Post by slowscootin07 on Jun 1, 2008 13:07:56 GMT -5
Well, I picked up my new scooter a week ago Saturday and it’s sweet to say the least. It’s a 2008 SYM HD200 in a mid-shade red and I bought it from Scooterworks in Chicago. They’re a true B&M dealer that does not do Internet sales. The shop was quite busy and they specialize in higher end scooters like Kymco, SYM, Genuine and Vespa even though they'll work on anything that is on two wheels. PS They still do have one Blur 150 left. Sorry, a Scoot Dawg scooped it up 
Here’s a write-up/review that I’m going to append in time. Most notable were several things that aren’t on the SYM website or in dealer listings and descriptions of this scooter. I’m not sure why these things aren’t described better since they are a few things that would make great selling points. There are two versions of this HD, one for the US and one for overseas. The one I have and am reviewing is the US model for obvious reasons. I'm going to be as honest and forthright as possible with this review. I'm not being paid for this nor asked in anyway to do it and you can bet I'll be picky since I coughed up four G’s out the door.
Body panels: I must admit I’m not really a fan of the color red, but the finish is quite beautiful and crisp and not a fire engine red, nor a burgundy; it’s kind of in the middle and depending on the lighting looks brighter or darker. It’s not like a chameleon paint job, but it does have three distinct colors that seem to correlate to the sun’s brightness. The body panels are painted in a semi-metallic and finished off with a thick clear coat. They’re thick, fit tightly and without mismatches or rattles (yet). When idling on the side stand, the front fender shakes a tiny bit even though all the bolts are tightened. When it’s off the stand the shake is gone and there’s no problem on the center stand. (NOTE: I don’t suggest running any scooter unattended on either stand especially the side one.) I bungee cord the brakes shut if I have to do so.
The gas cap is key locked and uses the ignition key and the fill is on the rear left side beside the seat. One thing that I don’t like is the rear rack. It’s made of thick, reinforced plastic and is solid, but the capacity is 5KG’s (about 11 pounds in quick math.) A few trunks designed for the HD series are available and I would’ve hoped they came with a new bracket, otherwise a trunk and a helmet is a little over ½ the weight capacity. I’m not impressed with the storage space under the seat for sure and it’s shaped for a full-face helmet. BTW my size M full-face helmet will barely fit under the seat and that’s about it. A large size or different shaped helmet won't fit but you may be able to squish two half helmets in there.
It does have two locking helmet hooks, which are functional at best and my helmet's hook isn't long enough to use it but it can be strapped through. There's also a folding grocery bag hook that actually works quite well. At least with the lack of storage it has a two-gallon gas tank. There are access panels all over the place and nothing is so hidden that it would take hours just to get to. All tune-up/maintenance and adjustments are easily gotten to. This also includes some of the usually hard to reach things like the plug, carburetor adjustments, valves, fuel filter, water pump, oil pump etc… There is a sight glass for the coolant reserve tank, but it's a pain in the arse to get to it and the inside fairing panel has to be removed first. I have come up with a better plan and can use a flexible fill tube and a squirt bottle to get it in the reserve tank without removing the panels. This is done by going under the front of the fairing. The radiator is a different story and to fill it, the rear panel has to come off. This is also what you have to do to change the headlights and driving lights.
Instrument cluster: First off, the speedometer is in MPH and not KPH with the odometer in miles and not kilometers. There’s a mechanical service oil indicator that operates off the odometer that changes from green to red when it’s time for an oil change. You have to push to reset button with the ignition key to change it back so there's no way to accidentally reset it. This is preset to a 1000ish kilometers interval according to the manual but since the odometer is in miles, I don't know when it'll turn red---yet.
The lighting of the gauges is clear and bright with lit indicators for the hi-beams, left and right turn signals. There’s a temperature gauge, but no idiot light for it. There’s also a fuel gauge but I haven’t tested its accuracy yet. Each gauge in the cluster has it’s own bulb too. At night, everything is clearly visible. A dimmer would’ve been nice as it is a bit too bright in real darkness. City/suburb lit roads are of no bother though. It does have a LCD backlight clock that shows 24hr. time but doesn't have a timer or seconds option.
