Stella tuning

[Photog]

Scooter is used for daily in-town commuter, and Sunday road trip bike. Has to have wide range of tolerance for bumper-to-bumper, and 1-hour stints on the open road. Emphasis on low end grunt and midrange; no need for extreme top end. Typical cruise at 45-50, in town and on back roads.

Here's what I've got if you're looking for a ballpark

2003 Stella
Pinasco 177
24/24G: 120 air corrector, BE4 mixer, 112 main, 50/100 idle
SIP/JL pipe
500ASL
~19 deg.
3 1/4 turns out
Amsoil Dominator - autolube - will be switching to Castrol TTS
NGK B8ES
Top speed: 65+ (ind)


Pulls from a dead stop in 2nd with negligable clutch slipping, from a rolling stop in 3rd, from 10-15 in fourth smoothly, quickly, and w/o hesitation.

I'll will try to upjet a bit, and drop to the B7ES this weekend. Will post more if that tweak does anything good.

Next mods:
GS seat buildup
Halogen & LED conversion
Striping

Thinking about:
COSA
Fireball upgear kit

[Photog]

From Zac at SS--Stella rider:

Current Setup (or why I have perma-grin)
It all starts with a UNI filter
Then that air is mixed with fuel/oil by a Mikuni TM28
Flowed through a one off manifold (thanks Kirk!)
Into a smoothed reedblock with Suzuki RM125 reeds (modified) and a modified reed stop
The air and fuel flows into smoothed Stella cases
Past a Mazzy full circle crank
Into a Malossi 166
And the exhaust exits via a JL RZ in stainless steel.
Power is delivered through a Cosa 22t clutch and stock gears except for a PX125T5 4th gear.

The thing screams. Buries the speedo needle going uphill into a headwind

Kirk rode it last week when it still had a 24/24G on it so he can chime in with his opinion but the TM28 really woke it up. I am still playing with jetting and mixture a little but I am about 90% dialed in on the new carb

Oh yeah, 1st gear throttle brings the front up, shifting into 2nd and dropping the clutch results in 10'-20' of 1 wheel action, and if I hit it hard....3rd gear wheelies!

[JohnTM]

Damn, Phog! You been on the job for what, two days? And you already got your own forum, a massive thread started, and the big red buttonâ„¢. You go, Girl!

Hee, hee, I already hijacked a thread...

[BUBB]

Originally Posted by Photog

Scooter is used for daily in-town commuter, and Sunday road trip bike. Has to have wide range of tolerance for bumper-to-bumper, and 1-hour stints on the open road. Emphasis on low end grunt and midrange; no need for extreme top end. Typical cruise at 45-50, in town and on back roads.

Here's what I've got if you're looking for a ballpark

2003 Stella
Pinasco 177
24/24G: 120 air corrector, BE4 mixer, 112 main, 50/100 idle
SIP/JL pipe
500ASL
~19 deg.
3 1/4 turns out
Amsoil Dominator - autolube - will be switching to Castrol TTS
NGK B8ES
Top speed: 65+ (ind)


Pulls from a dead stop in 2nd with negligable clutch slipping, from a rolling stop in 3rd, from 10-15 in fourth smoothly, quickly, and w/o hesitation.

I'll will try to upjet a bit, and drop to the B7ES this weekend. Will post more if that tweak does anything good.

Next mods:
GS seat buildup
Halogen & LED conversion
Striping

Thinking about:
COSA
Fireball upgear kit

let's start slowly....
first of all is that a two or four stroke?

[BUBB]

Hey, I was serious.

[Photog]

Originally Posted by BUBB

let's start slowly....
first of all is that a two or four stroke?

2 Stroke.

Occasionally a 3 or 4 stroke.

The bike is a licensed-built Vespa PX-150 which was built in the late 70's and 80's using state-of-the-art 50's technology. It's a 2 stroke motor and manual 4-speed transmission. Stock, they are quite reliable and peppy.

This is generally what the classic Vespa 2 stroke drivetrain looks like from the left side:



You're looking at the swingarm and rear drum brake and cylinder.

Here's the right side view of a vintage vespa engine:



That's the kick starter hanging out there.

The engine is air cooled. The flywheel is also the fan, which forces air through a plastic cowl. The entire shebang sits underneath a fender cowl.

The clutch is cable actuated, as is the transmission. The original design came from the flap-actuator system off WWII aircraft. You shift by rotating the left hand grip as you squeeze the clutch.

The Stella uses a reed valve electric start 150cc engine that makes about 8 hp on a sunny day, 10 when it's really happy, 12 or so with a decent kit. If you want to sacrifice reliability, you can get 25+hp out of them...which will keep the front end in the air through the first 3 gears if not all 4.

While some people keep them stock and are happy, the rest of us tune 'em, which requires some skills with understanding how 2T motors work, as well as being pretty sharp with carb jetting. That's part of the allure.

Anyway--the older bikes like the Vespa (and Stella) and Lambretta with their manual transmissions are referred to as "classic" scoots, "shifties", "metal scoots" and all sorts of names (including "YOU POS") to differentiate them from the automatic scoots.

They are the Royal Enfields of the modern scooter lineup--a brand new old scooter that requires a lot of owner attention to get the best out of them, and therefore a bit of craziness at times.

[Jack Daniel]

Originally Posted by Photog

2 Stroke.




a bit of craziness at times.

Yea, I remember see'n, I mean smok'n out'a one of these at a party back in the 70s. Two strokes get you high man! I mean ma'm!