93Tech Torque

With a stack of tuning and upgrade products for various Vespa machines to hand, we intend to fit and analyse them over the coming months. The PX has been playing dyno donkey for the past five articles, so this time it had a welcome break as we looked at V

Dan continues his epic Vespa tech tuning saga.

Having spent a few months on speed and power upgrades, this month we wanted to focus on handling. One thing I’ve always thought about the Vespa suspension is how comfortable it is to ride. I always feel that the Vespa is more of an armchair ride compared to my Lambretta… which is fine, but the ‘pogo’ element of a Vespa is the trade-off.

In terms of value for money, and for the average rally-going scooterist, Escort shocks are hard to beat in terms of their cost and simplicity. Easily available and cheap to buy, they are ‘no frills’ and get the job done. But for me personally, they are just too soft. You don’t even need to get out on the road to find this out – simply gas a Vespa on the dyno and feel the back end squat and the front end lift. Come off the gas and watch the back end lift again. Out on the road, and especially with a disc brake, grab a handful of front brake and feel the front end dive quite badly. So we have choices, and the range is wide… from suspension units which are only a few quid more than Escorts, right up to very expensive units. As with all elements of scootering, your budget is your own business. But for this upgrade, we selected the lovely CNC machined units from SIP. Not only do they look the dog’s bollocks (we all love a bit of scooter bling) but they are quite comprehensive in their adjustability too.

The units come with an adjustable spring for pre-load; the spring itself is progressive, and the unit also has a 20-click rebound control adjustment. So you can adjust how hard the spring resistance is when the unit is compressed (say under braking) or how soft/hard the unit rebounds/extends (say when going over a pothole – or after hard braking).

The progressive spring also means comfort at the upper end when riding solo, or a firmer ride when heavily laden or under braking. So these units tackle the three key areas of ride, comfort and handling. In terms of fitting, this another easy item which is literally bolt-off/bolt-on and can be undertaken by any home mechanic. The units come with a comprehensive instruction manual, should you require it, for both fitting and (more importantly) the setting up of the units, which is a personal preference situation.

There is also an online guide for the setup, which anyone can use: http://bit.ly/shockabsorbers1