External Lighting: The turn signals have a very loud clicker that is audible at 60mph. Pushing it left or right activates the turn signal switch. To turn it off, you press it in the middle. It has a couple of weaker driving lights beside the headlight and I foresee LED’s in the near future for those. They’re not very bright, but do increase the front lighting footprint.
The headlight assembly has two adjusters for up/down and left/right changes and both adjusters are within easy access. The switch has the normal high and low beam positions and a momentary push passing option, which illuminates both filaments. The rear taillight is quite bright and the brake light bulb is 21watts. I have a modulator that I’m going to hook up to it, but I’m not going to do a headlight one. The headlight itself is a 55/60watt H4 halogen bulb and is damn bright with real nice distance at night. This scooter is lacking is a hazard flasher option, or at least I haven’t figured it out yet as the manual doesn’t mention anything of it.
Speaking of the manual, it’s pretty much inadequate, but at least the “Chinglish” is about 85% accurate. I called Carter Brothers and a real service/parts manual is being mailed to me for free. Another thing that differentiates the US model from the overseas model is absence of the all off/daylight-dim/all on switch for lighting control. That is because this one is considered a LH18W Daylight series for the US. This means that it lacks the switch to turn off the lights, as it’s mandatory to have lights on at all times in the US for two-wheeled vehicles. The turn signals are on slug "eye stalks" on the front and back for the US model and I no likely. I did find out a little secret as explained below.
There are also body-mounted turn signals that have dummy bulbs in them. The rear signals are next to the tail/brake light and are easy to replace. The front ones are inside the handlebars and the dash cluster cover has to be removed to replace them. Looking at any picture of this scooter shows that those are the turn signals. The only pictures I’ve seen of the US model are those from a few reviews and I guess I didn’t notice since they’re there anyway. When I picked it up, I thought what the heck are these eyestalks doing on here??? I later found out that the US models have them exclusively. The body-mounted (non-US model) sockets are live and tested and I want to remove the stalks and use those instead. Here's the kicker though, I can't find any amber bulbs to mount in them since the lenses are clear. They're nothing fancy, just simple bayonet mount 10 watt 12 volt bulbs, but I can't find them in amber. I've contacted the distributor in the UK since Carter Brothers (US distributor) says they can’t get them. In only a few hours, a representative of SYM UK emailed me back with a phone number of a dealer that ships parts here. This could be my portal to get the bulbs and perhaps the rear disk parts too if I want to convert it over. I’ll have to look again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the wiring for the on/dim/off switch was wired and waiting for it.
Stands: I found that the side stand is annoying regarding the lack of being able to keep it locked into the down position. It is sprung and if it’s let go before the scoot rests on it, it’ll snap back. I have a plan of sorts to remedy that and I’ll work on that later. The center stand is a piece of cake to put it onto thanks to a strong lever fulcrum. I can do it with one foot and not even having to touch the scooter itself, if only to balance it. As with most scooters, one of the brakes has to be depressed to start but it will start with either stand being used. Both the center stand and the side stand have dual springs and are quite sturdy.
Suspension: It has five position adjustable dual rear shocks and they're adjusted in seconds. The ride is phenomenal and smooth as silk at all speeds but was a little stiff for me at the highest setting. At the lowest setting I found it to be a bit mushy. Take into account that I'm 165# armored up. Mrs. Slowscootin and I went for a quick ride to test the two up handling and it would need a quick notch up on the shocks to level four or five. The factory default is three and I think I’m going to try it on level 2 see if it makes for a smoother ride--it does:) Two up is handled quite nicely and the retractable foot pegs are well placed. Acceleration suffered very little and was only real noticeable when fully stopped, then taking off. Lynn said the seat was quite comfortable for her and I found that either by myself or with her, the seating was excellent with plenty of room. Bumps are handled quite well and cornering is nice and easily controlled through leaning or upright turns.
