Piaggio Fly 50 Engine Specs

• The Fly 50 is a small scooter first built by the Italian Piaggio company in 2005. The engine is just under 50 cc in displacement, which is useful for registration and insurance purposes, as some states, such as Maine, New Mexico and Utah, regard scooters of under 50 cc as being separate from motorcycles and exempt from registration. The scooter has a big brother called the Fly 150, which has a top speed of 61 miles per hour but a higher fuel consumption than the little Fly 50. The Fly 50 is still in production and complies with U.S. emissions standards.

Engine Type

• The Fly 50 has a single-cylinder engine with 49.9 cubic centimeters of engine displacement (volume inside the cylinder that is swept by the piston). The bore and stroke of the engine is 1.5 and 1.6 inches respectively (39mm and 41.8 mm). The bore is the diameter of the engine cylinder opening and the stroke is the total distance the piston travels up and down.

  The single cylinder has two valves, which are controlled by a single overhead cam system, where the camshaft directly controls the opening and closing of the valves. The scooter is four-stroke, which means the pistons take four strokes to complete an engine cycle.

  The engine is cooled using a forced air system and the lubrication is via a wet sump. The fuel induction is by a carburetor and the engine ignition is electronic. The scooter has electric start and a kickstart.

Fuel

• The Piaggio Fly 50 runs on unleaded gasoline and has a fuel tank of 1.9 gallons. A gallon of gasoline will carry the 220-lb. scooter 110 to 115 miles. The 2011 model is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved for U.S. emissions standards.

Performance

• The Fly 50 engine produces 11.6 horsepower at 7,750 engine revolutions per minute (rpm). The torque developed by the engine is 2.6 ft.-lbs. (3.5 Nm) at 6,500 rpm. Torque is the turning power produced by the engine. The top speed of the Fly 50 scooter is 39 miles per hour, compared to the 61 mph of the Fly 150.

Servicing

• According to Piaggio, the Fly 50 engine should be first serviced when the scooter has 625 miles on the clock, serviced again at 2,000 miles and at 2,000-mile intervals after that. The oil should also be checked and replaced if necessary every 2,000 miles.