Modern Vespa

A friendly local gentleman came by told me his Vespa PK50XLS wouldn't start, so we went over to his house where I discovered that the XLS model is apparently the infamous Pluramatic . I think that Piaggio used the poor PK platform as a guinea pig to test out some of their early belt drive schemes and the crude Pluramatic was not much of a success.

Recycle is the easiest & probably most sensible option, sell off any useful stuff & scrap out the rest! But the frame is in really good shape w/ mostly nice paint and IT HAS PAPERS, a pretty big deal here in Greece!

Rebuild is probably out of the question, parts are impossible to find and I doubt it would be worth it if you could find them. Here's the only thread i could find on the topic: Vespa PK50 Plurimatic .

Repower if there's a way becomes the only choice left if we don't wanna lose that precious pedigree... I just happen to have a potential donor PK w/ no papers that would help a lot - motor, headset, gas tank, foot brake for the rear and a general idea of where to cut & weld. IF it's doable, I'm still investigating & need to discuss w/ owner.

my paperless PK

Opinions and advice appreciated!

I fixed that for you…

Problematic Pluramatic Problematic PK - recycle, rebuild or repower?

They didn't get the name for no reason. Parts are hard to find and expensive. There's a chance you'll find something on car.gr or FB Marketplace…

Automatica for parts, don't know if the engine is the same…

https://www.car.gr/classifieds/bikes/view/327573752-vespa-pk-125

Plurimatic crank…
https://www.car.gr/parts/view/13642759-strofalos-koble-piaggio-vespa-plurimatic

I've got nothing constructive to add, but get me some of that Hellenic slop!

Norman, yours for the Special Sale price this month of only 450€ ! (shipping not included)

I'm tempted, but what is it?

What's the headset like? Easily converted to shifty?

Repower if possible. It will be a good challenge to make it work. Take what ever is left over from the original and recycle that.

It's not only the headset. Frame is totally different, can't accommodate a shifty engine and there's no foot brake…

I know that I'd need to reshape the engine and gas tank cavities, and add a foot brake too. Cutting and welding to do and I still ain't too scared yet.

But first I need to talk to the owner and see if we could deal, either do it for him for too much money or maybe buy it cheap enuff to get me interested. I should know more tomorrow.

It's still a roll of the dice if I could pull it off, but take a look at the effort Whodatschrome went to putting a P200 motor in a PK! PK Smallframe with a P200 engine?

I could use my plastic headset or get an older half metal 4 speed similar to what it has now, that one won't work. This seems easier than stuffing in a P200 motor in some ways, the pivot & shock mount positions seem the same(I'd wanna pull problematic motor to verify) and I would have my old PK to copy internal sheet metal and get all needed parts from.

The description is in the older Pluramatic link I posted. The shipping would kill you!

The inspection & feasibility survey continues, checking to see what it would take to use existing headset. Looks maybe 🤔 possible.

Hoping to meet w/ owner tonite or tomorrow and make a plan.

Wow, its got a shift cable ring in there! you're half way done

Right you are! It is apparently used to go from Neutral (0) to Drive (1).

Well OK, I'll give it a shot!


I swapped my beat up paperless Cosa for it. It runs mostly reliably and everything worked today - lights, turns, horn and it fired right up. I'd forgotten how smooth it is, buttery clutch & hydraulic brakes but what a heavy handful for me now. I rode it all over Athens & beyond for maybe four years when I first started chasing cheap old Vespas to rescue...

Anyway I did love that beast but it was looking for a better home and found it today w/ happy new owner.

So I now own a legit Pluramatiç and have begun its transformation. Still lots to do and more to figure out.

If anyone can figure this out, it will be you, Terry. Good man for taking this on.

I was thinking the same but I also thought voodoo might come up with a solution on the pluramatic engine. I like the direction it's going.

Plurfect!

I'm on a PK binge! It's going well, I got the foot brake fitted and brake cable run. Now just wire up the brake lite switch.

The headset has a few problems, but I think I can convert the original to work. Extra challenge - If I can I wanna use the single cable shift system I love too much from my donor XL2, but I may have a plan...

So mostly should work after I figure out a headset and weld in an air box for the carb. I'll use the original gas tank w/ a hinge at the back for carb access. I want to disturb the monocoque frame as little as possible, plus imagine the huge exhaust I could put in that space!