Engine and Performance: This machine is anything but slow and it's not even broken in yet. At full throttle I was up to 60 indicated in no time. I haven’t hooked up a GPS to it yet to test the accuracy of the speedometer, but it's in the near future. I didn’t try to go faster than 60, but I know it would’ve and it didn’t seem to mind doing so as the needle was still climbing. I’ve done a battery of 0-30, 0-60 20-40, etcetera tests and have come up with an average of them. The tests are identical being done on the same road. Acceleration while cruising is quick and without lag time and the engine brake is quite effective.
Here are the results of my time trials so far. It’s obvious that I’m breaking it in hard but take into granted that these numbers may decrease once I’ve done so. So far I have about 38 miles on it and all of them have been doing so. I’m changing both the main and the gear oils and will continue to do the break in until 50 miles are reached, then and I’ll change them again. After that its business like usual.
0-30 2.8 seconds
0-50 6.8 seconds
0-60 9.1 seconds
20-40 1.6 seconds
This scooter has an electric start only and fires right up in less than of a second with the Yuasa 8ah AGM battery. The idle was a bit rough at first, but has smoothed out after these runs. I'm quite impressed with the quality of the hoses and constant tension clamps on this engine; even the front brake line is an encased stainless steel braided hose. All of the wiring is cleanly routed, bundled and crimped with weatherproof connectors. Even where the harness is routed, there are vinyl covered metal wraps mounted directly on the frame to secure them in place. There is definitely no haphazard last minute wiring attempts and I have yet to find a plastic zip tie anywhere. Everything is clean and placed intelligently instead of throwing in stuff where it fits. The carburetor is on the top and behind the engine. It’s a CVK style made by Keihin and the "K" is designated for Kawasaki according to their website. I do not yet know the bore, as I haven't gotten that deep yet. The air filter is large and is a paper element type mounted in the air box above the CVT housing. As you can see in the picture, it’s almost as big as the CVT cover too. I haven't taken it off yet, but supposedly it already has a Dr Pulley variator and clutch.
As this is a water-cooled engine, it has a radiator and cooling fan assembly. The radiator is positioned behind the headlight and has a large intake vent and two ducted exhaust vents. The temp. gauge stays by the mark just above the cool line and eventually rises to the mid-mark. It takes it about 15 minutes from cold start before the gauge gets to the ½ way mark whether you’re idling or riding, then the fan kicks on. About 2 minutes later it's back by the cool mark and the fan turns off. The fan motor itself is a metal, sealed can-type motor and it feels like it has ball bearings, but I can't confirm it one way or another. It's very quiet and unless your listening for it, you'll never even know the fan is on. The plug is an NGK cr8-e, which is a good ole fashioned $4.00 resistor plug. As stated in the body panel section, it's accessed in less than 1 minute.
Brakes: The front brake is a disc and is quite powerful, I didn't want to totally test the brakes on it as I like my new scooter and myself in one piece, but I had no choice and did give it quite the testing. It’s powerful enough to lock up if you're not careful, but it's smooth and easily controlled otherwise. I do find that I particularly like the absence of the “ABS” regulator. The rear brake is a drum on the US models while the rest of the world gets a rear disc. How nucking futs is that? Just because it is a drum doesn't mean it’s weak.
I was NOT able to lock it up at any speed on dry pavement but at full grab it does slightly drag and roll as you can hear it but it won’t lock up. Some people may think that that is a bad thing, but to me it isn’t. I would prefer a rear disk but this one is adequate. One great overlooked advantage about drum brakes is that they are easily adjusted for adverse road conditions. Let’s just say it’s rained, all you have to do is to back off the adjuster to compensate for the conditions. Your handle will seem soft, but an emergency braking will give you the maximum effort it can give without locking up. Call it manual ABS if you will. A panic stop using the full rear drum and front makes for a fast controlled stop. I tested all kinds of speed stops and honestly, some of them scared the schnitz out of me. I was wearing full body armor and a helmet but I still had a sense I was doing something stupid by testing emergency braking. Well, I’m still alive and I’d rather find out what it can do now instead of finding out when it was too late. Of course disk brakes are better, but drum brakes don’t fade out like their counterparts when they get hot.
Phew, I think this will be a good first installment. Please feel free to ask questions. The bottom line is that even though it has a few quirks, I’m quite impressed and this is a sweet machine. I have named it Fire Drake.
