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 ...

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 / ...

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 ...

So, you’ve bought a race pipe, you’ve bought a big bore kit, big carb, Malossi over range kit, K&N air filter, new crank, anything and everything to boost your scooters engine performance, yet someone rides around the outside of you on a simple derestricted moped?! How can they do this? Straight lines aren’t everything, if you even watch racing, they never say how they spent the entire race weekend doing further tuning to the engine performance, no, they always say how they’ve spent every session optimising the suspension settings, the brakes and the tyres! This is how the 125cc bikes in racing can lap only a few seconds off the highly tuned performance superbikes, they’re lighter and handle better, even though they make less than half the power! The best part to this is, you can do two out of these three steps for very little money, it’s cheap as chips! 1. Tyres So, you’ve spent thousands tuning your scooter, it has every modification possible done to the tiny little engine revving its nuts off, and you’re doing over 70mph on a tyre contact patch the size of two fingers? Doesn’t sound very safe does it? So why do most people skimp out when it ...

Piaggio Performance Tuning Guide To compliment to the Moped & Scooter Tuning: The Facts article, here is my personal reccomendation on how to tune Piaggio scooters, at my old work we have used this setup literally on every 50cc scooter we tune and have never had a kid come back from his test ride without a smile on their face. This article covers any Piaggio engine based scooter, so will apply to all Gilera, Vespa and come Aprilia scooters, but beware that exhausts may be specific for certain Vespa & Aprilia models due to bodywork differences. Although a little different in order from the previous article, these are the three main things we to do Piaggio scooters, and most people do not require anymore! 1. Fit a performance Race Pipe / Sports Exhaust We reccommend the Giannelli Reverse (or the Giannelli Extra if your budget can't quite stretch that far) for Piaggio motors (Remember all Gilera, Vespa and later post 2004 Aprilia's use the same motors). Firstly, this exhaust is sold as a legal aftermarket exhaust, not technically a race pipe by law, so it's got a nice little stamp on it which means it'll pass an MOT, as well as coming with a warrenty, so ...

OK, this is NOT a definative Scooter tuning guide, nor does it delve into the best combination of Jets, Rollers or Tyre compounds. There are too many combinations to contemplate, so I'll stick with a nice simple overview of what you really need to know. First, the nasty stuff. Legalities You must be aware that at 16 you are only legally licenced and insured to ride a 30mph Moped, assuming you have a CBT.  That means no go-faster modifications, or you are risking a total loss of licence and when you get it back, prohibitive insurance costs. THE COURTS ARE FULL OF PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT THEY WOULD GET AWAY WITH IT! At age 17 or more, you can ride a 125cc UP TO 14BHP unless you have passed a full motorcycle test. Unrestricted or Tuned Mopeds are fine too, although the 14bhp limit applies (No problem normally) and the machine should have been re-registered. CBT Riders are not allowed to ride tuned (Over 14bhp) machines, or those with Big Bore kits. The penalties can be harsh! A driving ban for 12 months, Huge fines, and worst of all A CRIMINAL RECORD for riding uninsured. This may prevent you doing important things in later ...