12V.dk – Carsten Lorenzen – Page 2

23. April, 202123. April, 2021

Piaggio/Vespa Moped Speed Calculator

Yet another moped speed calculator, specifically for Piaggio/Vespa/Gilera belt driven mopeds, like the Ciao, Bravo, Si etc.

My own testings show pretty accurate results, you typically need to input a little higher tyre size, because the rim size isn’t measured at the furthest point of the outer edge. Cross check with the tyre circumference. The pulley diameters should be measured on the outside of the belt, so wrap one around your pulleys and measure the diameter with a caliper. In some pulleys the belt sits lower than the outer diameter.

You need MS Excel, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, GDocs or similar to open the file.

Piaggio Moped Speed Calculator Download

29. March, 202130. March, 2021

Piaggio Grillo Cargo Bike

I bought a Piaggio / Vespa Grillo some years ago at a moped market, got it very cheap and it ran. But it was filled with defects, but i planned to restore it anyway, as i tend to do. The plan was to use it for my annual moped holiday, so it had to have more storage space and a variomatic system to climb larger hills with all the added weight.

The frame wasn’t in a good shape, by coincidence i found a nearly complete one for cheap, with an ok original paintjob and lots of good parts on it. So i made the best moped out of all the parts.

The engine got some small upgrades to carry all the weight, and maybe a little added fun 😉
Watch the galleries below and check the descriptions for further details.

Engine and drivetrain:

Frame:

13. January, 202130. March, 2021

Piaggio/Vespa Moped Gearbox Ratio Calculator

Another spreadsheet to calculate moped stuff. This one is pretty simple and used to calculate the gear ratio of a 4 shaft reduction gearbox, found in various Piaggio mopeds.

Just count the teeth on the shafts corresponding to the ones shown in the picture, and plot them in the orange fields.

You need MS Excel, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, GDocs or similar to open the file.

Gearbox Ratio Calculator 4 Shafts Download

3. August, 202030. March, 2021

Small Pistons Moped Touring 2020

Our annual 4 day roadtrip went to the north of denmark, we took our mopeds in two cars and drove them to our starting point in Laurbjerg, where team member Tim lives. From here we went around the Limfjord. Beatifull nature, but sadly we missed alot of it due to bad weather. Check out these pictures, sadly no video this year.

31. March, 202030. March, 2021

Honda Express NC50 2-speed

My brother bought himself a Honda Express NC50 2-speed from 1983. It was in a driveable condition, but was no fun. It could barely do 30 km/h, and forget about pulling a grown man uphill.

My first thought was to upgrade the intake and carburettor, but that gave only minimal results. I checked everything, and concluded that the 13 mm exhaust header pipe was the biggest restriction. So we ordered a MLM Street exhaust from the USA. While we were at it, we bought a Malossi 45,5 mm kit that was on sale from a danish dealer (Mopedspeed). It took a little grinding to fit, since it’s made for the Honda Camino PA50 model. But the transfers, exhaust angle, stud spacing etc. are all the same.

Now it rides really well, i think my brother will be happy.

14. November, 201930. March, 2021

Honda PA50 Camino Hobbit decals

I wasn’t happy with the printed on transparent foil decals, that i could buy for my Honda PA50. I’ve created my own, a copy from an old original. It’s made in Adobe Illustrator and is in vector format, so a plotter can cut it in foil.

Download various file formats in a zip file here:

Honda PA50 Decals

13. June, 201930. March, 2021

Small Pistons Moped Touring 2019

We are back from yet another moped holiday. The whole trip was in the mainland this time, no long bridges or ferrys. Our goal was to go as far north as possible in the time we had. We went to Silkeborg as our turning point, the area there has some of denmarks tallest “mountains” with over 140 meters, lots of lakes and beautiful nature.

The weather was ok most of the time, Saturday was a wet and windy disaster, but that didn’t bother us too much. We couldn’t find an empty shelter, so we called a friend in the region of Esbjerg and slept in his workshop. A huge thanks to Michael! 🙂

Lots of pictures here:

Video: