Modern Vespa

Having done the 190 upgrade and polini upgear I really felt that there needed to be at least a little external evidence, even if it was concealed "under the hood". Just got the valve covers back from the powder coaters and the engine is now ready to be swapped into the bike.

There will be no tribute or stickers... but if you take out the pet carrier there will be a little treat.

Sweet. Needs a racing stripe.

It's got one. Silver on silver

More photos to come after install.

What is the red bike?

The red bike is a '55 MotoBi Ardizio that gets ridden into the ground in October and then nursed back to health the following August.

PS. Welcome back to MV ;)

Thanks Oops.
I think I might have stained my keyboard when I saw the red bike. Sorry 'bout that...

Here's a bunch more photos of that bike for your, um, enjoyment?

[NSR] Giro d'California

Jesus fookin Christ dude! Email me some nitroglycerin pills first, I'm not young!!!

Anyways, looks nice

Nice job I like the color. I have just completed the malossi kit my self. I plan on the up gear kit as well but am not sure if I want to do some dyno work to see want the real gain is before I change the gear ratio. I also did some custom clue work in yellow in the valve cover and the oil pan. When you get it in let us know what you think of the gains.
Chris

Welcome to the club, Patrick. Looks great! I'll be interested in seeing what you settle on, variator-wise.

The weather here is still keeping me from experimenting.

Almost there but too tired to finish today. I'll be running a malossi variator with mixed weights to start with only because that's what I had in it. In addition to the polini up-gear I put in a 125 gear set. The polini is really tall so the lower 125 gears will give it a more attainable top speed of 79mph, on paper anyway. If I find it will do higher speeds I can always go back to the stock variator and a taller rear tire.

OK I did not know that there was different gears in a 125. It makes sense but have not herd that. Do you think that the 150s that get the gear change do not reach topspeed because the ratio is to high? Could you give me a little more insite in to your equation. I would like to learn as much as I can before I put my scoot back together. My goal is unrealistic I would like lots more top end but don't want to give it up any ware. Thank for sharing.
Chris

Finished it today. Need to put a tach on it to dial in the variator but it sounds about right. The difference between the 125 and 150 gears is not that great (15/42 for the 125 vs 16/41 for the 150) but since I had them I decided to use them. Here's a picture of the spreadsheet I use for calculating before and after on the gearing. Each row represents a "gear set" and each column is shaft within the engine/gearbox. This gives a bit of a visual layout to the calculation. The values for the variator was roughed in based on the known speed when it hit the rev-limiter.

Wow I have to say this spread sheet has me scratching my head but I am still trying to get it. Please correct me if I am not wrong. I reworked the math from what I could tell was going on here and come up with this. The et4 and lx 150 will end up at 77.74 mph give or take. That is with the up-gear change Is this correct or do I have the math incorrect? Thanks for the brian teaser.
Chris

Nicely done, I'm all about the subtle touches like that.....sometimes less is more.

Here's a run through the different gearing options I considered. In each case I calculate the speed at both max power RPM, and rev-limiter RPM. Max speed is reached when the resistance force * speed = max power (at the RPM where max power is generated).

Finally got around to fitting the tiny tach to dial in the variator. This is not a permanent install, just enough to know where I'm at with the variator.

At this point I'm back to the stock variator with 10.0g rollers and it's very close. With the tach I'll pin it down to ideal. Really need to work on an arduino data logger at some point. Notebook will have to due for now.

RPM holds steady at about 7200-7300, a little low. I'll be going to lighter rollers.

Absolutely incredible, Patrick. What more can I say?

That's exactly how I tuned my variator. Right now I'm at 11.5 g Dr. Pulley sliders in a Polini variator. The Polini likes a little heavier weight because of the preload spacer on the torque slave spring.

What rpm do you figure the 190 torque curve peaks at?

That would be telling ;)

Till I can get some dyno time to verify I'm assuming the same RPM as stock.

Did I mention I made a set of 23g rollers?

Yeah, that's what I've been assuming. Ha! Don't worry, I'm not planning to do the Cannonball anytime soon! (read EVER) Planning on going to Bonneville?