My TaoTao post delivery inspection

[bluegoatwoods]

So far, that is.

I have no hope of improving on 90GTvert's outstanding PDI videos. of course. But maybe I can give other newbies another view of at least parts of the process.

And even if not we all do love scooter pics, right? So here we go.

My road is too small and narrow for a semi-truck. So I had to go out to the highway and meet him. But that was no big deal. The swap from his truck to my truck took no more than five minutes. Getting it off of my truck by myself took a bit of thought and very, very slow and careful technique. But I got it done without dropping the bike. So that was a success. Here it is still crated but with the cardboard removed.



You'll recall how Brent warned us to replace the stock tire valve stems. He wasn't joking. I could see that the one in front was installed badly.






I replaced it but I found that the valve stems that I'd bought don't fit my wheel very well.






The outer rubber grommet doesn't fit against my wheel and hole well at all. I don't think that this will be a huge problem since it seems as though the air seal comes from the inner grommet. That fit. If it's still holding air in the morning, then I'll regard this as good enough until I get some new valve stems.

I also should have gotten right angle valve stems. I can get a chuck and a pressure gauge on the straight ones. But it's a bit tight.

Naturally, I won't change the rear until I get something that fits better.

There's a wiring connector hanging unconnected from the front upper fairing area. I'll have to figure out what that's all about. 

[bluegoatwoods]

So far I'm not seeing any thread locker from the factory on this bike.




I torqued the front axle to 43 ft/lb (6 kg/m) and the brake caliper mounts to 23 ft/lb (3.2 kg/m). I based that, though, on the figures I got out of my Kymco service manual. The fasteners are the same size. So I feel pretty secure about this. But if anyone has comments, I'd be willing to listen.

I haven't touched the disk mounts yet since I don't have allen wrenches with a square drive. For torque wrench use. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

I didn't like the looks of the inside of the speedometer drive gear.




And then I got her up onto my workstand, preparing for the rest of the PDI.




I have the first of the body panels off now. The one the wraps around the engine. The wiring under there actually looks pretty well put together. But that's after only a brief inspection. More to come tomorrow.

[greggkinney]

beautiful!!! hope u n misses live it and we know youll get your moneys worth at the steal you got it at. is it a 1p57qmj or a 157qmj model engine?

[pinkscoot]

You're moving in the right direction. My Znen came in a crate as well and I followed Brents PDI and no problems so far.

[bluegoatwoods]

Feb 5, 2017 20:21:08 GMT -5 greggkinney said:

beautiful!!! hope u n misses live it and we know youll get your moneys worth at the steal you got it at. is it a 1p57qmj or a 157qmj model engine?

It's a 157qmj. I feel like I ought to know what the "p" means. But I"m drawing a blank.

[jackrides]

Thx for the tips. Had mine for 8 months. When I got it the steering head was loose. Quick test for that is to hold the front brake and rock it back and forth. If you hear or feel anything 'stop/go' you get the privilage of figuring out how to remove the plastic. Tightening the steering head nuts is easy, but do NOT overtighten them. If the front wheel is elevated, the front wheel should freely turn to each side; or fall to one side with a slight push.

[greggkinney]

Feb 5, 2017 21:40:55 GMT -5 bluegoatwoods said:

Feb 5, 2017 20:21:08 GMT -5 greggkinney said:

beautiful!!! hope u n misses live it and we know youll get your moneys worth at the steal you got it at. is it a 1p57qmj or a 157qmj model engine?

It's a 157qmj. I feel like I ought to know what the "p" means. But I"m drawing a blank.

im still researching but so far it seems its all in the heads. im reading that the p series has a bigger head requiring longer studs. people claim the p's are better flowing with bigger smoother ports and some say bigger valves. also the p wont accept a camover a9 due to the seat. idk yet though but i have one laying here i want to do something with. ive noticed bbks are made for one or the other and not to fit both.

[bluegoatwoods]

Feb 6, 2017 7:29:02 GMT -5 greggkinney said:

Feb 5, 2017 21:40:55 GMT -5 bluegoatwoods said:

It's a 157qmj. I feel like I ought to know what the "p" means. But I"m drawing a blank.

im still researching but so far it seems its all in the heads. im reading that the p series has a bigger head requiring longer studs. people claim the p's are better flowing with bigger smoother ports and some say bigger valves. also the p wont accept a camover a9 due to the seat. idk yet though but i have one laying here i want to do something with. ive noticed bbks are made for one or the other and not to fit both.

Yup. Now that you mention it a difference in head and valves sounds about right. 

