Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
First Scooter Ride. « Thread Started on Mar 16, 2012, 2:06pm »
Got my new Tao Tao 50cc T-3 yesterday and got my first official ride this afternoon. Wasn't very far at all, only about 2.2 miles round trip but it was the first time I actually got it on the road. I live right beside the main road and is a 45mph speed limit. Heck, until yesterday I had never even seen a scooter on this road and then coming back from the bike shop, I got behind a vespa. Anyways, after I got the scooter home, I drove it for a little bit in my yard and driveway. It has been 30 years or more since I road a bike and even back then, I only had limited experience on one so basically I feel like a noob on it but at the same time, it felt good.
So my first pullout onto the main road, I have 0 traffic heading in the direction that I am going so I am really happy about that! The road was slightly downhill and was able to get to 35ish with no problem and not at full throttle. A couple of oncoming cars but that is it. My first turn off the road was slow and uneventful. Driving through the complex where my father lives is a few speed bumps but thats it. All oncoming traffic in there pretty much waved at me as I went by. Not sure but it could have been the fact I was probably grinning from ear to ear lol. According to the chinameter I was keeping it around 25mph per the posted speed limit there. Completely uneventful trip other then me enjoying every second of it lol.
On the way back though, I did actually encounter some real world things. As I drove back through his neighborhood I found several kids who were just standing in the middle of the road talking so I had to go around them. I then got to the first hill heading back out and didn't realize just how steep it was. With my 295lb body my little 50cc could only get to around 20mph up the hill. For some reason I was expecting it to handle that a little better. After clearing that, I had one car come up behind me and pass me, no big deal as I was already over to the right side kind of expecting him to. Now I am back out at the main road getting ready to turn. Lots of traffic going the way I am heading and already like 3 cars behind me lol. So there is a clearing in the cars and I pull out. Made my first mistake right there. I went to wide and crossed over the road and didnt turn sharp enough so I actually went passed the road a little bit. so it was a super wide turn lol. It is slightly uphill back to my house and with me on it, I was running right at 30mph wot. Other then that, my turn in into my driveway made me stick my leg out but never touched the ground. Need to practice faster turning, that is for sure!
I will say the scooter off the line picks up really quickly. I can hit 30mph in probably 10 seconds. So i think that is pretty decent! There was one thing that I completely forgot about after all these years and that is the smell. When you get done, all I can smell is gas in the air. I dont think it is from my scooter just overall pollution in the air. And then I seem to smell like that for a while afterwards.
Anyways, my first 2ish miles of riding was a blast. I hope to get out some this weekend and just drive around the area!
Joined: Jul 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 5,894 Location: Mainely Scooters
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #2 on Mar 17, 2012, 3:40am »
Glad you had fun!
The fuel smell isn't normal. Sounds like it might be a tad rich. A perfectly tuned engine will give you just the slightest hint of gas. You need to adjust the A/F screw.
For going up the hills it sounds like you need lighter rollers. Maybe 2g lighter or 1g lighter sliders and you'll have much better uphill speed.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #4 on Mar 18, 2012, 10:18am »
Ok, So I got to get out and drive a little more this morning. I went to eat breakfast with a friend so I got him to pace my speed for me. On flat ground this morning, temp around 60 degrees and I let the bike run for about 1-2 minutes before leaving, According to my friend, I hit 25mph. According to my chinameter, I was doing 35mph. After we ate, we took a different way back. This had a downhill slope and according to my chinameter I was doing somewhere around 45mph and he said, at the bottom I was running around 34mph. Now, going up the other side mine said 30mph and his said around 25mph. When I hit the road back to my house which is slightly uphill, Mine was showing 30mph and he said I was doing around 25, but just as I was getting to my driveway he said I did shoot up to 29mph. So basically it looks like my chinameter is about 10mph off. the thing that got me though, was this morning at wot and only able to reach 25mph on fairly level ground. That just doesn't seem right for for this engine when others are saying they are getting 40-50mph and being as big as I am. It is brand new, so is this a waiting period for it to get broken in more? Is this more of a roller weight issue? or could my scooter actually be restricted? Any info will be helpful.
Joined: Jan 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 114 Location: Surfside Beach, S.C.
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #5 on Mar 18, 2012, 11:07am »
I'm one of those that is 300lbs and hitting the speeds you're talking about. Just to let you know, I KNOW mine is a 63cc engine, and is completely broken in and has almost 2500-3000km on it (at the very least my odo quit at 1999km) you shouldn't expect high speeds until you are through with the break in process and are running synthetic oil. Plus mine was used and whatever governors were on the scoot were pre removed for me. Congrats on the scoot purchase though! Oh and I am doing closer to fifty AFTER I installed a windshield, now I am at wot doing 48mph on flat ground with no wind after a mile or so of acceleration. Before the windshield....well the china meter read 45-50 and mine is the same as yours 10mph off, my speedo now goes to bottom of left turn signal. Good luck and ride safely.
