Modern Vespa

wich are the better tire for the gts? totally happy with the city grip II, but my dealer cant get one for me...any sugestion for a simular/better tire??

Michelin Power Pure is a nice tyre for the GTS. The city grip 2 is one of the best for long wear. Have you tried sourcing the tyre yourself from the Web?

It feels like this question is asked every month

i heard good things about Pirelli Angel .

SIP has them in stock.

Very happy with Pirelli Angels on my former Sprint 150 and my current GTS300.

Why use the search function when you can make everyone spend time repeating themselves? lol

yup. usually I try to be helpful but when my neighbours were partying to the early hours I don't feel like it this morning

Big weekend for pulling an all nighter rager for Jesus

So here is a question for getting tires. For those who buy the tires someplace:- who mounts and balances them for you?
Here in NYC I haven't found someone who would do that task unless you buy the tires from them, hence so far the one time I have changed tires I had the shop do it as there wasn't an option for me to have it mounted and balanced.
I know one can mount them using tire irons and I could do that but I know I dont have the setup to balance the wheels.

I've found that most motorcycle dealers around here will mount and balance my scooter tires for me, if I bring in the wheels. It used to cost $30-40, though probably more this year. Cycle Gear also mounts and balances tires. As I recall, one place wouldn't do 10 inch scooter tires because they wouldn't fit their machine, but they had no trouble with my 12 inch wheels.

Scooter Bottega has mounted tires for me.

Thats good to know. I will ask Robbie if he would mount them. I am getting close to 6k miles and the current tires are fine but I will probably change tires before October 2023.

Is one of the good things you heard that Pirelli is owned by the Chinese government?

Scooter Bottega also sells the Michelins for example. I bought from them the last time. I appreciate having that shop around so I thought to keep the money local instead of ordering over the Internet and then just having them mount the tires.

A scoot tire can easily be done on a home floor or driveway, etc.. Using a heavy moving pad folded or some free layers of cardboard to protect the wheel. Buy two sets of plastic rim pr0tectors and a GOOD! set of tire irons-two at least. I use a HF balancer with spacers from my toolbox for the wheel center. Buy a tire bead spray which I prefer over soapy water mounting. I'm a woodworker with many squeeze clamps which I employ to mount the tire. I've even recruited my wife to stand on one sidewall. It's very basic work! I could easily do it in your living room-so can you.
Gives far more flexibility to buy the tire online and your "playing scooters" when you do it.

Ooouf, I knew they were bought by the chinese but I didn't know the CCP were behind it? Making me sad here man

I had Cyclewerx in Toronto mount my MOS Motor forged wheels (upgrade from the OEM cast wheels).

Then I took it to Moto Motori in Toronto to balance them because I wanted to get a couple different techs opinions on them for my review.

Thread on the wheels here: [topic181533]

Bought new City Grips II last week. Tire shop was able to mount them on the rim, but were not able to balance them. So I balanced them on my yard:-)
Model downloaded from the thingiverse and printed on my brother`s 3D printer. I just bought 4 bearings, and found a piece of the rod in the garage.

That's really fucking cool.

Was this the one you used? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2475245

Gonna be a lot cheaper to buy send it to the local print shop while I go buy a couple bearings than spend $$$ on a Mark Pines balancer.

Must…resist…urge…to…buy….single purpose tools!

Mark Parnes balancer. A DIY setup is undoubtedly cheaper, but people who use the Mark Parnes do report good results.

http://marcparnes.com/

Used this one https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3454748 There is also description of bearings. I bought the cheapest ones and whole 4 pcs costs me aprox. 5 USD

I recently bought a Vespa wheel balancing setup from Mark Parnes. I already had my own Wheel stand.
I found him to be a skilled machinist and his parts are a thing of beauty and quality and he is also very helpful.
There are cheaper and DIY ways to go for sure, but I appreciate quality made tools when I can get them.

[quote="Vespian"]
I recently bought a Vespa wheel balancing setup from Mark Parnes. I already had my own Wheel stand.
I found him to be a skilled machinist and his parts are a thing of beauty and quality and he is also very helpful.
There are cheaper and DIY ways to go for sure, but I appreciate quality made tools when I can get them.

where did you buy it?

...from MARC PARNES who is mentioned in a post above.

could find no one near me that would mount or balance 12" Vespa wheels. bought irons and Marc Parnes balancer. The ire iron tools were ok but the balancer is wonderful. do four tires and it is paid for if you do not count your time. To get balance close takes just a few minutes , to get it perfect take a bit longer. My scoot rides sooo much better now.

Very cool. Thank you. Why? If they pay for themselves and more, you're making an investment.

I found it interesting that a posted question that generated two 'flames' also generated 26 more posts! I read them and posted this because I had nothing better to do.....

And the flames were undeserved.

Is this a case of the "flames getting burned"

I like perfect. its really nice to get them spot on. a few times I didn't like the amount of weights needed so I broke the bead and rotated the tires on the rims and then rebalanced.

I'm running Diablo Rosso on my 2022 GTS with no weights and perfecto

That tool allows for static balancing. For dynamic balancing you need more complex tooling.

I do not know, maybe for the small rim wheels of a Vespa static balancing is enough.

For my BV 300 with 16 en 14 inch rims I want my wheels dynamically balanced.
The local Piaggio dealer offers a selection of suited tyres and has all equipment needed for dynamic balancing.

smoke and mirrors. pretty weird road racers at the tracks that go almost 200 MPH ride on static balanced tires.

Do any of the members use Dyna Beads that provide dynamic balancing. I haven't used them ever, but when I get new tires sometime before Winter 2023, I was thinking I would it a shot if I do end up mounting tires on my own, would eliminate the need to have the wheels balanced.
But not sure how good or bad they are.

I use Ride On. Does that count?
That said, I static balance first, then install the Ride On.

I've been using Dynabeads in motorcycle tires for over ten years and have been very happy with them. Last year I decided to use them in my truck, too. It was so bad in my truck that I removed them and went back to weights.

It made me wonder if I just wasn't feeling the vibration in my cycle tires. I recently purchased the Marc Parnes balancer and going back to weights on my MC/scooter tires, too.

The Chinese government agreed to maintain the current ownership structure until 2023... so curious to see how they will change this year!

For the original question: The Pirelli Angel is specced on some new Vespas, and seems to be in the same range as the City Grip II - good wet weather performance.

Theres's also the Diablo (devil) tyre which trades some wet weather performance for dry weather performance.

Pirelli themselves say the Angel is 10% better in the wet, and the Diablo is 10-15% better in the dry.