The Yamaha Aerox and the Jog RR are the flagship performance Yamaha scooters, both featuring the highly tuneable Minerelli LC 50cc engine which responds very well to tuning with Malossi products. Yamaha AC powered bikes like the Neos, BWS, Zuma and Jog R are also very similar, but do not make as much power as the LC models, but this guide still applies to them.

Extremely early Yamaha scooters (I know the original Billywhizz for instance) had a restricted CDI unit, as far as I’m aware the new ones do not anymore, and won’t need a replacement CDI unless you install really high revving / high power race 70cc kits, which I do not recommend doing for road use unless you like rebuilding your Yamaha scooter a lot. I’ve had a relatively high revving Hebo kit installed in a fairly new AC engine before combined with a Hebo exhaust and it ran fine without a replacement CDI.

1. Yamaha Scooter Tuning: Malossi Variator

I always prefer to start tuning Yamaha / Minerelli engine based scooters by replacing the Variator with a Malossi Variator to start with. This is because, in my opinion, the standard Variator isn’t the best unit in the world and it seems to cause bogging at 30mph and struggles to keep the engine spinning at its optimum rpm (where it makes peak power). Although the standard Variator is fine on normal derestricted Yamaha scooters, when you start tuning you tend to end up with a narrower power band (the region where your scooter makes the most power) and since the standard Variator struggles to keep the rpm from fluctuating outside this range, causing bogging, a replacement performance Malossi Variator should be fitted before anything else.

2. Yamaha Scooter Tuning: Giannelli Exhaust

As with nearly every Malossi tuning guide I’ve written, I fit Giannelli exhausts 99% of the time for 3 basic reasons:

Cost: Giannelli exhausts are available from £88 for the Giannelli Extra and £117 for the Giannelli Reverse. Giannelli exhausts might not be the cheapest on the market, but the cheapest isn’t the best and they are by far from the most expensive exhausts available.

Power: Giannelli are very well performing exhausts, Giannelli’s perform equally well on both standard 50cc cylinders and Malossi tuning 70cc big bore kits.

Warranty: Giannelli’s are e-marked and legal. Although hardly anyone cares about fitting “race use only” parts, the main benefit this actually gives you is the fact they come with a warranty, race use only parts do not.

3. Yamaha Scooter Tuning: Malossi Big Bore 70cc kit

As per usual, I always recommend fitting Malossi tuning 70cc big bore kits. Malossi make the best tuning parts on the market. The Malossi tuning cast iron 70cc big bore kit is £158 in the UK and is the best value for money road cylinder kit available in my opinion; it makes the best combination of power, price and reliability. Malossi tuning also produce the MHR Replica kit which is an alloy barrel and nickasil plated cylinder designed to be a road going replica of the super power MHR Team race kits (which make 18bhp+ but are only really suitable for race use as they require another £2000 or so of parts alongside it to run properly). The MHR Replica makes a little bit more power than the cast iron kit, but in my opinion, not enough to warrant buying one for a road scooter that does the miles. If a cast iron one blows up, you can just get these rebored and a new piston, if an alloy kit blows up you need new nickasil plating and a piston, which costs almost as much as a brand new kit.

I did mention I have used Hebo kits and exhausts in the past on these engines with some success, but I wouldn’t recommend using them because they’re all alloy/nickasil barrels with a single ring piston. This is great for high revving power (due to less friction on the cylinder) but not so good for reliability and you’ll need to replace the piston often compared to the Malossi big bore kits. When combined with the Hebo exhausts, these kits are really high revving and make bucket loads of power yes, but are in turn, more difficult to setup (unless you have a dynamometer in your back yard). Also, my biggest issue is Hebo UK are possibly the worst suppliers I’ve ever dealt with when working in the scooter industry, poor stock keeping and make too many false promises about deliveries, waiting 6 months for replacement cylinder kits is totally unacceptable in my opinion. They used to have a guy called Colin working there who was a genuine bloke 100% concerned about his customers, but after he parted ways with them, Hebo UK have gone downhill rather sharpish in my opinion.

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