2011 TaoTao ATM-50A1 "Secret 63", CVK carb with 95 jet de-restricted stock air box replaced fuel lines, fuel filter, drilled extra holes in bottom of stock muffler iradium plug, and windshield. 47MPH Android GPS SpeedView
timber Guest
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #6 on Mar 18, 2012, 11:47am »
I weigh about 130#, and so my experience on hills and all will differ from your 295#, the scooters weigh around 200#, so adding 295# to it is quite a bit. I'm guessing your larger body size will also be more wind resistance than my skinny body size and that will make a difference too. With my scooter I was able to accelerate up a pretty steep hill.
The little pistons in these things are small, going by the measurements on replacements shown on the web, they are like 39 mm in diameter, that's only about 1-5/8" across! I'm amazed they have as much power as they DO. On the driving, and moving over to let cars pass, from what I've read that's something you shouldn't do, or rather, I should say, don't drive normally to the far right 1/4 of the road, because it will encourage people to TRY to pass you in the same lane while trying to keep from crossing a double yellow NO PASS line.
You might want to read these tips from the motorcycle safety foundation, it's a good site to read. You'llw ant to download this pdf that is on riding scooters, lot of good info;
"You should also stay close to the center of the lane. (If you move to the far right or far left of your lane, you might give the tailgater the idea that it would be OK to pass you in your lane!"
Here is the main page, and they also have links to motorcycle and scooter safety classes, you might look into that too, it looks very good and the fee for the classes are cheap, I think the scooter class is like $45 if there's one near enough to you;
Now that you know the chinameter is off 10 mph, why don't you test out the odometer? I checked mine out and it was right on the money!
Try this map site and look up your area, and then draw a path from your driveway to somewhere that you know, with the tool set to cycling/driving in km. And then jot down your odometer when you take off, and see what it reads at the destination. I did that here with a 16.6 km trip according to my odometer, and the map plotted out route showed the distance was 16.5386 km, so that was about as close as you could ever get!
Be interesting to see how accurate your odometer is compared to mine and your obviously off speedometer. I haven't been able to check my speed yet.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #7 on Mar 18, 2012, 12:37pm »
That will be easy enough to test. My father lives 1.1 miles away from me, So the next time I go over there I will watch the odometer. I do however think it is pretty close compared to how much driving I have done so far.
I'm one of those that is 300lbs and hitting the speeds you're talking about. Just to let you know, I KNOW mine is a 63cc engine, and is completely broken in and has almost 2500-3000km on it (at the very least my odo quit at 1999km) you shouldn't expect high speeds until you are through with the break in process and are running synthetic oil. Plus mine was used and whatever governors were on the scoot were pre removed for me. Congrats on the scoot purchase though! Oh and I am doing closer to fifty AFTER I installed a windshield, now I am at wot doing 48mph on flat ground with no wind after a mile or so of acceleration. Before the windshield....well the china meter read 45-50 and mine is the same as yours 10mph off, my speedo now goes to bottom of left turn signal. Good luck and ride safely.
Well, I found the 6B stamp on my engine so I can only assume that it is the 63cc engine to. I haven't driven it very far yet, I think I only have about 8 miles on it so far, so it is no where near being broken in. I do want to get a windshield for it, I saw one for $25 online a few days ago but now I can't find it again. From my understanding, the governors have not been used the last few years on these china imports but I could be wrong on that. I just thought it was weird that when I first left this morning my top speed was 25mph but on my way back which was uphill, I topped 29mph. it seemed to open up and run better after I hit that down hill section that got me up to 34mph per my friends car behind me. BTW, other than the speed issue, I really do like the scooter. Makes me want to already go and get a 150 and get my ML permit hehe. My wife would probably kill me if I did that so soon after getting a 50cc scooter though lol. All I am really wanting out of this little one is to be able to get to 35-40 fairly quickly and if it topped out at 40, I would not mind. Just dont want to slow the traffic down to much behind me. Sounds like that may still be a possibility after I get the engine broken in though.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #10 on Mar 19, 2012, 1:40pm »
Please let me know if that helps. If so, then I may pick one up to. Should I still wait till after the break in period before doing something like that though?
Joined: Jan 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 114 Location: Surfside Beach, S.C.
