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Today was ‘tend to the whiney babies’ day. No, not actual babies, but big, hot, greasy babies that run really fast. Yes, cars and scooters! They demand care, and will act up if they don’t get it. Today my scooter was saying, “Waaah! Waaah! My coolant and brake fluid need to be flushed! Waah! I’m in danger of corroding my caliper seals! Waah!” Sympathetically, the Mercedes was saying, “Waaah! My rack tension is loose! Waah! I’m going to violently shake side to side because there isn’t sufficient tension dampening the injection system causing a stronger fire on a fore cylinder! Waah!” This all came just a few days after Madalene’s new Civic said, “Please give me new spark plugs and wires, and I’m gonna need my nappie (er, CV boot) changed soon! Oh, and my rear brakes are leaky!”

Damn them! The Mercedes was an easy fix, but the scooter required that I purchase some additional tools. One of my new tools was not functioning well (a vacuum pump), and I ended up spending several hours trying to get the cursed air out of the brake system. Fortunately, I eventually found success. As it was getting dark, I managed to finish up the coolant flush, which wasn’t nearly as difficult (though I did have to dremel a non-removable hose clamp off a hose).

I’m now greasy and tired, and still have more to do tommorow. Its ok, babies, daddy is here for you…

I will be posting a slew of scooter maintenance articles over the next several days, and this post will serve as a directory for those posts, and something to link to.

The articles deal with maintenance and performance upgrades for the Aprilia SR50 DiTech and the Aprilia Mojito (Habana in Europe). They are both 50cc scooters, but the Mojito is air-cooled and has a carburetor, and the DiTech is liquid-cooled and has fuel injection. Both scooters are built on the Morini platform. However, even if you have a different scooter, it is likely that you will get some benefit from these articles. Many scooters are built on the Morini platform, and even scooters built on other platforms will have similar parts and arrangements. Modern scooter makes such as Vespa, Malaguti, Piaggio, Honda, Yamaha, Italjet, MBK and Benelli all have similar innards, and you can learn much from these articles.

These articles were all written by Scott (AKA Scootnfast on the ApriliaForum boards) as forum posts. I have (with Scott’s permission) taken the information and photos he posted, edited them for clarity and formatting, and posted them here, in order to preserve them and make them more accessible to non-forum goers.

Here are the articles currently posted. If the article isn’t linked yet, it means I haven’t finished putting it all together, check back for updates and additions:

• CVT Basics – Describes the basic operation of the CVT (Constant Variable Transmission) that is the automatic transmission for most modern scooters. It is a simple device, but it can be difficult to understand how the different parts, roller weights, variator pulleys, and contra springs all work together to provide you with twist-n-go ease. Any scooter driver should understand at least a bit about what is going on down there.
• De-restricting an Aprilia Scooter, or Most Any Modern Scooter – Most modern scooters come to you in a restricted state. They aren’t producing all the power they can be. This is usually done for legal reasons dealing with importing and registering of scooters, but the restrictions are easily undone, to give your scooter back its performance. The directions described are for an Aprilia Mojito and SR50 Ditech, but the techniques are applicable to nearly all modern scooters.
• Installing a Big Bore Kit on an Air-Cooled Mojito – This article describes the installation of a 70cc kit on an Aprilia Mojito, which is an air-cooled scooter based on the Morini engine. Techniques here will be applicable to nearly all air-cooled two-stroke engines.
• Installing a Big Bore Kit on a Liquid-Cooled SR50 DiTech – This article describes the installation of a 70cc kit on an Aprilia SR50 DiTech, a fuel injected, liquid-cooled version of the Morini engine. Techniques here can be used for other DiTech scooters (such as the Scarabeo DiTech), and other liquid-cooled engines.

• Installing New Final Drive Gears on an SR50 DiTech – This article describes the installation of new final drive gears on a DiTech. These instructions should help with the installation of gears on any Morini based scooter, and will give you an idea of what is involved in any final drive installation.

If you drive a modern automatic (twist-n-go) scooter, then it is likely that your scooter has been restricted to prevent it from reaching its full power. This is typically done to keep the power and speed down so that the vehicle can be registered under scooter or moped classifications that many states have. This classification means many scooter drivers do not need license plates, special licenses, or expensive registrations.

However, how much fun is it to have a restricted vehicle? Not much. So if you’d like to get the full power out of your ride, you can remove the restrictions yourself, and enjoy a vehicle operating at its full potential.

This article deals with derestricting a 2004 Aprilia Mojito 50 (known as the Habana in Europe) and mentions specific differences with the technique for the Aprilia SR50 DiTech, since these two scooters share the same drivetrain. However, the derestriction techniques described here work on most modern automatic scooters, with some variation between brands and models. This document was originally written as a thread on the ApriliaForum by Scott (AKA Scootnfast) and all credit should go to him. He wrote the bulk of the document, and took the pictures. I am simply removing the info from the forum context, doing some editing for clarity and formatting, and putting it up for all to see (specifically Googlers).

For other articles available check out the list or read on to continue this article. Continue Reading »

One thing people regularly wonder about is how a CVT (Constant Variable Transmission) works. CVTs are used mostly in scooters, like the 50cc Aprilia SR50 DiTech this document describes, but some larger scooters also use CVTs, and they are even being used on some Audis now! If you’ve ever been confused about that strange little transmission in your scooter, this should help clear things up a bit.

CVTs are quite simple in design, but since every part must work in concert with all the others, it can be difficult to visualize their operation, and understand how each part fits into the whole. The drawings are not to scale, but are meant to just give you a better idea about what is going on.

This document was originally written by Scott (AKA Scootnfast) on the ApriliaForum website. I have done a bit of editing so that things make sense in a non-forum context, but all the photos and info are his, and have been reproduced with his permission.

For other articles available check out the list or read on to continue this article. Continue Reading »