Vespa Geek

Pondering performance options for the little beast

vespageek — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:24:08 +0000

Since I got this thing running pretty well again, I’ve noticed that the top speed is not what it was. She only goes about 36mph (measured by GPS) flat-out, tapped out in 4th on flat ground. I seem to recall having it up near 50 a couple years ago, but that was with 10″ wheels on it, and I’m not certain of a few things:

1) That the speedo gear was correct for the wheel size and therefore that it was at all accurate

2) How much top speed I should expect to lose going from 10″ to 8″ wheels

3) What the effect was of having the trans geared for the 8″ wheels and running 10″

I’ve found a kid on craigslist who is selling a cut up Bajaj Chetak “chopper” that has a PK fork (I think) and a 150 2-port motor with DR177 kit, CDI, Malossi clutch springs, 20/20 carb and I think a Polini exhaust. He wanted $2K for the whole bike, but now he’s down to $1500 and has said that he’d take $450 for just the motor. I know he’s hurtin for cash, so I assume I can get him down to $350-400 for the motor. Trying to decide if it’s worth the $$ to buy the motor and install it in my bike. I was about to drop almost $250 to convert to CDI, so perhaps it is.

I guess maybe I’ll go take a look at this thing this weekend and see how it runs. It’s on a drivable bike right now, so I guess I can get a sense of how fast it is and decide from there.

Conversion to 8″ wheels/tires complete

vespageek — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:45:16 +0000

I decided to convert the Vespa back to the original 8″ wheels in preparation for the rest of the conversion back to original specs. I plan on painting it in one of the original factory colors and I’m now running 8″ wheels with blackwalls - much closer to the original equipment. One thing I do need to do is to cut down the centerstand because it’s far too tall now as it was sized for the 10″ wheel conversion.

It runs again!

vespageek — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:39:57 +0000

After many months of sitting idle in the garage, I decided today that I was bound and determined to get the VBB running. I pulled the flywheel off it, checked the points and saw that they were way off. Spent an hour adjusting the timing and cleaning things up, kicked it over twice and lo and behold, it fired up! A little adjusting of the idle, and I took her for a spin around the block a few times to make sure this wasn’t a fluke. It seems not to be - it ran great, with no faltering, missing, bogging, etc. Great news!

Finally going to convert the VBB to CDI

vespageek — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:44:48 +0000

It’s been months since I’ve worked on the little gal, much less taken her out for a spin, so I think it’s time to finally just buckle down and buy the CDI kit. I can’t seem to get this thing running with any degree of consistency with the stock ignition, so I’m at my wit’s end. I think at this point that the timing is just out so far that it won’t really run, but I don’t know. I can get it to run at idle with some effort, but as soon as I sit on it and try to actually ride it, it bogs down with almost no power and stalls as soon as any weight is put on the clutch and the motor comes under load. I just want to be able to ride this thing - I went the entire summer without it - prime time for scooter riding. The CDI kit is only $250, I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for. I’ll order it today.

Finally getting the old girl back on the road

vespageek — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:49:48 +0000

After a few months of not riding it out of frustration and debating converting to CDI, I took the opportunity of having my brother Seth in town to take a stab at getting the old girl back on the road. The issue I was facing was that I did not have the Vespa “special” tool (aren’t they all?) that is used to pull the flywheel off of the shaft, and in doing so, I broke the flywheel trying to get it off the last time.

Well, as it turns out, simply turning around the hooks on the gear puller I used with disatrous results previously was all it took to get the broken flywheel off the shaft. From there, it was pretty simple to get the new points installed and re-check the timing once more. I’m still not convinced the timing is right now - need to make a better test light. I made one with a buzzer, but it’s too hard to tell if the tone is changing significantly.

So, Seth and I checked and re-checked the points gap, re-assembled it all, and lo and behold, it fired right up on the second kick!

Unfortunately, the little pin that holds the points assembly in seems to not be re-usable, and I wound up having to go down to Motorsport Scooters to get a new set. While I was there, I picked up a replacement flywheel for good measure.

Once home, I replaced that and the points and it fired right up again.

Now it will run indefinitely, it seems, but even after adjusting the carb a bit, it is bogging down significantly, and doesn’t have any power off the line like it did before it stopped running properly. I think I may need to adjust the mixture a bit. Hopefully, that’s all it is, and I can be back riding her to work at the new office in Carlsbad this week!

