Ma Vespa GL150 - GTS 12" Wheels

[Diablo]

Wow bang on mate. One thing you can't buy is style and this bike has bucketloads.

How does it ride on the road with the bigger wheels?

[Spanish Fly]

Me Likeee! :bigsm:

SF

[byron]

that works really well
subtle and stylish
cool artwork too

[LI150]

That is deffinatly up there with one of the coolest vespas I have seen

[iheartoldskool]

Hello mate. Great looking scoot. I wasn't sold on the new wheels old scoot look at first glance but when you take it in it looks spot on imo. Great mix of old and new looks. Love the colour.

[RICSPEED]

yeah the wheels do take a bit of getting used to but as redghost says think of any 60's american running 20" allys and your there ,love the grey ,reminds me of "in the skin trade" gp very stealth looking and an old favorit

[MCH]

i know someone else pointed out that it rides a bit high and the front looks like it needs lowering a little,

how about you try a vespa lx front rim - its 11" and put a smaller profile tyre on to drop the front end slightly, it has a very similar design to the gts rim,

just food for thought thats all, back wheel looks cool with the big rim though!

[sean brady scooters]

it looks great ,did you have to modify the swing arm on the engine to accomodate the larger wheel at all ?

[soullad]

looks great ...lovely scoot, even for a Vespa
so come on spill the beans. what diff parts did you use to get the rear to fit?

[MCH]

it looks great ,did you have to modify the swing arm on the engine to accomodate the larger wheel at all ?

i don't exactly what he has done to the swing arm, he might have had to grind a very slight bit off the curved section, but

its all about offsets - like on a car when fitting alloys, depending on the rims off set will depend on how he has spaced it out from the engine, im guessing he will have had to make the hubs or machine and alter px ones, as with some of the earlier sip wide wheel kits the tyre rubbed on the clutch covers and therefore it needed grinding down slightly or a new cnc clutch cover with a flat face replaced the original.

as for the rims and tyres fitting in that space all you have to do is the maths.

i know from running wide wheel kits that the maximum size tyre you can fit on a px at the rear is a 130/90 -10, even with this size you are pushing it to mere millimetres from the casing and the exhaust bracket.

so the radius - centre of the hub to the outer edge of the tyre for a 130/90 - 10 set up is 242mm

you work this out by 130 (width of the tyre in mm) 90 (the height in percentage of the width) and half of the 10 inch rim (125mm - (1 inch = 25mm approx)) -

so thats 90% of 130 = 117mm + 125mm = 242mm - that i know is a few mm off the engine casing.

hence when fitting an 'wide tyre' on a sip kit you put on 130/70-10 or 120/70-10, as this gives it roughly the same profile (height of the tyre) as the original 3.50 - 10 tyre.

when putting an 'over size' tyre on - i.e. wider and higher, the maximum you can put on is 130/90-10, pushing right to within a millimetre or two of the engine mount, which is unsafe as tyres can and will expand up to 4mm,

therefore i run 120/90 -10 as an over size on my sip kit, (233mm)

so for the gts rims - on the books they run two tyre sizes - 130/70 - 12 on the front and 120/70 -12 on the rear

so it depends what tyres he is running but either should also clear the engine by a few millimetres

the 130/70 - 12 altogether radius is - 150mm(6inch) + 91mm = 241mm

the 120/70 - 12 altogether radius is - 150mm + 84mm = 234mm - the safer option

hope that helps