Originally Posted by
dan_vector
That's my experience with Picco's too. They break in quickly and are very fast when new but by 2-3 gallons in they drop off and become very unstable.
I believe Novarossi's are manufactured to higher quality standards, better materials and tighter tolerances (OS is probably of similar ilk as it's Japanese and the Japanese are renowned for exacting standards). Thats why a Novarossi takes a lot longer to fully break in than something like a Picco.
However the end result of the longer break in is great performance for many many gallons. So whilst a bit more expensive than a Picco I think you get more value for money. Admittedly I haven't tried Picco's latest S1 engines and those may be better, I don't know.
Novarossi went through a bit of a black period when they were messing around with the XL stroke engines but the new Mitos are gold. Certainly my experience in 20+ years of playing with these things!
This.
Also, Picco had a reputation for tunning and carb issues in my racer circle several years back. I didin't care to find out if that has been eliminated and have just bough Nova stuff for many years. The only bad part is that their support is weak. I emailed them 5 times with no response and finally called Italy last night and spoke to a cute sounding gal. She quickly helped me with replacement parts I needed on some older engines I have. My Italian and hers were different.. even though our dialects were different, we were able to understand each other very well and I was able to get what I needed.