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Post by Gary on Jan 3, 2009 6:43:03 GMT -5
The circular rules wound up kind of in the middle. I'll post a photo later. I should have taken a before photo or at least marked where they were to begin with, but of course I didn't do that. But I think they wound up kinda close to where they were originally.
Is that what is supposed to happen?
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Post by donkinney on Jan 3, 2009 6:57:50 GMT -5
Careful Gary, you'll upset Dean with your comments about the CCS running good at 11000 miles. lol
Glad all is working out for you, healing and color change. I still have my orange CCS and the silverwing, friend of mine got a used 50cc ruckus yesterday and it looks like i'm the serviceman on it. oh well, at 71 years old, I need something to do as mine run real good. Don
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Post by Gary on Jan 3, 2009 11:38:49 GMT -5
Hi Don, 71 years young and still going strong. That's great.
I don't want to upset anyone. I just enjoy sharing my experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly. For me its part of the fun of CCS ownership.
I like the orange color too. In fact, my Ford Escape is orange. Stands out like a sore thumb and never gets lost in parking lots.
Cheers, Gary
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Post by rverr on Jan 4, 2009 14:29:58 GMT -5
Congrats GARY ON THE 10K!! having a fleet of vehicles and toys I am a strong believer in maintance my 250 will not get 10k on it but if it does by the looks of those parts you are doing the right thing, a lot of peep's do to much worrying and not eanough riding I don't care if it is 2 - 4 or 6 wheels all those spare parts you carry will not be what you need when it leaves you sitting scratching your butt. A phone and trailer is my spare parts Good luck on the next 10k! CURT
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Post by cat0020 on Jan 5, 2009 9:24:50 GMT -5
My MC-54 250 (with CFMoto engine) scooter just turned over 6000 miles, the valve adjustment was performed (in less than 5 minutes) back around 3000 miles, the engine still starts within first second of hitting the starter button, even when the temperature is below freezing most of the time these days.
I adjusted the valves while the engine is running, just performed it roadside during a ride.. All I need to perform the adjustments were a latex glove and a 8mm box wrench. I tried a few adjustments, ride it for a few mile to check if the engine operation is suitable in different rpm range. The next day to check if engine (cold) started properly and idles ok..
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Post by Gary on Jan 5, 2009 12:14:00 GMT -5
Cat - Agreed. Adjusting the valves on the Honda-style engine is incredibly easy - a 5-minute job at most. It is all just a matter of learning how to do it and getting up the nerve to try.
By the way, what method do you use - adjust the valves hot with the motor running or cold with the motor off?
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Post by Gary on Jan 10, 2009 22:38:19 GMT -5
Ole Blue turned over 12,000 miles today. Not much to report, the scoot just runs like a champ.
I'm going to play with the valve adjustment a bit. I think I lost a little top end after I adjusted the valves using the "cold" method. I'm going to try the "hot" method.
(Either way, adjusting the valves on the Honda type engine is incredibly easy - no harder than an oil change.)
Regards, Gary
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Post by yarddogbbq on Jan 11, 2009 12:38:51 GMT -5
congrats on the high mileage.
the hot method might just turn you loose for a land speed record. too!
look out earlwb is right behind you!
yarddog.
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Post by Gary on Jan 11, 2009 13:11:07 GMT -5
YD: I admire you, Earl and others who ride your scoots in brutal conditions. It's supposed to be 80 here today - pretty easy to pile on miles with that kind of weather. Cheers, Gary
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Post by earlwb on Jan 11, 2009 19:34:54 GMT -5
Yeah you are pretty lucky there. The low tomorrow morning is like 33 degrees with a high tomorrow of 60 degrees. But it is pretty neat in that the blower fan on the radiator never turns on when it is that cold.
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jsorvik
Big Dawg
In India, a scooter is a family sedan!
Posts: 23
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Post by jsorvik on Jan 14, 2009 17:55:12 GMT -5
Okay. . . this is just wrong . . . It is so hard to read about all of you guys out piling on the miles . . . Current temp as of this minute is -7 F with a wind chill of -30 F. The next time we will see temps above 0 F will be some time on Saturday. . . My TGB and my Burgman are all safely tucked in my basement getting valve adjustments, new tires, brake checks, final drive oil changes, etc. . . that is about as close as I will get to piling on any miles for the next 3 months or so. . . Dang. . . why is it that I live in Minnesota again? Oh yeah. . . so we can elect a comedian to be our Senator! That's it! ;D
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Post by Gary on Jan 14, 2009 19:01:05 GMT -5
Sorry J. Don't mean to rub it in but it was 80 here the last few days.
