The perfect bowden cable for Vespa & Lambretta
Acceleration, brakes, gears and clutch – these features of your classic scooter are being used with the help of cables.
Maintenance of, care for and choice of material of these obviously simple parts is decisive.
We therefore included high quality BGM PRO cable sets for your classic scooter in our program.
Exchanging the old cables with a BGM cable set will be a long-term solution for flawless running and smooth operation of your scooter.
Even better than OEM quality
BGM cable sets have the same dimensions as the originals for various vehicles.
Fitting cable lengths and fitting, safely tightened cable ends stand for an easy assembly and long-term operation.
The front brake cable and the clutch cable have been designed with the so-called pear shape terminal. This design enables the inner cable to move according to any strain. Of course you can also buy an adaptor that fits the pear shape terminals.
Piaggio sadly offers rather bad quality in this sector. Please check out this comparison:
The nipple has extreme cast burrs and does neither really fit the cable by Piaggio nor the original cable barrel by Piaggio. 
A simple assembly of the Piaggio material is impossible, you will need to work hard with a file or hand mill. The abscess-like cable end won’t fit the brake lever.
Perfection and love for details
When designing the BGM cable sets, we have been focusing on these and other details. We still work on our scooters ourselves and just like you, we are annoyed by bad and expensive “original parts” that can only be used after intensive care.
The adaptors of the BGM cables turn a stress free assembly into reality. The pear shape terminal perfectly fits – as you can see – in the small space of the Rally and V50 lever. 
Advice: Use some grease
Please don’t forget to grease the nipple before assembly, in order to have it turn smoothly when the lever is used.
The consequence of a non-greased nipple is too much friction and it won’t turn properly, which causes the inner cable to bend with each use of the lever.
Just count the number of times you use your clutch during daily commuting. Even the best inner cable will quit the job after a rather small amount of such bends – and this will most probably be at night on an empty country road….
Info: Movement of the cable nipple
In order to make our statement clearer, we opened a gear change twist grip and marked nipple and lever. The mark shows how much the nipple turns with the use of the clutch lever. If the movement of the nipple is impossible, the inner cable will be bent.
You will need to react, if your cables look like this!
Old, original cables were of simple design. If the thin, outer sheath has become brittle over the years, water and dirt will easily get to the soul of the cable.
This will harm the smooth movement of the cables. Dirt and water are reasons for high friction of cables. Water will cause the cables to rust from the inside to the outside and will soon lead to breaks.
A guide of PTFE at the inner side of the sheath of BGM cable sets enhances smooth movements of cables.
The thin PTFE guide also prevents damage to the inner cable by water or dirt, might the sheath be damaged. 
BGM PRO cables with PTFE
Simplified: the material PTFE is self-lubricating. A mechanic contact, here the moving inner cable, loosens fibres of the PTFE, which cause a kind of ball bearing effect, so that the cable can be moved with less friction. A little test impressively demonstrates the smoothness of the movement.
Take the new cable and form a spiral. In case of a cable without PTFE, you will no longer be able to move the inner cable. The radius of the sheath will drastically increase friction, which blocks the inner cable. Once you straighten the cable, you will be able to move the inner cable again.
In case of a cable with PTFE guide, you will even be able to easily move the cable in the spiral.
The PTFE interior of the BGM cable sets are surrounded by a stable bowden cable of flat steel.
Cheap versions of the sheath by other manufacturers, using simple wire for the bowden cable, tend to be compressed like a screw spring or concertina, when being used.
This effect leads to imprecise changes of gears and operation of the clutch. Cheap cables dramatically enhance the feeling of “nothing happens” when braking and give a washy feeling in sudden braking manoeuvres.
The sheath of the BGM cables is made of flat steel, which is very resistant to compression. Paired with the inner cable you will have precise feedback when using brakes, clutch and gears.
Cable end
Cable ends are another important detail. The cable end should always fix the sheath and shouldn’t peel off. Not even after a long, intense life.
The bowden cable is ground and placed against the ends, in order to avoid the flat steel to bore through the cable end but rather create a common surface of flat steel and cable end.
Securing the cable end is another crucial detail. The cable ends of Piaggo cables are only squeezed.
But cable ends of BGM cables are secured by two embossings and the cable end can basically only be detached by destroying the cable. 
Cable ends of no two vehicles are the same.
The most fitting example would probably be the clutch cable of the PX. From 1984, with the conversion to EFL models, the shape of the top hat bush of the clutch cable changed.
The diameter of the cable end had been decisively enlarged to grant a better guidance and bracing in the gear change twist grip. The hole in the gear change twist grip was designed accordingly. A cable of the older models would slip through the large hole in the gear change twist grip – and a new clutch cable wouldn’t fit the hole in the old gear change twist grips.
For our cable sets we have thought of everything, even the rubber sleeve at the end of the front brake cables.
This is a part, which lets your front brake cable live longer. Despite this fact, Piaggio does not supply it.
These are only four examples of details we considered for your perfect choice of components.
Available for Vespa and Lambretta models
BGM PRO cable sets are available for the following vehicles:
- BGM6460 cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa V50, V90, PV125, ET3
- BGM6450 cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa PK S
- BGM6440 cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa PK XL1
- BGM6430 cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa PK XL2
- BGM6420 cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa PX (-1984), Rally180, Rally200, Sprint150, GT125, GTR, TS125, GL150
- BGM6410N cable set -BGM PRO- Vespa PX EFL (1984-)
- BGM6400N cable set -BGM PRO- Lambretta LI, LIS, SX, TV (series 2-3)
All cables of the BGM cable sets are also available individually. When viewing the respective cable sets you will find the individual cables of the cable set in the spare parts tab.
The cable set for PK-XL2 will be supplied without the gear change cable. Do you need this special cable? Please, order it separately:
The following products are sensible add-ons:
- Cable barrel BGM – fits cable sets by BGM Pro for Vespa and Lambretta
- Trunnion – here with an inlet made of brass to prevent the inner cable of damages or fraying
- Lubricant to assemble cable ends and nipples
- Cable pliers – a great little aid e.g. for fitting the clutch cable
