Tuning

On this page I'll include storys of tuning, while the parts themselves will be included in the spare parts section.

The big bore kits from Malossi and Polini combined with new camshaft should give 3-5hp and increase the topspeed. But most important it should increase the available power at lower speeds.

Warning

I know of a dane (Per) with a stock 150ccm leo, which also bend a valve and damaged the engine. The valve was also broken in the top, but it is uncertain whether it broke first and then was bend by the piston, or whether it collided with the piston, bend and then broke. Per's leo had run 35016km and had been serviced by offcial dealers. The leonardo was repaired with new valves and piston and the cylinder and top was renovated. Along with a new rear wheel, new rear shock aborbers and a new brake caliper it cost him more than 2500 euro. But it was not the first time the engine was opened. At 25550km he had the tip-arms replaced that runs on the camshaft and holds the valves. 2001/08/23 update The engine died again just close to 60000km this time not only destroying the topend but also the piston, cylinder and crankshaft :-(. He is looking for a low mileage motor from a crasched leo, but in the meanwhile he has bought a 250ccm

I've also seen an engine where one of the rockers was bend and broken (the metal that runs on the camshaft and opens the valves) That engine had done around 30000km. On the german leo-forum I've alro read about more leonardo with engine trouble.

So maybe the two cases from Italy was not (only?) the fault of the daytona camshaft ?. But getting more power out off the engine will ofcourse stress things more and the one can expect it to last shorter.

Ansgar Bluemer's 125ccm leo

I first heard about Ansgar Bluemers tuned leonardo, when he put it up for sale on Leonardo Freunde Hamborgs Forum (Link on link page). It was on 16/8-1999 and I do not now if he has sold it. He got a lot of request for more information, and made some pictures available and wrote a bit more about his tuned Leo. (The following is translated by Cabell J. Fearn)

The Add

Leo for sale due to health - My Offer: Aprilia Leonardo 125

First Registration: 30.05.97, Dark Blue, 6.600 Km

Engine Tuning:
Daytona camshaft, Mikuni flat slide carburetor, 
K&N filter (original airbox removed),sport manifold 
and exhaust (optically unchanged), modified rollers
and clutch, all very carefully tuned - maximum 
horsepower 18 to 19, super acceleration, 
top speed over 130 Km/H

Customizing:
Polished rims, polished kickstand, polished transmission
cover, polished exhaust cover, wheel centersand fairing
painted black, Biturbo shocks, high speed fork oil, 
set up for alarm system, performance looks package, red 
brakes, all screws V2A stainless steel , new Dunlop GT301's,
new brakes, modified tail end and license plate holder, 
2 seats, original carburetor with airbox, original exhaust, 
original shocks all on hand.  
Registrations and receipts on hand. Price negotiable.

Ansgar Blömer, Berg.-Gladbach

Motor

Exhaust

• a larger V2A (stainless steel) exhaust manifold welded on (ZMG, Zmmiermann Tuning near Stuttgart)
• pipe diameter made continuous, with one break in the muffler, through to the exhaust opening
• the muffler was shortened 8 cm. angled up 8 degrees exhaust mount modified

Pictures

Ansgar Blömer has done a fair deal of optical tuning as well as the performance things. Here are the pictures he posted. Unfortunately they are a bit dark, but you can still see how it is shining.

Daytona Camshaft (Italian review)

Leonardo Club Italia has the following article on their site. I do not now where it has been published, but suspect that it must be in one of the italien scooter magazines. If you now the source of the article, please let me now.

But since I do not read Italien I posted a small cry for translation help on it.hobby.motociclismo. Riccardo Cibeu came to my rescue and made the following translation. I could use some spell checking but hopefully you can understand it anyway.

