Genuine Roughhouse off Craigs List

[pinkscoot]

So I got another Craigs list find. The 2002 Hyosung Prima has been going great and its becoming my scoot of choice running around downtown but the Morini engine is a speed bump. I decided it will stay pretty much stock so I was looking for something with a Minarelli engine to build. I have the pink scoot but with the little tires and the small frame anything over 35mph is pretty scary. So last Saturday I found this.

The truth of it was that it was a Genuine Roughhouse and the manual in the seat said Black Cat. The reality was it was a 2013, only 8000 miles on it and it had gone down hard enough to bend the handle bars and do other damage. I felt sorry for the guy and offered $200 instead of the $100 I was feeling. He took it with a smile and helped me load it on my trailer. 

In the second picture you can see the bent handle bars. One of the previous owners must have seen the 2015 Roughhouse Titanium and spray painted (badly) parts of it so it would look like one, The muffler took the biggest hit and when it got hot it melted. They also decided that the gloss black body panels weren't right and painted them flat black. It screams of stolen and spray painted black. I did go the the DMV and register it, no sirens or cops taking me away so it wasn't stolen just seriously abused. 

The PO said it ran great and just stopped running. When we tried starting the battery was dead, but being clever I had spare with me and we dropped it in and low and behold the low oil light was bright red. I looked in the tank and it was bone dry.

And of course filthy. I asked if he had been mixing the oil in the gas and I got a dumb look. At this point I thought BBK. First thing I did when I got home was stripped it back to do a compression test, I see why not many people work on these themselves it is a major PITA. I had to take the whole back half off to get the tester in. The spark plug was new and a BP7HS is what Genuine specs. Compression was 120psi cold, not great but not the problem. I then did a leak down test, after finding the muffler crack and leaking oil seals on the Pinkscoot I didn't wanted to rule that out. I didn't hear any bad noises when I turned it. I then drained the gas that was almost empty and it looked like maybe there was oil in it. I cleaned the carb and put it all back together after 5 minutes of kicking it it roared back to life and all was good. Time to start cleaning and finding new handlebars. I thought about bare bars but I think the best looking thing on the scoot is the instrument cluster. It does look like cat eyes.

Time to take my dog to get coffee, he has felt neglected. Then get out and do some more cleaning.

[larrball]

If the headlight is adjusted right and you turn on the high beam at about 10 feet away facing a wall it looks like cat eyes as well.
Good find for $200. It's built like a tank.

[Jwhood]

Sweet deal,good quality also and the stock crank can take a beating

[bluegoatwoods]

Nice find!

I don't think I've ever seen a "Genuine" product in person. But I get a very good vibe from them and I want to get to know one of them in the not-too-distant future.

I do feel bad for someone who has a 2 cycle, doesn't know what he has, and ruins it by not getting oil into that combustion chamber and crankcase. But it's the operators responsibility to know these things, of course. It's surprising that so many neglect such basic understanding of just what they've got in their hands.

But I'm really glad for you that you got a quality product at a very good price and were able to salvage it.

[pinkscoot]

I decided since I had the time off from work to go ahead do this as completely as I could so I pulled the engine to clean it and since the handlebars were coming off any way I would strip as much of the plastics to clean them up and paint if needed. One of the PITA things with a genuine is you need to take the handlebars off to get some of the front plastics off. It took some banging and beating to make it happen, I was glad that they were already bent. I decided to go ahead and strip the paint because the paint job looked so sketchy I didn't trust it to paint over. This is the front in the process:

After spending several hours staring at it it looks like a baboon. I'm trying to decide if it will all go one color or get something to bring out the face. I'll discuss that with some of my visual art friends.

I got the engine clean and stripped of all go its paint, dirt and grease, it looks much better and my hands stay clean when I handle it.

I discovered another fun PITA thing about the Genuine, you need to pull the engine hanger bar to get to the read block. You can get the intake off but the reed block is trapped. While I had it open I inspected it and all looked good, it comes stock with fiberglass reeds. Of course the bolt pattern is not your standard pattern. 

Of course we all like seeing those naked scoot pics so here you go:

[pinkscoot]

I've got the scoot all cleaned  up and painted, I'm waiting to get this lean condition solved before I finish. Every morning I wake up and say this is the day, but like a crazy person I keep doing the same things expecting a different result.

[pinkscoot]

So I decided that I would beat my head against the wall and get back onto the Roughhouse. I started by cleaning up the mess I made using Threebond to seal the carb and intake. I had ordered an O-Ring that fit the carb and cut some gaskets. Of course you need to drop the engine to get the hanger bar out of the way:

It is very inconvenient what takes a few minutes on other scoots is a half hour on this. I also picked up a real A/F mixture screw. I put it all back together and started kicking and kicking and kicking. It didn't feel right and wouldn't start. I had fuel, I had spark so I checked compression and it was 120psi, it had been 125 and starting. I put 2T oil in the cylinder and bam it was 160psi. If you've been following when I bought this the oil tank was dry and the gas wasn't premixed. I know I should have looked at the cylinder first, its not that I'm afraid, I pulled the top end off of all of my other scoots. I was just lazy. So I pulled the cylinder off and look what I found:

The piston was seriously scored, the cylinder not so bad. Fortunately I had a new piston and rings sitting around so I honed the piston, it took some time but I think it will be fine. Tomorrow I'll put it back together and hopefully all will be good. I haven't decided to keep this scooter so no BBK kit yet. I really want to see how the Roughhouse handles. My experience on the pink scooter has me nervous about putting to much speed into a scoot that can't handle it.

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.

[190mech]

Howz the rod small and big end bearing look?Piston pin blue??Looks like that sucker got real hot!!

[pinkscoot]

The piston pin was tight and heres a shot of it:


The small and big end bearings look okay, they still feel tight. I'll look at it closer in the morning.

[pinkscoot]

So today I put the new piston in and started it up, it ran much better but I still have the lean condition. I upped the pilot jet to 40, used a fatter o-ring on the carburetor. I tightened everything down and its still there. I managed to find a setting where it wasn't bad and would idle at about 1700rpm. I took it for a ride and it was okay and would only be slow to fall to idle occasionally. I did discover the new handle bars were a little crooked so off cam the front end and i fixed that. The scoot rights nice, the CVT needs some work but it rode okay. The short wheel base and high seat make it a little twitchy but the large 10"tires and very padded seat soaked up the pot holes on my test loop. I'm thinking a new carb might be what it needs but I'm still deciding whether to invest anything else.

[pinkscoot]

So I had time this morning to put the plastic back on and take it for a ride

It did okay considering it needs new rollers the old ones are flat. I got about 4 blocks away when wham it died and wouldn't start. I of course did the walk of shame home. The whole time trying to think what the problem was. Got home and it started no problem. I think it was a soft seize. When I replaced the piston it was tight and I honed it out until it fit. I end gapped the rings. It was tight going in and I know the rings lined up with the locator pins. I think it was just to tight and got to hot. Also with all of the honing the cylinder was still not perfect. I went ahead and ordered a new 50cc cylinder and piston. I am planning on selling this. It has been a headache all along. Besides I really don't like the ride on it. I need the space in may garage.

Anyone interested in buying it?

[180°off]

How much?

[Jwhood]

Where you at pink?

[pinkscoot]

I'm in Winston-Salem, NC. I lived in Baltimore for 25 years before moving here.

[Jwhood]

What part of Baltimore?