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Post by beerkeg on Aug 1, 2013 11:01:11 GMT -5
It's been quite a while since I posted about this one. The latest is that after much dinking around I could not get the bike to go over 28 mph and it took a city block to get to that. Other riders claim to get 45 mph out of the box. I must have a lemon! I bought a performance exhause, a big bore kit, larger carb jets, performance air filter, a racing cdi and a racing sparkplug. I had a local motorcycyle shop with a good reputation do the upgrades. We had several delays due to wrong parts such as discovering it was a 12mm wrist pin and not a 10, then the big bore kit was exchanged and the one needed was back ordered. Finally got all the parts and they set out to create a speed demon. Discovered that the bike had nine connections at the interface for the cdi. All the cdis we could find had 5. They tried juming it, they tried a different harness. This went on for 6 weeks and no joy. So now the bike sits with a bbbk, a performance exhaust, performance air and plug and the stock cdi. Result is over 600 in parts and labor and now have a bike that shuts down after about 25 mph because the cid retards the timing. At least that's what the mechanics THINK is happening. I know the cdi could be a restricted one but we can't find a replacement. At this point the bike has about 50 miles on it and is worthless. The only thing I can think of is that possibly the automatic choke is not working right, or that the carb jet is not right, or that the cdi is really the culprit and my only option is to totally rewire and leave the alarm and remote start set up out of the wiring. Even then I doubt we'd get it to work with a different cdi. If anyone is considering a Pepe M50, DON"T! You might get a good one or you might get a lemon. I cry everytime I look at this thing. It's a beautiful bike with so much potential and there it sits. I am physically unable to do repairs or upgrades any more. Any ideas or suggestions would be welcomed, meanwhile.....Lemonade anyone?  |
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Post by beerkeg on May 31, 2013 12:15:10 GMT -5
Hi Jefe,
I'd be satisfied with the performance you're getting. My problem may be soon resolved as I met a new friend who was admiring the bike in a parking lot while I was grocery shopping for a couple of items. He custom builds and restores cars and bikes and he is a big fan of the Bellini brand even though it's a Chinese built model. He's doing the upgrades for me since I am physically unable to do them myself. He will be installing a performance air filter, performance Pipe, re-jetting the carb, putting in a racing CDI, and installing a big bore kit to bring it up to about 72-73cc. Parts are from Scrappy Dog and again, many thanks to Mo for advice and information. We may decide to go a little lighter on the sliders and a bit stiffer on the torque spring. He confirms that access to the carb is from the top. I don't know what the total cost will be yet since while he's not charging me shop rates for labor and I will be assisting as much as I can, the parts alone are about $300 so still within reason for what I may end up with. I'm so glad to meet someone with the same bike and to know that the reviews etc were not exaggerated wildly I'm also glad that you're getting the performance I expected. Who knows, perhaps we'll find the reason mine is so wimpy. That one incident where the engine just shut off but restarted 15 minutes later troubles me and I suspect it to be electrical. How the heck does one find an intermittent failure? It seemed like I might have accidently flipped the off/run switch but she wouldn't even click until it cooled down a little. Old Peugeot mopeds did that with a condenser that would overheat due to it's location and maybe something like that happens here. Future unscheduled stops will likely give additional hints. Thanks for the reply and you're right, I already wonder what might have been.
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Post by beerkeg on May 29, 2013 14:20:24 GMT -5
I found a local mechanic who is familiar with the Benelli I have and he's going to work on it for me. He confirmed what Skutta said about getting to the carb from the top after removing the seat bucket. He's going to put on a BBK for me as well. It should end up a bit over 72cc when he's done. I rode it down to his shop this morning and he looked it over and told me it was a sweet ride but should be doing much better than it is but it will have some guts when he's through with it. On the way home is when the new crazy stuff started. She stopped running at a stop light and restarted right away, shortly after that, about 4 blocks from home it just cut out as if I had hit the kill switch or something. Thought that might be what happened but got off the road and tried to restart.....got nothing, not even a click.
