I took a video this weekend of me starting the bike. I turn the fuel on, hit the choke, pull the decompression lever, and start pedaling. You can hear it try to fire after I let go of the decompression lever. If I don’t turn the choke off right away, it will die. No big deal…just leave the choke off, try to restart it and it fires right up. See how slow I’m pedaling when the rear clutch catches? That’s all I’ve got. I’m pushing as hard as I possibly can. I almost need to shoot another video showing how effortless it is with the stock variator. But now that I can consistently start it, I’m going to leave this variator on there. The greatly improved acceleration makes it worth the trouble of starting it.

Daniel hooked me up again and got a set of 8g roller weights for my variator.  I installed them last night and took the bike for a ride.  I like them much better than the 10g weights.  It seems like the bike accelerates better and stays in the right RPM range.  I’m still disappointed in the top end though.  I can’t help but feel like the bike should be faster without having to buy a set of rear gears.  It revs nicely while accelerating, but it seems to struggle at the top end.  It isn’t bogging or anything.  It just doesn’t have enough get and go to make it into that 40 mph range.

One of the other things that came to mind recently is my fuel flow.  It seems that if I ride the bike for 1/2 mile or so at WOT it will die…I mean die, die…like come to a complete stop die.  I look down at the fuel line and it is empty right near the carb.  I run a fuel filter in my setup because the tank still isn’t completely clean since the acid bath.  The fuel line has to run up a little bit to get to the fuel filter and then it runs back down to the carb.  There should be enough pressure from the weight of the fuel in the tank to push it through the uphill section and down through the filter, but I have noticed some air bubbles in the line that may be holding it back.  So, last night I took the filter out of the system and ran a straight line to the carb.  I didn’t have any problems with the bike during my ride, which is good, but I didn’t gain any speed either. 

I took the bike for a ride and the yellow spring helped my bottom end, but killed my top end.  The engine doesn’t have enough to pull the belt to the bottom of the rear clutch with that yellow spring in there. 

I figured that after I cleaned my starting clutches I would probably be fine with the stock spring and I was right.  I put it back in and it started almost as easy as stock.

So, after all this tuning and frustration, here is the combo I ended up with:

• malossi variator
• 10g weights
• stock rear spring
• malossi belt
• engine moved forward

In order to get more top end out of the bike I think I’m going to have to buy the rear gears.  I’ll save up for those over the next month or so.

I didn’t want to completely give up on it, but I was getting close.  I read some more posts on MA about other people having similar problems, but this guy James seemed to have a positive outlook on the whole situation.  I sent him an email and he convinced me to give it another shot. 

He said that the yellow spring in the rear clutch really helped him. It made his starting better and took out some of the surges in his acceleration. I hadn’t installed mine yet, so I decided to give it a shot. I didn’t think it would really help my starting situation, but I didn’t know what else to try either. I took the rear clutch apart last night.  That seemed to go just fine, although it was tough to get it back together on my own.  I had to have a buddy help me hold the spring down and start the nut.

I got it put back together and put on the bike, but it wouldn’t do anything.  It was just freewheeling like a bicycle.  It turns out that I didn’t have the starting clutch as clean as I should have.  There was grease and who knows what else in there.  I took it all apart again and ran some fine grit sandpaper over the shoes and dried it out.  The starting worked perfect…just like stock.  I even got it to work with the malossi belt that I have.  I haven’t tried to ride it yet to see how it is doing…mainly because it was too late to be ripping through my neighborhood.  I’ll see how it goes this weekend. Maybe I’ll even shoot a quick video for all of you.

I’m heading out to a rally this weekend and I just couldn’t handle not being able to start the bike.  I ordered two new belts, but they aren’t here yet…and honestly, I don’t know that they will fix the problem.  I threw the stock variator and malossi belt back on last night and it pedals/starts so nice.  Right now I’m definitely willing to sacrifice the acceleration for easy starting.  Anyone have any suggestions?