Until today, when tou talked about tuning, the object has always been a classic 2 strokes 50cc scooter. The raising of sales in the last years in the 'bigger scooters' cathegory, the ones which sport 4 stroke more sophisticated engines, led to the well known moto special parts manufacturers to lend more attention to this market. Among these jumps out Daytona -which products are imported in Italy by BER Racing-, who is currently developing a range of kits to increase performances of >50cc and 4strokes scooters. Among other things, they (Daytona) developed a kit for Aprilia Leonardo -125 and 150 cc-. It is a very simple modification in its concept, in order to keep costs and fuel cosumption low and engine reliability high. For both engines a new nikel-chrome plated camshaft has been developed, to be installed instead of the original iron-cast one, which (the new camshaft), with its special central hollow (in the middle of its revolution axe), grants a weight save of 80 grams. The aim of this Daytona kit is to reach a smooter and slightly higher torque erogation in the whole revving range, with a higher power at the higher rpm. This feature of the Daytona camshaft brings out better the positivities of the engine sported by the Leonardo, which with Suzuki Epicuro 125/150cc engines, are 4 stroke/4 valves higher revving engines than other. The fitting of this special camshaft, according the the instruction leaflet, is quite easy and quick for an expert mechanic (the man in a blue suit who takes care of your bike and drains your cash :)) : in less than an hour the fitting can be made. So costs can be kept low, comparing to a normal 4 stroke engine tune-up, leaving the most of the expense to the purchase of the camshaft: it costs 294000 Itl (~160 US$ including VAT) for both Leonardo 125 and 150. To gain the better from the tuned motor, Daytona suggests to tune the drums in the speed variator(?) , by widening their hole to 10.8 mm in diameter. This simple task can be made in any workshop, but it would be better to have already tuned drums included in the kit. The weight loss of those drums makes the speed variating device operate at a slightly higher rate, improving acceleration, and by bench testings, the new gear ratios result better suited to the new tuned engine power chart. By the charts we can fin out that 125 and 150 cc engine performance are quite different, more than similar engines of other manufacturers. We can find the cause of this difference in the better development the 150cc engine had instead of the 125cc one. Both engines gain 2 hp when fitting that camshaft, and differ from factory engines in the last part of the power chart, at high speeds and at higher gear ratios. The main target to the Daytona tune kit is to smooth out the power curve. Power in both engines doesn't increase that much . Until 50 Km/h both factory and tuned scooters are almost equal, but by a dyno run we can see the tuned engine gain a sensible advantage in power and torque. Only at high speeds the tuned scooter outperforms the stock one, gaining a few km/h at top speed. When driving the effects of the tune is more evident than on the dyno run, giving a feeling of better acceleration and torque than stock Leonardo. The engine tend to rev higher and the power erogation seems to be more than developed in its smoothness. When exiting corners, especially in fast ones when the engine is revving high, the difference can be clearly seen. Considering the few modifications to the engine that the Daytona tune kit requires, which (modifications) maintain unchanged the reliability of the engine, and the definitely low cost of the tune, it may be worth to try it, even for the mere satisfaction of outperforming some other Leonardo challenging you at the traffic light."

The above pictures are also from Leonardo Club Italia. They claim the following for the Daytona camshaft:

Malossi Multivar 2000

The kit consist of a new stronger spring for the clucth end and the inner disc of the vario with the new rollers. The rollers at 9g a piece is different than the aprilia ones at 8,5g / 9,5g (125cc / 150cc). Another difference is that the original varios rollers are greased with molybdenum grease while the malossi rollers are made to run dry. Both Guido and Yasushi Ono (Jun) describe the performance of the multivar in similar terms, but Jun's experince are with a 125cc while Guido has a 150cc.

Yasushi Ono (Jun)

His japanese homepage is here and the full story in english including a lot of pictures is on these two pages [1] [2].He has also put a tacho on his leo so he could compare the rpm between the different varios. His description of that is on these two pages [1][2] - again with a lot of pictures so you don't have to understand japanese to appreciate it.

But to the summary. With the multivar the clutch starts to bite at 5000rpm and the engine reaches 6000rpm right after that. At 60km/h the aprilia vario ran the engine around 6700rpm, but the multivar runs the engine ~1000rpm higher around 7700rpm. When accelerating and going uphill the multivar keeps the engine over 8000rpm. So it gives a better acceleration, but no change in topspeed and the higher rpm also generates more noise and is harder on the engine. Jun prefer the original aprilia vario because of its more smooth ride feeling.

Guido on Leo-forum

Geschrieben von Guido am 23. Juni 2000.

