Post by cobracross on Sept 9, 2014 13:48:44 GMT -5
Hello everyone!
I finally got my own scooter after realizing that I could be getting better mileage than my 15mpg Explorer and its last legs. I had an experience with scooters in my teen years that left me wanting a scooter. After college, I remembered that Ruckus's and other scooter are a thing and found myself a new hobby. After browsing Craigslist and a few texts later I found myself an owner of a 2001 Kymco Cobra Cross, 2T, Yellow like the lights Arizona drivers run, and not too hard to find parts for I thought.
Here's me about to start my first ride home. No plate nor helmet and insurance that didn't start to the next day but I just had to have it. I was a 30 minute ride home as the sun was setting. Had a buddy ride behind me to be safe.
Found out that I was limited to 30mph sadly, and that made for a longer ride home. Finally got it parked in the garage and snapped some more pictures once it was daytime.
Could use a little cleaning...
Minimal damage...
Rear shot...
8802...km?
One of the first things I did was derestrict the CDI, found some simple instructions on the internet. Seriously simply; unplug the green wire. At first you think 'Uplug the green wire out from what', Then you see that it was literal.
The green wire just loops from the CDI back into the CDI. It's mods like this that make me happy.
At this point, I also took the time to check is my variator was restricted via the drive boss... or whatever name it's called by for your bike. Well, I tried to take the time but I found that they really mean that you need a impact wrench to remove the variator nut. Ordered one because I thought the mph was still low after the CDI derestriction. One Auto Zone trip later I found myself the owner of a electric impact wrench because I don't have a compressor.
The interior of the CVT was coated in black, which I eventually figured out was tiny bits of belt everywhere.
Below are pictures taken later in the thread, but should probably be shown now to give you an idea of the ownership the bike had.
Just a lot worn our metal. The center is out of center.
Hard to take a picture of all the pits from being worn down by the rollers...
Here are the better three rollers.
And the couple chunks of metal disguised a something that rolls
Here is the drive boss, you can see its wear pattern, and it's groove.
Here it is compared to the new one.
And the pulley half which I'm surprised isn't more worn, but that's steel for you.
I ordered a new variator and put the stock variator back on and maybe drove it to work a few more times. Had a little bit of confusion while ordering, and while I had excellent customer service I ultimately had them swap out the wrong variator plate but
more on that later.
One day on the ride home after work I thought I heard some weird noises and the scooter was performing a little funny. About a block from home my scooter revved up and slowed down at the same time, ultimately dying on the side of the road. Walked it the last block home in the Arizona sun to find out that my belt had shredded itself, the rubber nubs separating from belt and the belt was eaten by the clutch. Had some pictures but it seems they were eaten by the digital gremlin.
It took me a while to figure our what belt would work best at the price range I had at the time. Ended up ordering a 729-17.7-30 after reading something about a shorter length doing this or a narrower belt doing this. I figured it would work alright and it did. More on that in a second.
Variator and belt came around the same time so I dug right into the repairs. Had to find an adapter to take the clutch nut off, as there was belt chewed up through the clutch. The variator came with 2k clutch springs but I didn't feel like delving into that mess, I didn't have the tools to do it.
Here is the new variator, a jingway? that is lighter than others. I didn't expect the inner coating to last long, especially in the Arizona heat... and the CVT heat. Compare this picture to the worn picture earlier in the post.
A side comparison shot of stock and new
Variator plate comparison, the old one didn't even had sliders on it. New one is lisghtly curvier? Would have had one coated black and meant for this variator but that was my mess up with shipping mentioned earlier in the post.
Here's the problem, the new variator plate has a smaller hole
, Easily fixed by a drill and a dremel.
A side shot comparison of old vs. new
A comparison of the ramps.
See where the variator plate wore down the stock variator once the sliders broke?
Ordered it with 8gr rollers, inside of the variator plate pictured.
Pulled all of the old belt out of the clutch and mounted that back on the bike. Pictures of the belt are lost to digital gremlins, but the belt fit pretty well for having a size that I just guessed at. If I squeezed the clutch so the belt fit farther in then I could get the belt on top of the variator boss no problem. I think I felt the belt stretch a little on the first ride.
