Modern Vespa

Ok I'm going to post this up and if there are too many pictures for the forum I'll delete the post. I'm unsure how the intertuby web thingy works, this may be too much data for one post so I'm going to break it into 4 posts with approx 10 pics in each.

A couple of things before I get going
1) My garage is not as clean as some others that I've seen pictures of, you could serve dinner off the floor of those, not mine.

2) My metaphorical thumb (in this case my hand and forearm) appear in the shots, pretty hard to do this single handed so I had to make do with what I could.

All right onto the show.

Tools I used for the project appear in the photo below; I have marked the photo with the following,
1 - RUGlyde rubber lubricant that I got from a local auto parts store for about $14
2- Harbour freight mini tire changer. I mounted this on a handy work top, it isn't very big so mounting it on the floor seemed like it would be a bit too low.
3- Air compressor but I suppose you could use a gas station air hose since you only use to inflate the tire and seat the beads near the end.
4- Bead breaker. This comes included with the tire changer.
5- Torque wrench. For putting the wheel bolts back on.
6- Socket wrench and extension.
7- 6 mm hex head socket. To torque the bolts back on once the job is done.
8- Valve core remover. To let the air out of the tire quickly, needed? Maybe not but its cheap.
9- Small hammer. What job doesn't need a hammer?
10- Not pictured is my Mojolever. I forgot to get a overall photo of this item but there are close ups later on.


1) First up is to loosen but not remove the 5 bolts on the wheel


2) Next I needed to get the wheel up in the air just a bit so with the suspension lock disabled I tilted the scooter to the left side a few degrees and then locked it. After that I placed the bike on the center stand and the wheel was slightly off the ground. That was nice but it felt like the slightest movement would tip the bike over so I ran a tiedown strap from the handle bar to a joist in my ceiling and put just a slight amount of tension on it. This is just to prevent the bike from moving to the left once the wheel is removed so not a lot of pressure is needed to secure the strap.


3) Here is a shot of the bike balanced with the wheel removed


4) There is a pressed on cover in the middle of the rim that needs to be removed


5) I jammed a paper towel into the cap and then used the hammer to lightly tap the cover


6) From the other side you can see the cap starting to come off, from here I just pulled it off.


7) I'm now removing the valve core and deflating the tire.


8) In the picture below I've got the tire changer ready to fit the rim onto it.


9) Ok now the tire is mounted onto the changer. A couple of things here, you want to start with the nice outside edge of the rim up first, we will flip the rim over in a bit. Also note I only have one gray spacer installed at this time. This allows the best fit for the bead breaker on this side of the rim.


All right lets continue on in the next post.

10) The bead breaker is mounted on the changer and notice the red paddle is touching the tire and not the rim.


11) I'm pressing down with steady pressure to peel the bead off the rim. It took a bit of force to initially break the bead but one it was done then I could rotate the tire and break the rest of the bead on this side of the rim.


12) Once the first bead is broken all the way around the rim, remove the wheel and flip it over. In the next photo you will note that I've added the second gray spacer, again this allowed the bead breaker to have the best angle to work without scratching the rim. Also I've wiped the brake dust off the outer edge of the rim, if you leave it on there is a change of scraping the rim with the dust. Use the bead breaker in the same manner as above and break the bead on the second side of the rim.


13) Here is a close up of the demounting end of the mojolever. The white tip is nylon and has a slight lip near the bottom that is used to catch the bead.


14) Push the tire down a bit and slip the mojo in between the top bead and the rim. Be careful not to allow the black section of the lever to touch the rim as it may scratch it.


15) Lower the mojo bar down while keeping the white tip against the rim to prevent scratches. You can see the bead rising up in this picture.


16) Press down opposite the mojo lever to give the tire some slack. Now you can start to rotate the mojo lever around the tire and it will lift the bead over the rim edge


17) Here you can see the lever starting the removal process


18) And now the first bead is fully removed, time to get the lower bead off.


19) Reinsert the mojolever into the gap between the tire and rim. You need to use caution here since the black section of the lever gets close to the rim. You will insert the mojo until you can catch the second bead with the tip.

Here is what is looks like from underneath


20) Once you have the second bead captured by the lever, use one hand to push the lever up so that the white section is resting against the rim and the black section is not in a position to cause a scratch. Then you just tilt the lever down like you did for the first bead and you will see the second bead start to lift up.


21) It won't take much to get the tire off the rim from here, I think I only had to move the lever around the tire about halfway before the whole tire came off


Ok good place to break and start again on the next post.

22) Now it's time to clean the rim inside surface and use a bit of RUGlyde on the bead seating area.


23) Very important to verify the rotation arrows for the tire, you don't want to mount it backwards!! This also would be a good time to align the yellow dot on the new tire with the valve stem on the rim. This is done based on the thought that the yellow dot is the lightest part of the tire and the valve stem is the heaviest part of the rim. My new tires didn't have the yellow dot though.


24) Here is a close up of the other end of the mojolever, the mounting end. You can see more of the white nylon material that prevents scratches.


25) The mojolever is place on the rim and the first bead is fitted onto the end of the lever, there is a slight edge on the mojo to allow this.


26) Using my hands I pressed down on the tire in a counter clockwise direction to push the first bead down over the rim for about half it's circumference.


27) Using one hand to press the first bead down into the rim valley gives the tire some slack while rotating the mojolever clockwise starts to force the rest of the first bead onto the rim.


28) You can now see that the first bead is almost completely on the rim, from here I just tip the mojolever up and it slips off the bead while the bead fits under the rim.


29) Time for the second bead and you will notice right away that I have lots of RUGlyde on the rim and the tire, it took a bit more force than I thought it might for the first bead and I believe that was because I was stingy with the lube. The second bead was easier to mount in part due to the increased amount of lubricant. Again like the first bead, place the mojolever over the rim and then place the bead on the edge of the lever.