Habe heute die Mallossi Multivar 2000 an meinem 150 Leo 
montiert.Für 250,-DM bekommt man die vordere innere 
Variatorscheibe mit Rollen á 9.0g und eine stärkere 
Feder für die Kupplung hinten. Durch die leichteren 
Gewichte dreht der Motor ca.1000 U/min höher, die 
stärkere Feder läßt die hintere Riemenscheiben erst 
später auseinandergehen (kürzerer Gang), so daß die 
Beschleunigung aus dem Stand bis 80/90km/h deutlich 
besser wird. Einmal in Fahrt hängt der Leo wesentlich 
besser am Gas. Alles in allem lohnt sich der Kauf, vor 
allem dann, wenn die Variatorscheibe schon verschlissen 
ist, so wie meine nach 18000km. Zu bedenken gibt nur 
,daß die vordere Variotorscheibe nur aus Aluminium 
besteht und ohne Fett für die Rollen montiert werden 
muß, da die Fettauffangkappe nicht mehr montierbar ist. 
Deshalb ist Anzunehmen, daß die Scheibe keine 18000km 
hält. Die Haltbarkeit der Rollen ohne Fett ist 
wahrscheinlich auch nicht so groß, aber Ersatz von 
Malossi kostet nur 30,-DM der Satz. Wunder vollbringt 
die Malossi natürlich nicht, aber man hat das Gefühl, 
daß der Rotax-Motor jetzt das zeigt, was er wirklich 
kann. Und in der Stadt macht der Sprint zwischen den 
Ampeln noch mehr Spaß als vorher.

Geschrieben von Guido am 27. Juni 2000
Als Antwort auf: Malossi Multivar 2000 geschrieben von 
Guido am 23. Juni 2000
Ich muß mich korrigieren. Irgendwie ist es schon ein 
Wunder, was die richtige Abstimmung der Variomatik so 
bringt. Ich fahre die Malossi Multivar jetzt ein paar 
Tage und muß sagen, daß ich lange nicht mehr so viel 
Spaß in der Stadt hatte. Das Ding fetzt. Aus dem Stand 
heraus deutlich mehr Schub und wenn man bei 50 den Hahn 
aufmacht, um mal eben ´nen Mercer zu verblasen, spürt 
man das mehr an Drehmoment doch deutlich. Ich glaube ich 
mußte erst mal die Variomatik und den neuen 
Antriebsriemen einfahren bevor der Unterschied zu vorher 
richtig deutlich wurde. Übrigens auch mit Sozia ist der 
Unterschied sehr stark spürbar. Ich würde fast sagen der 
Leo geht jetzt zu zweit so, wie vorher alleine. Also: 
Zum Kacheln ist die Malossi ein unbedingtes MUSS, für 
Bummler und Sonntagsfahrer ist es ohne wahrscheinlich 
bequemer und leiser.
Ciao,
Guido
PS: Die Multivar 2000 ist für den 125-er dieselbe, wie 
für den 150-er. Das Ergebnis dürfte also ähnlich 
sein.

Ich glaube nicht,daß Dein Händler Dir das Set empfehlen 
wird. Schließlich verdient der an den sauteuren 
Original-Ersatzteilen. Das Set bekommst Du bei: 
http://www.hester-motorsport.de. Mußt auf der site mal 
ein wenig suchen nach 4-Takt Scootern, ist etwas 
unübersichtlich. Hat ca.3-4 Tage gedauert bis die 
Lieferung per UPS Nachnahme kam.

Summary

Dave Ratcliffe's 290ccm leo

17.9ps from 290ccm Malossi kit I've forgot the source of this dyno-run :-(

I have the 290cc malossi big bore kit, gear up kit, kevlar belt, sports variator and have played around with different strength clutch springs. I still have the standard exhaust.

The difference in performance is really only visible in 2 ways. Firstly the machine has much more acceleration at around 50-60 mph (top speed only faster by about 5 mph but gear up kit means its much smoother at top speed), and secondly the sound of the scooter..it now growls and turns peoples heads.