Took it out for a spin an got the bike up to 50mph! By the speedo of course, so I need to gps verify. I've had it 50+, but that was either downhill or I couldn't replicate it. Scooter seemed to be running pretty well at this time, I even gave a try at adjusting the carb mix with the external screws after watching a youtube vid done by a member here.
Got a helmet in this time too, a 3/4 retro styled ebay special. It looks comically large on my head but at least I have some protection.
Also cleaned my exhaust out with a heat gun similar to some youtube videos I found. Did a decent job but I don't think it had enough power to clean the interior of the pipe, just the tips.
Took it on my first real ride up South Mountain, the largest park in the nation within municipal limits or something like that. Here is a picture from the entrance of the park.
You can see the city in the distant background to the left. It's nice to get away because from my location you have to drive a good hour to get our of the city and suburbia, even more if you're on a scooter. South Mountain is just a few blocks away instead.
I'm really loving my scooter at this point. I'm getting a lot of looks, but I don't even care.
Here are the TV towers I ended up heading for from far behind.
Here are the TV towers from the lookout right next to it.
Move my scooter 20 yards and I have a much nicer view.
One more picture on the way back, the clouds are starting to break and it's getting hot.
As I'm getting close to the entrance my my scooter starts feeling funny.. then I hear a quick grating noise but nothing else as my bike revs freely. Electric start just spins. I call my friend at home and have him drive my Explorer out to me. Here is where I waited in the shade of a bush with my camelbag to hydrate me.
Scooter in said Explorer. Not the first time there has been a scooter in her trunk. (Previous time was a Honda Aero 80 for free of CL.. wish I appreciated it more at the time. )
Brought it home and guess what, I had failed to securely tighten by variator nut. This problem was eased by the nut backing into the casing, so the variator stayed on the driveshaft. The grinding noise I head was the variator fan blades hitting the case side. Torqued the nut back on securely and put the case back on, haven't had a problem since.
Rode it around for a while, but it was way too hot to ride it home from work so it was garaged for a bit. Decided to do some cosmetic changes and some maintenance.
First, here are the changes in the variator after a couple hundred miles, if that
The posts are worn too.
Decided to relocate my ignition coil.
Did not fit up with my battery like I hoped.
I'll just take these off
And throw this down here(in the bottom)(Joke)
Zipties! Wait, that still hits the box..
Zipties!
No more ignition coil! And evidence of the belt.
Took this picture... wait where did my taillight go?
Took a dremel to bottom flappy bit and left the plate mounts.
Also brought the turn signals in a couple inches. I'm a fan of the 'close to stock' look sometimes.
Pulled the plug because I figured I'd check it after the variator problem. But it seems that the plug is pretty new, but it had way too much oil on it. Days later I figured out that I had laid the bike down and extra oil got in the cylinder or something.
Or maybe it's just buildup.
I'm very happy with my first foray into the scooter realm. I haven't ridden the scooter much due to monsoon season, and I've been enjoying sleeping in longer when taking my car. I have a lot of plans for this bike and I'm excited to share it with this community. There is a club in the Phoenix area that I need to meet up with soon, I just want to make sure my bike can keep up with everyones finely tuned machines. Right now the top end is 50mph per the speedo, and while 0-35 is pretty decent the 35-50 take twice a long I feel. Might be the CVT? Or I could need to adjust my carb.
I'm open to feedback, and would love any suggestions for my following questions and can provide additional information if you need it:
My headlights are dim. I am currently running 25w bulbs. Are there any easy dual headlight conversions, or is there a 35w even available?
Would this high output rectifier/regulator help me provide more power for better lights, or other accessories such as gps?
Would a boost bottle help this 2t?
A BBK is obviously in the cards. I'm not looking for racing power, but more for the experience and I have a feeling the current top end isn't in good shape. Would this kit be a good or bad idea?
And to go with that BBK, I'll probably need an exhaust. I'd like to go with something that looks similar to stock, but a SP3 or even some technigas aren't too bad, but I'm look for suggestions. The cheaper the suggestion the better.
Carb: Could I get by with my current carb after I rejet and tune it? Taking the snorkel out of the airbox of course.
If you made it this far great job and thanks for reading!
This post is longer than a majority of my college writing.
