Post by prodigit on Feb 15, 2013 2:12:57 GMT -5
Ok, the Tao arrived (on valentines day) today, this morning, and I decided to share my joy, in as great of a detail as I can give.
My first impressions here:
When it arrived, it was more complex than the TaoTao ATM50, or even BMS TBX260 to mount. It took me 3 hours round, from signing the delivery, until on the road and riding.
At ~300LBS, the bike really is too big to uncrate and install by yourself, however I did manage to do it.
What you need, is a few wooden logs (to lift the bike's front end), a couple of wrenches screwdriver (flat and cross), small rubber hammer, and oil (gear and engine).
Eventhough the Tao comes with tools, they're not of good quality, and they're locked inside the trunk. So you have to open the cage before you can reach the tools anyway.
In other words, the wrenches to open the cage, are inside the cage. Makes little sense to me, meaning, you'd have to have wrenches anyway, to open the cage.
And besides, they don't give all the tools you need for installation.
For instance, the front wheel axis has an 18mm nut on it (I believe), and the included toolbox does not provide this size of wrench.
The carburetor adjustment screw requires a long philips head screw driver, the provided screwdriver is short, and falls apart as you use it...
etc..
Installation:
First you'd have to start with unpacking the bike from it's cage.
Unmount all cage bolts, and wiring, remove cage, remove wiring, remove parts (wheel, fenders, etc..), and remove bubblewrap and plastics.
Second, open the trunk, and get the items out (battery, installation manual, mirrors, CD-ROM, ...)
Third, installing the handlebars.
4- mounting the front mud guard / fender. If not done before the front headlight mount, it'll be a tad more difficult to reach.
5- Front headlight compartment, you'll have to mount the wiring too.
The EVO comes with 2 Halogen bulbs, and LOW-HIGH beam are very effective (much more than on the ATM50, but less than a car.
After that, mount the rear trunk rack, and trunk if you have one. It'll help with putting more weight to the rear wheel when putting on the front wheel.
6- Unmount the front from the cage (held by the front wheel axis). get the bike out of the cage, and let the body rest on a hard ground, on it's center stand.
Lift up the front and put some wooden logs under the front body panel, so the front will be lifted up (bike now rests on wooden logs and center stand (you can add cardboard over the wood, not to harm the paint)).
7- Remove brake plastic, mount front wheel
7b- Mount rear shocks; having some items in the trunk push down the bike, and the front wheel mounted, helps.
8- Check oil levels, add if necessary, add tag, and fuel up.
It's not necessary to remove remaining oil. Initially the oil needs to run in the bike for 50-100kms, so no need to drain the bike of factory oil. Just run some accelerations/engine braking for 50-60km's, and change factory oil then.
9- Install battery
DONE!
Total installation time 1 person:
2:30-3:00 Hrs
(guesstimate, 2 people, 1-1,5hrs).
Impressions:
1- Bike comes with 2 x ?25W? Halogen headlight bulbs!
2- A bit complex to install
3- There's a hatch in the under-seat storage compartment, usually on the ATM50, to reach the carburetor, however opening the hatch looks on nothing. There's just a hose of the airbox going into the carburetor, but all you can see is part of the engine and CVT case, and the hose. Makes me wonder why the hatch is there.
4- There's a small hole in the under-seat storage compartment, this hole is to reach the idle adjustment screw with a long Philips screw driver. It is possible, but difficult to find the screw.
You'd have to stick the screwdriver in the seatbucket hole, while keeping your head under the rear wheel to find the screw, and be able to adjust it.
5- On the right of the handlebars there's a plastic looking glass, which should be for the hydraulic brake system. However, the looking glass is just over the metallic brake reservoir. I can't see the oil level in it, just metal.
6- The button layout is different from your standard chinese scoot buttons. The engine kill switch is actually a switch, not a slider switch; the blinkers are one triangle switch, not the slider switch with center button, like on most bikes; bike also comes with an emergency 4blinker switch!
7- The dashboard shows a speedometer that's relatively correct with my GPS (within 1MPH tolerance). The speedometer is in KM, and miles. The mile readout is difficult to see, yellow small numbers on a white background. The ODO is in KM. Maintenance is set to 50/100/300/1000, and every subsequent 1000 km's, not Miles. There is a brake led on the dash (when using brakes it lights up), and the fuel gauge seems to work nice (unlike the ATM50, where the fuelgauge would go down only after consuming 50% of the fuel in the tank).
Most of the dash leds are hopelessly inadequate. During daylight (in sunshine) it's almost impossible to see if the blinkers are on, the brake light is on, or headlights. The leds used are way too weak!
8- The fuel tank holds approx between 2.25 and 2.50 Gal of fuel. With the breakin, I am currently a little over 100km for half a tank, that's about 65MPG, this is with break in, and hard acceleration!
9- Riding!
I noticed the engine was extremely quiet, especially at idle. The volume levels where well below a whisper, more quiet than the ATM50, and while riding, tire noise of cars next to me seem to make more noise than the engine. Engine vibration from 5 to 50MPH are virtually non existent. At idle the handlebars and mirrors vibrate some, but nothing too bad. I haven't tested my bike at speeds over 60MPH yet, because I'm still breaking in the engine.
