Hiya Steve, I've got an old Mugello 200 in an early series 3 LI125 case and the compression has always been mental but I've put up with it for a while as it goes so well, managed a true 74mph on my speed tracker the other day and really good acceleration. I tried taking a bit of material out of the head dish and raising the squish up to 1.7 and it still ran nicely but made no difference to what a bast**d it is to start. After watching this video I decided to give this a go and drilled the hole exactly as you show. Unbelievable! it has completely transformed it, where before you were often standing up on the kickstart with the clutch starting to slip waiting for it to get past the worst of the compression stroke now a 5 year old could kick it over, tick over was always ok but now it will tick over on really low revs....dead chuffed as you can imagine
This method has been used since the 50s. Maico have a hole in the piston to reduce compression to get their electric start to work. I like the idea of the smoother lower revs. Poor man's power valve ! Well done great video as always.
Are there any disadvantages to doing this Steve? It looks great by the way. The Scootopia 185 kit has really high compression so this should make it a lot easier to kick over.
Hi Steve, I have an old 90’s TS1 kit installed on a bike and the compression is getting a little much for an old fart like me. Could I do this on a stock TS1 barrel? Thanks for all the excellent videos and sharing your knowledge 👍
I've got slightly dodgy knees and thinking about doing this to my standard SX150 just to make it a bit easier to start the beast - is it worth doing to a standard engine? cheers
I think I will be doing this Steve, nice one. I’m going to a 17t front sprocket but it is ridiculous trying to start my Casa185. Did you use a dremel sandpaper sleeve that slips over the rubber barrel bit? Many thanks!… : )
I did the decom port mod Steve, and as you said, it's not much easier to kick over. Not like my ss180 or a stock lambretta, but way less stress on the frame crossmember. It does indeed actually run like a Rolex watch! Thanks again.
Found this quite interesting and am thinking about going ahead with this on my mugello 186 kit, but before I do just wanted to pick your brains. I've been running the mugello kit for over 2 years with no issues whatsoever, then had an issue were a broken circlip entered and scored the barrel, not badly but enough to not risk using it, and so installed a new barrel things seemed OK to start with but then compression suddenly seemed an issue, even to the extent of damaging the kick-start teeth, have replaced the kick-start but same issue has I think happened again. There is no resistance in the kick-start but I can bump start it and run it OK but if I stop the engine then a bump off is required again. Here's the weird bit though if I move the kick-start slowly up and down it can occasionally catch on and gives enough resistance to kick-start the engine. It's been doing our heads in what could have caused all this by just replacing the barrel. Any suggestions would be much appreciated 🤯
You need to use gp kickstarter shaft its stronger ...... and decompression port gives easy life on kick start and engine mounts also stops frame damage on stand struts ...... and engine runs smoother
My Mechanic followed your instructions to the letter, wow what a great result, just done just short of a 500 mile round trip and the scooter ran like a dream. So just to say thank you for sharing your amazing knowledge, expertise and experience.
I took off 2mm from the head of my “mm “factory 66mm small block kit, stage four with 30mm and clubman, standard li 125 gearing, sucker goes good but man is it a bitch to kick.
Theres not much difference the rt is a little higher but I use 10 mm on the rt kit aswell no problem. Dont mess it up 😎 ported engines with high exhaust ports dont need the decompression port so dont do this on a ported motor .....
@@TheSteelweasel Did you go from a milder grindstone to a more aggressive one Steve? It's hard to see what you used! I thought maybe a diamond tip barrel and then maybe a Carbide tip? I'd love to see a followup video (more detail, maybe the RT) for this, it seems like a lot of people are talking about this mod. Thanks!
Hiya Steve, I've got an old Mugello 200 in an early series 3 LI125 case and the compression has always been mental but I've put up with it for a while as it goes so well, managed a true 74mph on my speed tracker the other day and really good acceleration. I tried taking a bit of material out of the head dish and raising the squish up to 1.7 and it still ran nicely but made no difference to what a bast**d it is to start. After watching this video I decided to give this a go and drilled the hole exactly as you show. Unbelievable! it has completely transformed it, where before you were often standing up on the kickstart with the clutch starting to slip waiting for it to get past the worst of the compression stroke now a 5 year old could kick it over, tick over was always ok but now it will tick over on really low revs....dead chuffed as you can imagine
Nice job . So happy to help people.
Thanks Steve for this video tutorial! Made it exactly like you said! Works perfect.❤
Well done ❤
wow just looking again at this video ....... unbelievable how bad the sound is , but the video has really good comments and im happy as larry ......😋
This method has been used since the 50s. Maico have a hole in the piston to reduce compression to get their electric start to work. I like the idea of the smoother lower revs. Poor man's power valve ! Well done great video as always.
