I am not one to be easily embarrassed and I am confident in my manhood so I figured I would go ahead and post up what I rode before I got my XR650L. It started life as a 2004 Honda Metropolitan. My wife and I bought a pair so we could cruise around the little college town we live in. They are not too bad for around town. They do about 38mph stock and can do 50mph with a few select mods and the right wind conditions. Of course, Like most things I own, I could not leave it stock for too long. I decided over the winter months to turn it into a proper machine that any man would be comfortable being seen on. This was the result. It got some bigger wheels, better tires, better brakes, better suspension, some new paint (obviously) and a few performance upgrade for the engine and transmission. I am still sorting out the tuning but it should go about 50 when it is all said and done. My wife's Metro will do about 47 with nothing more than some new weights in the CVT. Of course I weight abotu 120 more lbs than she does. I though after I bought my XRL that I might get rid of the Metro but I just can't bring myself to do it. It is so much less fuss to ride this down to the local beers store and gets 100mpg to boot. I might put gas in it once a month. It fun for my wife and I to cruise around town like a couple of hipsters.
I have seen some seriously cool mods from the Ruckus crowd, but never have I seen a Metro hopped up like that! I have been thinking about getting a pair of scoots for my me and the GF to play with. Metros can be had for a very good price.
Yeah the Metro's are growing on the Ruckus crowd so the prices are going up bit. A lot of the engine and suspension mods that work on the Ruckus also work on the Metro as they share a ton of parts. If you shop around you can find good deals on the Metro. My wife's had 800 miles on it and cost $1000. Mine had about 2000 miles on it and cost me $600.
Quite a makeover. Since the original Metro was discontinued, I would expect prices to go up a bit. It's a Ruckus underneath the plastic. Since you've gone this far, I'd go ahead and put a 150cc GY6 engine/trans/rear wheel in it.
That looks fantastic. Could you give us a list of those mods, specifically the wheel combos and front end? How is the sound from that megaphone exhaust? It looks long enough to not be obnoxious. Well done sir. James
I am not a fan of the GY6 engine. They are notoriously unreliable, short-lived throw-away engines in my opinion. 50mph is plenty fast for something this small. For mods I wanted to keep it useful as well as make everything work better. The front forks are a cheap set up I found online that drops the front a bit and has a brake caliper mounting point. It is mounted in a ruckus triple tree as they are a bit wider and allow for a wider front tire. The front wheel is a 12x2.5 pit bike wheel from Rad MFG mated to a Rad hub for a KTM SX65. The tire is a 120/70-12 Michelin Power Pure. The fender is an aftermarket piece for the Ruckus. I may switch back to the stock Metro fender once I have a chance to modify it to make it fit and get some paint on it. The brake disk is a 260mm Brembo/QTM rotor that I think was originally meant for a CRF450. It is clamped by a 2 piston brembo caliper from another small KTM that operated by a Brembo radial master cylinder from a 2008 (I think) yzf R6. The swingarm is the longer unit from the Ruckus. The rear wheel is a one off 3 piece wheel built from two 12 inch carbon fiber Hiper racing wheel halves attached to a 7075 aluminum center that I machined. It measures about 4.5 inches wide and is wrapped in a 130/70-12 Michelin Power Pure. In place of the stock shock is an adjustable mountain bike shock from Cane Creek. Of course I had to build spacers and adapters of all sorts to make all the above parts fit together. I had to cut and fill and raise the tail light assembly so the stretched rear and larger tire would fit fully compressed. I replaced the blinkers with some LEDs mounted in the body panels (the little dots on the side) As far as speed parts go I stuck with simple, tried and true parts. I switched to an aftermarket variator for the CVT and changed the variator weights. I am also running a Polini CVT belt. I then ditched the stock air box in favor of a K&N pod filter I also built a custom 1 inch mandrel bent stainless exhaust to which I attached a generic cafe racer style muffler. I did have to put a new baffle with some more packing in the end of the muffler to make it tolerably loud. I swapped the stock bars to a "mustache" style bar using a bunch of mountain bike stuff. I painted everything, slapped a seat cover on the stock seat and added the knee area basket and called it a day. I still need to get the tuning right as it has a sputtering issue at about 7000rpm but I will get that sorted soon enough if I could quit riding my big boy bike.
Definitely the coolest Honda Metro mod I've ever seen! I joined the forum just to comment on it! I especially like the turn signals, which I assume are LED light strips. Very classy and low-key, but how do they look lit up at night? Also, does your state not require side mirrors? I would love to see a complete parts list on that little beauty and more about the whole process. Really nicely done!
Very cool ride! I would be scared to ride the standard model but this.... no reservations. Looks like the Emgo megaphone sold in the JC Whitney catalog.
Yeah I am supposed to have mirrors just have not put them on yet. Anyway, Here is a link to a build thread I did on another forum if anyone wants to take a look. http://totalruckus.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=67296
