Scooterotica

one thing that has always puzzled me..................
rear sets/foot pegs...................they maybe do improve handling to some point..................but...........do they aid areodynamics at all........................surelly not................
far better to have your legs tucked in behind your vega leggies at high speed than stuck out like an elephants ears..............

assuming you can get your legs there

sean brady scooters wrote:one thing that has always puzzled me..................
rear sets/foot pegs...................they maybe do improve handling to some point..................but...........do they aid areodynamics at all........................surelly not................
far better to have your legs tucked in behind your vega leggies at high speed than stuck out like an elephants ears..............

You can push through the pegs to help on cornering....plus you sit in a better position with rearsets.

Everytime i set off on Big Birds T5 on Sunday i tried to put me feet onto the footpegs...that werent there!

I took my TS1 for a spin on Sat....it was dynoed at Diablos last year at 27bhp, we've made some mods since then and are expecting 28-30bhp now

I now know that Al's dyno at Diablo returns numbers about 12% higher than JB's dyno at Southend. JB has now done tests on two scooters that have run on Al's dyno and compared the results. In fact, I haven't come across a dyno that returns lower figures than JB's, though this doesn't mean his dyno is wrong.

I’ll come clean, the 30bhp machine that started-off this thread was a TS1 tuned by JB at Southend. David Blythe rode it on Friday, and I rode it on Monday. It is a civilised machine with the ability to deliver lots of power further up the rev-range. A mate refused a test ride as he was worried that he might have to spend more money on his own (VERY rideable 20bhp) TS1.

Dan’s description of riding a 28bhp (read 26bhp at JB) TS1 is not my experience from Monday. I used the throttle with care whilst rounding a roundabout, but without once thinking that this scooter was about to bite and spit me off. OK, it wasn’t wide open (obviously), but despite the fact that this was an unfamiliar machine, I wasn’t intimidated by it (I also scare easily).

To summarise my posts:
We are at a great time for TS1 tuning
30bhp doesn’t have to be an on-off switch that is out to kill you
Always use the same dyno for engine development

Above all, I don’t want you rush off the John Balcomb’s to get yourselves an engine. That would simply stifle engine development in this country. Please, please, please keep tuning your own machines and that way we will improve the breed.

Knowledge wrote: Dan’s description of riding a 28bhp (read 26bhp at JB) TS1 is not my experience from Monday. I used the throttle with care whilst rounding a roundabout, but without once thinking that this scooter was about to bite and spit me off. OK, it wasn’t wide open (obviously), but despite the fact that this was an unfamiliar machine, I wasn’t intimidated by it (I also scare easily).

I think my test ride nerves were not calmed by the fact that i was doing crazy speeds on a cutdown group six with race paint and race numbers on, and was paranoid that if plod saw me i'd get a tug. The riding position, drop bars and rearsets all lend to the situation too....plus i held onto WOT for a tad too long in my attempts to wind it out in fourth....which led to a shaky moment as i approached the rear of a car a bit to fast.....and then in a flash of madness i convinced myself that trying to get round the roundabout in a race leaning fashion was a good idea. The new up'n'over was also burning my ankle through my socks and the scoot weighs next to nothing.

Im sure the engine would be a nicer affair in a full bodied lambo with a bit of weight to it, and in a 'sit up and beg' position, instead of cramped up on little more than a bare frame....i was definitely gunning it, and my riding style has as much to do with it as anything too.

But i wholly concur with regard to development and tuning........now is the time.

would,nt it be good,(in an ideal world that is) if all dynos were calibrated /set up and were used in a std pre determined way.........

Just a note on dyno power runs. Its quite easy to get a high one run figure from a scooter/bike on a dyno. I've only ever seen one dyno operator give me the figures after 20 minutes of warm up, hard accleration and ensuring that everything is up to working 'real' temperatures.
During my time developing and mapping my own rotary valve motors I found out quite quickly the effect of running on the dyno for some constant time.. and this was on a dyno without a load device (which obviously heats the motor more). Curves will shift as temps go up. I dont really take on board a lot of these claimed figures because unless I know the operator has tested properly , the figures dont mean a lot to me.

Knowledge wrote: We are at a great time for TS1 tuning

Shame Uncle Ray has stopped the source of new barrels though.

drunkmunkey6969 wrote:

Avantone wrote: I could never understand why people fitted vega legshields from a performance point of view on racers (apart from the fact they look wicked sorry Dan )

They do look wicked.....thats for sure !

Presumably its also because they have less frontal area than standard leggies - thus less wind resistance, they also enable you to cut down the front end to shift weight over the front wheel, and are also a Lambretta item that can be obtained easily as opposed to fabricating a one-off race fairing etc??

Dunno....but ill just settle for looking good!

Thing is, the frontal area of the overall package (scooter and rider) is much (much) bigger than vega legshields.

A bigger better designed fairing would help manage the penetration and drag much better meaning you'd need less power to go faster. The weight would be a mitigating factor at short twisty circuits, but on longer circuits there would be a benefit.

The issue for us is that we love our scooters, and at what point does it fail to be recognised and appreciated as a scooter?

Please dont take my vega leggies away......

i dont mind going slower if i look good!