So I don’t hog up bandwidth or space here, I’ve posted the pictures on my site. I’ll be adding more there when I take them. Meanwhile enjoy because I sure am.
www.jeffs-hotsauces.com/firedrakehome.htm
Here’s a write-up/review that I’m going to append in time. Most notable were several things that aren’t on the SYM website or in dealer listings and descriptions of this scooter. I’m not sure why these things aren’t described better since they are a few things that would make great selling points. There are two versions of this HD, one for the US and one for overseas. The one I have and am reviewing is the US model for obvious reasons. I'm going to be as honest and forthright as possible with this review. I'm not being paid for this nor asked in anyway to do it and you can bet I'll be picky since I coughed up four G’s out the door.
Body panels: I must admit I’m not really a fan of the color red, but the finish is quite beautiful and crisp and not a fire engine red, nor a burgundy; it’s kind of in the middle and depending on the lighting looks brighter or darker. It’s not like a chameleon paint job, but it does have three distinct colors that seem to correlate to the sun’s brightness. The body panels are painted in a semi-metallic and finished off with a thick clear coat. They’re thick, fit tightly and without mismatches or rattles (yet). When idling on the side stand, the front fender shakes a tiny bit even though all the bolts are tightened. When it’s off the stand the shake is gone and there’s no problem on the center stand. (NOTE: I don’t suggest running any scooter unattended on either stand especially the side one.) I bungee cord the brakes shut if I have to do so.
The gas cap is key locked and uses the ignition key and the fill is on the rear left side beside the seat. One thing that I don’t like is the rear rack. It’s made of thick, reinforced plastic and is solid, but the capacity is 5KG’s (about 11 pounds in quick math.) A few trunks designed for the HD series are available and I would’ve hoped they came with a new bracket, otherwise a trunk and a helmet is a little over ½ the weight capacity. I’m not impressed with the storage space under the seat for sure and it’s shaped for a full-face helmet. BTW my size M full-face helmet will barely fit under the seat and that’s about it. A large size or different shaped helmet won't fit but you may be able to squish two half helmets in there.
It does have two locking helmet hooks, which are functional at best and my helmet's hook isn't long enough to use it but it can be strapped through. There's also a folding grocery bag hook that actually works quite well. At least with the lack of storage it has a two-gallon gas tank. There are access panels all over the place and nothing is so hidden that it would take hours just to get to. All tune-up/maintenance and adjustments are easily gotten to. This also includes some of the usually hard to reach things like the plug, carburetor adjustments, valves, fuel filter, water pump, oil pump etc… There is a sight glass for the coolant reserve tank, but it's a pain in the arse to get to it and the inside fairing panel has to be removed first. I have come up with a better plan and can use a flexible fill tube and a squirt bottle to get it in the reserve tank without removing the panels. This is done by going under the front of the fairing. The radiator is a different story and to fill it, the rear panel has to come off. This is also what you have to do to change the headlights and driving lights.
Instrument cluster: First off, the speedometer is in MPH and not KPH with the odometer in miles and not kilometers. There’s a mechanical service oil indicator that operates off the odometer that changes from green to red when it’s time for an oil change. You have to push to reset button with the ignition key to change it back so there's no way to accidentally reset it. This is preset to a 1000ish kilometers interval according to the manual but since the odometer is in miles, I don't know when it'll turn red---yet.
The lighting of the gauges is clear and bright with lit indicators for the hi-beams, left and right turn signals. There’s a temperature gauge, but no idiot light for it. There’s also a fuel gauge but I haven’t tested its accuracy yet. Each gauge in the cluster has it’s own bulb too. At night, everything is clearly visible. A dimmer would’ve been nice as it is a bit too bright in real darkness. City/suburb lit roads are of no bother though. It does have a LCD backlight clock that shows 24hr. time but doesn't have a timer or seconds option.
External Lighting: The turn signals have a very loud clicker that is audible at 60mph. Pushing it left or right activates the turn signal switch. To turn it off, you press it in the middle. It has a couple of weaker driving lights beside the headlight and I foresee LED’s in the near future for those. They’re not very bright, but do increase the front lighting footprint.
