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Post by sirironduke on Jul 30, 2014 22:10:38 GMT -5
Are you going to add a frame stiffener to that one ? Ive been thinking of doing it to mine, yet have only seen one A1 do it. Also i can only find one seller and its aluminium. Id be afraid of stripping it.
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Post by 2strokd on Jul 31, 2014 8:12:49 GMT -5
Looks good!
The sidestand is what i scraped on the second ride on my TaoTao. Those might not hit very easy but it would be hard convincing my head that they wont when leaning into a turn like i do.
Im sure you wont have any trouble.? Hope you like them! Grips really helped on Snoopy,s footpegs.
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Post by 90GTVert on Jul 31, 2014 8:40:28 GMT -5
Are you going to add a frame stiffener to that one ? Ive been thinking of doing it to mine, yet have only seen one A1 do it. Also i can only find one seller and its aluminium. Id be afraid of stripping it. Maybe if I get to the point of ditching the body panels. I like it on my other scoot. Check out the My Strada build thread. Dave used a kit that's not terribly expensive and he seems to be happy with. |
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Post by 90GTVert on Jul 31, 2014 9:10:48 GMT -5
Rather than just go out and lean into a turn hard last night, I went into an industrial park culdesac and rode around in circles till the peg hit. On the left side it does hit just before the center stand would. I hit the center stand fairly regularly, but that doesn't bother me till it's really hitting hard because it has some give to it. When this hits there's no give and it immediately feels like it wants to lever the scooter over. Even at low speeds I don't like that feeling. I also realized how much I favor leaning left than right. Much easier to scrape it on the left turns, even though it's basically the same angle leaning either way.  I spent the rest of the night riding around thinking about it every time I turned like 2strokd said. I'm definitely going to chop more off today. They're longer than they have to be, but I wanted to work them down rather than start off shorter than I'd like. They're as wide as the widest part of my foot, which never rests on the pegs anyway. I think I can cut off prob 2" and they'd still be usable, but don't think I'll go that far with the first cuts. Even if my foot hangs over the edge slightly it feels alight. Even cut down though, my heels are lower than the pegs the way I ride so I'd have to remember to keep my feet on the floorboard when turning aggressively. So much different than T2 being higher and narrower so I never have to worry at all. It almost feels like my feet are on the ground on the TaoTao. I can definitely say if you wanted to be more safe, folding pegs would be the way to go. At least then they'd fold, if installed properly, instead of digging in. Still gotta make sure your feet aren't on them when turning hard. I rode about 60 miles in a little over 2 hours last night and the pegs do what I hoped. Riding is a lot more comfortable (other than ATM wondering if I'm gonna hit a peg and flip lol). After riding for a while with my feet on the pegs and then putting my feet on the floorboard it feels like I'm riding a pocketbike or something. It's almost hard to believe I rode like that and it didn't bother me for a long time after feeling the difference. Very pleased with the pegs for comfort, just gotta get the length right so I don't worry about them hitting anything. Ordered a set of grips for $5 shipped. Should match the pattern of the grips on my hbars too. www.ebay.com/itm/331255776217As I was exiting that industrial park after doing circles, I saw two deer on the side of the road right at an intersection. I sped up and headed at them. They just watched till I locked up the rear brake and they left in a hurry. I like animals, but gotta teach those deer us scooterists are crazy so they should avoid us at all costs.  |
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Post by 2strokd on Jul 31, 2014 9:37:28 GMT -5
LOL, the mental image is good! I was going to suggest fold ups! Ive got a set i think if you want them? Hey, the passenger pegs on the Kymco Super8,s lock in the upright position. Activated via button that could be done with one hand easy. Thats an option as well i suppose? Thanks for sharing and testing. Ever since i crashed Skeedr from a simple wheel swap i get leery when lowering, and always check for anything that will scrape before i ride anything new. I cant have a center-stand at all  I keep mine on a hook in the shop for when i need to work on the scoot. The Michelin dual compound tires i run are not good enough for my riding style. If i lean unto a turn it washes and slides sometimes. Taking it into a lot and doing circles like you did helps keep the chicken strip down but the problem is there just isnt enough contact patch on the sidewall for me. If you look at some of the other tires/brands the tread goes pretty far into the side, or blends in much smoother. The Michelins just have an edge, a curb lol. Sorry to ramble again.. Im sure you dont even have those tires on this scoot   (puke) |
