Stupid stupid Piaggio

Man of Honour
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Some of you might remember I posted about the malarky I had to go through to change the sparkplug and coil in my ET4 Vespa a few months back. This weekend was oil change time, way overdue and I'm skint so I decided to do it myself. Forseeing that it might not be as straightforward as it sounds I consulted the Haynes manual. Now I've noted before that what's in the book doesn't bear much resemblence to the bike because it covers about 5 similar (but no way the same) models, but it's close enough to get you started. So out I went, Billy Big Balls, new filter in hand etc.

First up is to drain the old oil out, no problem, the drain plug looks like it's right underneath in the book, pan under bike, plug out and drain. Well no. First Piaggio have put the bike stand right in the way so you can't get a pan or a bottle underneath. Second, they have decided it is a good idea to BLANK OFF THE DRAIN PLUG!!! So how the bloody hell am I supposed to get the oil out the engine you Italian idiots? Who's great idea was this?

Right then, off with the old filter. Usual lark with the strap wrench except as usual there is something in the way, the exhaust, but it came off with the help of a bit of grunting and swearing. Some oil dribbled out the side so I tried to tip some out through the filter hole. No way, it's too small. So I go round the other side to the filler neck and that is clearly the only way it's coming out. Bike up on bricks straddling a drain, shallow pan over the drain cover and lean the bike over onto its side so all the oil dribbles out.

What a performance. It took me about an hour to get that far. I'll be paying someone to do that next time, I pity those that do this for a living :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Soldato
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Ive never actually worked on a bike before, done plenty on cars but im going to service my R6 soon though. Hope my experiences are nothing like yours :p
 
Man of Honour
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Yours was designed by people of the East who are efficient and have brains. I think the guys who designed the ET4 had olive oil in their eyes and were too busy looking at themselves in the mirror and combing their greasy hair.
 
Soldato
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Jonny69 said:
Yours was designed by people of the East who are efficient and have brains. I think the guys who designed the ET4 had olive oil in their eyes and were too busy looking at themselves in the mirror and combing their greasy hair.

Are you trying to say I should avoid a ducati? :p
 

Dup

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Jonny69 said:
Yours was designed by people of the East who are efficient and have brains. I think the guys who designed the ET4 had olive oil in their eyes and were too busy looking at themselves in the mirror and combing their greasy hair.

Not much has changed. I had a Gilera DNA 125. Anything you wanted to do on it, you had to remove the engine.

I'm really glad I stacked it into the side of a brand new X-Type, the thing was a nightmare. I remember when the drive belt snapped on me and locked up the rear wheel. That day was a fun day :rolleyes: . Or the time it decided to cut out for no reason while going over 40mph :rolleyes: Still did it till the day it died :rolleyes: . There was also the time the speedo stopped working, two sets of clocks and a sender unit never cured that... :rolleyes:

Owning an Italian bike just isn't cheap unless you're really really patient... about 5% of all bikers then eh?
 
Soldato
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Jonny69 said:
Yours was designed by people of the East who are efficient and have brains. I think the guys who designed the ET4 had olive oil in their eyes and were too busy looking at themselves in the mirror and combing their greasy hair.


haha that cracked me up :D this bike of yours sounds a feat of engineering, on how to design a bike that can annoy the owner the most when things need fixing.
 
Soldato
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Never worked on a bike that simply didnt just have a drain bolt on the gearbox to drain the oil.

One or two had two bolts, but nothing stupid.
 
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