16:34 08/10/2001 On the down side, I have just completed 25,000 km in 14 months and the scooter is now burning oil when cold. Would I have spent the money (nearly £800) to tune the scooter, knowing what I do today ? Probably not. What suffers is the reliability of the scooter. The biggest thrill I had was swapping my 150 Leonardo for the 250. The difference between the 150 and the 250 is huge. The difference between 250 and 290 is not worth the expense.

I fitted the 290cc kit at around 11,000 km, which was sometime around May 2000. I first noticed oil burning, at around 18,000 km (which happened to coincide with the weather getting colder). I now find that if I leave my scooter running for a while before setting off on a long journey the engine has time to get warm the problem is not too bad (around 200 ml per 200 miles). If I just start the scooter up and let her rip, I can burn 200 ml in the first 20 miles).

I suspect the oil is getting past the piston rings when cold, since the cylinder has a nicosil bore, it tends to run cooler anyway. At some point I may attempt to check the cylinder and rings myself. I have just started doing my own servicing, exhaust change, drive belt etc. However, since Aprilia have kindly not produced a workshop manual for the Leo 250, I am not quite brave enough to start messing at the "business" end of the motor yet.

... and when asked for more info he wrote ...

I have the Malossi 290cc kit fitted to my scooter and if anything the engine runs cooler than the standard 250, since it has a nicosil bore as oposed to cast iron. The only problem I have is that is winter I have to leave the engine to warm up before riding it. If I ride from cold, I burn oil which is getting past the piston rings. Once the engine is warm this is not a problem.

290cc with the gear up kit and sports variator.

All in the first 18 months (30,000km).

The item which was most noticeable on performance was changing the variator. This had the effect of increasing the acceleration from 0-60 mph.

With the standard variator the gear ratio increases at around 40 mph. Because the rollers are heavier, and also the angle of slope is steeper, the engine revs remain higher for longer. This modification is quite a simple one to perform, since it only involves the front pulley (the 290cc kit also includes changing the large spring on the clutch assembly, which is not good for fingers). I have lost my receipt, but I think it cost me around £130.

As a matter of interest to anyone who performs their own maintenance, I recently purchased a portable impact wrench which works off a 12 volt car battery. It is manufactured by Clarke and cost £45. It is meant to be used to remove the wheel nuts of a car in the event of a puncture, however I use it to remove the clutch and variator bolts. It works a treat (One can also get a similar one from Conrad for 99dm).

Thomas's 180ccm leo by Malossi

I'm sorry that I don't know Thomas's lastname (or has misplaced it). But he has written the following on the german leo-forum started by Leo-Freunde-Hamburg.

Gleichmal vorweg, daß soll keine Malossi-Werbung sein!

Die Malossi Multivar lässt den Leo-Motor zeigen, was er kann. Grund dafür sind in erster Linie die leichteren Rollen, und die stärkere Feder für den getriebenen Variator. D. h. man kann aus geringerer Geschwindigkeit (ca. 30 km/h) sehr gut beschleunigen, da der Motor höher dreht.Vor allem mit Sozius ist die Beschleunigung deutlich besser. Die Endgeschwindigkeit erreicht man um einiges früher. Empfehlenswert ist auch ein neuer Antriebsriemen, da die Steigung des getriebenen Variators leicht geändert ist.

Das Aufrüsten von 125 auf 180 ccm bringt allerdings am meisten, alle anderen Tuningversuche sind im Vergleich dazu Spielereinen. Der Zylinder und der Kolben sind sehr genau gefertigt, allerdings keine Nikasil(=Nickelsiliziumkarbid)-Beschichtung, wie auf dem Originalzylinder, d.h. er wird wohl nicht so lange halten. Der Umbau ist mit etwas Fachwissen unproblematisch, der Fahrspaß steigt enorm. Es sind dann auch Überholmanöver auf der Bundestr. drin und in der Stadt ist man sowieso der King. Die Endgeschwindigkeit steigt geringfügig (Tacho 120 ). Der Benzinverbrauch (mit der 150 er Hauptdüse) steigt mit den beiden Tuningmaßnahmen je nach Fahrweise um einen halben bis 1 Liter.

