Modern Vespa

I'll first admit I probably contributed to this problem...

I installed the Faco rear bars, nice product.

After installation, I pulled the bars back from the scooter because they were almost touching the paint and I figured vibration just might complete contact.

What I didn't realize is the Faco bracket made contact with the coolant hose as shown in the pic. My fix was to cut off the damaged hose, which had enough excess to to reconnect. This also changed the routing path and improved the clearance between the hose and bracket.

If you've installed these, you might want to check the clearance...

I did that when I put my Piaggio bars on. Tore the hose right off the nipple. Dumped all my coolant. Fortunately, I saw it and shut it down before overheating it.

I just replaced the coolant hose on my GT because of this. My crashbars also cracked the plastic cooling cover on the front part of the transmission case. Good new though, Faco have released new crashbar brackets that stick out a little further! Hopefully this should provide proper clearance (I haven't installed them yet... the front right bracket was missing from the box!) I'll let you know as soon as I get them on if this solves the problem.

yeah ive installed them on a gts before and the bracket was just eating away at the rad. hose... had to take them off and get the new bracket which wasnt even out at the time(i think they come with the new one now)

the new bracket works it pushes them out just far enough, but if for any reason they rubbed on the line... change dont fix you coolant line... a coolant line is way easyer and less expensive than replacing a blown head gasket or cracked cylinder....

if you need help doing so PM me....

thanks

I have the "new" bracket. Same problem. I'm considering switching to the Piaggio bars, if the bracket for those is any better. Any tips?

With careful fitting and use of a couple of extra washers you can fit these without being too near the pipe. There are some articles about this in the Tech section with photographs too about how to modify the air filter cover.

It does work, you just have to be careful and also check the fitting after your bike has been in for a service just in case.

Charles.

Even with the updated brackets and proper use of spacing washers, the right bar will contact the coolant return hose in the event that anything hits it. My girl's GT200 fell over at a standstill. The damage looked to be minimal. I pulled the crashbar away from the hose, but it started leaking as soon as the scooter was warmed up and the coolant pressure increased. Luckily I noticed the coolant leak or the motor might have gone.

I think this is a pretty serious defect with these Faco bars. What good is protecting the cowl if you can't even ride the bike after a minor incident. If you are buying crash ars for a GT/GTS, I would strongly advise against Faco.

For reference, the damaged hose in my case is the lower hose:
part 577205, HOSE (ENGINE RETURN), $24.00

Unfortunately, my SF vespa dealer (Vespa SF) won't allow me to order the part unless I tow the scooter in so they can see it. They have a 1 1/2 month wait also!

I have to order it elsewhere. This is a Vespa, not a Ferrari. I am disappointed that they discourage do-it-yourself mechanics.

I have the Piaggio Vespa Chrome Set on my GTS and they are sturdy and don't require any drilling or cutting to install them. They come together under the floor in the front and clamp witth several scews to the frame underneath the floor.

These are the rear crash bars I would get if I get them. My partner's GT has the Piaggio one's like that and the fit is great.

They're okay, but honestly I don't think they do a very good job attaching to the frame. The fastening mechanism is a couple of pinch-bolts, and these will pop right off in a collision or tip-over, and allow the crash bars to bang into the cowl. I saw the aftermath of an LX150 that had gone down with the same kind of crash bars, and the pinch bolts just popped right off.

Some front fender crash bars also attach with pinch-bolts, and these have been known to fall off with sometimes hazardous consequences.

Where did you buy those?

I think she got them from the dealer when she had her scoot shipped to Alaska.

David has the whole chrome set on his Vespa Riverside site ... .

http://www.atonofvespas.com/eshopprod_cat_2642-21526-21527_product_305049.GTGTS_Full_Chrome_Kit.htm

Jess ... you are saying the pinchbolts under the floorboard popped off?

They also attach up under the seat.

I checked the clearance on my 250 and it seems to be ok.. "I hope!"

