This is what it looks like mounted in place of my previous speedometer. Having some issues with the hall-to-speed conversion but I think it will just take some grunt work to get right. In the meantime, it was practically plug and play: I just had to modify a single wire and it all worked. I love how "readable" it is. So far so good.
One caveat for those considering this speedometer (or any other AliExpress speedometer as near as I can tell) -- I'm not happy with how weak the LEDs are in bright sunlight. i.e. It is difficult to read the dash compared to my iPhone which is very readable even in bright sunlight. Hoping there is a way to brighten this puppy. Otherwise, I may keep looking.
How hard would it be to use an old used phone or tablet, or even better - an e-reader that is designed specifically to be readable in daylight? Might there be some ready-made apps that would facilitate creating a dashboard and interpreting your inputs?
Well the PowerVelocity app on my iPhone was superb -- only it didn't have turn signals nor high beams. Sadly, the PowerVelocity bluetooth module fried and no longer works. This will suffice for the time being.
240V power is now available from my house to my bike thanks to a 50' 240V 30A extension cord I fabricated. Just waiting on the Level 2 charger from AliExpress, which I will mount hidden underneath the flat part of seat storage.
Little details make all the difference. I needed a place to store a mini tire repair/air compressor kit and I didn't want to just have it banging around under the seat. So I thought it might be cool to see if I could fashion something to make the kit hide up under the crown of the seat. With some mini bungee cords and a bit of drilling some holes I got my wish.
An "e-reader" (e-ink type thing) device would be an interesting challenge, but could be sort of great as a compound device on an "errand" scooter/bike type build. Of course you'd have to figure out how to get an arduino (or RasPI) to talk to something similar to what reMarkable uses for their device, but how cool would it be to be able to jot down some quick thoughts in the middle of your ride? More realistically, arduino based speedo (could even have analog clocks if you wanted) projects are all over the net, but getting more additional functionality would probably get more complex.
I had to give up on the previous cheap dashboard as I was never able to get the speedometer part to work properly and it was too weak to see in bright sunlight. So I ordered a "better" one from QSmotors (model CT-22). While not "plug and play" like the previous speedo the installation went smoothly, requiring some new circuits to be added and all the connector pins swapped from female to male. Less simple was figuring out how to program it from the supplied Chinglish documentation. But I persevered. Some more tweaks needed here and there but it is serviceable for now. I must say, I like the looks. Would great if the background color were either black or dark red, but it is what it is. And a huge improvement over the stock dash that came with the bike.
Score! Just picked up this cold-weather riding jacket on Craigslist for $30. Gonna wear it tomorrow for a ride with other motorcyclists to raise money for kids with cancer.
Went for a 30mi run with "the big boys" today. A fairly big event south of Boston with Police escort through five towns. About 300 bikes all told. The cause was to raise money for kids with cancer (see Magical Moon Foundation: https://www.magicalmoon.org). Here's a pix of my little electric scooter in a sea of noisy smelly Harley's, Honda's, Yamaha's, Kawasaki's, choppers, etc. I had no problem keeping up either.
I really hate the crummy front forks that came with the bike -- typical harsh cheap stuff from you-know-where. The rear suspension, however, is now well-behaved having been upgraded. But the front forks are more-often-than-not quite jarring. So call me crazy, but one of my winter projects will be to install and customize a trailing arm front suspension borrowed from a 1987 Honda Elite CH250. Even though the CH250 only had drum brakes I'm pretty sure this puppy should align up with my existing 220mm disk rotor without too much trouble. But like most things, it's all in the details. Naturally I'll upgrade to nitrogen shocks and an upgraded AliExpress brake caliper at the same time. Crossing my fingers that it will be worth it and won't involve any serious hacking, particularly to the headset. A used front suspension assembly has been ordered via eBay and should arrive in a week. I'll start by de-rusting it, grinding off unnecessary attachment points, and cleaning up the welds. Then I'll proceed from there. Current front suspension: Proposed trailing arm front suspension (sketch):
For those wondering why all the hassle, the following diagram from Honda explains the mechanics of the "anti-dive torque link" feature of this form of trailing link suspension:
Interesting project. I susupect you'll be limited to puny shocks and coil springs in order to clear the upper links, unless you replace the links with something that will clear. They don't look all that heavily loaded but the left one does take all your braking load (actually a multiple of the load at the contact patch), so pay attention there. It also looks like there's limited travel. But also maybe amenable to adding some more. Could be worth mounting some shocks with no springs to see what you're dealing with and what you can get. Note that the anti-dive effect depends on the angle of the upper link to the fork.
Well, some folks have done this using a very similar setup from a CN250: My hope is that there will be plenty of options in shocks available to me. So far YSS & Bitubo shocks look promising. The question is how to get them here Stateside.
The used CH250 front fork arrived care of eBay. A bit rusty, but nothing a good cleaning won't fix. The quality of Honda's steel and welds is so much better than the Chinese equivalent. This should likely be a big improvement in safety and comfort. However, one issue revealed itself -- the length of the CH250 stem is much longer than the Chinese one on my bike. Gonna need to figure this out. There are many options from shortening the CH250 stem, to welding the GY6 top half to the CH250 bottom, to getting creative with how the CH250 stem mounts at the top -- perhaps machining a custom spacer or something. Much to mull about. In the meantime, I've got my winter project lined up. Gonna be fun!
I had a Zuma 125 for a few years. Why not use upgraded Zuma forks? Seems like a long climb for a short slide...? https://www.rcscooters.com/product-page/gjms-shocks
Oh, for a bunch of reasons: Stock Yamaha Zuma 125 shocks are only a bit better (if that) than what I currently have -- in fact, mine are direct Chinese clones of the Zuma forks so are mechanically nearly identical. Decent Taiwanese 33mm/285mm upgrade shocks for my bike are not cheap -- ranging from $300-$600 or more The shocks you linked to are too short for my bike I was able to pick up the CH250 front forks for just $89 and there are plenty of inexpensive replacement parts Where is the fun in bolting on replacement shocks? (I prefer challenges!) Trailing Link suspensions look wicked cool A Trailing Link suspension is likely to be more comfortable over potholes than even the best hydraulic fork available for this bike. YMMV Michael