30) Again try to force as much of the second bead onto the rim in a counter clockwise direction using your hands. Start rotating the mojolever clockwise and keep that other hand pushing the opposite side of the bead down into the rim valley for slack while you rotate.


31) If you need more hands you can try using blocks of wood placed between the rim and the tire to give you slack and free up your other hand.


32) The bead is almost all the way on at this point, the lever will need to be removed.


33) Tilt the lever up and the remaining section of bead will slip off the lever and onto the rim.



And now we will go onto the next post

34) Reinstall the valve core


35) Inflate the tire to seat the beads. You will hear several loud pops as the tire seats in. And you are done unless you want to balance the tire as I've done in the next few photos.


36) Here is the Marc Parnes balancer set up between two jack stands on a level part to my garage floor. The two cone shaped pieces in the middle are used to lock the wheel onto the shaft. At the end of the shaft and supported by the jack stands are the bearings.


37) Once the tire is allowed to spin for a bit it will come to rest with the lightest part on top. I've marked this area with a piece of tape for reference.


38) I tape weights to the rim to test where they need to go. This makes it easy to adjust the balance of the rim. Once I have the tire balanced so that my tape mark can be stopped anywhere in rotation without moving back to the top I have a balanced tire and the weights can be affixed using the sticky tape the comes on the back of them.


39) Replace the hub cover by pressing it back on


40) Lightly tighten up the 5 bolts to re-attach the wheel, don't torque them while the tire is in the air. After the bolts are on I released the tie down strap and took the bike off the center stand. Then it is a matter of unlocking the suspension which allows the wheel to touch the ground again and apply 20-25 newton/meters of torque to the bolts.


41) Time for a test ride!!


This took me about an hour from start to finish for one tire including balancing the tire and taking all the photos. It will be much quicker next time. I liked the mojolever a lot. Exnoic Jay has a great post about tire changing but he couldn't get the lever he bought from NoMar to mount the tire so he had to modify the mounting tool that came with the tire changer and use that. The Mojo had no problems mounting the beads and its extra length really worked well for me. The lever is about 3 feet long while the Harbor Freight one is a lot smaller and to my eye would require a bit more force to get the beads on and off. Just a guess though, I haven't used it. I think that should be enough from me on this topic, I hope I'm not posting too many pics here.

nice job on the post

which pirellis did you get I like the trad pattern alot better than the stock gts23?

also where did you get the mojo tool from?

Those are SL-26's from Pirelli.

The Mojolever I got from http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoweb.htm

Need to stick this up on the wiki

What a great post, thank you for taking the time to share this.

This will be my first project

Good job! If only everything was documented so well.
I am printing the whole thing out in case the thread is too big and has to go.
About 25 pages of print it looks like.
Glad someone else has a garage that looks like mine: Like a bomb went off in it!
You could always put these into a sight like Flickr, for $25 a year you can have unlimited storage and use a link to see the documentation.

You did a great job documenting your job. I think that your taking the time to do a photo spread will take the mystery out of a tire change & balance for some of the newer scooterists!

I hope one of the moderators will transfer this posting to the "Technical Forum" for permanent reference.

This is an awesome job of documentation. I am a soccer mom with my new 250 and am trying to decide whether or not I would invest in tire changing equipment. Before looking at all these pictures I wouldn't have opted to attempt a tire change. But you make it look pretty easy. Thank you so much for taking the time to take pictures and posting them here on the forum.

Wow. Fantastic post. Thank you very very much for this. You have answered every question I had about doing this myself.

Again, thanks a bunch!

One other thing. A friend (critic?) mentioned it might be better for balancing the tires if the set screws for the cones in the picture below are placed 180 degrees apart so their weight won't effect the overall balance.

Great post. I have been thinking about getting the stuff to do this with my 500. I have 2 questions, do you think the mini tire changer you got will handle the 14" rear tire in the mp3 500? Also will the wheel balance work with the rear wheels?

Thanks
Brandon

I "think" the setup will work for a 14" wheel but the sticking point would be the bead breaker and if it is long enough to allow the pad to hit the tire and not the rim. I balanced my rear wheel (12") using this setup.

Very nice bit of work, major props for documentation.

Thanks for your effort. I have copied this thread to the Technical Library.

Boulty

That's a great post, but it doesn't answer my most annoying question: how do you get the exhaust off so you can even reach the rear wheel?

romeaux your info does not say what type MP3 you have to answer the question. The 250 is different than the 400/500 exhaust. There are some threads on both. Neither is too hard. Leo Vince makes the 250 easier and 400/500 a bit more difficult.

One thing on either one the exhaust gets a bit siezed on the header pipe. A bit of WD40 or some other solvent will get it to slide right off. You may want to have an extra muffler bearing (graphite bushing) in case it is in bad shape.

Hello! Somehow I lost the metal cap in the center of the wheel. (Picture #7) Anybody know the part number and where I can order a replacement?

Thanks!

T

A great post

~.

my guess would be going to your nearest dealer.

I want to thank you for this post... I have had many a hard time doing this project... I need those tools, and will buy them... your pics and description were great... I will hopefully be back to thank you from the bottom of my heart when I've successfully mounted some of my tubeless tires...
Thanks again... very nice thread.
Cheers

Can you repost the pictures of you changing the MP3 500 rear tire? For some reason the pictures are not showing. Where the picture should be it's saying "It's saying "Please update your account to enable 3rd poarty hosting"

this is a 5 year old post, so sometimes pics get deleted by the original poster of said pics and now they are no longer available.

what do you need with the MP3 pics for changing tires? I do a lot of them.

I had to replace my rear tire. I did a google search and was able to find instructions on how to replace it. I've since replaced the rear tire.