Since I got the CVT good enough that I wanted to ride, I've been watching the weather. I was looking for another brutal day like the last long ride where it was about 100F. Yesterday was as hot as forecasted in any of the 5-7 day outlooks that I saw, and without threat of storms. It was about 86-87F for a high. Not the miserable heat that I was hoping for to get the toughest test of the cooling system, but plenty hot enough to show issues if they were present.
It was a day that I'd have no one around that could get me with a truck till after 5PM, but having no real charging to cover the headlight and wanting to be in the heat I would need to leave way earlier. Being 0 and 2 on successful trips to the beach and all the way home; I wasn't sure if it was my best idea but I left just before 9AM anyway. I was ready to roll by 7, but I figured the later time would let it warm up more while still giving me plenty of time before I'd have to use a headlight.
I left the battery on the charger the prior night and unhooked it about an hour and half before I left. Just before I left, I checked the battery and it was 12.94V. I was curious to see what a day of riding with just using the brake light and turn signals would do with the little NCY stator. I know it can't support my headlight, but I wondered if it could even take on such minimal and intermittent loads.
The first stretch of road is about 8 miles and I ran it 50-55MPH and temps stayed around 130-135F. It was somewhere in the 70s at that part of the day.
Just after that, I ended up sitting in traffic for a paving project. Temp was 125 when I stopped in a shady area. 6 minutes in, it made it up to 139. Then traffic started moving the other way and even the small breeze from them passing was enough that it cooled slightly to 135 by the time I could get moving. Total time stopped was 7 minutes.
I rode on and temps stayed pretty similar, warming up little as the sun got higher in the sky and ambient temps rose. I got to a town where there was a detour that stuck me on the highway for a few minutes. This is more of the reason I don't like the TaoTao so much. It can't deal with stuff like that well. Anyway, temp did get up to 154F holding a lot of throttle because of wind on the highway to keep up with the speed limit. I did see it up around 150 at other points on the way down. Always 140s to 150-ish when cruising 50+. Headwind most of the way down.
Around town at the beach the coolant temp stayed mostly in the 120s and 130s with speeds usually 25-40MPH and plenty of red lights. It was running cool enough that I hardly even paid attention to the temp gauge.
I was mostly on the lookout for other scooters. I thought that being a nicer day there would be plenty of scooter around. Wow, was I wrong. I rode around for I think 3.5 hours at the beach and only saw scooters 2-3 times and all times going the opposite direction. I turned around to go after one group and never did see them again, assuming they turned off. Unfortunately, other people actually use them to actually go places rather than riding up and down the strip for hours like me.
I took the turn to leave and head home. The same turn that I overheated at and ruined my last trip at the beach. It was a non-issue. I can't recall the exact temp, and I've got probably 200+GB of video that I'm working on transferring so I can't check that right now. I think it only got around 140 just off the top of my head. Never worried me. It was a shorter light than last time though, and easily 10-15 degrees cooler outside.
I stopped not too far off of the main strip to change batteries in my GoPros. Then I decided that I hated to give up without getting to play with even 1 scooter, so I thought I'd do 1 more lap. As soon as I got back into town, I saw an older guy on a Zuma. Gotcha! ...Or not. He rode around with traffic instead of in the bus/bike lane so I never got him at any light.
Not much later, a scoot did a U-turn to head in the same direction as me while I was at a red light. He was doing a good job of cutting through traffic, but I caught up to him before long at a light. I was trying not to be a jerk and cruise 50MPH in the bus lane like I have at times. It was a Yamaha Vino. The light turned green and any sort of competition was over immediately and I slowed down before too long and his headlight stayed in sight. I caught another red light and he pulled up right beside me. Uh oh, he wants round 2. I eased into it when the light turned green. I figured that way I could tell if he was taking off or not. I don't think he necessarily cared about a race, hard to know, but he definitely gassed it from the light so I throttled up and left. T2 has at least proven that it can beat likely stock scooters.
