Modern Vespa

A new MV member PMd me asking about putting UFPs on his Beverly 500. Always up for a challenge (and new markets) I studied some photos to see what modifications might make it fit.

The BV's floorboard has a longer, mostly flat length of rug. The upwards swoop the MP3 has in the front that so severely limits where you can place your feet does not exist on the Beverly, and I assume that the stock Beverly is therefore a more comfortable ride than an MP3 when it comes to leg extension.

Unfortunately, that upwards swoop - and the fact that because of it, part of the MP3 floorboard exists in a different plane - is what makes the UFP possible. The UFP would not be secured nearly well enough if there was only a single planar surface to attach it to.

Sadly, I advised him to check out RamblerDan's footboard modification (which while complicated doesn't rely as extensively on two separate planes) and search/post on the General Discussion to see if and how others may have approached this.

For the record Mr. Dirt and I had a great ride of over 300 miles with good weather in an awsome location and there was NO FLATULENCE involved.

oh I have to disagree with the NO statement. If I remember correctly back at the ....... I distinctly heard something but it was a new one not old.

Depends on which end the hot air came from?? I bet there was!!!1

Canadian member MrTrawlerGuy did not have Phillips-head screw bits to assist in punching holes in his rubber floorboards (per FAQ #2), so he found the locations by using an even simpler method: he simply inserted the floorboard screws but not all the way and dusted them with chalk. The UFP FAQ has been updated with this excellent tip.

Rjeffb,

Installed the pegs on the brackets last Friday and did a 300 mile ride on Sunday with my scooter posse and the pegs were absolutely fantastic. I'm not a tall person so I didn't have the cramp feeling that the taller riders suffer from. I've ridden motorcycles for years and still do and I've always had difficulty with the leg positioning on the scooter and would at times ride it like I rode my motorcycles with my feet pointing outwards. With the pegs on I had a multitude of leg positions to choose from which made the 300 miles so much better to ride.

The bracket and pegs were a hit with my group and several of them were asking if it could be done on their scoots. One of the guys I ride with has a Majesty and he kept looking at the brackets to see how he could adapt the same concept on his scoot.

Rjeffb, you could pretty much make a great business just on these brackets alone fitting them on different makes and models of scoots out there.

Thanks again for putting this bracket together. You've done a great service for us scooter riders. As a matter of fact one of our riders has a MP3 500 and he's already seriously thingking of placing his order for a set after he sat on my scoot.

LOL

Hi Dave!

As I happen to be that rider he mentioned...

Please add me to the next list for mounts please.
Now if only you made a comfy seat for the 500 too!

I used Bill Mayers Saddels in SoCal.

I think his brother, Rick Mayers, is in your 'area'

http://rickmayercycle.com/

Great to hear, Dave. Scooters are few and far between in NJ so I have little opportunity to eyeball the different makes and it's a bit hard to design brackets from a Youtube video (see the sad Beverly story above).

BWelter, a Better Life with Brackets begins with reading the FAQs at the top of this thread and a single Private Message...

Just a reminder to occasionally tweak those UFP plate bolts. While finishing up my HID and modulator mods I happened to check my UFP bolts since I had the tools out. A couple were a full 2 turns loose. They had loosened up a bit but were still holding well enough to not be noticeable in use.

Darn, I didn't get to see them!!

I knew Brett would like them though.

To anyone deliberating over these: just buy them immediately. I'm so used to these things, I have no idea how the MP3 can be driven without them!

See my past posts and Jeff's past pix for how they look on mine. (I visited Jeff in person and had him install for me).

Just so - and I keep trying to find them (with wavering feet!) on all my other bikes now.

>I visited Jeff in person and had him install for me

I also offer extended hours for pretty female UFP purchasers, by the way.

>I keep trying to find them (with wavering feet!) on all my other bikes now.

Well, there's always this:

(Thanks guys)

rode about 280 miles today with footpegs. also made my ride so much more comfortable. I am trying to figure when coming to a stop is it better to take my feet off the pegs or to raise them back onto the floorboard then to the ground. I made myself a backrest out of an ice chest and some bunji cords. Works great. Relieves the pressure off my back!

