Tune My Scooter is the number one site for scooter tuning information on the web, so why shouldn't we be the number one site for tuning parts also? Tune My Scooter is proudly becoming part of PJ Motorcycle Engineers, who will not only continue to deliver the best tuning information about, but now also offer the best scooter tuning parts and accessories as well

You heard it here first; the best scooter for tuning ever built, the Piaggio Zip SP, is being re introduced to the UK market, but called the Zip RS this time.  From what we know they'll be available in white and Piaggio are just deciding on the new Zip RS decal designs at the moment Why's the Zip RS re-introduction to the UK a big deal? The Zip RS (and Zip SP) is the lightest, best handing, most tunable scooter Piaggio have ever built, as far as I'm aware no other bike has won any UK or European scooter championships at all, and the race fields are 95% Zip RS / SP's anyway, which says something for how good they are Singled sided front suspension allows you to run Malossi RS24 suspension dampers front and back to provide the perfect handling, the 10" wheels on the Zip RS are some of the only scooter wheels which the tyre manufacturers make super sticky race compound rubber for, the stuff you can get your knee down with! The Zip RS is powered by the legendary liquid cooled Piaggio Hiper-2 Pro motor, which when derestricted alone normally does a very healthy 55mph, and can reach 85mph+ when ...

Well, yes and no is the answer. Obviously they don’t make huge differences either way, but you should wait until the time is right to fit one. The standard Air box is setup to work perfectly with your standard engine and exhaust so doesn’t need changing for a Malossi open filter. Adding a Giannelli race pipe makes the engine more efficient (throwing extra fuel make into the cylinder that’s normally lost out the exhaust) and also rev higher, so it is using slightly more air, but not enough to warrant changing the to a Malossi filter yet. Adding a Malossi 70cc kit however, and things change; there is a 40% capacity increase there, so it’s obviously going to benefit from the greater airflow the Malossi air filter gives. Does it make a big difference though? No, not really. It’ll improve the low down punch more than anything, but not real differences apart from it sounding better ;-) The important thing to remember is to UPJET when fitting one; otherwise it’ll run lean and cause a seizure. I normally go up by 6 sizes or so depending on the model, and don’t fit one until I’ve got a Giannelli exhaust ...

Although I’m a dire 2 stroke fan and will cling onto them kicking and screaming, unfortunately 4 strokes are the way forward with emissions laws and so forth, but they’ve always been slow. Well not anymore! The amount of tuning parts for Chinese scooters is surprisingly low considering they’re generally the best selling scooter when you group all the various brands together who sell the same basic scooter, but there’s now enough parts out to get a fairly good performing scooter, although it still won’t be a patch on the 2 stroke scooters. Unlike the 2 strokes where the exhaust makes quite a large difference in power delivery, 4 strokes aren’t affected as much so firstly I’d recommend fitting a big bore kit, after all, there’s no replacement for displacement. Airsal manufacture an 80cc big bore kit for the 4 stroke Chinese scooters, which is a surprisingly high quality piece of kit, with an Aluminium cylinder and nickel silicon carbide barrel coating for minimal friction, which helps when you consider how many piston rings the 4 strokes have! Fitting the Airsal big bore kit is fairly simply on the Chinese scooters, although it’s still a lot more complicated that two strokes since you’ll ...

Cheap Chinese scooters are here to stay, there is no denying it unfortunately, especially with oil & petrol prices rising the way they are, so why should you buy a cheap Chinese scooter, and why should you not buy one? As a scooter mechanic, I’ve worked on pretty much everything at one time or another, from Piaggio’s, Peugeot’s, Yamaha’s, and right down to the cheap and nasty crap like the first generation Chinese scooters. As far as I’m aware, Piaggio actually released the first big selling 4 stroke 50cc scooter with the Vespa ET4 50cc, over 100mpg compared to 65-70mpg for it’s 2 stroke counterpart definitely made it a winner among commuters, but with it’s high European build quality and all metal monocoque chassis, it wasn’t the cheapest scooter on the market, and this was the way the market was heading: 16 year old lads still wanted scooters with the best handling and performance (a niche pretty much dominated by the Piaggio NRG, Gilera Runner and Yamaha Aerox, in that order), and older people trading in their cars for cheap transport wanted something just that; cheap. The problem is as I see it, most car owners see their £6-7000 car (at the cheap ...

