Modern Vespa

I was complaining about the poor braking on my Vespa 100 Sport (I've tried everything) and someone suggested trying 10" wheels, the idea being, larger brake shoes, more surface area, etc.

Interesting.

Can you just swamp 10" tires and rims onto a small frame? Will the tires rub? Do you need to swap anything else? Will it actually improve braking at all?

Thanks,

what size do you have? my primavera had 10"

I found this thread, and it made me rethink the idea - 8" to 10" wheel conversion - 1961 Vespa VNB

Take a look, you already have 10" wheels and your 100 Sport has bigger brakes than older 50S and 90 smallframes. Time to get new premium modern brake shoes I think.

the earlier smallies had 9" but they are hard to find

Most all smallies had tens, only the oddball 50N and 50R had nines.


50N w/ 9" wheels and 10" adaptor alongside.

I did!! I've got new brake shoes already! I'm not sure what more I can try.

I did see this - Another SF anti-dive testimonial The Crimaz anti-dive adapter. I wonder if that would help?

If you want your brakes proper working you need to sort all parts of the system:
- lever/pedal
- cables and its sleeves, end caps
- cams
- shoes
- drums

All must be clean, greased where need and correctly adjusted.

SIP cables is the best in my opinion, it no need any grease.

The best brake shoes is:
SIP Performance - front and rear.
Newfren AntiAqua - front and rear.
I'm not tried but sure that SIP Premium also good shoes.

I also can't recommend Malossi Brake Power shoes for road use. It is more racing shoes and need to good warm up before it is start to brake proper.

THANK YOU for this round-up of what to buy and where. I've replaced all cables and brake shoes and greased and lubed everything.

I purchased all the parts from Barry at San Francisco Scooter Center. No clue what they are, but they sold them to me. It's likely they stock good parts, right?

edit - I believe the shoes and cables are probably SIP.

I'm really don't know how good is stock Barry parts because I'm for 9848 km from San Francisco And you still have bad brakes?

They work, but you have to apply a lot of pressure and they still don't stop that well.

How new are they? Often they need some time to seat in 100%. If you're concerned, ride around a bunch hitting your front brake HARD a lot, then pull your front drum and observe the contact pattern on your new shoes. You can do same on the rear too obviously.

Your old brakes that you may be comparing to likely had 100% contact w/ the brake drums.

New brake shoes need some kilometres before they work properly.

Also how about cables routing? Brake lever/pedal condition? How deep can you push the brake lever/pedal. Brake cams was cleaned and greased? Brake drums condition?

They've got a few miles on them for sure. Cables are routed great, lever and pedal condition all good. Drums have plenty of material left, I've scuffed em' too to help the grabbing.

Then strange. In my opinion few miles is not enough. I noticed that new shoes on my Vespas is need 80-100 km to start work properly.
So maybe shoes is not good quality.