The headlight assembly has two adjusters for up/down and left/right changes and both adjusters are within easy access. The switch has the normal high and low beam positions and a momentary push passing option, which illuminates both filaments. The rear taillight is quite bright and the brake light bulb is 21watts. I have a modulator that I’m going to hook up to it, but I’m not going to do a headlight one. The headlight itself is a 55/60watt H4 halogen bulb and is damn bright with real nice distance at night. This scooter is lacking is a hazard flasher option, or at least I haven’t figured it out yet as the manual doesn’t mention anything of it.
Speaking of the manual, it’s pretty much inadequate, but at least the “Chinglish” is about 85% accurate. I called Carter Brothers and a real service/parts manual is being mailed to me for free. Another thing that differentiates the US model from the overseas model is absence of the all off/daylight-dim/all on switch for lighting control. That is because this one is considered a LH18W Daylight series for the US. This means that it lacks the switch to turn off the lights, as it’s mandatory to have lights on at all times in the US for two-wheeled vehicles. The turn signals are on slug "eye stalks" on the front and back for the US model and I no likely. I did find out a little secret as explained below.
There are also body-mounted turn signals that have dummy bulbs in them. The rear signals are next to the tail/brake light and are easy to replace. The front ones are inside the handlebars and the dash cluster cover has to be removed to replace them. Looking at any picture of this scooter shows that those are the turn signals. The only pictures I’ve seen of the US model are those from a few reviews and I guess I didn’t notice since they’re there anyway. When I picked it up, I thought what the heck are these eyestalks doing on here??? I later found out that the US models have them exclusively. The body-mounted (non-US model) sockets are live and tested and I want to remove the stalks and use those instead. Here's the kicker though, I can't find any amber bulbs to mount in them since the lenses are clear. They're nothing fancy, just simple bayonet mount 10 watt 12 volt bulbs, but I can't find them in amber. I've contacted the distributor in the UK since Carter Brothers (US distributor) says they can’t get them. In only a few hours, a representative of SYM UK emailed me back with a phone number of a dealer that ships parts here. This could be my portal to get the bulbs and perhaps the rear disk parts too if I want to convert it over. I’ll have to look again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the wiring for the on/dim/off switch was wired and waiting for it.
Stands: I found that the side stand is annoying regarding the lack of being able to keep it locked into the down position. It is sprung and if it’s let go before the scoot rests on it, it’ll snap back. I have a plan of sorts to remedy that and I’ll work on that later. The center stand is a piece of cake to put it onto thanks to a strong lever fulcrum. I can do it with one foot and not even having to touch the scooter itself, if only to balance it. As with most scooters, one of the brakes has to be depressed to start but it will start with either stand being used. Both the center stand and the side stand have dual springs and are quite sturdy.
Suspension: It has five position adjustable dual rear shocks and they're adjusted in seconds. The ride is phenomenal and smooth as silk at all speeds but was a little stiff for me at the highest setting. At the lowest setting I found it to be a bit mushy. Take into account that I'm 165# armored up. Mrs. Slowscootin and I went for a quick ride to test the two up handling and it would need a quick notch up on the shocks to level four or five. The factory default is three and I think I’m going to try it on level 2 see if it makes for a smoother ride--it does:) Two up is handled quite nicely and the retractable foot pegs are well placed. Acceleration suffered very little and was only real noticeable when fully stopped, then taking off. Lynn said the seat was quite comfortable for her and I found that either by myself or with her, the seating was excellent with plenty of room. Bumps are handled quite well and cornering is nice and easily controlled through leaning or upright turns.
Engine and Performance: This machine is anything but slow and it's not even broken in yet. At full throttle I was up to 60 indicated in no time. I haven’t hooked up a GPS to it yet to test the accuracy of the speedometer, but it's in the near future. I didn’t try to go faster than 60, but I know it would’ve and it didn’t seem to mind doing so as the needle was still climbing. I’ve done a battery of 0-30, 0-60 20-40, etcetera tests and have come up with an average of them. The tests are identical being done on the same road. Acceleration while cruising is quick and without lag time and the engine brake is quite effective.