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 ...

Although the Peugeot Speedfight 50cc engine is quite slow out the crate, the engine (especially the LC 50cc version) is very responsive to tuning as long as you use the right parts. As with other brands of scooters, always go for the best quality parts when tuning Peugeot Speedfight 50cc’s and not any old cheap crap. The same 2 stroke engine is fitted to most Peugeot scooters, so this guide also applies to the Vivacity, Jet Force C-Tech, Ludix & Blaster models. Peugeot Speedfight 50cc Tuning: Performance Exhaust Although I usually recommend fitting a Giannelli exhaust to most 50cc scooters when tuning, Peugeot Speedfights work very well with LeoVince performance exhausts as well. For the Peugeot Speedfight, both these exhausts are similar priced with the LeoVince ZX being £126 and the Giannelli Reverse exhaust being £117. As always, the decision is between maximum power and reliability; the LeoVince ZX is a slightly higher performing exhaust and has roller weights included with it, but the Giannelli Reverse comes with a warranty. When tuning Peugeot Speedfights, bear in mind LeoVince exhausts come with a restrictor cone in the manifold end of the exhaust that is tack welded on, you’ll need to grind / hammer / ...

Giannelli Exhausts, in my opinion, out of all the performance race exhaust manufacturers out there, deliver the best possible combination of price, performance and reliability, which are the three main things to consider when fitting an exhaust to a road tuned scooter. I’ve had experience with LeoVince exhausts, Hebo exhausts, Kundo exhausts, Technigas exhausts and many other major brands of performance exhaust manufactures, but in my mind Giannelli Exhausts have always proved to be the best I could fit when tuning 50cc scooters. The problem I’ve always found in the past is that shops who supply parts only tend to push the cheaper brands more than the quality exhausts as there is a lot more mark-up in them, especially brands like Technigas. From working as a mechanic in a dedicated scooter shop, we always refused to sell cheaper brands as it was us who would be fitting them 9 times out of 10, and us people would complain to when their mates scooters ended up faster because they had a cheap Technigas exhaust fitted, so we quickly found out that Giannelli Exhausts offer the best package for tuning road scooters. My personal favourite Giannelli Exhaust is the Giannelli “Reverse” Exhaust which retails at ...

A question that's been asked and searched for a fair bit recently, so I thought I'd post the answer The pistons in all cylinder kits, not just Malossi 70cc big bore kits, have a little arrow on the top of the piston. This arrow faces the exhaust port, so it is generally facing down on horiztonal engines and towards the front of the bike on vertical engines. Fitting the piston the right way round on big bore cylinder kits is extremely important, since the big bore piston rings arn't complete (they need to split to squeeze over the piston), they have a point in the piston there the two ends meet. These two ends generally line up between the middle and outer transfer (intake) ports on the rear of the cylinder providing you have fitted the piston in the right way round.  Fitting the piston backwards on a big bore cylinder kit will result in these two ends opening up slightly in the exhaust port and possibly catching.  As well as this a lot of pistons have a cut away piece for helping intake induction on a certain side, and sometimes are cast / machined to take more pressue on the exhaust / thrust ...

So you want to make your scooter faster?  Malossi manufacture the fastest, best performing, best quality tuning parts available for mopeds and scooters, and work closely with the major scooter manufacturers to build the best tuning parts and accessories available. Every national and world class championship winning scooter has been tuned with Malossi parts, simply as they're the best tuning company in the business!  If you're ever unsure on what to go with, 99% of the time Malossi are the best to go for, although they're not always the cheapest. Does that mean there are better value for money alternatives?  Yes, but they're not always the best performing, so it's usually a careful balancing act when tuning scooters with a budget, as a lot of cheap tuning alternatives to Malossi are of poor quality, however there are some other manufacturers out there that are 99% as good for road tuning compared to Malossi, and half the price. Generally there are 3 main things when tuning the modern automatic scooter we carry out: performance exhaust replacement (fitting a race pipe), 70cc performance big bore kit, and an aftermarket performance variator.  After this tuning gets very expensive and isn't cost effective, nor suitable for road ...