9-inch Smallframe Vespa tyres
German scooter specialist SIP Scootershop has some excellent news for aficionados of Vespa ACMA GL and some of the Smallframe Vespas. After many years of being unavailable, Ralf Jodl told IDN that his company has redesigned the old school 9-inch tyres and put them back into production again.
These classic 9-inchers - the only tyres in 3.50-9" as well as 2.75-9", tube and tubeless, and speed indexed "P" at up to 150 km/h, are for the ACMA GL ("Grand Luxe"), manufactured under licence by Piaggio in France from 1956 to 1958.
The tyres were hard to find for decades, but SIP Scootershop has launched a new production with its own mould to address this shortage in the market.
They feature a classic tread and Ralf says they have remarkably good properties on dry and wet roads. They were originally designed for use with inner tubes, as all scooter tyres were 'back in the day', but the design has been updated so they can also run on tubeless rims.
With a speed index and approval up to 150 km/h, the SIP classic tyre allows much more than a Vespa can produce. Ralf says that "the classic profile in combination with the rubber compound make this tyre the ideal companion. Except for rides in mud and snow, nothing brings this tyre out of balance."
For use on Vespa Smallframe models 2.75-9", over four million units of the Vespa 50 were built from 1963 through the 1990s, and the Smallframe models are still very popular today. Many Vespa Smallframe models came standard with 9" tyres, and for a long time, the Michelin ACS was the only tyre for the Smallframe Vespas with 9" tyres.
SIP Scootershop has reissued its own 9" tyre, but with a higher load and speed index. In addition, the SIP Classic 2.75-9" tyre is also suitable for tubeless rims (even though there are currently no 9" tubeless rims for Vespa Smallframe models).
SIP SCOOTERSHOP GMBH