Called AAA to come get me and they said about an hour so I sat for maybe 15 minutes and tried it again, it started right up and I rode on home and called to cancel the service truck. Apparently once it cooled off a little it fired right up again. That's a first. Anyone else ever had this happen or know why it just quit running?
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Post by beerkeg on May 28, 2013 20:02:21 GMT -5
we know the variator is not restricted with any bushings, possibly it is the cdi that's restricted to a given max rpm or as you say the exhaust may be restricted. I won't know what jet is in there until I can get the carb opened. The gas tank is on top and covers the carb from the top, the oil tank may not be an issue. I plan to lift out the bucket and see if I can get to the carb that way. The new cdi I got is supposed to allow higher rpms and to advance the timing. I know that if the exhaust is restricted and if I replace it with a performance pipe I will have to up size the jet in the carb as well. I'm not sure I can fit a performance air filter or not, I need to get the airbox off and take a look. There are two screws at the bottom of the box that I've been unable to get out. They are recessed pretty deep and I cannot see in there to determine what driver is needed. All the others were phillips head. I can feel these and they almost feel as if they have stripped heads, but it's a new bike, right out of the factory crate. So unless they were screwed up during assembly I don't see why they should be damaged. I'll have to stand on my head to see in there. Possibly I can use a less restrictive foam in the same air box. I keep reading that this should be a great bike but so far it's stumped me.
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Post by beerkeg on May 27, 2013 14:18:38 GMT -5
On mine the gas and oil fills are right under the seat at the top of that bucket, the battery is in a little well in the front. It has a disconnect plug. It appears that I can remove the bucket and then remove the gas tank if needed, it has to be disconnected from the carb to get the carb out anyway. The oil tank may be far enough back and to the right to allow access. I know the automatic choke has to come off and I'm sure there are other things. It seems they didn't engineer this to make the carb accessable for re-jetting or cleaning. Really strange that they felt the need to jam so much under there. I have a feeling the cdi may be under the floor panel, I see wires going forward and don't find it under the seat with everything else. Perhaps its much smaller than the racing one I got with the pipe. It appears that the seat will lift off with the bucket. This is certainly not a good set up for doing plug chops to find the right jet after changing the air filter and exhaust to a performance pipe. I will need the seat to ride far enough to get a good indication on the plug chop. What a weird mess! Thanks Skutta, it was your original suggestion about the bucket that had me looking again last night. Taking it to the scooter shop would quickly cost me enough to buy a new scoot. I did get a decent price on the bike so even with performance up grades it's still with in the positive side of the cost/benefit equation. I'm nearing 70 years of age and have seen some poor engineering (from a service standpoint) but this baby takes the cake so far.  |
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Post by beerkeg on May 26, 2013 16:29:56 GMT -5
I got lots of great info on dealing with the wimpy performance on this bike here and actually have received from Scrappy the performance exhaust, the racing cdi, the mikuni jets to upsize the carb a bit. I pulled the lower covers off and find that the carb is virtually buried in there, even removing the airbox I do not see a way to get the carb off without dropping the engine and I am sorry to see that the kickstand attaches to the engine assembly so the bike would need to be suspended by its frame somehow. I have never seen such stupid engineering in my life and I've seen some weird stuff. Someone suggested removing the seat and the bucket, but the gas tank and the oil tank are right there on top of everything so that does not seem an option. My next move is to take it to the scooter shop here in town where they have the equipment to deal with such things and the know how to do it. I think I may have them do a bigger engine kit while they're at it. If anyone has come across such carb access problems on the jog miranelli QJ1E40qmb engines and figured it out please let me know how you got to the carb. I still have not located the cdi on this thing either. I may find that to get the performance I want I may well be smarter to sell this bike and get something else that's more accepting of upgrades. I like the bike but the top speed of 32 mph and taking a city block to reach that speed is unacceptable. I'd appreciate any suggestions, ideas, solutions or just sympathy! |