Also am Auspuff hab ich nichts geändert, und Luftfilter ist auch Original, den würd ich auch so lassen, denn das Luftsystem ist relativ geschlossen.(Zieh mal vor dem Luftfilter den Schlauch ein Stück herunter, und du kommst kaum vom Fleck). Gefahren bin ich mit dem 180 ccm bis jetzt 2 tkm, nach 500 km hab ich Öl + Filter gewechselt, das war alles.

Vergaser ist auch Original, bis auf die Hauptdüse vom Leo 150, dann wirds Gemisch etwas fetter. Reifen sind Metzeler, obwohl ich mit der Originalbereifung von Pirelli auch zufrieden war, nur SL 26 gibts nicht mehr.

Bestellt hab ich die Teile bei Hester Motorsport [D], dauert ca. 1 Kw, Auslandversandgebühren nicht übersehen.

Magazines about big-bore kits

I have 3 articles about the big bore kits.

Scooter Magazine 2000

The first article I saw was from the Italien Scooter Magazine. I'm not sure about which issue since I have only gotten hold of a copy of the article. But I think that it most have been around the summer of 2000. The fitted a complete Polini big bore kit with camshaft and vario. They really liked the result and had it up to a topspeed of 145km/h (most be according to the speedometer so presumably real 115-120km/h). They also had it tested on bench. I've included a plot from that. The curve showed 13,3ps and 11,5Nm for the polini kit, which looks real good compared to the before readings of 9,0ps and 7,7Nm.

13.3ps, Polini kit.

Scooter & Sport 5/2001

The article in Scooter&Sport is a full 6 page do-it-yourself description on how to fit a polini 176ccm kit (with 28 pictures). They used a 125ccm scarabero for the test, it had just finished their 25000km test before the upgrade.

The kit consist of a cylinder, Polini Maxi-Speed vario, flywheel, stronger spring for the rear pulley, new springs for the clucth and gear-up kit. The total cost of tha was 899,- DM from Hester Motorsport [D],

They estimate that it eill take 4-5 hours to install by a mechanic in a workshop and one should set a side a weekend if one will attempt it at home.

Roller Spezial 6/2001

Scooter&Sport was first but Roller Spezial continued where they stopped, with an article of both the Polini and the Malossi kit in issue 6/2001. They decided to try the polini kit without the polini camshaft (as Scooter&Sport also did) and tested that against a Malossi kit with a tuning camshaft. The list price of the two kits are about the same at 1156DM and 1178DM (both with camshafts) so it is also about the same as the price listed in Scooter&Sport. After the kits were run in for 500km they were tested on a bench. The increase in power of 1.8ps for the polini kit and 2.8ps for the malossi (with a camshaft), may seem small - but it is an increase of 17% and 26%. Their conclusions are also about the same. The performance is worth the money and the 230DM of a camshaft is also justified. The mileage gets a small hit but that was to be expected.

10.5ps, 125 standard. 12.3ps, Polini & std camshaft. 13.3ps, Malossi & tuning camshaft

	Scooter Magazine Leonardo		Scooter & Sport Scarabero		Roller Spezial Leonardo			Doc's Leo	Unknown
	Std. 125	Polini 180 (+camshaft)	Std. 125	Polini 180 (-camshaft)	Std. 125	Polini 180	Malossi 180 (+camshaft)	Std. 250	Malossi 290
Topspeed [km/h]			106,2	115,9	103	108	115	122
0-80km/h [s]			11,2	9,4	10,8	9,8	8,3	7.2
Power [ps]	9,9	13,3			10,5	12,3	13,3	15.8	17.9
Mileage [litre/100km]			3,6	4,0	3,3	3,8	3,9	4.5

The first thing I noticed in the two articles was the difference in top speed of the two polini kits that is supposed to be the same. A difference from 108km/h to 116km/h is significant, which is an increase in topspeed of 5% to 9%. The differnce might be caused by one being a scarabero (that has done 25000km) while the other is a leonardo (of unknown age). But again the differences can also just be from different test methods, weather conditions and/or the fine tuning of the scooters.

But there does not seem to be any difference bwteene the Polini and Malossi kit when you also fit camshafts. Both Scooter Magazine and Roller Spezial has measured it to 13,3ps on the rear wheel.

Conclusion: I want the complete Malossi kit. If i can't get that then let me have the polini kit :-)

Last edited: 2001/10/02