garage to work in. My method, whether it be cars or PTWs: place a piece of cardboard under the catch pan, use another piece of cardboard (thick) to lie down on, and most importantly - get all the tools needed for the job on the floor within reach so I don't have to get up and down. Remove the drain plug and filter, ponder the wonders of life while I lie there and it's draining and then button everything back up. Leaning the scoot against the wall will work, but I would strongly suggest you tie it of some way. One little nudge could knock it over - possibly on top of you. Good music helps too. Good luck.

Tierney, thanks for all the tips! Now I gotta find some more cardboard since I took it all to the recycling center last week….lol. I've had two back surgeries within the last two years. Originally, I was having pain and numbness in my legs. The two spinal surgeries corrected the problem with my legs, but now I'm left with a constant aching in my lower back. I also had my left knee replaced 18 months ago and my left shoulder replaced last September. My right knee will be replaced next. I'm truly the bionic man….lol. Best of luck with your third back surgery should you need it. I don't envy you. Back surgeries are the worst.

If you decide to get a Form A Funnel get the green one in the size you need.The aluminum on the outer edge breaks down on the cheaper ones.I believe I paid about $30 for it and use it for everything in the garage.

Just placed my order for one on Amazon. Thanks for the tip! 😉

Nothing bugs me more than this sort of thing. I'm no mechanic, but I've owned 17 cars and worked on countless others in my relatively few years on the planet. My FIAT aside, the one common denominator was they all needed oil changes. Some of them were fantastic, like the old air cooled VWs. Oil changes were quick and enjoyable with almost no mess. Others left me cursing engineers to high Heaven.

I work with engineers every. Single. Day. There are good engineers and not so good engineers, and their "goodness" does not always equate with their success in the field.

Why on God's green earth would any engineer, knowing that oil changes are necessary routine maintenance, design a vehicle that makes changing said oil anything less than easy as possible? I'm not a violent man, but when I see a drain plug with a cross member directly below it, or an oil filter directly over a steering rack I just want to start throwing punches.

Two scooter examples. The drain plug on my Aprilia is easily accessible. Unfortunately they ran the exhaust directly in front of it. The filter that comes out is almost, but not quite, exactly the length from the oil drain to the pipe. IMHO that is simply stupid. I hate changing the oil. And the rear gear oil? Yeah, the back wheel is getting wet. It's not that either is necessarily hard, it's just irritating that it isn't easier.

Contrast that with my Chinese bike. The drain plug drains out the bottom, and it's wide open space below it. Same with the rear gear oil.

The minute I have to start fabricating special equipment in order to change fluids on a vehicle is the same minute I start critiquing the engineering behind it.

Rant over.

Rant appreciated!! 😎
Miguel

Amen! Can I get another amen?….lol

My first encounter with that kind of engineering mess was a VW Jetta TDi. The headlight had burned out and I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to reach the bulb, so I asked a mechanic friend.

They looked at it and said, "oh...it's THAT one. You don't take the bulb out of the headlight, you take the headlight off of the bulb."
I'm sorry...you do WHAT?

Man you are so right! My wife's Jetta had a running light burn out. I couldn't fit my big paw into the space. My mechanic couldn't either. He ended up taking the wheel-well out of the car and getting to the light from underneath, which still wasn't easy. I love the car but working on it sucks. They just cram shit in wherever they can.

I did what skids mentioned for a scoot I had previously. Now, I'm with Greasy, I'll pay someone when needed.

Yep, just did my 15000km oil/filter change at home. Next one - 20,000km will be done at the dealers as it is a bit more comprehensive than simply changing the oil and filter and checking the belt width is okay.
But the next day the body told me I had been up and down too often on my lovely concrete driveway. I need a motorcycle lift!

Wall, truck bed, wheel vise, wheel chock... you guys covered everything but the most fun: Just ask a pretty girl to sit on your Vespa and keep it vertical for you (don't forget to play with your dipstick first).

Truthfully, the small oil capacity makes the Vespa one of the cleanest oil changes of my bikes (5ish right now...), and it's only the 2nd most annoying. Because there's a special place in hell for BMW engineers lol

Screenshot on my video on how to change the oil and filter on a primavera/sprint:

PS: Low profile 24mm socket helps getting in there without taking the pipe off
https://amzn.to/3cfgsc9

Yeah, and then you go and strip the head on your drain plug because of the distraction

Recommendation on a 24 mm low profile socket for drain plug.The one I have will not work with my 3/8 torque wrench?

I did it without mess and without fancy jacks or chocks.

I used the side stand when undoing the plug and then tilted it back up right (actually slightly further over) and held it there by hand until I got bored. and of course careful positioning of the oil pan (simple round one)