[bluegoatwoods]

Feb 6, 2017 2:04:24 GMT -5 jackrides said:

Thx for the tips. Had mine for 8 months. When I got it the steering head was loose. Quick test for that is to hold the front brake and rock it back and forth. If you hear or feel anything 'stop/go' you get the privilage of figuring out how to remove the plastic. Tightening the steering head nuts is easy, but do NOT overtighten them. If the front wheel is elevated, the front wheel should freely turn to each side; or fall to one side with a slight push.



I'm guessing you had trouble with your head set? Thanks for the tip.

I can see my bottom head set bearing and it looks kinda dry and unlubricated. So I've already been thinking about tearing into that. I'm hoping that I won't have to disassemble it completely. Maybe if I just back things off I'll be able to squeeze some grease in there and then tighten it down.

[bluegoatwoods]

I found that my headset locknut was only finger tight. It was not as loose as this photo shows. I took the pic after I backed it off. But it certainly wasn't as tight as it should have been.




The air filter box has "TT9007" stamped on it. Is this a part # for replacement filter when I need it? That would be handy.




The Taotao manual that came with this bike talks about 'oiling the wick' of the air filter. They're not really suggesting that this air filter should be oiled, are they? It seems hard to believe. It's merely pleated paper.

I went to my nearest auto parts store today. Got a replacement spark plug plus brake fluid. (It looks to me as though my front brake system is dry.)

But they disappointed me on fuel line, spark plug boot and right angle valve stems. They didn't have any of that stuff. I didn't bother going to other stores. I don't have much patience for wild goose chases.

So I came home and ordered that stuff from Amazon. My front tire was reading 35 psi both this morning and this afternoon. I won't be able to do any serious riding until that valve stem is replaced. But the new ones will arrive before I'm ready to do any real riding anyway.

So I guess I'll do fuel lines and valve stems a couple of weeks from now. That'll mean pulling the engine body cover again. But that's okay. Practice makes perfect.

I was surprised to see that the stock spark plug looks like it has some miles on it. But the color is nice. I guess this engine has been fired up and doesn't have any obvious running flaws. I don't really know since I haven't started it yet. But that might come tomorrow.

[bluegoatwoods]

There's something funny about the oil that was in the crankcase from the factory.


It doesn't look burnt and it doesn't look beat up. But notice how cloudy it is. It almost looks as though there's a bunch of dissolved chalk in it. It did seem as if there were just about 3/4 liter in there. So they got the amount right at least.

And I think they put just plain old motor oil in the rear end. It looked like (clean) motor oil and it wasn't particularly thick. So I'm definitely glad I changed both of these before starting up the bike.

Maybe you've all noticed that filling the final drive with oil is a bit difficult. The fill hole is in a bad spot and it's not very large. I found that even a 3/16" ID fuel line didn't fit in there. So I stuck a short length of bicycle brake cable sheath in the fuel line. That bit of cable sheath went into the final drive fill hole very nicely. It went in about 3/4" or so before running into something. It took a bit of time to squeeze 110 ml of that thick oil through there. But the oil got to where it was supposed to go without making a mess.




Here's my wife getting ready to go on a scooter ride. Mostly for fun. While I had to work on her new bike. Somehow it don't seem strictly fair. Oh, well.....



Then came the weather-proofing of the electrical connectors.




The dielectric grease in the connectors was no trouble, of course. But I soon figured out that I'm just a bit too clumsy to silicone the 'backs' of the connectors with any accuracy. So I did some improvising.
I got hold of some ziploc sandwich bags and, using a razor knife, I sliced off the zip and the seams along the sides. Opened up it gives a piece of plastic, a little bit more stout than Saran Wrap, measuring about 6"x8".

This wraps pretty nicely around a small handful of connectors with enough leftover on the ends for some zip-ties to hold it all in place.




I've ordered a few items from Amazon that I'll need in order to complete the PDI. New valve stems. New fuel line and filter. I suppose I'd better get a belt for that CVT. And I ordered a new carburetor. The reason for this is that I'm just going to run the stock carburetor for now. When the new one arrives I'll put that on my workbench and un-tamper proof it. When I get that done I'll swap carburetors.

At this point it was time to button that bike back up and get her out for a test drive.

First I hooked up the battery while the bike was still naked and checked that all the lights worked properly and that the engine would start. Everything was fine there. So I put the body panels back on.

This was not too puzzling. It was mildly aggravating. But practice makes perfect. This, by the way, is why I don't mind the thought of taking some or all of those body panels back off to finish the work I've started here. I figure the more I do it, the easier it'll become.

I got her all put back together just about sundown. It was getting cold by then and I had to go inside a bit and warm up.

Then my wife, my daughter and I all took turns riding it around the neighborhood a bit and I took it up to the gas station and filled it. The gas gauge seems to work okay. That's always good.

