Feeling exhausted
As the riding season gets closer, Stan’s Polini 210 preparations gather pace. Having fettled the carb, dealt with the clutch and picked out some tyres… it’s time to sort the exhaust.
For the past couple of years my adventures have been almost entirely Lambretta based. This season I am determined to redress the balance and over the winter I’ve been working on my trusty PX. Although I say trusty, the dominance of Lambretta reporting isn’t entirely my fault. Despite lavishing attention on it, the PX stubbornly refused to co-operate with my efforts to diagnose several niggling problems. Thanks to Dan, it now has a 210 Polini autolube engine fitted and, over the past couple of editions, I’ve reported on how we’ve brought that up to date with upgraded carb, clutch, wheels and tyres. The final piece of the jigsaw was the exhaust. As I need something practical for touring, that meant a box pipe and with that criteria in mind it was fairly easy to narrow the choice to two serious contenders.
Sod’s Law
Unfortunately, and fairly true to form, my PX didn’t want to play nicely with the dyno, registering a ‘double spark’.
There are plenty of reasons for this, none of which affect reliability, and one day I’ll get around to looking at them.
For the dyno day this meant we couldn’t calibrate the computer’s torque readings. We could however look at power spread and sort out the jetting. Two out of three ain’t bad… As with any dyno run there are variables, and the readings were slightly higher than I’ve previously seen on my 210. The important thing is that comparisons are run side by side and all these tests were conducted on the same morning.
Italian Stallion
First up, batting for Italy and demanding a purse of £126, was Polini’s Road Box exhaust. Designed to work with both tuned and standard motors, Polini claims that it increases the motor’s power throughout the rev range while retaining a standard appearance. Fitting was straightforward with no modifications being required to the frame, stand or exhaust. After a couple of test runs the Polini settled on a 122 main jet and produced a very respectable 16.13bhp. I’ve put around 500 miles on this exhaust and can confirm it offers a wide spread of usable power. When performance pipes are discussed the Polini is often overlooked, in reality it’s a very capable and well-priced piece of kit.
Teutonic Titan
In the opposing corner, weighing in at £150, was the Road 3 by SIP. This isn’t a replacement for the legendary Road 2, it’s an upgraded exhaust designed for engines in a mild state of tune. Unlike other ‘sports’ exhausts the downpipe isn’t made of segments, it’s a cold drawn design with an upper and a lower half. This method of construction helps with manufacturing tolerances and there are fewer welding seams perpendicular to the gas flow direction. Again, fitting was very straightforward. With jetting adjusted to a 119 main, the SIP 3 produced 16.71 bhp.
Take your pick!
In terms of performance there’s very little to separate the two exhausts. The Polini has a slightly lower purchase price while the SIP 3’s smaller jetting should prove to be slightly more economical. I’ve been more than happy with the Polini, but this year I’ll be riding the SIP 3, simply because we’ve added a twist to our long-term 210 test.
Road trip
Although we’ve concentrated on the upgrades to my P2, there’s another PX in the mix and now’s as good a time as any to reintroduce it. We first met Brad’s Polini 210 back in edition 388 but since then it’s had something of a rework. Essentially our PXs are the same bike, both have a Polini 210 kit, both have clutch and gear upgrades, both have a 26mm carb and both will run a SIP 3. However, while for my P2 we’ve adopted a budget, ‘bolt-on’ approach, Brad has gone all ‘Gucci’ (see boxout for full details). Once we’re allowed out, the two scooters are going on a road trip. The aim? To see whether Brad’s extra effort and expense makes any difference in the real world. Both scooters are now road ready, all we need is the green light from Boris….