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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 20, 2017 18:22:08 GMT -5
I tossed a "keep and modify" - if its a toy, keep it. They are tons of fun to ride and modify! I priced a boatload package of parts on amazon for about 150. That includes a 50mm big bore kit with head, A9 cam, 20mm carb, variator, clutch, and taller gears. It'll be another 150 for a good HD crank, but you can still run the package while you put aside a few bucks toward a crank later. Modding the 50 is a fun way to make a great performer out of a basic 4t bike. Keep it and toy with it, and consider adding another scooter to the garage too - yama smax machines are capable and light so thats not a bad second machine down the road if you do find you fall in love with scootin. And a 2 stroke! This is just a toy and has nothing to do with daily transportation. Spending a couple hundred on it is really not a big deal to me, but I want to make sure I spend a couple hundred on the right machine. There's no point in dumping money into it if it can't or won't work for me. I also will be riding alone most of the time and could be a long distance from my house, so having something that won't self destruct on me in the middle of nowhere is really important. Right now I'm not very confident in it so I have yet to drive it very far. I did find a incorrectly advertised 2 stroke Tao Tao for $425 about 4 hours away. It looks like it's in decent shape, but so did my $20 parts machine in the ad.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 20, 2017 9:39:59 GMT -5
That's a great site. I don't have any problem driving 4+ hours to get what I'm looking for, but it's hard to justify when a lot of sellers aren't very honest.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 20, 2017 9:23:51 GMT -5
Thanks for all of the input and ideas. I would love a 2 stroke, but finding one that's not over priced or completely beat is tough around here from what I've seen. I'm going to keep my eyes open for one, though.
It would be easy to just buy a cheap motorcycle, but that really doesn't appeal to me for some reason. I owned a old two stroke 250cc Suzuki enduro, and have ridden many street bikes and never really enjoyed it all that much. I think the same would go for a maxi-scooter. They just don't appeal to me. What does appeal to me is a sleeper that can surprise people but is fairly reliable but is able to be tinkered with.
I also don't really want to spend a few thousand on a toy right now, and that's all a scooter is for me. The summer is short where I live so it's going to sit more than it's going to be ridden.
I live in a very rural area. The closest town is about 15 miles away and has under 10k people. All the back roads around here are 35-45 mph, and there's some state highways that are 55 mph with traffic flowing around 60 mph. I don't enjoy getting passed by people because they tailgate you and take stupid risks trying to pass you since they can't stand driving under the speed limit for a minute or two. If my scooter could cruise around 45 mph, I think I would be happy with it. It would be fun to drive to work, but I start fairly early in the morning and it's a straight 20 mile ride up a state highway. I can get there on side roads, but that would probably add another 10 miles to my commute. There's also lots of deer and people who are rushing to get to work so I think I would be better off not using it to commute.
If I were to look for a two stroke scooter, are certain years and models better than others? Is there a model that would give me more seat room? I would assume models from the Japanese and Taiwan companies would be better bets. Knowing my luck, I would probably find something that is odd and replacement and performance parts would be hard to find.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 19, 2017 19:27:40 GMT -5
I got into the Carb yesterday, I only stripped one screw but will replace all of them. It was pretty bad. The jets were clean but the piece the main jet screws into had rust on it: I didn't know brass could get rusty. The atomizer it slips into is steel I think. I didn't see it but I'll dig for it on Saturday. The diaphragm was good but the accelerator pump was frozen. I got it moving so I'll hope for the best on that. There are no rebuild kits available for these Keihin CVK 30mm carbs, The guy at Scooterpartsco has a generic one but I'm not sure about it. I suspect this carb is a goner. I'll give it a cleaning anyway. There are individual parts available for CVK carbs if you can find an ATV or motorcycle that uses the same carb. That atomizer is called a needle jet and all the ones I've seen in genuine Keihin carbs have been brass. I would try cleaning the outside with some Scotchbrite and see what happens. I think I have a 32 and 34mm Keihin CVK in a box somewhere that I could compare parts for you if needed.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 19, 2017 19:08:36 GMT -5
I recently traded an old snowmobile for my 2015 139QMB Propel Zago. My scooter purchase was an off the cuff, knee jerk decision and I feel like I might have made a mistake. I've always wanted a scooter, but never have really driven one before I got this one. I didn't do any research before I got it, which honestly, is very unlike me. This scooter has about 2600 miles/km (not sure which the odometer clocks) and has been tipped before, so it has a few light scratches and the front plastic mounting tabs are broken. After buying and giving it a good look over, it was quite obvious that it has been abused. It was really slow through the midrange when I got it and putting a 1.5k set of springs in it helped it quite a bit. I also went through the CVT, carb, adjusted the valves, changed the engine and trans oil, and checked it over. My average top speed on a flat street is about 34-36 MPH on GPS.