New pipe, new variator, and new GPS speed = 38 mph.  I have no idea what is going on.  Something is holding me back.  I realize a 13/13 carb isn’t very big, but I feel like I should be at least in the 40s.  My acceleration is a lot better now, but damn.

The 10g roller weights seem to work pretty well.  I think 8g might be even better.  I’ll see if I can get some of those.  That shouldn’t be affecting my top end much though.  The belt line on the variator is within 1/4″ of the outside.  That’s good, right?

My other disappointment is not being able to start the bike anymore without an impact wrench.  It turns over fine with the decompression lever in, but as soon as I let it go, it stops.  I didn’t install the yellow spring with the variator.  Would that help?  Is my belt tension wrong?  Should I switch back to the stock belt?

Everyone has told me how much the Polini Long Country pipe sucks. I knew I needed an upgrade, but I didn’t know how badly I needed it until I saw my GPS numbers. I really wanted a Proma Circuit, but those aren’t available anymore. So, that left me with a Simonini or Polini Top One. I wanted to keep my pedals and stand and I think I probably could have done that with one of the Simonini pipes, but I don’t know for sure.

The decision maker for me was the cost. Last year I bought a kit from Daniel in Chicago. He definitely hooked me up and it worked out well. I contacted him about a week ago to see if he had any pipes. He said he two choices…the Sito (haha, no) or the Top One. The Top One was an easy choice. I sent him the money and had the pipe within a few days. Perfect.

Let me just say how nice it was to finally buy a something for this project that bolted on without any modification. It was wonderful. Polini doesn’t list this pipe for a Bravo. I think it is only listed for the Ciao and Si and I heard the Si has some possible fender interference. I really didn’t want to modify my fender at all and I was pleasantly surprised last night by a nice, clean fit. I didn’t even have to drill a single hole.

I haven’t fired it up yet, but I’ll let you know how it works out when I do. In the meantime, check out the pictures:

I read quite a bit about weights for the variator before I even bought it.  I saw that the 4.7g weights that come with the Malossi setup just don’t cut it.  I know people were looking for replacements in the 8g - 10g range, but they weren’t having much luck finding them.  I have a feeling they didn’t look very hard.  Once I knew they size, they were pretty easy to find. 

16dia x 13 long weights are fairly common for the scooter riders.  I found several different weights through both First Kick and Scooterworks.

Here is the stock setup:

You can see the location of the engine in the slots:

New Malossi variator:

New Pinasco 10g weights:

Variator installed with opened up slots:

After riding it, I think a set of 8g or 9g weights would work a little better. I’ll probably try them out sometime in the near future.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my Bravo has 3 engine mounting points.  The front two are slotted, but the back one is just a hole.  I figured the slots were to accomodate different engine tolerances.  Well, when I installed my malossi variator this weekend, I found out the malossi belt that worked perfect with the stock variator was too long to work with the new variator.  I ended up having to change that back hole into a slot and open up the front slots by about 1/4″ in order to get the correct belt tension.

Once I finally got the bike started, which is definitely harder now, I noticed that the engine revved quite a bit higher than it did before and the bike didn’t really go anywhere.  I think the 4.7g weights just aren’t enough to get it to close all the way.  I’m going to order some more weights in the 8g - 10g range to see if that helps.

This is what I initially built.  Part of it was due to lack of budget.  The other part was due to lack of knowledge:
43mm Polini Kit (case matched)
Modified Factory Crank
Dellorto 13.13 Carburetor (64 jet)
Malossi Air Filter
Polini Long Country Pipe

I GPS’d the speed at 35.2 mph.  I was really disappointed by that.

My first new upgrade is a Malossi Variator from TreatsHQ.  For those of you that are new to mopeds, you should definitely check out his ebay store (link). He’s really prompt with getting back to you with questions. He’s great about keeping you updated on when he will get new parts in. He’s also super fast with his shipping once the order is placed. I have spent quite a bit of money there between building this bike and my Puch. I prefer to order with him whenever I can.