Not everything going to plan. My scooter started to feel rough in the mountains of Montenegro and I crept slowly into Serbia where I was greeted by Vespa Club Naissus.
An exploratory surgery of the engine revealed that the top ring peg on my piston had failed, the ring had turned and trashed my MB-tuned RT225 cylinder. I gave the bad news to Mark who was gutted as he had pulled out all the stops to reed-valve the kit for me in a day before I left. Credit where it's due, the reed conversion performed ace so I was well upset too. The bumpy mountain roads also cracked my Franspeed Super Tourer exhaust when I grounded it out.
Dejan and Sharon gave over their garden to strip the lammy, son Nikolas helped me strip the scooter.
Fair play, Scooter Centre offered to sort me a new standard RT kit and the folks at Rimini Lambretta Centre went into overdrive to post everything I needed to rebuild the engine in less than 24 hours. Mega service.
The delay gave me time to learn more about the fascinating history of Nis and enjoy more of Sharon's officially the best carrot cake in Serbia at the excellent Vespa Bar. Poor me...
Long story short, the scooter is now fitted with a stock kit, a Gori exhaust to improve clearance on potholed roads and Dejans friend Dragan welded my Franspeed to keep in Serbia as a spare. Failed ring pegs are a classic result of having a twisted crank but I had no time or facilities to check if that was the cause so fingers crossed for this new kit!
As I write I'm just leaving Bulgaria after a wicked time in Veliko Tarnovo, but that's another story for another post.
An exploratory surgery of the engine revealed that the top ring peg on my piston had failed, the ring had turned and trashed my MB-tuned RT225 cylinder. I gave the bad news to Mark who was gutted as he had pulled out all the stops to reed-valve the kit for me in a day before I left. Credit where it's due, the reed conversion performed ace so I was well upset too. The bumpy mountain roads also cracked my Franspeed Super Tourer exhaust when I grounded it out.
Dejan and Sharon gave over their garden to strip the lammy, son Nikolas helped me strip the scooter.
Fair play, Scooter Centre offered to sort me a new standard RT kit and the folks at Rimini Lambretta Centre went into overdrive to post everything I needed to rebuild the engine in less than 24 hours. Mega service.
The delay gave me time to learn more about the fascinating history of Nis and enjoy more of Sharon's officially the best carrot cake in Serbia at the excellent Vespa Bar. Poor me...
Long story short, the scooter is now fitted with a stock kit, a Gori exhaust to improve clearance on potholed roads and Dejans friend Dragan welded my Franspeed to keep in Serbia as a spare. Failed ring pegs are a classic result of having a twisted crank but I had no time or facilities to check if that was the cause so fingers crossed for this new kit!
As I write I'm just leaving Bulgaria after a wicked time in Veliko Tarnovo, but that's another story for another post.
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