Blugg1 you clearly didn't read my posts very well. I already have a GS1200 so this 50cc scoot is not my day to day bike. It's a challenge! Chips
It's a very small carb. I didn't originally intend to mod it very much other than to get it running and legal. That's done - except for the hills. So I might just have to think about changing the pipe and modding the carb to match (or even replacing the carb with a meatier one). I'm changing the rollers in the variator over the Christmas break. So will see what I have to do if I don't get any results from that. Chips
Don't agree at all, this is a 5hp, 200lbs scooter, a lot more power then most, and should be fine going up any hill. It did well with me on (I was around 190lbs at the time), and was completely stock. It also did 52-53mph indicated.
It's carbed. I'll add to this post, since my speedfight came with a leovince zx pipe. I took it off because of the noise and drop in MPG figures, but it's supposed to add about 1hp and it sure made a completely stock scooter move along a lot faster. The stuffing inside lasts only a few months though.
CHIPSONFRIDAY: Oops, my bad. I failed to read that you already had a motorcycle (and a big one at that) and that you were riding the scoot for the fun and challenge. My apologies. I, too, have a scooter and do questionable things like riding it on bad dirt roads in the desert, when in fact I have a DR650 that's designed for just that. Yes, the fun and the challenge.
Same thing, had the Kawi 650R, bought the SpeedFight for around town, soon found out it was fun offroad. Found some action! <object width="960" height="720"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/Sh3Y6bz7u84?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/Sh3Y6bz7u84?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="960" height="720" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Kenda K761 and Hutchinson made an offroad tire for the Peugeot TKR (called Trekker before), not sure about the model. Just be aware NO engine breaking and no clutch = interesting ride on snow. I rode it 365 days/year. 5 year old road tires..
Thanks for the interest, support, and advice guys. Keep it coming please. Have a Merry Christmas. Chips
See if there are smaller wheels/tires for your ride. Thats probably the easiest way to reduce the gearing.
There's a lower rear for that wheel, but the cheapest 12" tire here costs more then 2 sets of rollers for the CVT so it might not be the cheapest way.
How many miles are on this bike? Depending on what engine it has you may find a nice tuning kit which has pipe, carb, tranny pieces of a known quantity. I am assuming it is the carbed version of the engine in my bike. You could build a 15hp ripper very easily with that breeding stock.
Those performance exhausts like the Leovince ZX I mentioned bump the power up usually in the last 10% of the rev range, which he will hardly even reach with the stock CVT setup. Power and torque are usually LOWER then stock with these pipes at lower revs.
..and have to rebuild it every 6 months or so, depending on how much he rides. Anything over 8-9hp is a lot.
I have to agree with this. I weigh 230ish, and have owned two 50cc scooters, an '05 Yamaha Zuma, and an '07 Honda Metropolitan. I live near some pretty steep mountains, and while both scooters would cruise along nicely at 40 mph on a level road, they came to a dead stop trying to climb. I also have a couple of 125cc scooters, and they will easily hit 55 mph on a level road, and while they will climb better than the 50cc scooters, they lug the engines badly. Rather than damage the engines, I turned around. I don't know whether they would have made it all the way to the top or not. I also have a Genuine Stella 150, and even with a 25cc advantage, it is easily the slowest of my scooters as far as top speed goes. But it will climb anything. I climbed from 1200 feet to over 8000 feet with it with no problems, including a few long steep climbs of over a mile. I did have to downshift it from 4th gear to second gear to keep the engine speed up. So it was slow going, but the engine showed no signs of distress. But here's what really gets me. I have this. It is a 1980 Puch moped, with a 2 speed automatic transmission. Not a CVT, it has 2 different speeds. It is centrifugally shifted, based on engine speed. When engine speed drops below a certain point, it downshifts. First gear is very low, about as low as first gear on a manual transmission. So while the bike is creeping along at about 10 mph up a steep hill, the engine is turning at about the same speed as it is at it's top speed of 30 mph. The engine is rated at 2 hp. It may not look like it, but this little 50cc 2 hp 2 stroke, with a top speed of 30 mph, will climb anything, while keeping the engine near redline. I have carried over 300 pounds on it, from Mesa, AZ, to Forest Lakes, AZ, a distance of about 150 miles, and a difference in altitude from 1000' to 7738' on several occasions, with no problems at all. Yes, it took all day, but it made it just fine. Now, what I get from all this, is that a CVT simply does not have a low enough gear ratio to climb well. A Yamaha 125 scooter has about 8 hp, yet a 50cc 2 hp bike will climb circles around it. This only seems to be the case with smaller scooters, and does not apply to maxi scooters. They have way more power, and possibly a wider gear ratio in the CVT as well. The last paragraph is just my opinion, based on my actual experience stated above.
A CVT transmission in a scooter is designed for efficiency in urban environments. That dog leg of the rear pulley keeps them in a higher gear to give you more economy. Find an aftermarket rear pulley half with the straight guides(usually at two different slopes for adjustment) and your transmission will be a more active component when you need to maintain more mechanical advantage.
Some very interesting comments. Thank you. I think I understand the problem with a CVT is that the lowest possible gear is when the diameter at the variator is at its smallest (rollers not 'deployed' and therefore the variator plates are apart and the rear (clutch) is at its largest diameter (plates closed). So pulling away up a hill would require the gearing to be at its lowest (first gear). The clutch torque spring would hold the rear plates together depending on its rating. The key to a hill start then would be to increase the revs into some power band without moving the rollers too much and changing up a gear. The trick is to find the balance without losing some top end 'performance'! The problem is that at some point in the rev range the rollers move out and the variator plate closes and so changes the gearing up. Am I right in thinking that the lighter the rollers the less they are likely to spin out at a given revs? If so if I lighten the rollers and increase the strength of the clutch torque spring, in theory I could achieve the low gear I need to climb the hill. But at what cost? Of course this is just my theory based on my newly acquired (and limited) knowledge of CVT.
Lighter rollers will delay the variator from closing. It can also have you exceeding the powerband for the given ratio and you will lose drive. The true way of adjusting a variator is by ramp angle alteration but this means getting a new variator. In fact, a performance variator may help your cause giving you the desired take of characteristics while still running out to the highest achievable top speed. With your stock variator you are stuck changing other parts of the transmission to focus on one characteristic while taking away another.