Tuning and what is involved
Making your lambretta go faster involves one thing, make the engine turn faster, thus the rear wheel will.
You cant tune and make your Lambretta go faster on the cheap, some will argue against this point, but you will normally see them in a layby, or being the only person left in the village whilst others are riding their scooters!
Making Your Lambretta Go Faster
Trying to make your Lambretta go faster?
Well unfortunately for you there are alot of ways and then some. Then even more variations on costs, what to use and what not to use! You might even look at this page and think we have over complicated or gone into too much detail, all we can say is to make your Lambretta perform, and perform properly and reliable, please do read on!
Topics, what you can do, peoples advice, the ways to achieve things are so varied, different and contradictive who is right. The short answer is no one person knows every thing on tuning; there is still very much a black science when it comes to tuning two strokes. For example what works on a small light weight big wheeled motorbike, wont necessarily work on a small wheeled heavy and un aerodynamic Lambretta!
Another important point about tuning, especially with carburettors and jetting, is that while you may be able to get expert advise, on the whole this advise is just a starting point to which you are responsible for the correct operation and reliability of, don’t take Mr X’s word for it that setting Y is correct, you need to make sure yourself. While some will not agree with me, I would say that if a shop sets your scoot up fine, they are responsible, but as with most things Lambretta, riders always want to tinker and adjust, fit themselves and maintain things, fine but get it wrong and then people will start to tell you Vespas are more reliable!
Also just stating the question I want to go faster, does not always help the tuner or parts supplier, they really need to know, what you expect to achieve, the use you give your scooter.
For instance if you primarily use your scooter for short round town trips, then you may want to opt for a more revving set up. If you use your scooter over long distances, carrying passengers etc, then a torquey set up would be better. There is no set up on the market, and nor will there ever be that will be perfect in all instances of use, what you have to try to achieve is the best all round performance for your use.
You need to ask yourself how much are you willing to spend in your quest for speed! For example if your only occasionally use your scooter, do you really want to spend £1000+ on the engine alone, or if you use your scooter daily and for every rally, you will want to spend more for reliability as well as performance.
It is highly unlikely that by fitting just a kit or tuning part to a standard Lambretta engine you could expect trouble free running, please seek further advice at the time of purchasing any products.
So what to do? Well first things first, ANY performance upgrade whether it gives you 1hp, one mile and hour or one hundred will mean more stress and strain on the existing components of your engine. So before you start budgeting, don’t forget those all important items such as bearings, clutch, crank condition, oil seals, and all other components in your engine need to be checked, replaced and or upgraded before carrying out any form of tuning.