I got them from Vespa Seattle. That's where I got my GTS.

I just got my Piaggio rear bars in the mail this week, (Thanks, Max) and I was impressed with the quality of the chrome, nice stuff. I referred back to the installation procedures in the tech section and it appears I have more hardware than is represented in the tutorial.

The top two pieces are the front mounts, the bottom pieces are the rear mounts and the two pieces on the side probably attach to the front or maybe they are designed for another scooter, who knows. The instructions that came with it are just a tad bit ambiguous. Is this the new hardware?
I'll let you know how it goes as soon as I install them. Hopefully, this week. The garage is heated but it has a hard time keeping up with near zero temps.

what thickness is themetal for that hardware?.

im making my own crashbars and im looking for a tried and tested method to attatch them to the scooter.

Suit, the thickness of the hardware is 5/32's of an inch, or 3.96mm.

Yep. Or, rather, the pinchbolts lost their grip on the flange they were attached to.

cheers

The Piaggio bars come with a zip tie to hold the hose back. That was their solution.

Yeah that's pretty much what I did also. And will add a some sort of pipe cover for extra protection.

x

I went to replace the hose this weekend and found out that I could get by with cutting off about 1/2" of the end of the damaged hose. The hole caused by the crashbar bracket is then positioned over the inlet pipe and can't leak. Certainly a preferable fix than stripping down the bike to replace the hose.

i JUST found this thread.

i just had the same problem happen to me on the way home.

dang it!!!!

ok carnales, you convinced me to take mine off.

After reading the 2 negative threads I decided to look at my new coolant hose (provided by motorsports and installed at sfmoto) and low and behold it had some new wear. Then I as I mentioned above I removed the bars from the bike. Had I known of the problem last year I would have re-allocated the money to a chrome wheel from jettin'. Ah to live and learn.

anyone have a pic of the "new" brackets?

mine may be new - the part of the bracket right up against the hose has a countersink hole and tapered head screw - so there's no screw head poking out inside the bike. yet the rear attachment has just the screw hole - no countersink.

the countersink it leads me to believe someone put their thinking cap on, albiet only for a few minutes...

i'm not looking forward to having this problem recur - so may just ditch the bars.

ive finished making my own crashbars now. theyre at the chromers and their turnaround is pretty crap at the moment. ill post some pics when ive got them back from the chromers.

I could be mistaken (and hopefully Max will chime in) but I believe that only the GTS has the newly designed Piaggio bars.

How different are the mounting points on the GT vs GTS though? Would it be possible to use the GTS bars on the GT? I saw a GTS with the bars at our last ride and the way it is mounted it doesn't come anywhere near any hoses or air intakes, a much better design. Now I'm a bit concerned about my partner's GT.

I think they all have redesigned brackets these days.

The GT and GTS bars are not swappable.

Good to know.

Maybe I've just been lucky. I have had the Piaggio bars on mine for several months and (knocking on wood) haven't had any problems with the coolant pipe. I did slightly break the air intake on the tranny like most everyone else but the coolant pipe has been fine.

I can confirm that the Faco bars must have redesigned brackets as they come nowhere near the coolant hose.

I'll take some pics when I get some spare time & will post them.

Cheers

I bought the FACO rear crashbars for my GT200 off ebay. I prefer them to the original Piaggio ones as they don't have the big rails which come up the back and up under the seat. Personal preference. However, they didn't come with any fitting instructions, and just looking around under my scooter, the easy fitting solution didn't immediately present itself.

I was wondering if any of you had printed fitting instructions that came with yours if you bought them direct from a main dealer. If so, could you post them up here? I was wondering also, reading this thread, if there is a way I could identify whether or not my bars have the older brackets that rub the coolant hose, or the newer ones which don't? FACO themselves don't seem to have a support line themselves in the UK, and the main supplier seems to be VE.UK who themselves only seem to interface the general public through their official distributor network, who themselves are disinclined to help me since I didn't buy the bars from them.