When will we see more of Pepe?
Hong to give this a go on my GT250, I can stand on the Kickstart presently
Are there any disadvantages to doing this Steve? It looks great by the way. The Scootopia 185 kit has really high compression so this should make it a lot easier to kick over.
Hi Steve, I have an old 90’s TS1 kit installed on a bike and the compression is getting a little much for an old fart like me. Could I do this on a stock TS1 barrel? Thanks for all the excellent videos and sharing your knowledge 👍
Yes no problem
Nice job Pepe, now I know Steelweasel doesn’t touch Vespas but is this what we are gonna do to my Polini 221 after it’s eventually run in?
Yep exactly mate
Ha alguma perda no desempenho do motor sr steve?????
No loss in power above 3000 rpm .... below 3000 is a small lost in torque
@@TheSteelweasel como faz p aber o local exato do furo em cilindro que ñ seja de vespa?
I've got slightly dodgy knees and thinking about doing this to my standard SX150 just to make it a bit easier to start the beast - is it worth doing to a standard engine? cheers
Works on all engines
I think I will be doing this Steve, nice one. I’m going to a 17t front sprocket but it is ridiculous trying to start my Casa185. Did you use a dremel sandpaper sleeve that slips over the rubber barrel bit? Many thanks!… : )
Small gind stone with dremil to remove chrome and make a indentation to allow me to drill 2mm drill bit
I did the decom port mod Steve, and as you said, it's not much easier to kick over. Not like my ss180 or a stock lambretta, but way less stress on the frame crossmember. It does indeed actually run like a Rolex watch! Thanks again.
Found this quite interesting and am thinking about going ahead with this on my mugello 186 kit, but before I do just wanted to pick your brains.
I've been running the mugello kit for over 2 years with no issues whatsoever, then had an issue were a broken circlip entered and scored the barrel, not badly but enough to not risk using it, and so installed a new barrel things seemed OK to start with but then compression suddenly seemed an issue, even to the extent of damaging the kick-start teeth, have replaced the kick-start but same issue has I think happened again.
There is no resistance in the kick-start but I can bump start it and run it OK but if I stop the engine then a bump off is required again.
Here's the weird bit though if I move the kick-start slowly up and down it can occasionally catch on and gives enough resistance to kick-start the engine.
It's been doing our heads in what could have caused all this by just replacing the barrel.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated 🤯
You need to use gp kickstarter shaft its stronger ...... and decompression port gives easy life on kick start and engine mounts also stops frame damage on stand struts ...... and engine runs smoother
many thanks@@TheSteelweasel
My Mechanic followed your instructions to the letter, wow what a great result, just done just short of a 500 mile round trip and the scooter ran like a dream.
So just to say thank you for sharing your amazing knowledge, expertise and experience.
thanks pal so glad its done the job.@@martinstokes8551
Steve, I got excited when you said it was an RT kit you were doing but it’s a Casa cylinder 😂👍
Lol did a rt 195 at the same time with same results
I find my RT a bastard to kick.
@@zyroman THE QUATRINI has this port from factory 😜
I took off 2mm from the head of my “mm “factory 66mm small block kit, stage four with 30mm and clubman, standard li 125 gearing, sucker goes good but man is it a bitch to kick.
@@Smarterthanyou-mthrfkr That low 125 box certainly makes it more difficult!
Is the RT195 also 10mm above the exhaust port Steve? I'm kinda handy with my Dremmel I wonder if I can do it.... I don't have a vice though :(
Theres not much difference the rt is a little higher but I use 10 mm on the rt kit aswell no problem. Dont mess it up 😎 ported engines with high exhaust ports dont need the decompression port so dont do this on a ported motor .....
Yes it can be done on rt no problem
@@TheSteelweasel Did you go from a milder grindstone to a more aggressive one Steve? It's hard to see what you used! I thought maybe a diamond tip barrel and then maybe a Carbide tip? I'd love to see a followup video (more detail, maybe the RT) for this, it seems like a lot of people are talking about this mod. Thanks!
@@jfrorn Just use a flat ended barrel gind stone 3 mm diameter once your through the chrome its easy going use 2 mm drill bit for hole 👍
@@TheSteelweasel Thanks Steve!
If it makes such an improvement, you have to wonder why don’t Casa (and other manufacturers) make this modification themselves ?
quatrini 210 has the same . and high port timings dont need it like casa ss and rb etc
Its a blind hole, Steve?
no its straight through mate
Cool. Seems like a really straight forward fix. Particularly interested by it smoothing out the ride at low rpm. Good work, mate.