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #12 on Mar 20, 2012, 1:45pm »
Having this little scoot has made me want to get a bigger one as well, I thinki would have been happy if the state had allowed me to put license plates on it, but they wouldn't let me ;-( so all that leaves me is buying another one later. I hope I can find a deal like this one. It looked brand new except somebody had laid it down, the odo read 1400km when I bought it and then quit a month later at 1999km but I have heard the mechanic I bought It from tell another customer that you can't believe the odo because of how easy they are to change out, so for all I know mine really has less or more miles on it, it ran and looked like new and was $400 cheaper then the dealers around here are selling them for new. The law around here keeps mine at 30mph, so that gets old fast but I really do miss riding my motorcycles! So I might try to buy a 150 or larger when I sell one of my cars. (I have one mini van with 50,000 miles, one car with 104,000 miles, and one conversion van with 150,000 miles, plus the 50cc, and a 150cc project scoot, and I'm the only driver.......) soi really need to sell two of the vehicles......
Oh the re jet and brand new CVK carb made a huge diffrence as well! I'm running a 95 jet, I think a 90 would be just about right.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #13 on Mar 20, 2012, 4:00pm »
I still only have limited time on my 50cc and its already making me want to go bigger to around a 150 also lol. But I am going to resist that till I have had time to enjoy this one and then decide if I should go bigger and get my ML endorsement.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #14 on Mar 21, 2012, 12:15am »
I got to get out and ride for a little bit this evening. I have about 25km on my scooter now. Now I am not sure if I just was enjoying the 70kph that I hit going down hill near the end of my ride or if something seemed off afterwards. When heading back to the house the scooter seemed to be a little slower on the same slight hill heading towards my house. Can't really tell if it is or not, I will try and get out again tomorrow and run it again but it almost felt like it was in to high of a gear when I was going up the road. I think I am going to have to order those roller weights and change mine out for lighter ones and see if that helps.
Oh and a side note to my gas smell issue. Well, I think I caused that problem. When I put gas in the tank I spilled some and cleaned it up, however I did get some on my hands which seems to have transferred over to the grips on the handle bars. Any idea what would be good to use to clean them to get the smell out? Its been several days since I filled the tank and when I am done riding, my hands still smell like gas afterwards.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #15 on Mar 22, 2012, 7:21pm »
So far with the windshield and the new spark plug, I have increased my top speed downhill by 5mph. Since my scooter is new and still currently in its break in period, how often should I stay at WOT? When riding and trying to see top speed, I am only at WOT for a couple minutes at a time.
Joined: Jul 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 5,894 Location: Mainely Scooters
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #16 on Mar 23, 2012, 12:39am »
On a 50 it shouldn't matter whether you are at WOT or not. What DOES matter is the RPMs. You do NOT want to max out the speed going downhill. That will rev it beyond its design limits possibly and that is when you get failure.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #17 on Mar 23, 2012, 1:03am »
Thanks Mainepeace! Another question, if I upjet the main jet to say around a 90, will I have to mess with the air/fuel mixture? Mine has that stupid cap over it so I can't get to it unless I try to drill it out. man, there has got to be an easier way to get that thing out of there!
Joined: Jul 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 5,894 Location: Mainely Scooters
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #18 on Mar 23, 2012, 1:06am »
Go ahead and drill it out. Takes 30 seconds with a 1/16 drill bit and a drywall screw. I doubt there will be an A/F screw in there, but you may get lucky.
A 90 will be way too rich. An 85 at most with a free flowing exhaust or air filter.
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #19 on Mar 23, 2012, 1:11am »
Any other things to do to eek out more power? I switched spark plugs, added a windshield and as soon as my 4g sliders come in, I will throw them on. Any other mods to think of that might help and are fairly cheap to do? And what do I do if the a/f screw isn't there? Buy a new carb?
Joined: Mar 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 295 Location: Charlotte NC
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #20 on Mar 26, 2012, 5:45pm »
Had my first near crash today. Driving down the flat part of the road, some idiot in an suv decided to come from the left hand side of the road, cross over the left road, the center turn lane and right smack dab into the middle of my lane. If I had not gotten over to the edge and layed on the horn, that dang driver would have drove right into me. Stupid idiots.
Joined: Jul 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 5,894 Location: Mainely Scooters
Re: First Scooter Ride. « Reply #21 on Mar 27, 2012, 3:27am »
A steel toed boot right into the passenger side door works too. Unfortunately there will always be idiots on the road. You could try wiring an air horn into the horn switch if you wanted.
The best thing to get more power is with a BBK. You could do the exhaust and upjet the carb to match to get a bit more power and a throatier sound.
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