On the other hand, you are probably out there riding your snowmobile or out ice fishing. We can't do that here.
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Post by earlwb on Jan 14, 2009 22:41:16 GMT -5
Tomorrow is a killer day, supposed to be 20 degrees in the morning. I don't know if I'll ride or drive tomorrow.
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Post by Gary on Jan 15, 2009 1:22:55 GMT -5
Earl, You certainly have my permission to take tomorrow off (from riding you scooter) and drive something with a heater. 20F on a scooters sounds painful. Gary
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Post by earlwb on Jan 15, 2009 14:25:04 GMT -5
Thanks I appreciate it.
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Post by Gary on Feb 2, 2009 22:20:46 GMT -5
Ole Blue just passed 20,000 km (about 12,400 miles) and its still miles of smiles for me. Aside from the nuisance stalling issue that just started happening a couple of weeks ago, the scoot is running great. Blowing out the clutch bell cured the clutch of grabbing on take off. New 19-gram sliders arrived today; I hope to install them this weekend and am anxious to see the effect on performance. (The scoot currently has 23-gram sliders; my old rollers were 20 grams.) I have a new CDI coming from Roketa which I hope will help with the stalling issue.
About my only complaint is that the scoot is only getting about 55 mpg. Some of this is just my commute (lots of hills and stops and starts), but I also I think the scoot is running rich. The spark plug seems OK but I get a lot of black soot on my license plate. A check of the enrichener and the carb are on my to do list....
Cheers, Gary
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Post by Gary on Feb 7, 2009 6:58:13 GMT -5
Installed the 19 gram Dr Pulley sliders. Nice. Acceleration is great, top speed seems unaffected. I think the scoot is back to where it was before I started messing with belts and weights. The original rollers were 20 grams. I didn't realize that until after I bought my first set of sliders at 26 grams which I thought was supposed to be stock. Went down to23 grams which wasn't bad, but the 19 gram sliders are really nice. Should b better for two-up riding which I've been doing a bit of lately.
Also replaced the CDI, cleaned all the contacts and added dielectric grease, in hopes of curing the intermittent stalling issue I've had recently. (The scoot died out of the blue four times over the last month, each time restarting after a bit of a cool down). The wires, contacts, connections all seemed OK. The scoot did seem to run a touch better with the new CDI, so maybe the old one was starting to go. Only time will tell.
I've had to add a bit of coolant a few times recently. Don't see any drips and don't smell coolant so I don't know where it is leaking. There's no indication of water coming out the exhaust. I checked the crankcase oil and found the level to be normal. It could have been my imagination, but it the oil looked a bit milky, so I changed it. (The previous oil change was only a week ago and the oil looked normal - black.) Will have to watch this.
Anyway, scoot runs great and I'm having tons of fun with it.
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Post by chetti on Feb 10, 2009 2:30:50 GMT -5
Ya, I am 44 young.. Used to pal around on little 49cc scoots with a man in his late 60's. He is 73 today and decided to go floating. He took a 16 foot boat from mid Missouri and went down the Mississippi River. Saw a photo on the web of him. Got caught up in a hurricane and lossed everything he owned. Sad. But he was in high spirit and took a Greyhound Bus back to mid Missouri and was saving for another boat to do it again. We rode together about 10 years on scoots. He does not like paying rent nor electric. He was about 200 miles from New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina made land fall.
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Post by Gary on Feb 27, 2009 18:08:05 GMT -5
Took the scoot out on the freeway for the first time since changing the sliders and replacing the CDI. Scoot seemed to have no problem doing 72 to 75 mph (per my bike speedometer), depending on the grade of the road. This was with a bit of a head wind and my big windshield. I was pretty pleased.
The scoot also hasn't stalled since I replaced the CDI, so maybe that was the problem. Who knows.