Pretty impressive for something with this much work in it, right? lol Hey, I have to work with the cards I'm dealt and I can't even buy a race with much beyond a piped 2T. Too many rentals and commuters. You know, normal sensible people.
That was the first and only scooter that I got to mess with all day. I was so hoping for the somewhat typical group of teens and 20s males that are out to destroy their 4T rental scoots and like to rev them at lights, but it never happened. Not that they'd do much worse than the Vino, but it's fun to see them looking at each other in the rear facing cam like "WTF just happened" as I disappear.
I did have a passenger in a black truck checking the scoot out so I took off beside the truck at a light. They did nothing. Took off beside a few other cars. Nothing. I had a Mercedes AMG of some sort go by me and I heard the exhaust. Pulled up to a light with him. Gassed it and either my belt slipped or I actually managed to very briefly slip a tire on asphalt. Felt like the latter to me, but if so I had to have got in a wet spot or something. He pulled beside me and revved it a little and then drove on. I caught a second red light with him later. Then I figured he's aware that I'm an idiot and I'm gonna take off and he revved at me earlier so maybe he'll at least keep up. I left him in the mirror and then he rolled by. I'm sticking with the story that he was afraid a scooter may get him for even 10ft off the line, even if not based on any evidence. lol
I don't really take off all of the time like I used to with the more mild builds. I don't think it's all that much faster, but it's more obvious and abrupt and I have to kinda be prepared. I like to stand up and pretend I'm just stretching my legs or adjusting my pants as I move up to the front of the seat. That way I know it's not going to pick the wheel up and I can stay in it. Don't get me wrong, it's not a beast that is uncontrollable by any means. I'm just more comfortable with the front wheel down. Sadly, I'd guess people think I'm hammering on it all of the time because it has to rev a good bit to get moving.
I finally headed home, taking that killer red light again... which was again a non-issue. I rode faster on the way home, with the wind more in my favor. Lots of time staying 3/4-WOT around 60MPH and still no temps higher than the 154 I saw on the way down, even being on the all day heat soaked pavement at the hottest part of the day. 140-150 most common cruising temp.
Halfway home I'm right next to one of the largest towns in the area, Salisbury, MD. It was afternoon and hot and I know there's some traffic, so I rode through there for more testing. Again no problems. I even got caught in a short traffic jam because of an accident. A truck towing a bunch of trash on a trailer seemed to lose a chunk of trash that hit a car. Glad my timing was different and I wasn't the one getting hit by a large object that someone couldn't be bothered to strap down.
I rode toward home and got to another town about 20 miles from me. It has a strip of red lights. Figured I'd go down the strip once, just in case I'd get lucky and find anyone to play with instead of going straight through and home as usual. As soon as I turned to the highway, there was a motorcycle behind me in the other lane. A cruiser. He sped up and went by me, turning around to look at the scoot. Then we caught a red light. I did the usual sneak up to the front of the seat and left when the light changed. I don't think he expected that at all. I cruised normally and he passed, again looking the scoot over but this time with a smile.
I turned around and went down the strip one more time with nothing interesting happening and headed home. Got home at 6:30PM for a total of just over 9.5 hours of riding without any breaks longer than 5-10 minutes to change camera batteries and get gas and such. Total distance was 241.7 miles. Average fuel economy of 37.1MPG on a tune that's still so rich that my plugs are dark and/or partially washed. I haven't leaned it out because it still runs pretty well and I feel safe with it like that. In town it averaged 41.4MPG. Cruising 50-60MPH averaged 34.3MPG. 4T enthusiasts; if you're chuckling at my MPG I've got a 2T smoke cloud ready to brew just for you. Find me at a red light anytime you want to claim it.
