Garelli is really creeping

Eugene Robertson /

Hey, I’ve been working on this 80’ ssxl for about a year. It’s my first bike and obviously I’ve been dealing with a learning curve. I got it stock in ridable, but not wonderful shape. I’ve since put the noi metric Polini kit on it, with the treats brn head as it was running way hot. Got the Polini pipe that mounted up pretty nice. Put a slightly larger 16 SHA on it but with the stock intake. Thinking of porting that up to open it up a bit. My problem was over the summer it was getting way hot, like 375, jetted up to 88 and retarded the timing pretty much all the way back. It calmed down. Not really getting over 330. Seems good, but my main problem is, I’ve got virtually no acceleration if I start off on even the slightest of hills. Which can be pretty sketchy in traffic. I’m in Brooklyn and not really hitting any serious hills. I feel like it should be getting a little more oomph. On flat ground or once up to speed it starts really tearing ass. I don’t wanna have to start messing with gearing as none of the hills are like Colorado or San Francisco for fucks sake. Just feel like I’m over looking some thing. Any advice, greatly appreciated.

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Re: Garelli is really creeping

Beach Club Nick /

Ignition is probably too retarded. Stock intake basically means carb upgrades are almost moot. Get a new intake of matching diameter to your carb

Re: Garelli is really creeping

Eugene Robertson /

Thanks, I’ll try advancing it again and see how that’s going. I was kinda thinking I’d give porting out the stock intake with a dremel as it came with a 14 sha, and I just threw a 16 on off another bike I came across. Seems like a 16 intake is hard to come by. Think that’d help some? Everything’s for a phbg. Not really trying to go full out phbg, because I’ve heard horror stories of the shitty rubber clutches getting chewed up. Was mostly trying to keep up with traffic and not get mowed down. For sure on the timing though, I’ll advance that tomorrow and update. Thanks.

Re: Garelli is really creeping

16 is a lot of carb for a moped for a moped from what I hear, but I don't have any experience so take that as you will.

Re: Garelli is really creeping

375° is not hot for a Garelli. That's actually perfect to be honest if that's all it's getting with the cast iron cylinder. The rule with a Garelli is your fine up to 420° and back off of it at 430°. I ran Swoop's rally one year in Atlanta with that same setup cruising around 440° down hill, 470°ish cruising and maxed 529° going up a big hills. No I'm not telling you to run those temps but I did and the bike still runs to this day 4yrs later with the same engine. Set the timing back where it's responsive and ride! Trust me, that kit can take 420° all day......

Re: Garelli is really creeping

I agree that 375 is not bad for that cylinder.

Get a taller gear for the rear wheel and that should help get it moving a little quicker.

But the proper timing once again and you should be better off as well.

Re: Garelli is really creeping

Eugene Robertson /

Hey, thanks for the input. Stephens, I like the performance you were getting. But I ended up retarding because I had a soft seize twice just a little over 400. I’ve got the trail tech going and realized that seemed to be no go zone. I barely fuck with the least of hills, in fact try to make my commute with as little incline as possible. I’ll try bringing the timing back up with a larger jet and see how that handles. Kinda thought maybe these things were just meant for tiny Italian 150lbs dudes and not a 225 American dude. 🤷‍♂️

Re: Garelli is really creeping

> Eugene Robertson wrote:

> -------------------------------------------------------

> Hey, thanks for the input. Stephens, I like the performance you were

> getting. But I ended up retarding because I had a soft seize twice just

> a little over 400. I’ve got the trail tech going and realized that

> seemed to be no go zone. I barely fuck with the least of hills, in fact

> try to make my commute with as little incline as possible. I’ll try

> bringing the timing back up with a larger jet and see how that handles.

> Kinda thought maybe these things were just meant for tiny Italian 150lbs

> dudes and not a 225 American dude. 🤷‍♂️

225lbs?!? LOL, I'm 275lbs! If your soft seizing your still a little lean. I run all my bikes a tad rich to be honest. With the sha carb you have to jet it for top end and not mid range. They are funny. If you tune them for top end they will sound like they are rich in the mid range. If you get them running perfect in the mid range they'll be lean on top end unless you tune the slide also. Also if you haven't yet, change the seal behind the stator plate. They're know for causing weird problems.

Re: Garelli is really creeping

daan SJAARLOOS /

Like Nick says match your carb to your intake. Bigger carb should give you al little bit better acceleration. What's your problem with messing with the gearing? Maybe your current gearing is not right?

Re: Garelli is really creeping

Gearing is important when you install a kit. I didn't realize for years that my bike came with modified low gearing. I imagine it was a common shop mod to be quick in an urban environment (LA for my Puch).

Years later, after I put on a kit, I ran it up to who knows what RPM and soft seized twice (temp/tach now installed). Turned out that my rear sprocket was 15% over stock.

If you add significant power, you have to gear up or you will turn too fast for a stock bottom end.

I suspect that head temp sensors can fail to account for case heating. Maybe your sensor is at 400, but the cylinder is being fed hot mixture from the boiling case.

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