I finally got my own scooter after realizing that I could be getting better mileage than my 15mpg Explorer and its last legs. I had an experience with scooters in my teen years that left me wanting a scooter. After college, I remembered that Ruckus's and other scooter are a thing and found myself a new hobby. After browsing Craigslist and a few texts later I found myself an owner of a 2001 Kymco Cobra Cross, 2T, Yellow like the lights Arizona drivers run, and not too hard to find parts for I thought.
Here's me about to start my first ride home. No plate nor helmet and insurance that didn't start to the next day but I just had to have it. I was a 30 minute ride home as the sun was setting. Had a buddy ride behind me to be safe.
Found out that I was limited to 30mph sadly, and that made for a longer ride home. Finally got it parked in the garage and snapped some more pictures once it was daytime.
Could use a little cleaning...
Minimal damage...
Rear shot...
8802...km?
One of the first things I did was derestrict the CDI, found some simple instructions on the internet. Seriously simply; unplug the green wire. At first you think 'Uplug the green wire out from what', Then you see that it was literal.
The green wire just loops from the CDI back into the CDI. It's mods like this that make me happy.
At this point, I also took the time to check is my variator was restricted via the drive boss... or whatever name it's called by for your bike. Well, I tried to take the time but I found that they really mean that you need a impact wrench to remove the variator nut. Ordered one because I thought the mph was still low after the CDI derestriction. One Auto Zone trip later I found myself the owner of a electric impact wrench because I don't have a compressor.
The interior of the CVT was coated in black, which I eventually figured out was tiny bits of belt everywhere.
Below are pictures taken later in the thread, but should probably be shown now to give you an idea of the ownership the bike had.
Just a lot worn our metal. The center is out of center.
Hard to take a picture of all the pits from being worn down by the rollers...
Here are the better three rollers.
And the couple chunks of metal disguised a something that rolls
Here is the drive boss, you can see its wear pattern, and it's groove.
Here it is compared to the new one.
And the pulley half which I'm surprised isn't more worn, but that's steel for you.
I ordered a new variator and put the stock variator back on and maybe drove it to work a few more times. Had a little bit of confusion while ordering, and while I had excellent customer service I ultimately had them swap out the wrong variator plate but
more on that later.
One day on the ride home after work I thought I heard some weird noises and the scooter was performing a little funny. About a block from home my scooter revved up and slowed down at the same time, ultimately dying on the side of the road. Walked it the last block home in the Arizona sun to find out that my belt had shredded itself, the rubber nubs separating from belt and the belt was eaten by the clutch. Had some pictures but it seems they were eaten by the digital gremlin.
It took me a while to figure our what belt would work best at the price range I had at the time. Ended up ordering a 729-17.7-30 after reading something about a shorter length doing this or a narrower belt doing this. I figured it would work alright and it did. More on that in a second.
Variator and belt came around the same time so I dug right into the repairs. Had to find an adapter to take the clutch nut off, as there was belt chewed up through the clutch. The variator came with 2k clutch springs but I didn't feel like delving into that mess, I didn't have the tools to do it.
Here is the new variator, a jingway? that is lighter than others. I didn't expect the inner coating to last long, especially in the Arizona heat... and the CVT heat. Compare this picture to the worn picture earlier in the post.
A side comparison shot of stock and new
Variator plate comparison, the old one didn't even had sliders on it. New one is lisghtly curvier? Would have had one coated black and meant for this variator but that was my mess up with shipping mentioned earlier in the post.
Here's the problem, the new variator plate has a smaller hole
, Easily fixed by a drill and a dremel.
A side shot comparison of old vs. new
A comparison of the ramps.
See where the variator plate wore down the stock variator once the sliders broke?
Ordered it with 8gr rollers, inside of the variator plate pictured.
Pulled all of the old belt out of the clutch and mounted that back on the bike. Pictures of the belt are lost to digital gremlins, but the belt fit pretty well for having a size that I just guessed at. If I squeezed the clutch so the belt fit farther in then I could get the belt on top of the variator boss no problem. I think I felt the belt stretch a little on the first ride.
Took it out for a spin an got the bike up to 50mph! By the speedo of course, so I need to gps verify. I've had it 50+, but that was either downhill or I couldn't replicate it. Scooter seemed to be running pretty well at this time, I even gave a try at adjusting the carb mix with the external screws after watching a youtube vid done by a member here.
