Bristol Mod Scooter Club

Hi there, my name is Stephen and I live in the East Midlands. Around where I am located there arent many fully 'modded' up scooters, there are mainly street racer type Lambrettas. which to be truthful I am not a big fan of. I freely admit am trying to relive my misspent youth and I have got a 1963 LI125 Slimstyle Lambretta which I have fully restored however, it has an SX200 engine in it. I have just paid for a megaphone exhaust from Scooter Emporium. Has anyone fitted one of their Megaphone exhausts if so, how hard is it? Also, I have bought a Cuppoini flyscreen. Any tips for fitting correctly so it dosent foul up the front rack? Thanks and best wishes.

Stephen[/b]

Hi Stephen and welcome

Depends what you mean by Megaphone exhausts! Down here we know Megaphone exhausts as "Outriggers" and they are the ones with the large chrome tailpipes which attach to the lower rear shoch absorber nut.

Some exhausts on Ebay are called Megaphones and they are the ones we know as "Sports exhausts" and their smaller chrome tail pipes follow the underside of the crank case cover and attach to one of the 10mm nuts down there.

Anyway- both are easy to fit although you may need a gentle "bend" here and there to make it line up. Both use the standard 38mm down pipe, so its a matter of removing the old exhaust and offering up the new.

IMO the "outrigger" sounds and looks better but does sod all for performance!!

Good Luck

Chris

Hi Stephen, megaphone exhausts and how to fit them has cropped up before on this forum. If you click on the link below, it will take you straight to the topic. Fitting this type of exhaust can sometimes be a little bit tricky- give yourself plenty of time to do it. I've had mine on and off quite a few times now, and I recently fitted another one to my other scoot. (long term project!)

I'm not really a flyscreen man, but I'm sure somebody else will give you a few tips.

http://bristolmod.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1745

Good luck. Jim

Hi again, Stephen back on here. The megaphone exhaust I refer is a remade outrigger, as used on Jimmy's LI in that certain film and as sold to me by Scooter Emporium. It can bee seen on their website. It is a really good copy of the original I had as far as I can see but I am hearing horror stories of how difficult they can be to fit. Has anyone else bought one from Scooter Emporium? As far as my memory serves me if I remember correctly I either had to alter the kickstart lever or even fit a series 2 lever. To compound things further I have Florida bars too. As to the Cuppini flyscreen; it is one if those more retro looking ones with the rounder top section. I am really annoyed though as there is a small crack in the clear section in the bottom corner. My LI will be a full mod scooter with seven new old stock Raydyot spot and fog lamps, crash bars, florida bars, racks, spare wheel, Ulma wheen covers and Desmo mirror heads. Not to everyones taste in my area but I like the look. Lastly, has anyone seen one of those horizontal fromt racks that fit over the front mudguard? I would be very pleased to sourse one, even if it means re-chroming it...

Hi Stephen. Can`t help with the flyscreen, but I have fitted an outrigger to my scoot.
Took me a good couple of hours to fit, and the scoot was up on a ramp. The job wasn`t difficult, just required a fair bit of dismantling and re-assembly (particularly if you`ve got a bit of chrome on your scoot)
You are right re the kickstart, I put mine in the vice, heated it gently, then bent it out a bit more (about 1/2 inch) Of course you can always replace it with a SX 200 kickstart! (hens teeth)

I have found that the easiest way to fit these exhausts is to-

-Remove rear footboard (kick start side) also remove the kickstart and the lower retaining nut on the rear suspension. Also loosen but don't remove the cylinder cowl, and remove the U pipe.

-Completely assemble the exhaust away from the scoot, ie- place the chrome megaphone on the pipe on the box, and insert the U pipe into the exhaust, and roughly line everything up to what looks like the correct positions but with the U pipe rotated slightly lower than it should be, but don't tighten up either of the clamps.

-Offer the whole exhaust into position, ie- the exhaust box bracket onto the 2 retaining bolts and at the same time, the megaphone bracket onto the suspension bolt. Replace retaining nuts, but not completely tight. Now swing up the U pipe onto the exhaust port (don't forget the gasket!) and tighten up the 2 retaining bolts and nuts.

-Re- secure the cylinder cowl, tighten up the exhaust bracket retaining nuts and the clamps and tighten up the large retaining nut on the lower suspension bolt.

-Replace rear footboard and kickstart and check to see if the kickstart misses the exhaust when operated.

I've found that it's very difficult (if not impossible!) to install this exhaust on a U pipe that is already on the engine- I think this is where the horror stories might come from! Also it's tricky to fit the megaphone onto an installed exhaust box. Gasket glue can be applied to all joints during instalation if you want to do a really good job, and the use of a torque wrench ensures the correct tightness of nuts. Hope this helps!

Jim

I think Jim`s just about summed it up, but one last tip: Before tightening everything up and putting everything back together, check the stand goes back up without catching the new exhaust. I didn`t and had to take it all apart again!

Just bit of an update. I have received the megaphone exhaust and sent it straight back. Considering how much it cost I was not happy with the quality nor the fitment between the chrome megaphone and the red stub it fitted onto. I was far too loose. So, it's back to the drawring board on a mod exhaust. Any ideas anyone?

42mm Clubman with twin pipes

More performance than a standard exhaust; nice sound and costs around £100- £110 on Ebay. Doesn't look as good as the outrigger though.

Comes complete with downpipe as well

Chris

I do have an AF Clubman (single pipe) which I have just removed. I found it a bit noisy to be honest. I was considering a Sito Ancillotti. I have also seen the twin pipe Casa exhaust in red. The one with the Series 2 type silence body however, I am told that the Casa twin pipe can be quite power sapping on an SX200 engine. Can anyone confirm if this is true or not?

had a twin pipe on my tv and the performance was good and the sound was good, just didnt match up to a megaphones look or sound

Hi Stephen,

I recently swapped my expansion pipe for a Sito Ancilotti, mainly because the expansion kicks in too high up the rev range and I found it noisy, and lacking torque at lower speeds. The Sito is OK but has two issues. Fitting was difficult, although by leaving the manifold loose until the main exhaust bracket is on the two bolts I eventually got it on. The tailpipe is at a poor angle so it neatly covers the oil level plug, which I found disappointing. Also there is no supplementary bracket to support the box, which other standard clubman boxes have, and which helps stop the box vibrating apart at the point where it is welded to the main bracket - I have seen complaints that this can happen with the Sito. Have to wait and see.
If it's the outrigger (megaphone) look (and sound!) thats important to you, Classic Lambrettas in Nottingham advertise a 'Jimmy' exhaust at 150 quid, but couldn't say what the quality is like. Nick