Has Lambretta tuning really moved on over the past 20 years?

[Matty]

Example: Feature on RS Tuning in a 1993 edition of Scootering.







Look at the spec of the RS250, that'd be wild these days let alone in 1993. Considering this was a road scooter and built by Ralph I'd wager that it was reliable too. Also, look at the clutch and the gearing, how did a spec like that run on a 4 plate clutch when so many people jump straight onto 5 and 6 plate clutch these days? Have Lambretta tuners really advanced any further over the years or are they just redoing the same ideas over and over again bearing in mind that the TS1 had already been out a few years at this point.

[Mag]

"90mph in 3rd" ...have things moved on since then? Yes. We use GPS not glue to help assess our speed!

[soulsurfer]

I can't read the writing in the pictures, but I think the thing with five and six plate clutches these days is down tonthe exhaust pipes we're now using and how the power is being delivered.
Bikes from the eighties and nineties were definitely faster, but I also think they were reliant on poor instrumentation. I was Reading some of the speeds on the Scooter Trumps cards and thinking "yeah, right" Nice to think you were cruising at 90 though

[fred]

shortly after these pics were taken steve fitted a krober rev counter to the green,and black250. so the speeds weren't guesstimates. ryan later owned it,and did a 1/4 mile with a terminal speed of 90mph.
not too shabby.

[soulsurfer]

Not road speeds then.

[GP Kevo]

Ask the copper who radars or lasers you. That's the real, at the moment speed. Top speed is the highest attained speed and gps gives you an average speed calculated every few seconds or a lot more if reception is bad. Work out speed from a rev counter and as long as your clutch isn't slipping you have a more accurate measure. I did that wiith my tuned Malossi Vespa back in the day and know I was sustaining 85 mph from the tacho and from the CHiPs. I liked to think it would do 90 mph but the tacho doesn't lie. I've driven in my Honda Civic car and watched the GPS sit at 80 mph while I accelerated up and down quickly. An accurate, local measurement will be better than GPS as it will give you instant information about your mph / kph as it happens with no latency, no innacurate results due to poor reception. Sure the Lambretta original speedos aren't reliable instruments, but a MB digial speedo or equivilant I think would be if set up accurately and correctly.

[soulsurfer]

How do you get an accurate Reading from your tacho and what is CHiPs?

[soulsurfer]

if you know what gearing you have in your scooter you can work out what speeds it does at what revs using something like this
http://www.scooterhelp.com/tuning/lam.gear.calc.html
or better still this
http://scooterotica.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6286

for instance I know that my scooter is doing 87mph at 8000rpm

But wouldn't speed accuracy depend on accurate calculation of the tyre circumference? And what about tyre wear and/or tyre pressure?

[johnny diamond]

suppose it depends on what tuning means to each individual
to many it means speed and only speed, to me it means overhaul improvment and reliability,
I think the best was achived a few years back, and cannot be improved further without destroying the essence of the machine ( the frame and crankcase ) so whats the point if your not planning to race one ??, most tunes are only refinements of basic tunes from years gone by with very few real world improvments/overhaul gain's.

[soulsurfer]

GPS sounds like the better option to me for accuracy and ease of use.