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Post by 2strokd on Jul 31, 2014 9:39:03 GMT -5
Im glad the pegs help your ride. Its a small scooter for a bigger person. When riding mine i thought of you and wondered how? Then i looked at the space i have left when i am riding and thought "i am a small man in a big world" lol  |
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Post by 90GTVert on Jul 31, 2014 13:13:29 GMT -5
I think I'm just gonna stick to the solid pegs for now, but thanks. Been working on them. The tires on mine are cheap. Kenda on the rear, stock on the front. It goes 35MPH and I pop them too much to put out for pricey rubber. I don't lean that hard. To me hitting the center stand is leaning hard. I start thinking about a 300lb man on a scooter that's I guess under 200lb and the physics behind that don't make me confident. I abuse the poor little TaoTao and certainly put it to the test, but I'll never be a racer. I'm considering more offroad style tires on the Triton that has the Michelin Pure on it. I think I could do about anything I do with those and it'd look kinda tough on a stripped scooter and I'm just curious to see how they feel. I started today by chopping off 1.5" from each peg. That looked a lot closer to where I'd need to be, but not quite. Took off another 1/8" and then another 1/8" and I think it will work now without worry... but I'm still gonna try it out somewhere away from traffic before riding as usual. Here's a look at it leaned over. The stuff piled on one side is to keep it from tipping farther over and hopefully show where it actually touches vs resting on the stand and peg.  At this point it's pretty much bottomed out on the center stand. When the stand first touches there's 1/4 - 1/2" clearance at the peg still. Things happen fast when riding though, so the time between the center stand audible warning and actually bottoming something out will probably be nearly nonexistent so I'm not just gonna dive in and cross my fingers on the first turn.  There isn't a scratch on the outermost foot-pedal part of the center stand so maybe that means I'll be alright.  I did put just a slight taper on the pegs so the bottom is shorter, but it's very slight. A big taper would help a lot for lean clearance, but the idea of a lot of taper reminds me of how bamboo chutes are turned to spears and that's not good news for shins or should it actually be crashed. The pegs seem like they're still able to be used comfortably, but a ride will tell me more about everything. |
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Post by 90GTVert on Jul 31, 2014 23:14:57 GMT -5
I rode about 50 miles tonight. The pegs are still usable cut down, but I'd rather not cut more off of them. I went to a parking lot and did a few circles. Now the center stand scuffs the ground and then the peg bites in. Close to working, but not quite. I know it takes a lot of leaning to hit the stand so I didn't worry a whole lot riding around, though spots with bumps and level changes did worry me a little.
I'm considering stiffening up the front end to see if that will make the rest of the difference needed. I've got an adjustable rear shock that's firm, but the front drops an inch or more when I sit down. Not sure if it would solve the issue or not. Could be worth a try.
While I was riding around I had a cop car start following me. I realized they were following me, so I couldn't resist turning into a neighborhood that has lots of turns and alleys that go through it. I turned at one stop sign and they sat there for longer than a normal stop. Not sure if they were trying to make it look like they weren't following me or what, but when I saw this I quickly turned and turned again. Headed back out of the neighborhood and saw them exiting a road over, but I was back to their left so I don't think they saw me right away. They went to the right. I went out to the left. Once I turned out of the neighborhood they spun around and came up behind me. Lit me up after the first turn I made. I guess they didn't wanna ride through any more neighborhoods.
2 officers got out and asked if it was my scooter. They said I was riding erratic and made no sense so they wanted to see if it's stolen. I said "I was just screwin' around". One ran my info and while he did I asked the other about expiration on the stickers. I don't think they expire, but it was a good time to ask I figured. They had no idea. They did tell me dispatch or whatever it is said there's no expiration listed so I should be good. One officer looked the scooter over and said, "I wanna ride it". I said, "Go for it." He replied, "Na." They told me there have been some scooters stolen lately so lock it up and sent me on my way. I was laughing as I pulled off because I thought they were prob gonna be mad that I was being a jerk making turns in that neighborhood. lol Both of them were nice. I will say in all of my relatively recent encounters, I've had cool or at least friendly officers.
