Project TaoTao : ATM50-A1 Four-Stroke Experiences & Upgrades

[508scoot]

thanks 90gtvert gonna go get my new multi meter tomorrow and check it out. another question scooter starts up headlight low beam comes on, after a few seconds it automatically turns of and only high beam works any ideas.

[90GTVert]

That's a new one to me. Will the high beam work at first or only after it's been running a few minutes? It's normal for the headlight to come on when the scooter turns on since there's no headlight on/off switch, but I've never heard of one switching like that.

[2TDave]

I lost my hi beams last night and then my low beams. I need to find away to install quick release clips for these plastics.

[90GTVert]

Sounds like you may have a regulator issue Dave. Check your tail light bulb and see if it's still lit if it's also AC on your scoot.

[2TDave]

Thanks Brent, I had a wire come out of a connector. It seems when I get new electrical parts I put them together to test them and often times never go back an solder them in. 2 wires actually came out of their connectors, the original high beam and then the low after I started wiggling things around blindly. I had cut them pretty close to the plug when I went to the dual cateye style headlight so I just soldered them together and heat shrunk them. This will probably happen again somewhere else.

[508scoot]

Jul 5, 2014 4:09:08 GMT -5 90GTVert said:

That's a new one to me. Will the high beam work at first or only after it's been running a few minutes? It's normal for the headlight to come on when the scooter turns on since there's no headlight on/off switch, but I've never heard of one switching like that.

the hi beam will work right away the low beam just dies out after a few .

[90GTVert]

See if a new bulb works normally or if this persists. Worst case is you have a spare headlight. You could try checking voltage to the low beam side and seeing if it loses power. If it's not losing power when it goes out then it should be the bulb.

[508scoot]

so im thinking about throwing a car alternator on my scooter any opinions

[90GTVert]

Not gonna work well. You'd have to find a way to mount it and drive it and then it's gonna eat up a bunch of power and it's just not necessary. A properly functioning charging/lighting system should have no issues powering the headlight. I'm not sure that your issue is the stator so even if you went to all that effort and had tons of charging output your headlights may still act funny. Have you tried replacing the bulb yet?

[90GTVert]

I've started riding the TaoTao again. Maybe 100 miles over the previous 2-3 days. It's been leaking oil for a while from that pesky seal behind the variator.



I replaced it with a stock seal (19.8x30x5) instead of the 19mm ID seals I have been using for a while. I got the seal from Parts For Scooters since it was the last seal I recall working for more than a ride or two without any leaks. Used Permatex Ultra Grey on the outside as usual.





Dry so far, 60 or so miles later. I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time before it at least seeps though.



I hurt my back and my hip twice in the winter and summer moving and lifting big/heavy stuff alone. Even being a fairly large guy, I've always rode little bikes and scoots and it hasn't bugged me. Since my troubles over the cooler seasons, now it bothers my hip riding the TaoTao. It's alright in small doses, but I don't ride less than an hour that often unless I'm just running stickers to the post office or something. I feel like an old fart talking about hip problems, but it is what it is. Not bad enough to stop me from riding, but it discourages long rides. I thought about riding to the beach one night, which is about 6 hours minimum time on the scoot, but didn't because I wasn't so sure I'd be able to walk well after that.

So I gave up and started stripping the scooter to sell off parts. Bye bye front wheel and floorboard.






















Just kidding. I stripped it down for a little modding. Sidetracking for a moment... there's a lot of rust on this thing for a 1 year old scooter that is garage kept and was gone over during a PDI and sanded/painted where rust was forming. In it's defense to some degree, I do ride it through standing water and dirt roads on occasion.










On to the mod. I figured if I could install footpegs of some sort I could make more leg room for myself and hopefully make the ride more comfortable. Whatever method had to be cheap, so I'm using some black steel pipe that's about .840" OD with roughly 1/8" thick walls. I had one piece of it leftover from when I added pegs to the Triton years ago, just enough for one side. I'll have to get more tomorrow or Thursday to do the other side. Relatively cheap, available at hardware stores, strong.

I cut the end of the piece I had so it conformed to the frame a bit better and sanded the frame where it would go.





Then I welded on the peg, doing my best to keep it straight and level. It's about as ugly of a weld as you'll see, but it feels sturdy and I can pick the scoot up with it. The welds on my other scoot with pegs like this are atrocious as well, but I've stood on them many times. No plans to stand on these, just footrests because of where they'll be located.





This will give you an idea of the room the pegs should create. Anywhere from 3-4" lower than the floorboard. The floor also turns up just after the board that's mounted in the pic so it should move my feet forward a bit as well. I sat on it after and it's kinda hard to tell for sure without both pegs and the body work and actually riding, but I think it's going to be a noticeable improvement in comfort. I left the pipe longer than I thought I'd need, but after sitting on it with the floorboard in place at most I may cut off 2". Don't really like it sticking way out, but hopefully it'll be worth it. If it becomes a problem I'm sure some sort of folding pegs could be installed.

[2strokd]

Good idea but i would be afraid they would scrape when turning..

[90GTVert]

I think it'll be okay by the time I cut 1-2" off of the end. One day I'd like to turn this into something more like T2 without pretty much any panels, and if I could cut the floorboard frame out I could take them down so they are the same or barely wider than the panels are now.

[90GTVert]

Picked up 30" more black steel pipe so it should be enough to do this peg and 2 more in the rear if I ever make it a stripped down scoot. Hard to beat at $1.68.

[90GTVert]

Initially I tried to put some rough marks in place and hold the other peg while tacking it on. Ended up with it crooked and quickly came up with a new plan. I strapped a long piece of 1" square steel tubing to the peg I had already welded on and used washers to space it out so the frame or welds didn't keep it from being parallel with the peg.





I used a steel ruler to make sure everything was straight and tightened up the zip ties.



Then I attached the pipe that needed to be welded on the same way. This made it easy to get the new peg started. The main thing to remember with this method is that if the first side is off, the second will be off as well. My first one was off just slightly, but it's so close that I went with it.





I put a coat of paint on the bars and moved on to making the panels fit around the pegs. I used a cutoff disc at first and then a grinding stone for the final shaping. Took a little at a time when it got close till each side fit with a little room to spare.







After I reassembling the panels and front wheel, I got the scooter on the ground so I could see how much of the pegs I wanted to keep. Leaving 6" sticking out gave me enough room for the whole width of my foot to fit, so I cut each side to 6" past the panels.



Then I sanded the ends down to get rid of sharp edges. I've got pegs on another scoot so I know I will bump into them sooner or later. Then put on another coat of paint. I'd like to add grips to them so it keeps them from being scratched up and provides a slight amount of cushion.







The pegs ended up almost exactly the same width as the handlebars, 24-25".



It leans a bit farther with roughly 2" chopped off of the pegs.



I haven't rode it yet, but just to show the difference here are my knees with my feet on the floorboard. They're up against the leg shield and not far below the bars.



Sitting in the same spot, but feet on the pegs. Plenty of room.




I'm getting ready to go out for a ride and see how I like them. I'll wear the helmet cam so if they do catch the road hard at least we'll have some crash footage. For once I'm hoping for no video to share. lol At least if it does appear to be an issue I can always cut a little more off and I think they'll still be usable.

[dude]

No need for a side stand any more. LOL