I even asked my local Vespa main dealer if they could fit them for me when my GT was last in for a full belt service. When I picked it up afterwards, the scoot was nicely clean and taught, but the bars were still lashed to the rear carrier with a bungee!!

"These are after-market parts.. not official piaggio ones" they said. "We would have had to drill the bodywork to fit them, it would have been a nightmare - so we didn't". Gee thanks. Isn't that precisely the kind of work I'm paying you guys to do since I wouldn't have the kit or the knowledge to do that myself?" Summer is finally here now, and I want the sun to be glinting off my chrome, thankyouverymuch!

Anyway, I am resolved to give it a go myself, but at least I'd like the original instructions if there are any around.

Scratch that request at least as far as the instructions go. I just discovered this linke.

http://www.scooterwest.com/item_detail/More-Info/340/show_info/yes/

Motorsport.. you guys DO rock! Not only for that but for stocking the whitewalls too. Shame you're not in the UK.

I guess I'll give it a go and see whether the coolant hose rubs. But as the link suggests, a zip-tie could fix it. I see now, that the bars I got didn't come with all the bolts and washers, but I can get some more. I am very happy though, that it appears you DON'T need to drill the bodywork to fit them. Those guys at BMG Lied to me.

motorsports does rock.

I like the stock piaggio bars. no hose problems, held up fine after dropping the scoot at 40mph. I like the way they protect the rear tail light.

Yeah, as I said in my original post, it's a personal preference. I think those bars clutter the otherwise smooth and sexy rear of the vespa. The clincher for me though, was that I think they mount on the same points that are now fully occupied with my Faco backrest/carrier, so unless I wanted to ditch that too, I wouldn't be able to fit the original piaggio part even if I wanted to.

Talking of smooth rear ends, I see with some appreciation in this thread http://www.modernvespa.com/forum/topic24983.html that the new GTS300 has an even cleaner rear end without any kind of carrier bracket. Nice.

Just installed the Cuppini crash bars last week, http://www.scooterworks.com/Cowl_Protecters_Vespa_GT_200__P2197C380.cfm. They looked great, but the front of the right bar seemed too high and tight, so I pushed it down to bend the bracket a bit.

Tonight, pulling into the garage, I spotted a trail of liquid drops on the floor. Sniffed it -- not gas, but a little sticky, Hmmm -- coolant?

Did a Google search: "coolant leak site:modernvespa.com" -- the picture at the top of this thread said it all. I screwed the pooch, but I now know what's wrong and how to fix it -- I hope without having to take the scoot to the dealer. I'm hoping there's enough slack in the hose ...

Thanks MV!

Can you see damage to the hose where the crash bar could have contacted it under suspension compression? If there is no damage, it may be a leaky hose clamp... or it could be oil and not coolant.

I was able to trim ~ 1/4" off and re-use the hose with a hardware store hose clamp.

If you find you need a new hose, PM me as I have one (new in plastic) for the GT200.

-Kip

I jacked the scoot up on the lift and cut off the hose at the annoying, crimp-on hose clamp so I could pull it off. Took the scrap of trimmed hose to Larry's Autoparts and got a new stainless hose clamp and a gallon of pre-diluted coolant. Put the hose back on, less the 3/8 inch I cut off. Looped a cable tie around the hose and tied it back away from the crash bar bracket. Filled the cooling system, which was bone dry.

Then, with a bench vise and a big crescent wrench (and eventually a small sledge hammer ), I "tweaked" the bracket, putting about a half-inch ess-bend into it to widen the clearance between the bracket and the coolant hose and between the cowl and the crash bar. Now, the bar fits and looks better and the bracket is at least an inch clear of the hose. While I was at it, I changed the oil and the oil filter.

Started her up. No leaks. Came up to temperature without a glitch. Topped off the oil. Just another pleasant morning wreching the scooter.