Malaguti Spidermax RS - log

Year 1 - Observations and Modifications
2015-01 - arrival
2015-04
- changed to Dr. Colt Conversion
- lost oil and oil filter
- motor is overheating
- fixing the overheating problem
2015-05 paint job
2015-05 mounted new trunk - trunk broke off - fixed battered trunk
2015-05 engine cuts out on occasion.
2015-08 check engine light comes on for a while
Year 5 - Observations and Modifications 
2019-07 back in service
2019-07 OH CRAP!
2019-08 Piston rings

2015-04-17 - 16000 km
Opened up the transmission to change 8 standard rollers to 4 Dr. Pulley sliders.
The only problem I encountered  was the 21mm rear wheel nut what took nearly a minute with the impact wrench to get loose and after I put it all back together I discovered that I forgot to include the clutch bell. So open up again, include the bell and close up again. It is not fun getting older...



The oil and belt change indicator both show around 4400 km, so I guess somebody changed already the belt.
The rollers and the belt had a near new look as you can see.

Since it is pretty flat where we are now, I did not change the washer and stayed with the original 21 gram sliders.

the clutch shows normal wear and will be good for at least 60.000 km more

there are a couple micro fractures in the belt but overall it is in prefect shape

 these 21 gram Dr. Pulley sliders had already served for 5000 km in my Spidermax GT before I took them out and replaced them with my 18 gram modificated Dr Pulley sliders.

After the test ride I can tell you there is a big difference between how the GT with 55000 km was reacting to the four 21 gram sliders and the 16000 km RS.
While the GT was a bit sluggish and reminded me more on the 6 rollers Mustang conversion, the RS did actually shortly spin the rear wheel at WOT (wide open throttle).
Here is some data:
40km/h = 4000 rpm
60km/h = 4800 rpm
80km/h = 5500 rpm
100km/h = 6000 rpm
120km/h = 7000 rpm
140km/h = 8000 rpm
150km/h = 8000 rpm with rpm limiter kicking in
but since here in Spain the V MAX is 120 km/h, this setup is quite perfect for here in Valencia.

Acceleration from 40km/h  to 60 km/h is around 2 sec (with 100 kilo weight) and the rpm jump from 4000 to 7000.

The over all acceleration is: WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo.....................
Will have fun with some 600cc bikes, big Harleys and big touring bikes here in the mountains (more foothills really).


2015-04-19 - 16050 km
lost all oil and the filter because the wrong filter was installed from the shop where I got the Spidermax RS from. see here

2015-04-21 - 16100 km
During a hill crawl on a loose gravel dirt road I noticed the temperature indicator behaving a little erratic. Crawling the road back down at idle the temperature rose to the maximum and the indicator started to flash a high temp warning. The cooling ventilator started early to work but the blown out air was warm, not hot as it should be. I will have to check the cooling system.
My guess from the whole behavior is that the water temp sensor is faulty and sends wrong temperature readings to the control panel.  

2015-04-28 16150 km
Figuring out why the motor is overheating, the answer is here

2015-05-01 16150 km
Project Orange Caramel is here

2015-05-23 16180 km
Mounted new trunk 2015-05-24 16200 km
Trunk fell off  

2015-05-26 16200 km
Fixed battered trunk

2015-05-28 16250 kmThe engine cuts off during idle phases while in motion. Time to check the spark plugs. And we have my least favorite plug, the 2 prong NKG. They lasted barely 15000 km in the Spidermax GT.
So they will need replacement.

2015-08-20 17000 km
After a 100 km round trip short before home the check engine light came on for about 1 minute.
The same happened the next day short after starting the Spidermax.

2019-07-05 17300 km
My RS is back in service again and we took some tours in some  steep mountains.
The only loss in 4 years of sitting around was the battery and the battered bad trunk.
The crappy trunk is in the garbage and I mounted the GIVI from the GT.
While switching the 21 g sliders for the 19g sliders I noticed some unusual wear pattern on the top of the new RS belt. I also changed the 2mm washer with the still 2.5mm key ring to boost the rpm in lower speeds at 17920 km.

 The check engine light comes on seldom but I think it is just a loose ground connection somewhere.
It does not do anything (maybe I should like Homer Simpson just put a black tape over the lamp:)
The Spidermax went through the technical inspection without any problems.

One bad thing happened, we have extreme mountains with extreme straight roads here. Up it is not a problem except some squealing in some curves what have to be driven quite slow.
The old "sea lion" effect,  what should not occur with a Colt conversion (4 instead of 8 rollers/sliders).
But as I mentioned these are the most extreme roads I have driven, the Alps or Gran Canaria are a child´s play against these roads.
The problem is going down hill. I could only seldom engage the motor to break since I need at least
2800 rpm for the clutch to engage. At 2500 rpm the clutch disengages and I am back to my combi brake or the single front wheel brake.
Some not so steep roads are run in first or second gear with the cars at nearly 5000 rpm while still using the brake occasionally.
For an automatic scooter this is quite a challenge.
I always use one brake for a while and then switch but today I had major break fading in the right (combi?) break , what got so bad that at first it got very soft, the second time I was using the full pull way and at the third there was nothing just like there was no brakes.
Lucky for me the other brake worked flawless and I already could see the horizontal running main road.
I hope that the brake behaving gets improved with the transmission changes, otherwise I will replace the break liquid and think of an improved airflow with the help of some fins what direct air to the brakes. 

If everything fails I will take a page out of the desert engine cooling book where water is sprayed on the hot radiator to bring down temperatures. I think a spray system to the front disks from both sides should do the trick if everything else fails.

2019-07-19 18067 km
My RS had a wonderful day up around the island and across the top of the mountains. A nice 200km round trip. Everything was fine until at 120 km/h on the highway I heard a noise and the power dropped to half combined with an not normal mechanical noise.
Since I was 2 km away from my home exit ramp I kept on going behind a 60 km/h "fast" car.
I managed the exit ramp and went on with severely reduced power up our mountain what has between 12 to 18% inclines. We made it less than a third before the bike quit and it sounded a radiator was blowing bubbles with water. I let the bike cool down and tried it again but it was hard to start and just managed a crawl with me pushing too.

 

OK maybe my transmission modification what was from the GT and run for 50.000 km without problem had crashed (I hoped) so after one hour back to the bike an on a very slim curvy mountain street I took the transmission apart.

But as I feared the transmission was fine.

At home the next day I checked the oil and there was too much oil in the Spidermax, so same water must have found a way to " increase the oil amount.
It seemed that the loosing slowly oil because of the wrong filter the dealer where I bought it from was finally presenting the bill. Problem is I am no longer in the country and the incident was 5 years ago and even if I did not use the Spidermax for nearly 5 years she funktiond after an oil refil and proper oil filter installation without engine problems.
Also in the oil I found a huge amount of copper/goldish metal shavings I think some bronze part got destroyed.
So something got destroyed, now to figure out what.

 identical picture just with sun reflection what changes the color

 in the oil were tons of small metal particles.

2019-08 Piston rings

As I know now when Piaggio changed the 460cc engine to a real 500cc engine there was some major modification in the engine area. And if you google defect piston rings you know what killed my engine, because this is exactly the quality problem Piaggio had with the new engine.

Here are some endoscope photos through the spark plug hole from the 17.000km dead Piaggio Master 500cc with broken piston rings and maybe more.

Here are some endoscope photos through the spark plug hole from the 75.000km very alive and running  Piaggio Master 500cc run over 55.000 km with only 4 instead of 8 rollers in the CVT.

So thank you Piaggio for a wonderful 460 cc and no thank you the the crappy 500 cc - you just lost a customer for life.