Experimenting with my water-cooled Vespa head.

So Ive been venturing into water cooling lately and it's pretty rad! I've recently been cruising my red Ciao which is pretty quick. It has a full Malossi engine with D.E.P.S. kit, a custom 47mm matches water cooled head, 19 PHBG, and 30mm Calibrata pipe, which I scored for a killer deal. The current setup is single speed and I love it but I will probably variate it eventually for shits and giggles. I really love the look of the stock forks on Ciaos but venturing over 40mph on them is pretty sketchy, so I'll probably switch them out next season. I want to have this bike as a daily drivers so I want to eventually have a fast ass bike with very low temperatures. Anyways back to the H20 crap.... My first and funniest attempt at thermosiphoning cooling can be seen in the first 2 photos. It was more or less just an experiment and the easiest way to set it up.  If you arent familiar with Thermosiphoning, it is a cooling technique that uses convection to circulate the cooling fluid without a pump. 

 So this first setup worked, just not as good as it should. With the radiator so far away from the head and the long hoses, the cooling wasnt very effective. With this setup I wasnt seeing any temps over 320 degrees but that is easily attainable with an aircooled setup.  Also forgot to mention this is the small "snake" Polini radiator.

 Yea on the ride a few nights ago my radiator fell off and I was dragging it behind me, kind of funny. 

 This is my current and second try.  BARELY got the snake radiator tucked under the tank and shortened the hoses. I still need to do some fiddling to get it mounted perfect. I was looking at a few of water cooled moped photos and it seems like the Ciao has much less room than Puchs and French bikes.  

 Went out and went WOT for a long long while and my temps didnt get over 280 degrees. Which is pretty good but I still think it can be much better.  I really feel like the snake radiator is ultimately too small for the cooling Im looking for. Maybe I can find another for cheap and run 2? haha.

 So here are a few other radiators I have gathered for experimentation.  From left to right KTM65, Derbi GPR50, and Mini Polini radiator. So I would love to use the larger ones but I think next I will install the Mini Polini radiator due to the lack of space under the tank. Its a tad larger than the snake radiator but still thin. 

To show the thickness of these guys. The KTM and Derbi are kind of out of the question right now. I really love fenders because I ride year round, maybe I will have more room with a fork swap? 

Looks like there is a decent amount of room with the EBRs so who knows.  So far its been fun to experiment with radiators and cooling. Im planning a 50cc full H20 Polini build next year which will probably have a pump, so far this is all just practice for it. If you have experience with water cooling hit me up! COOOOL.

Peugeot 102 MLM intake a pipe install.

So I got to do some Peugeot 102 upgrades the other day at the shop. Ive always thought 102's were very pretty bikes. Unlike the Peugeot 103 (variated), they have a single speed transmission and have very few aftermarket parts made for them.  I have a theory about less desirable bikes like the 102.... Since there isnt much you can do to make it faster and other models are "cooler" these bikes are less likely to be molested and chopped up. Most of the 102's Ive seen have mostly been in great shape.  So the only available performance upgrades for the 102 is a MLM 15mm Dellorto Sha intake and MLM People's pipe. I installed them on this bikes and here is how it turned out. 

When bolting up the pipe I found that with the header tightened down, the rear mounts were about a centimeter spaced out from the pipe mounts on the frame. I used 30mm m6 allen bolts and used spacers in between the pipe and mounts so not to pull the pipe in an unnatural direction. Remember to use a new exhaust gasket when installing this. The pipe sound is pretty deep and not as pingy as most other bikes. Good construction and bolts up decently. I didnt notice much low low end gain from the pipe but thats what pedals are for! Definitely better mid range and high, no distinct power band but it wraps out way higher than the stock setup.  

This is the 15mm Sha on the MLM forward facing intake. The intake sits at a nice angle and doesnt get in the way of pedaling, it might if you have a huge air filter though. If you look closely, I pulled the left intake stud and replaced it with a 16mm m5 bolt. The reason I did this is because that stud is super long to use the stock intake and with this MLM intake it hits the side of the intake.  Other things to keep in mind when going with this setup: You need to buy a new throttle cable, a Puch Maxi length with bendy will work just fine.  You also need to buy the 1mm Sha shim to get this carb (15mm Sha lever choke) to work on the MLM intake.  

Lastly if you want to run this intake/card with the sidecovers you will need to do some modifications to make it fit. 

So after all the upgrades and tuning I GPSed the bike at 33.1mph on flat ground and could probably see faster speeds with longer straight aways (IM IN CHICAGO!). It might not seem like a huge upgrade but from my riding experience, a jump from 25 ish to the 30's range is pretty significant. 

FORGOT TO MENTION!!!! Here at M.O.P.E.D. we celebrated our 2 year anniversary!!! Wow cool! I feel lucky to work on mopeds every day and keep Chicago cruising. 

Here are a few photos, we had a great ride, pizza, girls, beers, pops,, and Zac did a burn out in his Miata.  Like the last anniversary ride, e left with a ton of people and only like 10 made it back, I guess Chicago just easts up mopeds.