Modern Vespa

I have had my bike motor oil changed, all new tires, belt and front brakes done while the odo is at appro. 18500km. Now at 20000km the service icon comes on everytime I turn on the key, should I ignore it or should I send it in? Thanks in advance for all feed backs. Cheers!

Hi SH Lim

Wow, you've really got some k's on your bike. Good stuff!

To reset your service icon, do the following:

With key in and ignition off: Press and hold "set" button and turn ingnition on. Hold until service icons appear. Pressing the "clock" button for 1 sec. toggles between the two icons.

Toggle until the "wrench" icon is showing and hold the "clock" button in for 3 seconds until the wrench icon disappears.

Other members might be able to shed more light on whether you need to get more done than just these four things. I seem to remember at a recent servicing night (for GTS 250ie) that they replaced the variator rollers at this service.

Thanks jared, any idea which variator weight is best for my 250cc? Read in other posts that different weights like 19gm, 21gm are available for different performance. When I change the belt the mechanic did mentioned that the rollers where the u-shoes(stop laughing chillicrab) are have been grinded to the minimum and needed replacement. Is that the variators? Cheers!BTW, my bike is gonna be 1 year old in three weeks time. Having 22500km in a year will be a lot or a so so mileage?

oh my god, you must be psychic!!

by the way, the variators are the two cone-shaped plates that grip the belt. there is one set at the front and one at the back where the clutch is.

So the two sets of cone-shaped plates are the ones that drives the belt. Before joining MV, I have never taken any interest in mechanical aspect of bikes that I have ridden. Now, it is a different story as we have loads and loads of informations here. Thanks to all.BTW chill, I was in the rain twice today and the footpads are okay. Not slippery at all. Cheers!

Pretty ingenious. So simple.

i'll be going for my 1k servicing on monday and i'm going to find out how much are the fuoco ones. if they're too expensive i might just do it your way.

Selamat Pagi, Sh Lim

If your mechanic refers to 'u-shoes', the clutch pads are shaped like very wide 'u's. Don't know if the clutch pads require replacing at this interval. I guess it will depend on how much you 'ride the clutch'.

But he also mentioned 'rollers' which would definitely indicate that the variator rollers are worn out. It's not uncommon with those K's and is part of the scheduled maintenance for the 20,000 K service (I'm almost certain).

If your bike is a 250, then I would suggest using the search function on the website and searching for " 250ie variator roller weights", "roller weights", "Dr Pulley" and other similar search parameters. You may also want to search the entire site because GTS 250ie owners have been fiddling around with their variators for a lot longer than us MP3-ers. Bear in mind though that as our bikes are much heavier, the 'optimum' variator weight might be slightly less than that for a GTS 250ie.

I also remember a forum post which had a link to a PDF with dyno charts for the different variators and variator weights. I think it's available from www.scooterwest.com if you look at the Polini Speed Controller on that site. It's interesting reading. They also give a report on the Dr Pulley weights as well.

There was a pretty recent post about variator weights concerning Dr Pulley and stock weights. Just look back through about 2 pages of posts and you will probably find it. Can't remember if it was for a 250 or a 400 though.

EDIT: Here it is https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic36081

What variator weight to use depends on how you ride your bike. If you do lots of around town commuting (which in Malaysia is pretty slow going in peak hour), then you might like lighter weights so you take off really fast from traffic lights. If you do mostly highway runs (I remember reading you went out to Genting Highlands recently), you may want to get heavier weights which will improve your top speed.

My wife and I went over to Malaysia (KL, KK, Langkawi) for our honeymoon and we both have withdrawals from the a-m-a-z-i-n-g Nasi Lemak at Traders Hotel at KLCC.

If only the dollar was better, we would be going over again for our first anniversary. But sadly, it will be a holiday in Australia somewhere (not that Aussie is a bad place )

er, if i'm not mistaken, i think the "u" shoes are the ones pictured in this thread:

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic36495

in pictures no. 11 and 12, the four red pieces are the U shoes.

the higher the rpm, the more the rollers (the eight brownish pieces sitting in the "bowl") push outwards towards the edge, due to the centrifugal forces.

because of this, the roller "cover" slide in and out of the "bowl" to vary the drive ratio, hence the unit is called the variator.
the cover slides on these u shoes that's why they wear out over time.

at what rpm the rollers start pushing outwards depends on their weights.

the choice of roller weight like what jaredmorgs said depends on your style of riding. the lighter their weight, the more rpm it takes for the rollers to push outwards, so in other words, you are in "low gear" longer and acceleration is better. the disadvantage is high fuel consumption as you get lower speeds per rpm as compared to heavier weights.

the stock weights are the "average" weights which optimises acceleration and fuel economy. they are not the best for acceleration nor fuel efficiency on highway riding. so the simple rule of thumb is, light rollers are good if you do a lot of city riding. heavy ones are for you if you do a lot of highway riding.

Thanks to jared and chill for taking the time to explain. Have a better idea now. Cheers!