Closing in on 13,000 miles - 250 to go. Still miles of smiles, especially with daylight savings time and warmer weather coming up.
Gary
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Post by maurice on Feb 27, 2009 19:12:47 GMT -5
Congrats Gary on the mileage, even though it amazes me that we marvel over 10k! I never thought a scoot was not built for much mileage. Oh well. Good pics, and let us know how the new rollers work out.
Maurice
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Post by Gary on Mar 14, 2009 12:08:13 GMT -5
Old Blue just rolled over 13,000 miles. Here's a quick update: The scoot is running super - I couldn't be happier. I'm riding on the freeway more and more. The scoot works fine for my short 7-mile burst to work. (I never venture out of the slow lane though.) The panels haven't had to come off in ages - last time was maybe maybe three months ago to paint them. The intermittent stalling issue I had several weeks ago seems to be gone with the new CDI. Acceleration is really dialed in now with the 19-gram sliders and top end seems better than ever. The clutch is working smooth as silk now that I blew the dust out of it. I painted the trunk yellow, completing the transition from 'old blue' to 'old yeller.' The scoot looks so sharp! I love it. Will take a photo and update my avatar soon. The one issue I need to tackle is low gas mileage. Below is a plot of the mileage data I have. The points are the mpg for each fill up and the solid line is a 5 point running average. Its pretty obvious the scoot was getting about 60 mpg early on, and you can see that the mileage has now dropped to about 55 mpg. The hump in the middle of the plot is when the air box came loose. Got great mileage for a while, but the scoot also gagged at 60 mph - running too lean. I've posted about the drop in mileage before and got lots of good fixes from Yarddog and others - I've just been to lazy to do any of them. One of these days I'm going to work on this. I have been lusting over higher-tier scoots, but right now I'm just too attached to old yeller to switch. She's treating me great, I'm having tons of fun, and .... she's paid for! Maybe at 25,000 miles .... or if I come across a great deal on a used Hyosung MS3 250 or a Burgman 400. Anyway, here' wishing all of you miles of smiles, especially as the weather warms up. Cheers, Gary
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Post by harrywr2 on Mar 14, 2009 13:33:20 GMT -5
I'm riding on the freeway more and more. The scoot works fine for my short 7-mile burst to work......The one issue I need to tackle is low gas mileage. If speed doubles then aerodynamic drag squares, hence it takes 4 times the fuel to cruise at 60 then at 30MPH. Cars are fairly aerodynamic and heavy...hence most people will get better mileage in a car cruising down the highway at 60 MPH then doing stop and go on the side streets. It just takes a lot of gas to get 4,000 pounds of metal moving. Scooters are the opposite...they are about as aerodynamic as a brick..but they don't weigh much...so one gets better mileage doing the stop and go on the side streets rather then the highway.
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Post by Gary on May 18, 2009 13:34:00 GMT -5
5/18/09 Update The scoot has about 13,700 miles on it now, but its been a bit frustrating lately. First, about a month ago, the variator nut came loose and the fan pulley was destroyed. Got a new pulley, and a new nut. Torqued them on really good and applied red lock-tite. Seemed to be good to go but then yesterday the nut came loose and again destroyed the pulley. Argh! So the scoot is down again. Also, a part internal to the muffler came loose, causing a terrible rattle. So I'm waiting on a new muffler too.
I received the new taller Michelin Boppers recommended by Yarddog and JR Ryan and am very happy wit them. The 130/70-12 front tire was no problem to get on and fits fine. The 130/90-10 rear fits with little extra clearance. It was a bear to get on too; I had to deflate the tire to get it past the exhaust pipe and other engine parts.
I really like the Boppers - handling is very good, even on freeway grooves. The tires are not as slick as I thought they would be either; they have ample tread for driving in rain. The tires are priced reasonably as well. I thank YD for recommending the Boppers and JR for researching the larger tire sizes. (By the way, a 140/90-10 probably wouldn't fit.)
Other than the frustrating problem with the variator nut, the scoot has be running really well. With the sliders I installed a couple of months ago, the new tires and the new Cee Bailey windshield (which is taller than stock but smaller than what I had on before), handling, acceleration and top end are all great. I'll be a happy camper once the new parts arrive!
