Chasing a 2-up tuned Honda RVF400 through the twisty lanes was a lot easier than overtaking it. On the Gilera I could pull up close at every bend, but then my view was blocked. I could'nt see if there was any traffic coming, whether the tarmac was covered in mud, gravel or horse shit, or even which way the road went. What I did know was the RVF rider was working quite hard to stay ahead, because he was grounding the exhaust on occasions thanks to the weight of his pillion

By happy contrast the Equinox Gilera Runner was a King Dick spanner for the job of hounding a sportsbike along twisty lanes. Acceleration is both swift and effortless, handling is sharp and neutral, and braking considerably improved. In short, this is a breeze to ride fast, since less of your concentration is actually needed for the business of riding in respect to changing gear, you can spare more brain-power to pick faster lines.

At the end of one quick right hander was a much sharper left. My plan was to carry more speed through the first corner, worry about braking when I felt the flames of Hell licking my arse, then turn in without looking, and hope that the motorcycle was behind me at the end of it. It was.

Given that the twisty lanes carried on like that for some way, I could have proceeded to leave the RVF behind, but only if I had a clue where I was. Sadly I didn't, and I had to let Paul lead again, back to PM Tuning's Lancashire laboratory of lunacy.

This example is not supposed to demonstrate any heroics on my part, because it was simply a question of the Equinox being the superior tool for the job at hand. Scooters are designed to be easy to ride and change direction quickly, and this Runner is merely an advancement of that concept. When it comes to really twisty lanes or city jams what you need is something light and flickable that hasn't been excavated from a nostril. The RVF takes more physical effort and skill to change direction on, and most bigger capacity motorcycles would only be worse.

Equilbrium

The outright performance of Paul's Equinox obviously won't be enough to keep up with a powerful motorcycle on the open road. Despite a hefty improvement in power output to 25 hp at the rear wheel, the Runner is eventually outgunned. It kept up very well to 60 mph, but from there the RVF began to stretch it's legs. The Equinox has standard gearing and doesn't rev much higher than a standard scooter.

As such it won't achieve much more than 85mph on the road. If standard Runner owners out there think that seems slow, they should bear in mind that the Gilera have fitted stage 7 tuned speedometers, and a 95mph indicated top speed on my Runner SP is actually more like 80 mph by GPS satellite receiver.

While Paul's Runner could easily pull a taller Malossi gear kit - and benefit from an extra 8mph or so on top speed - he decided against fitting one so as not to dilute the wicked acceleration. Paul reasons that the Runner's sprinting ability from the line is what makes them fun in the first place, and I certainly won argue with that.

What makes this scooter special is how easy it is to manage all the extra power. The key to this was improving the performance of the engine without raising the operatin revs. This engine makes peak power at 7,800 rpm which is exactly the same as standard, thus allowing the use of completely original transmission setup.

Paul has already built one Runner engine that makes 31 hp, but that peaks at 9,300 rpm and chews up transmission belts and variator rollers like the Ebola virus munchest West Africans. The other nasty side-effect of raise operating rpm is a narrowed powerband giving 'light switch' power delivery. This on-off throttle response makes wet weather riding very dicey. The rear wheel will try to spin out from under the scooter if the machine is anything but vertical when it is given a fistful.

The Equinox by comparison is an absolute pussycat. Okay, so if you give it a big handful and a quick tug it will loft the front wheel anywhere up to 20 mph - and probably keep it there until around 50 mph if you've got the skill - but it won't if you don't want it to. The throttle retains the wonderfully proportional nature of the standard Runner, and the fact that this machine is based on the SP model means that the rear dise brake is powerful enough to keep the motor in check if you want to come out of the comers with the throttle wound on hard.

Exodus

Unless I'm mistaken, the PM Tuning Equinox is the first automatic Dealer Special available in the UK. Like all the good scooter specials of the past such as the AF S-type Lambretta - the basic formula is to uprate the handling and performance, and match this to a visual makeover. The Equinox is no different.

On the cosmetic front, there are a host of carbon fibre components included, along with a special paint job to your colour specification. As far as tuning is concerned, you can have anything from PM's stage 1 (which is fitting their tuning exhaust and appropriate carb jetting) to full Pro-Street which is the specification of this demonstrator. The third ingredient is the chassis package which consists of Malossi/Paioli forks, rear shock and oversize front brake disc. This is mated to PM Tuning's own engine mount stiffening kit which considerably reduces side-to-side movement of the rear wheel. The kit itself replaces the soft rubber Piaggio engine bushes with steel and DU bushes which are Teflon coated for self lubrication.