The Zago is a cheap and basic model. It doesn't have a typical fork design, instead it has two shocks on the end of the fork. It also has cable drum brakes, which really don't perform all that well. It seems to ride alright, but I have nothing to compare it to. It's a single seat design and has a fair amount of room for me. I'm 6'4" and about 235 lbs, so I'm no lightweight. I get lots of smiles when people see me driving it so I probably look pretty comical on it.
I originally bought this to ride around on the back roads, but I think I would be limiting myself by not having something that I could safely take on 55 MPH highways for a short distance. This might be possible if I could sustain 45 MPH on flat ground, but I also don't want to sacrifice reliability for performance.
I do have my motorcycle license, so going to a larger CC bike would be easy. Instead of spending more time and money tinkering with and modifying it to gain another 10 MPH, would I be better off getting a 150 cc larger frame scooter?
My friend is also going to get one so we can ride together. He originally was going to buy a 50cc scoot, but showed me a 150cc the other day he was interested in. Unless I modify the hell out of mine, I would think it would be hard to stay with him, especially on the hills.
So this brings me back to my original question: Did I make a mistake getting the model I got? If not, would putting a 47mm BBK, A9 cam, clutching, and possible gearing get me reliable performance? Could I do this for under $250? It seems possible. Even with more speed, the brakes and suspension are still going to be crap, though.
If you think this scooter isn't a good fit for me, do you guys have suggestions for something that would work better? I don't mind buying used, but the market is not great here since I live in a very rural area.
The riding season is over here, so chances are I probably won't make any major decisions before spring.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 19, 2017 18:09:38 GMT -5
Adjusted my valves, removed my d slot air/fuel screw and cut a slot in it, tuned my carb, and ran it a few miles. Top speed: 42 on the speedo, 36 on the GPS.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 18, 2017 19:56:42 GMT -5
The one I linked doesn't go that low, but this one from Napa does. There's also other ones on ebay that do too, but with such a low pressure requirement, it probably would be a good idea to find one that's regulated or add a regulator. What carbs do these scooters have?
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 15, 2017 14:22:00 GMT -5
While I have no experience with doing this on a scooter, many carbureted UTVs use electric fuel pumps. Here's an example that would probably work on a scooter.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 14, 2017 18:38:51 GMT -5
Started to clean and organize my garage and installed a couple new used cabinets.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 14, 2017 18:34:54 GMT -5
I transferred the center stand, CDI, and inner fender guard from my parts machine, and changed my transmission oil.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 13, 2017 21:54:49 GMT -5
Sounds like your carb is still dirty and your low speed passage could be obstructed with varnish. I would pull out the pilot jet and verify that you can see through it and then thoroughly clean the related passages in the carb. Really spend some time blowing air and carb cleaner into each passage and observe where the cleaner is coming out of and note the velocity/amount. You didn't mention, but I assume you put fresh fuel in it and let the old stuff flow out of the lines?
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 13, 2017 18:58:32 GMT -5
Again, I appreciate all the hospitality! I've been reading the forum non-stop since I joined and have learned a lot from the wealth of knowledge here. I can't wait to get my machine all squared away and be able to bomb around on it in about 8 months when it warms up again!
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 13, 2017 18:53:08 GMT -5
Yeah, it was a good score. It has the center stand and inner fender I'm missing, stock CDI, and most anything else I would need in the near term to get mine back to how it should be. I think the motor is blown; the guy who sold it to me didn't know much about it other than his son ran it without the exhaust until it quit, partially disassembled the plastics and emissions stuff, and then parked it for the last 5 years. It's in pretty rough shape but the important to me parts were there.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 11, 2017 19:26:03 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies.. I missed your post yesterday. I probably won't have time until the weekend to pull my carb apart and check it out. My scale also doesn't go that high so I'll need to order one or see if I have one at work I can use. It might be a little bit until I can get an answer on what my float weighs.
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Post by RollingThunder on Oct 11, 2017 19:15:53 GMT -5
I bought a junker VIP Future Champion to use as a parts scooter for $20.
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