Here are the results of my time trials so far. It’s obvious that I’m breaking it in hard but take into granted that these numbers may decrease once I’ve done so. So far I have about 38 miles on it and all of them have been doing so. I’m changing both the main and the gear oils and will continue to do the break in until 50 miles are reached, then and I’ll change them again. After that its business like usual.
0-30 2.8 seconds
0-50 6.8 seconds
0-60 9.1 seconds
20-40 1.6 seconds
This scooter has an electric start only and fires right up in less than of a second with the Yuasa 8ah AGM battery. The idle was a bit rough at first, but has smoothed out after these runs. I'm quite impressed with the quality of the hoses and constant tension clamps on this engine; even the front brake line is an encased stainless steel braided hose. All of the wiring is cleanly routed, bundled and crimped with weatherproof connectors. Even where the harness is routed, there are vinyl covered metal wraps mounted directly on the frame to secure them in place. There is definitely no haphazard last minute wiring attempts and I have yet to find a plastic zip tie anywhere. Everything is clean and placed intelligently instead of throwing in stuff where it fits. The carburetor is on the top and behind the engine. It’s a CVK style made by Keihin and the "K" is designated for Kawasaki according to their website. I do not yet know the bore, as I haven't gotten that deep yet. The air filter is large and is a paper element type mounted in the air box above the CVT housing. As you can see in the picture, it’s almost as big as the CVT cover too. I haven't taken it off yet, but supposedly it already has a Dr Pulley variator and clutch.
As this is a water-cooled engine, it has a radiator and cooling fan assembly. The radiator is positioned behind the headlight and has a large intake vent and two ducted exhaust vents. The temp. gauge stays by the mark just above the cool line and eventually rises to the mid-mark. It takes it about 15 minutes from cold start before the gauge gets to the ½ way mark whether you’re idling or riding, then the fan kicks on. About 2 minutes later it's back by the cool mark and the fan turns off. The fan motor itself is a metal, sealed can-type motor and it feels like it has ball bearings, but I can't confirm it one way or another. It's very quiet and unless your listening for it, you'll never even know the fan is on. The plug is an NGK cr8-e, which is a good ole fashioned $4.00 resistor plug. As stated in the body panel section, it's accessed in less than 1 minute.
Brakes: The front brake is a disc and is quite powerful, I didn't want to totally test the brakes on it as I like my new scooter and myself in one piece, but I had no choice and did give it quite the testing. It’s powerful enough to lock up if you're not careful, but it's smooth and easily controlled otherwise. I do find that I particularly like the absence of the “ABS” regulator. The rear brake is a drum on the US models while the rest of the world gets a rear disc. How nucking futs is that? Just because it is a drum doesn't mean it’s weak.
I was NOT able to lock it up at any speed on dry pavement but at full grab it does slightly drag and roll as you can hear it but it won’t lock up. Some people may think that that is a bad thing, but to me it isn’t. I would prefer a rear disk but this one is adequate. One great overlooked advantage about drum brakes is that they are easily adjusted for adverse road conditions. Let’s just say it’s rained, all you have to do is to back off the adjuster to compensate for the conditions. Your handle will seem soft, but an emergency braking will give you the maximum effort it can give without locking up. Call it manual ABS if you will. A panic stop using the full rear drum and front makes for a fast controlled stop. I tested all kinds of speed stops and honestly, some of them scared the schnitz out of me. I was wearing full body armor and a helmet but I still had a sense I was doing something stupid by testing emergency braking. Well, I’m still alive and I’d rather find out what it can do now instead of finding out when it was too late. Of course disk brakes are better, but drum brakes don’t fade out like their counterparts when they get hot.
Phew, I think this will be a good first installment. Please feel free to ask questions. The bottom line is that even though it has a few quirks, I’m quite impressed and this is a sweet machine. I have named it Fire Drake.
So I don’t hog up bandwidth or space here, I’ve posted the pictures on my site. I’ll be adding more there when I take them. Meanwhile enjoy because I sure am.
www.jeffs-hotsauces.com/firedrakehome.htm
That 5kg max may just refer to how many girls you can have as passengers in Korea or something.
