Aprilia Leonardo 125 speed restricted?

[Rider1991]

Hello all,

I've just picked up a second hand Aprilia Leonardo 125, and was wondering if anyone has ever heard of them being restricted to a certain speed?
 
The reason I'm asking is the bike seems to be limited to an indicated 55mph, it accelerates freely up to that point, and then will not go any further (even on a long straight or down a large hill, the bike will not go past indicated 55mph).

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of this before, or has any idea how to remove this restriction?

Thanks for any and all help.

[Teflon-Mike]

It's a rather more 'bulky', tree-huger friendly 4-stroke scooter.

The 'claimed' 79mph top speed I spotted in one of the spec-pages is absolutely laughable for ANY A1/Learner-Legal 125, of any type, especially so a four-stroke, more so a rather heavy one, even more so one with such a cumbersome set of cloths on it, and a rubber band for a gear-box.

It will not be 'restricted' in its' mechanics or electronics or other facets of it's constriction. There's no need. Four Strokes don't make the power to make a bike go much faster. ANY bike.. and that one is strugglig from behind before it begins, with that city suit on.

A1 / Learner-Legal licence regs permit 'up to' 14.5bhp, which the very best four-stroke singles might get close to delivering. But anything over 13bh is good going and most will be closer to 10 or 11.

Without the barn-door 'leg deflectors' and bath-tub bodywork surrounding that thing, a 'good' 4T 125, with a better compliment of ponies, and a propper gear-box of gears, rather than rubber bands and pulleys, can usually see them better 60mph, at a push in more ideal circumstances, but 60 is about as much as you can reasonably expect to see from most all that often, and only the very best of them, will ever nudge a genuine 70, very very VERY occasionally....

79mph? You might, with a little wind or gravity assistance see that recorded on a slightly optimistic speedo, but, highly unlikely you'd get anything with less than 20bhp to go through two-way timed traps, that quick , especially without the rider making themselves very very small in the seat to minimize wind resistance!

A Damn good service; a new spark-plug, oil change, cleaning the brakes and maybe a new V-belt will likely get you all the thing has to give, but don't expect too much.

And THAT is likely where the problem really lies.... in what you expect from the thing.

It is a 125
It is a Four-Stroke
It IS a scooter.

It's designed for zipping about city traffic, where it wont often be asked to go much over 40mph very often, and 50mph even less, and any 4-stroke 125 wont go much faster than that any way.

Other scooter's may be a little quicker, other 125's, may be a little quicker, other four-strokes, may be some-what faster.. BUT, They either wont be scooters, they wont be 125's or they wont be four-strokes. Sorry.
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[Rider1991]

Thanks for your reply.

I wasn't expecting it to be the quickest 125 (or to hit the fabled 79mph that some mad man plucked form nowhere), I just thought it would get me a bit closer to the national speed limit than it does - from what I've figured an indicated 55mph is more so a true 48 to 49mph (according to a GPS reading on my phone).

The only reason I thought it may be restricted in some way is the fact that an indicated 55mph seems like a wall to the bike (as in, I've never seen the needle go past 55, ever, no matter what the circumstance), steep down hill - it will get to an indicated 55mph and go no faster, even though it should be going for an indicated 60mph or more (for example, I once had my old 50cc indicate over 50mph down the same hill - scary times!), long flat straight? It will accelerate up to the indicated 55mph in decent time and then go no faster even though it feels like it has more to give.

It had a good service before I bought the bike, I know an oil change with decent oil and a new spark plug was part of that and from looking around the bike, I wouldn't be surprised if it had a new belt too.

[talkToTheHat]

Was this originally uk market or import from elsewhere in europe? I think at one point german 125s were speed restricted. I think this revelation came from someone fitting an engine management unit for a german GZ125 into a british market bike.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[andyscooter]

belt and rollers been changed?


will it rev on the stand freely (not too long as its bad for the bike)
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[Rider1991]

As far as I'm aware the bike isn't an import.

I've had a look and it has a new belt, and by the looks of it everything else around the CVT is new too.

The bike does rev freely on the stand yes.

[Daz1245]

Stick a cagiva mito 125 2stroke engine in it, will fly up to 100mph no problem
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Current: 1994 Suzuki rf600r
Cagiva mito evo 3 2002, Yamaha xvs125 2000, skyjet sj-125 Chinese piece of crap

[andyscooter]