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Post by beerkeg on May 17, 2013 11:52:48 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Lots of great information here. Believe me I am taking notes and will certainly find the info useful as I get this bike perfected. Everywhere I go and park, I come back to find a group of guys standing around admiring it and they have tons of questions, many of which I cannot answer. They quickly learn that a light touch sets off the alarm which is surprisingly loud. I thought the alarm didn't work until one day a young friend put the bike back in my garage for me and tossed me the keys. The next day I bumped the bike and set off the alarm. I nearly wet my pants as it was behind me. Turns out there is a tiny little slide switch on the key to turn it on and off. My old eyes didn't notice it. I'm pretty much doing as Scutter suggests, riding it stock and breaking it in and hoping for an improvement in performance. The next step would be upjet, Pipe and air filter. Likely will do sliders and cdi change as well. Not sure what I can do with the air filter as it is just a flat foam filter inside a plastic air box. Due to the design and tightly packed build, the air box is very close to the cover so not sure what filter I could use. Obviously I need to get the bike up high enough that I do not need to bend over to work on it and to just take my time and figure out how to handle getting to the carb for up jetting, cleaning etc. I am very limited in what I can do physically after a major illness last summer. Hiring a mechanic to do these time consuming things would quickly break the budget. I have a good chain hoist and hope to lift it up and set the wheels into plastic buckets or something to hold it steady.I can then sit on a low computer chair and scoot around the bike. The hoist can act as a safety strap. It's worth a shot. When I take to covers off again I will take some close up pics so you can see what I mean about the tightly packed engine area. I think engineers and designers should be forced to work as mechanics before being allowed to design anything. It's going to be a very interesting process and I will post progress as it develops. UPDATE. I rigged the chain hoist and plastic five gallon buckets yesterday, hoisted the bike up and set the wheels into the buckets and lowered the bike down enough to keep it steady and it is just the right height to work on while seated on the low computer chair. I placed my order for the Performance exhaust, the new CDI, and the Mikuni jets ranging from 75 to  . I did not order an air filter yet because I need to get in there and see what will fit. My bike uses a flat airbox with a flat foam filter in it and things are tightly packed under the plastic covers so I need to get the airbox off and see what I will have room for. I may be stuck with using the stock airbox but using a less restrictive foam and some additional inlets for air in the box I can only work a little bit at a time so this is going to take awhile. I certainly hope to improve on my bikes wimpy performance. I notice a hose connecting to the stock muffler and not sure what it is or what it does, but don't think there's a provision for it on the performance exhaust. I may consider new sliders, and new torque spring in the near future. |
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Post by beerkeg on May 16, 2013 19:08:55 GMT -5
Awwww, don't feel bad, Homer Simpson got his famous forehead smack and "DOH!" from ME.  |
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Post by beerkeg on May 16, 2013 12:51:05 GMT -5
Thanks guys, All info is helpful. I will post results as we progress with this one. I have not heard from a single Bellini owner so perhaps I'm the only one on the forum riding one. I will be going out for a ride soon and it is the first of any distance since we worked on it last. So I'll see how it's doing performance wise. I don't need a lot of top end since I have to stop a lot here in the city but I hate cars being right on my rear end trying to pass me. I suspect most of us feel the same way. They will nearly force a biker out of the lane and roar past only to be sitting at the next traffic light when I arrive. Idiots!
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Post by beerkeg on May 14, 2013 22:06:28 GMT -5
[replyingto=skuttadawg]skuttadawg[/replyingto]Hi scutterdawg,
I did consider the cdi change along with a performance variator which would have the better sliders, and a performance exhaust and upjetting the carb. Changing the jets would appear to be a real pain and might have to be done several times to hit on the right jet size for the new exhaust. Sorry that I confused your suggestion with Hanks response, it's been a long day!
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Post by beerkeg on May 14, 2013 22:01:23 GMT -5
[replyingto=hank]hank[/replyingto]Hi Hank,
She is definitely a 2t. Has excellent throttle response all the way to max and snarls like a beast but just doesn't go like it should. Got me scratching my head. I'm not sure I could get to the carb from the top due to the location of the gas and oil tanks being right there under the seat. Removing the top shell is a pain and putting it back on is worse. The bottom covers are just fussy to get off and back on, the carb is accessible only after removing the air box containing the filter, and the automatic choke. It's crammed in behind the air box. I didn't even look to see about dropping the engine to do a BBK. I have only about 22 miles on it so far and am hoping it will improve a lot after getting broke in a bit. Other than the wimpy performance I love the bike. Thanks for the input, I'll take a second look at the bucket as you suggested.