Glad to hear you're enjoying them. Speaking personally, my feet have pretty much forgotten that the floorboards even exist - I go straight from the ground to the pegs and back again without even thinking about it. I suppose there could be some pegs where dropping straight to the ground could be problematic but for for me it feels completely natural.

I have to agree with this. I just did a test ride of another members scoot after some service work on it and I kept putting my feet out looking for my pegs. He doesn't have a set of UFP's cause he is leg challenged and could reach them if they were on.

I put the RIVCO pegs on my brackets

http://www.baddogsales.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=51.

The brackets and pegs are crazy easy to mount. Takes a couple o minutes tops for each side. I like my bike more now..

Me likey! I'm liking those Revcos more and more, may have to score a set myself. I see you mounted them to fold up parallel to the peg ears as recommended. They look crazy cool.

desmolicious you can loosen the allen bolt on the end of the pegs and rotate them so they are a little flat towards the sole of you boots.

They do look very nice

Thanks, I already rotated them to where they seem to be right.
But it will be really easy to adjust them if I need to.

FYI the individual rubber pads have a little intentional play so they move with your foot a bit.

Wanna bet?


PS: Tomorrow seat day Jeff?? Best of luck Pal!! Pictures!!!!

WARNING: Sateep's demonstration notwithstanding, do not permit small children to stand on the UFPs while driving in traffic at high speed. Doing so increases the possibility of accidents caused by gawking onlookers.

I just love your pictures Sateep, I am sure I speak for everybody: that is definitely THE picture to post in the "show off your MP3" thread.

(Yes, the seat is supposed to be here tomorrow, but I have a meeting and the seatless scoot is at my girlfriend's, then the rain comes back...so it may be the weekend before I actually get to try it!) Life's So Unfair...

I think I might have to look into coloring mine black when they get here too.
That looks too awesome!

I ride a Piaggio BV500 and what to find foot peg brackers/extentions for it can you help me?

This has already been discussed in this very same thread.

Pix and review at Russell seat - vinyl or leather?. Long story short: UFP footpegs are a much better bang-for-buck proposition than a replacement seat, but as of right now the jury is still out on the potential value as a passenger-comfort upgrade. I'll update that thread with further information.

Ok got your reply and looked for prior post on extensions for Piaggio BV500. How do I find RamvlerDan's footboard modification that you refer to? Thanks

Click "Search."
Enter keyword "floorboard pegs."
Enter author "ramblerdan."
Select forum "MP3 Discussion."
Click "Posts."
Click "Search."

Hi Jeff,

Just wanted to let you know that the UFP/XT is definitely money well spent on the MP3, they totally transformed the riding experience and now make it one of the most comfortable bikes I have ever owned, and I've owned a bunch. Before the UFP/XT's I was doing all kinds of things to the seat to try and get a comfortable ride, now it's just a simple Air Hawk with a sheepskin to keep it in place and I'm good to go all day. My only concern is dragging the pegs in a corner, it would be nice if someone came up with a spring loaded type peg that would fold itself slightly when taking you foot off the peg. Thanks again Jeff for a great product. Mike

You're welcome Mike, thanks for the kinds words.

>spring loaded type peg that would fold itself

I keep hearing rumors of such an aftermarket peg but have never seen one actually for sale. Anybody got a source for Mike? Preferably 3/8" but a different thread or even an ISO mount would at least expand people's options.

Three people on the original 2011 waiting list never responded or even read my message that that the brackets were in and ready to buy. Because the last time I tried contacting these individuals was now over a month ago, I am deleting those unread messages and the threads that preceded them. Redrock, mharrismel, and Sidirops, I did try reaching you and hopefully by the time you read this there will still be UFPs for you to buy.

Sending me a check by certified or registered mail may be self-defeating, because I have to be home to sign for it, which means I won't get to it until at least Saturday and then only if I have time on Saturday morning to go to the Post Office. Or if they happen to try delivering Saturday morning, a one in six chance assuming I'm home. So it may be a week or more before I even get your check.