The brake was easy compared to fitting the motor, the intake & carb being the obvious problem. Everything else simply bolts in. To form a place under the seat separate from the motor using mostly the original sheet metal and making it structural is the biggest challenge.

It might seem more sensible to cut out its innards and swap from donor bike which we considered, but my friend Kostas who knows more about these things than me(pro welder, machinist & race bike tuner) admitted it would take a lot more time, so we are gonna try my sheet metal surgery conversion, which he will weld up.

you're really going for it now, I applaud your courage

Go, Terry, go. Good man.

Thanks guys, I almost wish there were more dead Pluramatics laying around, and all this stuff could be put to wider use, but if this all works I will likely have the only such conversion around.

I'm loving this.

Thanks John, but seems not as many Pluramatic fans as for the REAL PKs . Me sort of included since I got my new PK125XL about the same time I fell into this mess. In fact I was shopping Pluramatic parts following Safis' tip when I stumbled on my now perfect ride, light enough and fast enough for me.

But sucked in I was, because a 2nd legal PK is not a bad thing and I'm enjoying the challenge. We just had Welding Weekend as my pal Kosta showed off his fabricating skills. I'm now finishing up the headset conversion w/ fingers crossed.

Lots of room in there! Still planning to keep the special gas tank?

Yes, gonna use original skinny tank because it's the easiest solution. Plus it has nifty tap handle you just pull and it snaps out , direct connected to the tap which is close to the front(no long rod to annoy me).Very convenient for carb access now.

I want to belatedly thank and bow down to the serious fabricators here like whodatschrome, Safis, Charlieman, Roland and many more who gave me ideas and proper techniques to tackle such a seemingly hopeless project. But with that and having legit papers the bike is being transformed, and I hope to at least test ride it before May 10 when I head home.

Wow V oodoo you definitely DO amazed at your vision to see this come to fruition. If only the recent T5 posted by tomasvfs was in your hands could see another viable scoot return to service in short order. Respect for what many might consider impossible possible.

Latest pics, it's coming right along:

Dang it, I tried to post FOUR pics!

Oops, duplicate post

that sounds like a ham bet....

Or maybe a SOUVLAKI bet?

I dunno why I had problems posting pics from my phone, but here's the rest from my laptop


Normal PK tank still 2" too tall even w/ clearance for tap.


With fashionably slim Pluramatic tank, same fork and older horncast installed.
Check out the choke, it's just like a largeframe and works fine here.


Engine in and I'm running and test fitting cables. I like that the electrics are literally plug & play, look just above the black bracket! Those 2 unused black & gray outers are old shift cables to choose Neutral or Drive. I'll use one to pull the fat new shift cable outer, the other to pull clutch.

mmmm souvlaki bet.....

Mmm right ... If you're laying down a marker in hopes of me getting you souvlaki, you may have it backwards old friend, we should know for sure soon. I ran into a couple of surprise problems and got tied up fixing them today or I may have been out test riding.

First the throttle cable is not happy at the carb because it must come up from the bottom almost under the carb. That meant a 270° loop over the carb, but had to be small enough to still fit gas tank. Just didn't work, too much bind, and time wasted on a losing battle.

So I modified the carb linkage to open pulling straight down on the same side the cable comes in under the carb. Throttle feel is now smooth w/ no bends at all other than a big loop from headset to bottom of new carb enclosure.

Carb works fine now, but why my muffler no fit?

Looks like maybe you owe me a souvlaki! Just before I left town for Easter week, I took a first run down our block and back. But in a few days I'll give you a rolling shot to collect, IF my luck holds.

Motor was happy after leaving donor bike, both brakes work as they should and best part is the single cable shifter worked nicely - I went thru all four gears!

I still have much to assemble but I have THREE whole days before I leave Greece so I should be able to have it mostly together again.

Oh, here's the other end of single cable shift. The 'batwing' just has a single hole that the trunnion w/ setscrew Allen wrench hanging out fits into.

Put tranny in neutral and same for grip handle, tighten setscrew and done. Get ready to enjoy click click click shifting, no two flimsy cable tug of war or stretched cables here!

IOU one souvlaki

(*souvlaki must be collected in San Diego)

FTFY.

Hey! I get a say in setting the rules TOO!

ROM sounds good, and how about alternatively the big Athens rally next year? You'd love it John, and Greek souvlaki is the REAL thing! And I'd just assumed we were talking authentic souvlaki...