Got a helmet in this time too, a 3/4 retro styled ebay special. It looks comically large on my head but at least I have some protection.
Also cleaned my exhaust out with a heat gun similar to some youtube videos I found. Did a decent job but I don't think it had enough power to clean the interior of the pipe, just the tips.
Took it on my first real ride up South Mountain, the largest park in the nation within municipal limits or something like that. Here is a picture from the entrance of the park.
You can see the city in the distant background to the left. It's nice to get away because from my location you have to drive a good hour to get our of the city and suburbia, even more if you're on a scooter. South Mountain is just a few blocks away instead.
I'm really loving my scooter at this point. I'm getting a lot of looks, but I don't even care.
Here are the TV towers I ended up heading for from far behind.
Here are the TV towers from the lookout right next to it.
Move my scooter 20 yards and I have a much nicer view.
One more picture on the way back, the clouds are starting to break and it's getting hot.
As I'm getting close to the entrance my my scooter starts feeling funny.. then I hear a quick grating noise but nothing else as my bike revs freely. Electric start just spins. I call my friend at home and have him drive my Explorer out to me. Here is where I waited in the shade of a bush with my camelbag to hydrate me.
Scooter in said Explorer. Not the first time there has been a scooter in her trunk. (Previous time was a Honda Aero 80 for free of CL.. wish I appreciated it more at the time. )
Brought it home and guess what, I had failed to securely tighten by variator nut. This problem was eased by the nut backing into the casing, so the variator stayed on the driveshaft. The grinding noise I head was the variator fan blades hitting the case side. Torqued the nut back on securely and put the case back on, haven't had a problem since.
Rode it around for a while, but it was way too hot to ride it home from work so it was garaged for a bit. Decided to do some cosmetic changes and some maintenance.
First, here are the changes in the variator after a couple hundred miles, if that
The posts are worn too.
Decided to relocate my ignition coil.
Did not fit up with my battery like I hoped.
I'll just take these off
And throw this down here(in the bottom)(Joke)
Zipties! Wait, that still hits the box..
Zipties!
No more ignition coil! And evidence of the belt.
Took this picture... wait where did my taillight go?
Took a dremel to bottom flappy bit and left the plate mounts.
Also brought the turn signals in a couple inches. I'm a fan of the 'close to stock' look sometimes.
Pulled the plug because I figured I'd check it after the variator problem. But it seems that the plug is pretty new, but it had way too much oil on it. Days later I figured out that I had laid the bike down and extra oil got in the cylinder or something.
Or maybe it's just buildup.
I'm very happy with my first foray into the scooter realm. I haven't ridden the scooter much due to monsoon season, and I've been enjoying sleeping in longer when taking my car. I have a lot of plans for this bike and I'm excited to share it with this community. There is a club in the Phoenix area that I need to meet up with soon, I just want to make sure my bike can keep up with everyones finely tuned machines. Right now the top end is 50mph per the speedo, and while 0-35 is pretty decent the 35-50 take twice a long I feel. Might be the CVT? Or I could need to adjust my carb.
I'm open to feedback, and would love any suggestions for my following questions and can provide additional information if you need it:
My headlights are dim. I am currently running 25w bulbs. Are there any easy dual headlight conversions, or is there a 35w even available?
Would this high output rectifier/regulator help me provide more power for better lights, or other accessories such as gps?
Would a boost bottle help this 2t?
A BBK is obviously in the cards. I'm not looking for racing power, but more for the experience and I have a feeling the current top end isn't in good shape. Would this kit be a good or bad idea?
And to go with that BBK, I'll probably need an exhaust. I'd like to go with something that looks similar to stock, but a SP3 or even some technigas aren't too bad, but I'm look for suggestions. The cheaper the suggestion the better.
Carb: Could I get by with my current carb after I rejet and tune it? Taking the snorkel out of the airbox of course.
If you made it this far great job and thanks for reading!
This post is longer than a majority of my college writing.
I pulled my bulb out when I initially tore apart my bike, it's the standard metal plate with 3 prongs for securing, I'm just glad to know that I can put a 35w in there. There are streetlights everywhere in Phoenix, but once you find the streets that aren't well lit you really notice how bad the headlights are.