Cheers, Gary
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Post by anhoa on May 18, 2009 22:06:47 GMT -5
Gary,
Don't use lock-tite/super glue at the variator nut. Just leave the nut alone and tight as hard as you can but don't strip the thread. Lock-tite will leave a gel like when it's hot and cause the nut to get loose. I think I told you this before..it ain't matter if you have Black/Blue/Red/White... whatever lock-tite..it'll happen again. You can ask Billy Mays for some Mighty Putty... ;D
Anhoa
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Post by Gary on May 18, 2009 22:44:36 GMT -5
Thanks Anhoa. I have a second nut, so will double nut it this time. That should hold the SOB on .... Gary
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Post by stevep on May 18, 2009 23:43:31 GMT -5
Gary, where are you buying your parts from? By the way, I like your yeller scoot so much I'm thinking heavy about painting mine yeller, but the wife wants it to stay black...has plenty of scuff marks from when I went down last year. Maybe silver, who knows. Also thinking about Yarddog's boppers as well...hope your variator problem goes away...don't want any naysayers lurking around saying told you so...
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Post by Kiwiscoot on May 19, 2009 2:19:36 GMT -5
Gary I like your "yellar" scoot too. Saw photos of Jonthepom's Kawasaki orange Citycom. Now I would like a yellow one! Metalic yellow with fake carbon fibre black bits! Hmmm... Great to hear your scoot is going so well...of course you'll have to keep riding it as CCS with 10K miles on was worth nothing according to some people. With over 13k miles you'll have to pay someone to remove the "junk" according to those same people. Whatever!!! Can't catch you, only 6000kms on now.
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Post by musicman on May 19, 2009 7:23:03 GMT -5
Purchased my MC-54-250B last Oct. Been stored all winter. Been riding almost a month now. Already have @ 600 miles on it. I expect the miles to rack up pretty fast, especially when a trip to Walmart & back for me is Close to 65 miles. My town consists of a Post Office, Bank, Grocery store, (2) gas stations. If you wanna go out to eat somewhere it's 30 miles one way. On the bright side if you like the good ole outdoors it's paradise. the best hunting fishing camping not to mention scenery anywhere . Despite the inconveniences I wouldn't trade it for anywhere . PLENTY OF SPACE TO RIDE !! If the weather is good I'll be burning up the highway. So far the scoots only had a headlamp problem. Iam lucky enough to have a friend about 15 miles away who is a small engine certified technition. snowmobiles, atv,s ,lawn & yard equip etc. So if problems do come along I'll be able to get help locally.
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Post by Gary on May 19, 2009 9:32:33 GMT -5
I really like the yeller. Kind of a throw back color. And visibility is awesome. I really get noticed. All it took was a few cans of Rustoleum spray paint and a few hours of time. Wouldn't do that to the Citycom but for the Sunl it would be fine. And I like Kiwi's idea of some carbon fiber here and there. In fact, I've done something along those lines. The plastic dash part around the speedo was cracked and I replaced it. The old plastic was sort of a grey, but the new part is almost jet black. Looks so great with the yellow! I bought a few more plastic parts just for the effect. They were pretty cheap and looked great. Steve - I get my parts from a variety of sources. Basically I just shop around the net. The plastic body parts I get from www.roketa.com. They are here in CA, so I get the parts in one or two days. Other stuff I've obtained from www.sunlparts.net. Its run by a member on this forum, Gregg who has been very helpful and has very fair prices. You can email him at pedez2000@yahoo.com. If all else fails I go to www.bikebandit.com/ and get OEM Honda Helix parts (I use parts for an '06 Helix). That site seems to have everything. The prices for some parts are outrageous, but other things are not. I did email about the Burgman, but have received no response. So for now I'm sticking with ole yeller. Unfortunately she's sitting in my garage waiting for a new fan plate.....
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Post by jim63 on May 19, 2009 14:41:42 GMT -5
You are getting your moneys worth out it. Congrats in the longevity of your scooter. Have followed your thread and you have kept it going very well. If you get a new scooter you going to keep the Bali? I have changed my mind several times on selling my 250B. Finally just decided to put it on Craigslist intermittantly at a price I am happy with, and if it sells great, if not no problem. Your Bali has been good to you, if you sell it dont short change yourself if you got enough garage space.
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