First impressions after, perhaps, ten miles of riding:

The gy6 engine certainly does vibrate more than a Honda or a Kymco engine. I'd heard that was the case and I'll testify. It's true. I'm not certain that I just hated it or anything like that. If I were to go on some kind of endurance run, then maybe it would be a problem. But after a few miles I didn't see it as any problem. My daughter talked as though it was a deal-killer for her. But she's got her heart set on a Kymco that she can't afford. So I'm not sure she was being objective about it. My wife didn't seem to mind. She acknowledged that it vibrates more than her Honda. But she also said she's perfectly willing to ride this bike.

The seat is harder and less comfortable than a Honda or Kymco, too. I didn't anticipate this. But it's not surprising. And it's not a deal killer either. If it were me, I'd simply add some padding and a seat cover. But I have the luxury of height. My wife, sister-in-law and daughters have less room to maneuver there. But my wife acts as if she won't care much about this seat one way or the other.

Daughter and SIL, by the way, are evaluating this bike because they're also determined to get a scoot. SIL was determined to buy a Lance Cali Classic this afternoon. While I was finishing up this bike they all went window shopping for scooters. SIL came back determined to buy a used Kymco Agility 125 for $1400 and some change. Quoted $1800 and some after tax, title, license. I told her that that bikes lists new at $1899 and she looked at me as though that didn't make any difference to her at all. Oh, well. I'm not going to fight her. It's not my purchase and she can do as she sees fit.

Anyway.....

I certainly like the feel of this bike on the road. Those wide 12" rims grab the road really nicely. My Kymco People 150 is a very nice bike. All except for the tires/wheels. They're narrow and 16". It just doesn't feel right on a scoot. Even with the mediocre, or worse, tires that came with this Taotao I like the road feel better than I like the road feel of my own bike. And that's even after putting brand new 4 season tires, with a grip like sandpaper, on the Kymco.

I might just have to get me a new bike. Here's one that looks pretty tempting.

www.megamotormadness.com/product/sco027-150cc-scooter

[tortoise2]

filling the final drive with oil is a bit difficult

Walmart Super Tech 80W-90 Gear Oil works fine.

Apply a small amount of pipe thread compound on the rear gearbox drain bolt threads, and torque just snug tight to avoid stripping the case threads. A plastic drinking straw extension works well on the pointed tip gear oil bottles while refilling through the top bolt port to the overflow level.

[90GTVert]

Glad to hear it's going pretty well, and thanks for posting the details and your thoughts about it vs the top tier scoots.

[bluegoatwoods]

I do like this bike. So far, anyway. Our friends at Taotao motors seem to me as though they make an admirable product.

It's possible, I suppose, that my opinion will go down if I find that one fairly minor component after another is causing us to be dead in the water repeatedly. Since they do use cheap components this is possible. But I'm also feeling fairly confident that 'knowing your bike' is the remedy to this. And I can do it. I'll keep spare bikes on hand and rotate between maintenance and active use. At prices like these, I can afford that.

And the fact that I can get the parts I need from Amazon or Scrappy Dog or others is magnificent.

Setting a few feet away from me right now, awaiting installation, is a couple of tires I ordered out of a catalog at the local Honda dealer for my wife's bike. Michelin 4 season tires, though I've forgotten the model name. But the tires in my living room look more like summer tires to me. I'm wondering if the dealer ordered the wrong tire. I'm not going to bother looking into that since I'm sure these tires are pretty good and I just want them mounted and to be done with it. That bike is soon to be our spare anyway.

And this kinda angles toward a drawback, in my opinion, of the top tier brands: you must go through the dealer for an awful lot of upkeep. You want to order the exact tire that you want? Instead of the crappy selection the dealer offers? Okay. Order away. But you need to be able to mount those tires yourself. (I'm working on that and I expect to do it just fine the next time.) Need a new starter? Go through the dealer. And there might be exceptions. But you can't count on it.

I don't want a dealer to be the gatekeeper between me and exactly what I want or need.

I'm beginning to think rather well of these cheap Chinese scoot. Bless their pointy little noses.

[greggkinney]

bluegoatwoods im glad your liking it! alot of people put tao tao down but i think they have improved q.c latley. tao taos are all you see in my area. cheap and lots of shops around here stock them. i recently bought a bn139qmb engine and the bn means its off a znen or benelli. people and dealers consider them mid teir scoots and tao tao ottom tier. guess what....i tore into the bn139qmb to see the same crank as the tao tao (dan50 stamped on both) same brand head and cylinder. got pics im gonna post to share soon. only difference was the cam. the xnen cam had xnen stamped on it and the bearings were busted. jus saying tao taos moving up or some xnen owners are not getting what they pay for.