minnescoota.com ~ View topic

I saw this on Stellaspeed.com. What do you all think?

Dave

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a long story of how it got to where it is now, but Stella really runs good. The short of it is, she now has a stock cylinder with some mild porting and cleaning up of the exhaust port, a 24e with a 118 main, a 4 inch uni-filter in place of the bellows, no stock air filter - just the uni, and a Sito+. This is a very conservative set up that pulls like a train!

I figure that the stock intake and transfer porting combined with the stock piston, head and resulting compression ratio will let it run like this a long time. The Uni-Filter is a major upgrade to the intake when you remove the stock filter. Just make sure the carb box is sealed well and don't forget the air filter oil. I'm using K&N.

The accelleration is brisk and it will cruise between an indicated 60 to 65 no problem. Third gear is a kick around 40 mph curves.

At this rate, I won't be investing in another kit. I figure the cost on this like so:
carb, $90
Sito, $90
Uni-filter $20

Most people would be buying the carb and a pipe anyway to go with their kit. Save the money from the kit, buy a 4" uni and do the simple port work on the exhaust.

You can probably tell, I'm pretty excited about how it runs and the fact that it's not that far from stock.

By the way, I'm premixing 2 oz / gallon along with the auto-lube.

Have a nice day - I'm going back out on the scoot!

Licensed Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 771

If you want to play that would be a good start. That is a good compromise between torque and top speed. But, I prefer torque. I don't like to go 60+. I would rather drive a car at that speed. I think scooters a best for around town. Torque and accelaration is what I like.

I don't like sito + pipes. They are too loud and rust out fast. I like the Piaggio pipe without the cat. You might lose a little top end. Big deal. I like the torque and sound of the Piaggio pipe. They also tend to smooth out the power. A big plus.

The 24e is O.K. Again, it might be to big for me. The bigger carbs don't do much for torque. Just top end. And they tend to exaggerate flat spots. My pet peev is flat spots. I hate them. I would rather have smooth power than all out top end. Trying to fight a flat spot through town is about the worst thing I can think of.

The filter idea is cool.

The porting can't hurt. But don't expect much.

It all boils down to what you want and compromises. And make sure you understand what it is you are doing. Most (not all) kits push the power up the rpms and sacrafice low end torque. Most expansion chambers do the same thing. A highly tuned bike will have a very fast top end but very little low end torque. Great for the hwy. Crappy for the street.

IMO if you want to go 60+ buy a Ninja like Matt. If you want a fun scooter for around town most people would be better off leaving it stock.

Or get a used P200.

Licensed Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 771

P200's suck. If your going to get a Vespar get a good one. 60's or early 70's large frame Vespars are the best. The higher the cc the better! Piaggio has never matched the style and quality of those early bikes. Period!

Licensed Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 307 Location: MPLS.

Derrick-
i agree with yer stance on torque vs. top speed.
so... W.W.D.D.? (what would derrick do?)

given that very few people around here have "cool vespars" let just say, hypotheticially, if you had a stella (HAHAHAHA) where would YOU start to make it a little quicker around town.

and don't say sell it and buy a Rally...

Licensed Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 231

I'm guessing he'ed say this "IMO if you want to go 60+ buy a Ninja like Matt. If you want a fun scooter for around town most people would be better off leaving it stock."[/quote]

Licensed Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 1323 Location: MPLS

Licensed Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 307 Location: MPLS.

Permit Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 95 Location: Mpls

What would you consider a cool vespar?You should check out the pictures from last years rally on scoot.net.Lots of cool vespa/bretta's in town.

There's a pretty cool Vespar in the Classifieds section right now.

http://www.minnescoota.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=309

S.S.I.K. - Speedy scootering is kool

Licensed Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 307 Location: MPLS.

that is a sweet scoot. i've been pitching it to some of my freinds. If I had a garage, IT would be a done deal (still not convinced that it's not)...

as for "cool vespars" you'd have to ask derrick cos im a poseur with a stella...
and as for the rally... i was there. I rode, slow rode, and played at the triple rock later that night.
and as for me seeing cool vespas...i see a lot more metropolitans and stellas in my neighboorhood...when im riding my scoot EVERY SINGLE DAY...
maybe some of you saw me last february...or was it december??? or was it the winter before that???

C.R.A.P.-crazy riders are proper.

People with Vespas don't have them to RIDE them, silly. They're fashion accessories.

Maybe you should get a vespa and show everybody what's what.

Then check back in about 6 years, when you get comfortable enough in your 'scooter nerdiness' that you don't feel obsessive about having to show up to every event that could possibly involve scooters.

That's about the lifecycle, I think. When I first started coming to Minnescoota events, I wondered why all the old-school people never bothered to show up for all the meetings and stuff. I stopped short of thinking of them as posers, in kind of a 'respect your elders' fashion. But I wondered how they could 'turn their back' on the super rad awesome scooter lifestyle. Now it's a form of reliable transportation that looks pretty neat, I've had a lot of fun with it, but I don't feel the need to make every event in my life scooter related. Or I don't have the time and energy to make it scooter related, even if I could. I don't know what the real breakdown is.

I've noticed the same kind of 'enthusiasm' curve in quite a few of the people I've hung out with in the minnescoota scene- it all seems to boil down to about the same kind of thing. Not necessarily getting out of scooters, not owning the cool vespar- just not having to show everybody that they're on their cool vehicle every day. There's ancillary issues that contribute to the slide in participation, but this would seem to be the catch-all.

Now you're at the forefront of the new scooter wave, so sit back and enjoy it and take the club through the next couple of years. Be the person that makes scooters have that long awaited comeback, be the person that throws the best rally in the midwest, be the person that rides their scooter 365 so that everybody in the city knows 'that crazy scooter guy'. That's awesome.

Licensed Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 771

I like Stellas! I would buy a Stella over a P200 any day.

I'm NOT a fan of Piaggio's later products. (Post 1973) They went down hill fast!

The Stella may have a Piaggio history but it's a unique scooter with it's own history. I love it that Philip beat Piaggio to the punch with the Stella (in the US market). You know Piaggio only brought the PX150 to the US because of the Stella. Piaggio is run buy losers with Italian attitude.

New Piaggio Vespars ARE for "poseurs".

Now, I'm sorry jsyx has a slight complex about riding a Stella. Maybe he should have bought a vintage Vespar. But, I am glad he rides his Stella EVERY SINGLE DAY...