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Post by 90GTVert on Jul 31, 2014 23:38:55 GMT -5
Here's a real quick clip that shows what I said before about the centerstand having some give and the peg not. I don't think you'll have trouble figuring out the difference in the two. Talking to myself at the end. lol
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Post by 90GTVert on Aug 2, 2014 14:52:53 GMT -5
Decided to see if I could stiffen the front suspension up real quick today. First thing I did was get a vid of the footpegs by a ruler with me sitting and standing so I could see how far the front dropped. Looks like 1". Then I started pulling off panels.  With the front off I could see the tops of the forks pretty well.  I didn't want to remove the forks. All I wanted to do was add fluid to see what that would do for me. Turning the steering left and right gave me just enough room to get at the caps on the forks.   A 10mm allen socket removes the caps (keeping a little pressure downward while loosening).  Looking down into the fork with the cap off.  Normally I've removed the forks and drained the old fluid and replaced it with 10W30 or heavier motor oil (depending what's around). This time I wanted to see what it would do just quickly adding some ATF. I'm sure it's not the preferred method for doing this. I put a funnel in the fork and filled it near the top with ATF then replaced the cap. Did the same on the opposite side. Replaced the caps and started to reassemble.   I was planning to retry the ruler test and see how much less the front dropped, but when I got to putting the wheel back on there was an issue. I noticed the wheel didn't turn very well and it was making a noise. I have heard a noise somewhere near the front on the last couple of ride. I checked and one wheel bearing seems alright, but the other is rough and makes noise. I'll have to get a couple of 6300RS bearings before I find out if the fork filling did much. |
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Post by Lucass2T on Aug 2, 2014 15:47:14 GMT -5
So annoying when you discover problems when you just solved another one. Especially when you want to try your newly added upgrades...
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Post by 90GTVert on Aug 2, 2014 15:50:27 GMT -5
True, but at least I'll get it taken care of and it's supposed to be rainy for a couple of days anyway I think.
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Post by 190mech on Aug 2, 2014 18:35:05 GMT -5
Liquid can not compress ,oil height should be checked with the springs removed and forks bottomed.Start with about 80mm from the top and go up or down in 10mm stages to get the desired ride.You are adjusting the air column with in the forks as its the progressive tuning element thats easily tunable..Waaay back in the day we installed a tire valve in the fork caps to tune MX forks easily,but the constant hammering of this type of racing would cause the oil to foam under pressure thus dampening would go south after a couple of laps..Likely do OK on a street application though..
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Post by 90GTVert on Aug 2, 2014 22:04:41 GMT -5
I know a liquid can't compress (or at least with any reasonable amount of force for our scenario), but every other scooter of mine is like this (although drained and swapped for higher viscosity). I always fill to the top or very near like this. I'm not saying it's right, but so far no fork failures or horrible rides in the last maybe 6-7 years of doing it this way. I'm not sure if there's air elsewhere in there or what, but the others work well with the little light duty forks and a big heavy duty rider. When I first tried it I was afraid I'd screw something up, but it worked so well I've never looked back. Again, I know this is not proper but I'm hoping it's a quick and easy fix like the others were. Hopefully I'm not forgetting something like I filled the others with the fork compressed. I don't think so, but it's been so many years since I've had to fill one now. If this won't budge at all, I'll remove some fluid.
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Post by 90GTVert on Aug 7, 2014 19:47:35 GMT -5
The wheel bearings came in today so I installed them tonight. Got the scoot back on the ground and I indeed had too much fluid in there. It dropped about 1/4" when I sat down, but that was coming from the rear of the scoot mostly. The front was quite solid. Maybe I filled my others with the front compressed some? I dunno now. I really didn't feel like taking the wheel off and all of that to remove some fluid so I pulled off just the front cover panel. Then I used an extension that's sorta worn on the end so it's like a mild swivel to reach the caps and remove them.  I used a syringe with clear tubing to remove a little fluid from each. This is probably how I should have filled them at first as well, but the bright side is I found the bad wheel bearing in the process.  I put it back together and on the ground and now it drops about 1/2" when I sit down, from 1" stock. Not sure it's really going to make much difference for the pegs hitting, but I do like the more solid feel so far. Haven't rode yet though. Maybe tonight. I also adjusted the rear shock stiffer because with the front moving less it feels like the back drops more. |
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I keep mine on a hook in the shop for when i need to work on the scoot. The Michelin dual compound tires i run are not good enough for my riding style. If i lean unto a turn it washes and slides sometimes. Taking it into a lot and doing circles like you did helps keep the chicken strip down but the problem is there just isnt enough contact patch on the sidewall for me. If you look at some of the other tires/brands the tread goes pretty far into the side, or blends in much smoother. The Michelins just have an edge, a curb lol. 
(puke)