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Post by beerkeg on May 14, 2013 21:04:16 GMT -5
I finally got the covers off the Benelli M50 50cc 2t scooter. There was not restriction in the variator and I doubt there is any in the stock exhaust. The carb is extremely difficult to remove to change jets. It seems half the scoot has to be removed to get to it. We did achieve so improvement but it still takes a city block to reach 30 mph and seems to top out there. I have my doubts about whether going with a performance exhaust and bigger main jet would make much difference. Scooter weighs close to 200 lbs and perhaps a 50cc is simply not going to do much better. Going to larger jets would be a very tedious experience. One suggestion was to go to a performance CDI to allow higher rpms on engine speed. Anyone have any experience on that? A performance variator was suggested as well and again I wonder if it would really help. At this point I'm very discouraged about improving this bikes performance. In my humble opinion the engineers need a swift kick in the pants for making access to the air filter and carb such a labor intensive thing.
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What jet?
by: beerkeg - May 9, 2013 11:48:13 GMT -5
Post by beerkeg on May 9, 2013 11:48:13 GMT -5
Thanks Teddy,
I think I will have a selection of jets on hand when the work starts so we can be ready if our first guess is wrong. I have a very good friend who has a nephew who is very experienced in these things and he's going to do the upgrades for me.
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What jet?
by: beerkeg - May 8, 2013 20:27:24 GMT -5
Post by beerkeg on May 8, 2013 20:27:24 GMT -5
I'm still working on getting better performance from my 2008 Benelli M50, 50cc scooter. It has less than 20 miles on it. The engine is a JOG 1E40QMB-4 Minarelli type. This engine is used in many other brands of scoots. I am wondering if anyone with the same or similar engine has done performance upgrades. I planned to start with a performance variator, a performance exhaust, performance air filter and a larger main jet. I'd like to know what size jet is in there now so we have a starting point or better yet if you have done such up grades what jet worked for you? I am physically unable to do this work myself although I had some experience with other older mopeds doing so. I cannot do this due to surgeries last year in a major, life threatening illness. I have recovered somewhat but cannot physically do these things anymore but do have a willing helper who just doesn't have alot of experience. If I can find the jet size I have now, Mo from Scrappy Dog,  will be able to help find the right one after upgrading. He has been a great help to me with advice and information and I'd highly recommend him and Scrappy for parts. I'll be ordering all mine there. A local scooter shop told me that the upgrades I have in mind would do little for performance but would just make the bike louder. I'm sure there are many forum members who would disagree with that. They wanted to put a big bore kit on the bike right away. I really don't need a great deal of additional speed. I just need improvement in acceleration and I'd be happy with a top end of 45 or so. I do all city riding at this point and hate having cars right on my rear end trying to pass me on either side they can regardless of how safe it is. Any info on what to expect from these upgrades and the jet sizes would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your attention! |
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Post by beerkeg on May 2, 2013 17:29:52 GMT -5
[replyingto=burnrubber]burnrubber[/replyingto]I just saw this bike on the website for scootsusa.com but theirs have 12 in tires so maybe not what you want. Check it out. I bought my Bellini m50 Pepe from them last fall. It has issues but seems to be running as intended right out of the box. Mark has been good about responding to questions for me so far.
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. I did not order an air filter yet because I need to get in there and see what will fit. My bike uses a flat airbox with a flat foam filter in it and things are tightly packed under the plastic covers so I need to get the airbox off and see what I will have room for. I may be stuck with using the stock airbox but using a less restrictive foam and some additional inlets for air in the box I can only work a little bit at a time so this is going to take awhile. I certainly hope to improve on my bikes wimpy performance. I notice a hose connecting to the stock muffler and not sure what it is or what it does, but don't think there's a provision for it on the performance exhaust. I may consider new sliders, and new torque spring in the near future.