Piaggio Zip SP1 from Portugal, with love

[davidn88]

Hey guys!

So, for those who don't know me, I'm David and I'm a Portuguese lad, who went on the scooter world when my aunt offered me this beauty, a 93' red Piaggio Zip.










This was a hell of scooter, but the day as come, and it was diagnosed with low compression, so I took some time looking for the proper way to show her some love. I was considering going for the Sport set-up, as you can see here: 49ccscoot.proboards.com/thread/28807/zip-93-50-70cc-build . 

But, a few days ago, while I was talking with a friend, about trading my Zip + money for a NRG Mc2 Extreme, he told me about a Zip SP1, that he saw on sale.
I just picked up my phone and made I call to the seller and after 2min speaking, the deal was almost done. 3 days later, on my birthday, I just took the new ride to his future home.





It's one of the latest SP1's, since it was registered on January 2001. The previous owner just used it to go on the bakery, do you believe this? 

So after arriving home, I gave her a deserved bath.




After the bath I made a check up about what has to be done sooner. 









So I decided to dismantle and going balls deep about the restore. The first goal is to clean up this mess:































The variator has those marks but it's in really good condition as the rollers, the clutch and the variator belt.

So far, I cleaned up the variator system, and made the oil pump bypass, as I want to move to premix way.

Already bought the Hiflo Air Filter, BR9ES spark plug, oil pump belt, and the Polini reinforced water pump (will arrive next week).

I don't have that much free time available to work on this, but I'm really pleased to work on it every single time I can, because this is the very first time that I'm doing this kind of task.

I will let you know everything that will come to my little Zip, as I will make an upgrade to the engine once everything is done on the aesthetics.

Feel free to share your opinions, suggestions and questions with me.

Thanks 

[geoffh]

David,that's a nice project, it might be easier to use the OE air filter assy to get it running properly,make some notes on speeds/times etc,your butt dyno quickly gets used to your scoot and makes you feel slower over time.

Geoff

[aeroxbud]

It's in need of a bit of love. You have the right idea though. Clean it up and get it running good before any modifications. This will make it easier to avoid any future problems.
Replacing the oil belt is a good idea. Even if it looks ok. 👍

[davidn88]

Jun 19, 2021 14:57:50 GMT -5 geoffh said:

David,that's a nice project, it might be easier to use the OE air filter assy to get it running properly,make some notes on speeds/times etc,your butt dyno quickly gets used to your scoot and makes you feel slower over time.

Geoff

Yeah, I thought about it, but once I'm moving to premix, I guess it will be necessary to adjust the main jet, so that will allow me to run a bit better with this air filter.

[davidn88]

Jun 19, 2021 15:23:35 GMT -5 aeroxbud said:

It's in need of a bit of love. You have the right idea though. Clean it up and get it running good before any modifications. This will make it easier to avoid any future problems.
Replacing the oil belt is a good idea. Even if it looks ok. 👍

I have a lot of work to do here, but this is kind of a challenge to me, once I never did something like this. So far it's going great, and I will start to clean all the rear and the engine.

There's another thing that I would like to ask for help. The paiting overall is like 70% good. Of course there are scratches but as you can see on photos, there are 2 big scratches that bother me, but if I decide to paint it, I will lose all the original decals that are in really good condition, so I'm kinda of leaning on going for vynil and trying to leave all the decals as they are.

What's your opinions about it?

BTW, already have one pair of Continental Contitwist for the SP, but I'm waiting for the wheels to get painted, to put them on!  
It has 100 80 10 on both tyres, but I'll mount 90x90x10 on front and 3.50x10 on rear. That's my sweetspot on scooters.

Thanks for your posts aeroxbud and geoffh

[aeroxbud]

You might be able to get the decals still from piaggio.
There are places now where they can reproduce decals for you. They make them a lot for classic bikes. yambw’s had some made for the BWS. It depends on what decals you are talking about.

[davidn88]

Jun 19, 2021 17:40:19 GMT -5 aeroxbud said:

You might be able to get the decals still from piaggio.
There are places now where they can reproduce decals for you. They make them a lot for classic bikes. yambw’s had some made for the BWS. It depends on what decals you are talking about.

I can't find them anywhere on the web, and once mine are in good condition, I'll try to replicate them. But so far, my main concern is to fix all the engine issues and clean up all the mess.

A friend of mine told about one thing that got my attention: instead of tune the stock engine, try to find one engine from Piaggio Skipper 125 2T.

[aeroxbud]

I know the later typhoon, and runner 125, and 50 share the same mounts. It's been a common swap for years.
Here in the U.K. There isn't much parts availability for the bigger engines now.