The chassis changes really help to make best use of the engine performance, with the engine mounting kit eliminating a great deal of the hinged-in-the-middle sensation that the standard Runner (particularly the pre-SP model) exhibits overbumpy corners. The Malossi forks are noticeably shorter than the original items which helps to quicken the steering of the Runner, and evens out the weight distribution by putting a bit more bias on the front tyre. Paul ran the forks on fairly soft settings which allowed them to cope well with minor bumps, but they still bottomed out on certain sections of the lunar surfaces which Morecambe council threw up. PM's plan is to try Paioli's new gold nitride coated F36 front forks in the Runner at a later stage to see if the handling can be improved further. The Malossi rear shock is a revised unit from the early models, but still with combined compression rebound adjustment on a single dial. Together with sticky Hutchinson Funzy semi-slick tyres and the big braking front disc (narrower and lighter than the Malossi version) the Equinox makes the original FXR like a drunk on stilts. The front brake is massively progressive - thanks to some braided hosing - but also supremely powerful. It can now match the ability of the SP's splendid original rear anchor. If you use both stoppers together properly you can backwards through time. Well almost.

If Paul has his way, and can persuade a Grimeca four piston caliper to fit in the snug gap between disc and wheel, then I might be able to zip back to a time when my hair style would have been fashionable, and the Editor had the option of a hairstyle at all. Still, maybe not.

Equipment

The level of engine work carried out to achieve this performance is called a Pro-Street tune. This consists of a ported Malossi 180cc cylinder kit (which alone produces a small power increase over the standard 180 cylinder). The kit cylinder head is welded and re-machined to increase compression and improve the squish shape, but the engine hencthforth always needs at least 98 octane fuel which now means Super UnleadedIpetrol only.

The bottom end of the engine is strengthened with a Malossi race crank which also helps to raise crankcase compression. This improved pumping efficiency is augmented with porting work to the cases to improve transfer flow and accommodate an oversize Polini reedblock.

Gas exit is taken care of by PM's own design expansion chamber. Incoming gasses arrive via a modified 25mm DellOrto carb, which has been 'D' shaped along it's length. D-shaping is an alternative to simply boring a carb, but it only increases the throat area at the top of the carb when the slide is fully retracted. When the slide is half closed the flow area remains standard so that carburation at low throttle openings remains crisp. As the slide is withdrawn, disproportionately more and more area is opened. At full throttle the carb behaves like a considerably bigger model. While it would seem sensible just to use a bigger carb in the first place, the Gilera doesn't allow for this due to the lack of room under the helmet bay. Secondly, a D-shaped carb will actually perform better than a standard one of the same throat area because it has a smooter internal flow.

Two missing elements of the ultimate fro-Street specification are the Malossi race variator and PM's own re-mapped digital ignition box. The variator is expected to slightly increase the range of the transmission, and the stability of engine revs while accelerating, but not by a lot because the original Gilera component works very well. The ignition box will alter the ignition advance / retard operation specifically for engines running the original rpm range. Paul's unit will advance the spark earlier for more power at lower rpm, but also retard the timing more quickly beyond 8,000 rpm. Though the final version of the box has not yet been tested, Paul believes it will give more power even on standard engines.

Equalizer

None of this comes cheap, and nor can it he expected to. The engine work alone to get an engine up to the Pro-Street spec will cost £1,300 to £1,500 which includes dynoing to set the scooter up in that spec. That's before you add the price of the scooter, suspension componentry and customising. Paul though, is finding that a new group of customers are more than willing to spend what it takes to get a top of the range scooter on the road: sports bike riders.

"We get more motorcyclists ringing up for performance parts (for the Runner etc) than we do traditional scooterists. We have bike lads that own R1's or Ducati's who end up buying Runners as a second bike to go to work on and see that the performance potential by bolting on stuff. What some of them end up doing is selling thier R1's and 916's and end up thrashing around on these becuase they are a lot more fun, cheaper to tune and they aren't to worried if they throw them down the road. For £3,000 you can have a lot of fun without the same amount of worry. This is about the third of the value of a Ducati"

Only a few years ago it was inconceivable that sports motorcyclists would ever take up riding scooters, let alone get rid of their bikes in favour of them but times are changing. These days performance bikes are so fast that there are very few places to really use them, and very few riders have the skill to push them to anywheree near their limits. In all our towns and cities speed cameras, trafiic jams and ballistic insurance premiums make sports motorcycle ownership about as satisfying as a Pot Noodle. For those enlightened few willing to try a sports scooter there is a whole new world of entertainment out there just by sticking one up the inside af a middie-aged Honda owner at a roundabout. It's a pleasure most tuned scooter owners have known about for years. Perhaps the best thing is that each tuning component will probably set you back less than the price at a set of tyres on the Fireblade you've just overtaken!

Sticky