I of course would never suggest you should not send checks certified mail if that gives you peace of mind; just that you should not believe that doing so will speed things up because it will likely have the opposite effect.

We've got a volunteer to try my double-bumper peg-on-top idea (see my post Coming Up Short on the first page of this thread). The idea is that by compressing two nested bumpers between a screw and nut, the bumper(s) can be moved to the second UFP hole, leaving the top hole available for someone of short stature to mount pegs to. The screw sticks out the driver's side but that's okay, because in this case it is safely underneath the footpeg.

This is not such a particularly big gamble for this intrepid member; if it doesn't work out, just throw away one bumper and move the remaining one back up to the top hole, and you're right back to a perfectly usable UFP/XT.

I'm looking forward to the member posting pictures...

Use a chrome "dome" nut instead of an ordinary nut and it will look great and not catch on anything.

That was the first thing I tried (we call them acorn nuts in the U.S.). The problem is, hmm how to explain this.

The two rubber bumpers together are say 30mm thick. I need to compress them down to say 20mm (I'm making up these round numbers for illustration). Obviously I need to start with a screw that is more than 30mm long because otherwise it won't fit all the way through to provide something at the other end to attach a nut to. So I stick in a 35mm screw, attach my nut, and start cranking down. If I use an Acorn nut, I start tightening and after 3mm the nut bottoms out. I still have 7mm to go and no way to get there. Which is why I abandoned that idea, using a regular nut with an ugly (and dangerous, if someone were to use this modification and then mount a peg in a lower hole with a screw pointing straight into the ankle while driving) screw sticking out. The best I can come up with is, once you have it just the way you want it (by actually trying it on the scooter and tweaking the nut position to adjust the amount of "mush"), do one of the following:

1. saw off the remaining screw shaft, leaving several millimeters of thread beyond the nut, and attach an acorn nut in addition to the regular nut (simply as decoration); or

2. saw off the remaining shaft right at the nut, and somehow put the entire thing in a vise under compression. Remove the nut and replace it with an acorn nut. I see lots of potentials gotchas with this idea, for example you'll likely need to file down the sawed-off edge of the screw in order to get the nut to thread onto the cut-off portion and you are not going to have much room to work with; or

3. discover that tucked in under the peg nobody can even see it and figure it's good enough as it is.

If somebody has an alternate way of doing this please opine. Your constraints are that the initial compression must be via the screw, not external (because externally compressing the bumpers say in a vise will collapse the bumpers' through-hole and make it difficult to subsequently run the screw through), and the screw head must be buried inside the outermost bumper's blind hole (to keep the screw head from contacting and damaging the scooter's bodywork).

I'll have to second this sentiment. Riding the bike is SOOOOO much more enjoyable now. Being 6'1", riding was a bit cramped, but now it is an absolute dream. If anybody is even considering buying, don't even hesitate! Buy it now. Takes all of about 5 minutes to install, but it takes a few short rides to get the pegs in the right position. I don't think I could ever get another scoot without this kind of option.

Jeff, you truley are a huge benifit to the MP3 MV community!

A month or two ago, one of our contributers advised that metal foot-plates and screws etc used on the 500 were available from: I have now emailed them three times over a period of time asking about postage costs to Australia without any reply at all.

Does anyone know of another place where they are available on mail order to destinations outside the USA?

I know that to try to order locally from a Piaggio dealer would take for ever.

Hi John.

I assume you've checked that the 500 bits fit the 400? I don't know.

I buy all my genuine Piaggio bits from

http://www.gileraspares.co.uk

Go there, select the Fuoco, then select "central cover" from the genuine parts section.

The footplates are called "Left Rug" and "Right Rug". I think it's because the italian word "coperta" (cover) also translates as "rug".

The part numbers are
653426 Left
653427 right

The screws are 259349, but I can't find which are the right ones on the site.

They take about a week to deliver. If you're ordering those, you'd do well to add in oil filters, spark plugs, etc, as it spreads the freight costs.

Gonzo

Thanks Gonzo,

I will check it out & thanks for advice re oil filter etc.
John

Actually, you've got the UFPs, so you'll only need one screw for the back of the footplate. Yes?

Gonzo