Scooter Cannonball Run

vespageek — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:14:11 +0000

So, the Scooter Cannonball Run kicks off today in San Francisco. The ride is from San Francisco to Ocean City, Maryland, all on scooters. Unfortunately, there are only 5 (now 4) vintage, shifter scooters involved, but hey - at least it’s a showing. I can’t imagine riding my VBB across the entire country. Amazing effort.

In particular, I’m following a pair of guys from the International Scooterist BBS, Roy and Rocket who are making the trek on their P200-powered scooters. Roy’s blog of the journey can be found here if you’d like to follow them as well.

Broken Vespa Flywheel

vespageek — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:28:15 +0000

So, in my last post, I mentioned that I was about to remove the flywheel for the purpose of replacing the condenser. Well, it’s turned out not so well. The circlip that is described in the Haynes manual as being on the shaft as a way to sort of self-extract the flywheel from the tapered shaft was not present when I took the fan off, and since I didn’t know what exactly I was looking for anyhow, I put the impact gun to the center bolt and removed it.

The manual I had mentioned that if the circlip was not there, that you could use a special Piaggio extracting tool (which I didn’t have) or a gear puller (which I do have). I reversed the jaws of the gear puller and slipped them into the view slots on the flywheel, as instructed in the manual, and put the center pin of the puller on the shaft.

I started tightening, and it was resistant at first, and then I got that telltale “slip” of tension that you get when something loosens on a tapered shaft - something I was familiar with after years as a bike mechanic - the cranks pull off the same way.

Unfortunately, the give in tension was not the flywheel pulling off the shaft, but rather the gear puller yanking a quarter-sized square chunk of metal out of the flywheel at the inspection hole rim. Wonderful.

This is my broken Vespa flywheel, after using a gear puller to try to get the flywheel off the tapered shaft

So, this flywheel is shot, and I’m now without a way to get one until Tuesday when Motorsport re-opens. I guess I’m going another weekend without the Vespa. Bummer.

Well, I will say that through my breaking things, I’m certainly learning a lot about repairing old Vespas, that’s a bonus!

$125 Piaggio Airbox… I’ll take it.

vespageek — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:06:27 +0000

So, I drove down to Motorsport this morning, intending to get a new condenser and points for the Vespa, and maybe a new carb. I’m at my wit’s end at this point, and I’m planning to just start replacing things in order of likelihood of being the root cause of the problem, cost, and ease of replacement - not necessarily in that order.

I found that my airbox is not the original for the bike, and the box had been modded to “fit” the carb I have, a Spaco 20/20. The carb was not seating properly in the box, and I was concerned that air leaks might have been causing some problems, even though at this point, I’m nearly certain this issue is electrical/ignition in nature. I picked up a new condenser and HT coil while I was there.

So, in getting the new air box, all they had was an NOS Piaggio box, to the tune of $125. Ouch. I bought it anyhow, like the moron that I am.

Got home, installed the new airbox and coil, fired it up and… wait for it….

It runs exactly the same as before - that is, shitty.

I’m on to pulling the flywheel to replace the condenser. I’ll report back on what I find.

Vespa Fouling Spark Plugs - WTF?

vespageek — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:02:39 +0000

Veeeery interesting. I remembered the other day when I adjusted the points gap and checked the timing that I replaced the spark plug on the VBB at the same time that I made the gap adjustment. The gap was off, by the way. I think it was well over .050mm, and should be (according to the Haynes manual) about .035-.040mm. I set it to .040.

I’m now wondering if these issues are not timing-related at all, and are in fact, caused by a rich condition. When I pulled the plug yesterday, I noticed that it’s fairly well oil-fouled. There’s oily residue on the electrode and on the threads of the plug itself.

I’m going to stop by Pep Boys on the way home and pick up a couple of plugs and see if I can’t get it to run for a bit on the new plug. If it does and then fouls, I think maybe I have a rich running condition on my hands, and not the ignition issue I first thought.

Who knows… I’ll change the plug and report back.

Stop Calling Your Scooter a “She”

vespageek — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:07:23 +0000

I was catching up on reading the International Scooterist BBS this morning and came across a thread requesting that people stop referring to their scooters as “she”. One response struck me as particularly funny, in which the author explains why he will continue defining his scooter as female.

“She’s curvy, kinda beat up, and smokes too much, just like all the girls I’ve dated. Takes all my spare time and money, and if I’m lucky, I get to ride her for a few weeks before something goes wrong that I don’t understand (and she aint going to tell me) and it’s my job to figure out what I did and attempt to rectify it.”

I guess he can continue to call his bike a “she”.