The fan never came on once. It was 20+ degrees from the switch activating and I never felt any need to turn it on so I left it off. I don't think swapping the radiator hoses the proper way did that much for me as far as max temps. As said, I saw 150-154F at times on an 87 degree day running it hard. On the 100 degree day, 161F was as hot as I remember it getting when not failing. I didn't really have trouble with temps at any light but the one on the really hot day either. It's certainly good to keep the hoses so they're making the most efficient use of the radiators, but not a game changer. I suppose if it were such a dramatic difference, it would mean the dual radiator setups with inlet and outlet on the bottom would have more trouble too and the users of those aren't complaining.
I suppose you could come to the conclusion that the fan is not necessary, but I think my first experience tells a different story. It's more expense and more complicated, but I don't really think I want a liquid cooled setup without a fan. Inevitably I will get stuck in traffic for a long time on another hot day and it puts my mind at ease that I can just flip a switch and I should be fine or I can let the temp switch deal with it automatically.
I checked battery voltage when I got home and it was 12.57V. Down 0.37V from the start of the day. I never used my headlight. Fan never on for even a second. The only load should have been from LED turn signals and the LED brake light. I'm certainly not impressed with the charging power of the NCY stator. I'd call it damn near useless as setup and I think I'd be in trouble if I needed a headlight for long at all. I'll give it a try and check voltages again in the daytime on a shorter ride though. Can't see how it won't fail. I recall reading about charging system capacity tests for other vehicles and basically you'd charge up the battery and then run the vehicle while monitoring voltage. You'd add electrical load and at dropping to 12.8V you stop adding load. If checked with an ammeter, you could see how much load the system could take before voltage was too low for battery maintenance. This assumes a good charging system runs 14-14.5V without load or standard load. The NCY wouldn't even hit 12.8V with nothing turned on when I checked to see if it was charging at all in the past. It went up 0.07V beyond resting battery voltage at that time, which was 12.5V. I think the NCY stator is best if you leave it with a half wave rectifier and let the lights flicker and be really dim at low revs. At least it will give you usable lights all day that way. Not really sure why it does so little when used with a full wave rectifier having it's ground floated.
Now the one thing that really annoyed me all day... the CVT. I do not like cruising much below 50MPH. It sucked in town. As I've mentioned before, the CVT has a very engaged feeling now. When I'm at speeds that I'm cruising and it's not really on the pipe, I get this vibration that carries through the scoot. It was making my centerstand/pipe make weird noises and my CVT cover as well. I wasn't using all bolts in the CVT cover. Never put them all back after tuning runs. Putting all of the bolts in and finding a way to stop the stand before hitting the pipe could cure those things, but they aren't the real issue. I need to figure out why it's like this.
Could be related to the slightly lower travel of this rear pulley. Other thought was maybe there's some slip happening with the standard pulley and the drilled aluminum pulley actually does what it claims and increases belt traction? I'm leaning more toward travel differences. I suppose it's possible that a racer could want a CVT that does this. Not really useful for drags, but you should get engine braking when you let off for road racing. Given the lack of care in making sure the grooves can get full travel, I'm really wondering if this wasn't largely a quick way to earn a buck while addressing some people having welds fail on the steel torque drivers without extensive research. Whatever the case may be, I'd like to figure something out.
At some point I'll try to find a couple of clips from the first beach ride with the steel pulley and this one. That will tell me if it's all in my head and maybe let you see/hear it. It would translate best by feel. It's a strong vibration at times. I'd say it could just be a balance issue somewhere (has been there the whole time so at least it's not from my work on the rear pulley), but that wouldn't explain the engaged feeling.
Hope you enjoyed reading the novel I just wrote. Even with the CVT stuff and no real charging, being able to finally take this thing for a long ride and make it home with good temps all the way was nice. This may or may not be an accurate representation of me after getting off of the scoot.
Pretty impressive for something with this much work in it, right? lol Hey, I have to work with the cards I'm dealt and I can't even buy a race with much beyond a piped 2T. Too many rentals and commuters. You know, normal sensible people.