Acceleration was very good, all the way from 0 to 40MPH, I'd say it accelerates faster than most cars; from 40-55MPH it accelerates just like other cars, and from 50-60 acceleration is a bit slow, but I expect to gain at least another 5-7MPH after break in.
The 13in wheels do provide some centrifugal force, making the bike feel more like a motorcycle at high speeds (when turning, the bike has the tendency to go straight, due to the centrifugal forces on the wheels. Something you won't notice on a 10in tire 50cc scoot.
At ~43MPH I did notice an oscillation in the front wheel, the front tire is not balanced.
In the beginning it seemed that the bike's idle was set too low. Every time I released the throttle, the engine would stall, and would not start unless I revved the throttle. I adjusted idle to higher, but once the engine was warm, idle became higher than 2.2k RPM, and I had to lower it again. I'm sure it had something to do with the engine breaking in.
The engine revs upto 5 or 6k RPM (depending on acceleration), and stays there until the CVT maxes out.
It makes for a very MPG friendly setting, while still accelerating quite nice!
Overall I think the gearing fits the engine very well!
The bike, despite being 3x the displacement of the TaoTao ATM50, does not engine brake very well. While engine braking, it almost feels like the engine provides minimal resistance (as if the valves where in an open position). This definitely helps with MPG, as it's able to coast a lot better than the ATM, however it's not like a neutral on a car; rather it remains in high gear until RPMs drop to 3k RPM (~20MPH), then the variator kicks in until 5-10MPH, where the clutch disengages.
The brakes of the EVO150 are hopelessly underpowered! Even at city riding, the pads are too small, the front disc gets really hot...
Both front and rear brake provide less than adequate braking power. In an emergency, braking will be very hard, and it's not possible to lock the wheels at all!
This is very unlike the ATM50 I had, which could lock the wheel.
On a positive side note, the EVO150 has no squeeking drum brake (yet). The ATM50's rear drum squeeked like hell!
The worst part is that the scooter is actually made for people upto 5'5". I'm 6'3", and barely fit on the scoot. The handlebars hit my knees, and I have to either open my knees to steer, or put them together, otherwise the handlebars hit my knees.
10- Quality:
- Most bolts used are painted green bolts. They won't rust easily, however I did see some rust on the rear shocks.
- I immediately gave the bike a nice touch of corrosion X (thanks to my friend Hank, who suggested it), especially at the exhaust and shocks.
- The wheels are 13 in, alloy wheels 3.5x13 tires.
- The tires came from the factory with 40PSI on the rear, and 36PSI on the front.
I did have to release some air on the front, as the tires are lower quality and are rated upto 32PSI.
- The starter is amazingly powerful! It starts the bike almost like my BMS TBX260 fuel injected bike. The bike starts almost instantaneously.
- The saddle is probably one of the best saddles I've ever seen on a chinese scooter! It is about as comfy as my Honda VT750's stock saddle, and that's a lot more comfortable than many harley's out there.
- The shocks are quite hard, tuned like sports bikes. The saddle takes a lot of the road vibration away, but I would have preferred shocks that are at least twice, if not 4x softer.
- The throttle has quite some play. The throttle handle moves left-right about 1/2 in, which is quite much! I'll look into it later, to see if there's no solution to it.
- I forgot to use the nylon strips to tighten all the cables and wiring within the front headlight. Now when I ride, the wiring touches the plastic, and causes some unwanted noise, that could have been avoided.
- The EVO150 comes with one front wheel nut. It has a second nut installed that fits as well. My suggestion is to tighten the second nut, and then the first nut, both on the front wheel.
I'm schizophrenic about losing the front axle while riding, so I prefer to put 2 nuts on the axis for improved security. The stock nut comes with a metal sealing. Once you loosen the nut, you'd have to throw it away, so make sure everything is in the right place, before tightening it!
- The rear nut is a large single nut, that's not secured by an industrial fastener safety pin (aka pic below):
If I where the manufacturer of this scooter I would use these nuts on the rear wheel instead:
Conclusion:
Overall I'm really impressed with my bike!
It's of significantly higher quality than my ATM50, though costing only $100 more! (granted, it came without a rear trunk)
Me being 6'3"can adjust to the small size bike somewhat, but would probably recommend the PowerMax 150 for a large person, as that bike has a saddle that allows you to sit halfway between rider and passenger on the seat.
My first impressions here:
When it arrived, it was more complex than the TaoTao ATM50, or even BMS TBX260 to mount. It took me 3 hours round, from signing the delivery, until on the road and riding.
At ~300LBS, the bike really is too big to uncrate and install by yourself, however I did manage to do it.
What you need, is a few wooden logs (to lift the bike's front end), a couple of wrenches screwdriver (flat and cross), small rubber hammer, and oil (gear and engine).
Eventhough the Tao comes with tools, they're not of good quality, and they're locked inside the trunk. So you have to open the cage before you can reach the tools anyway.
In other words, the wrenches to open the cage, are inside the cage. Makes little sense to me, meaning, you'd have to have wrenches anyway, to open the cage.
And besides, they don't give all the tools you need for installation.
For instance, the front wheel axis has an 18mm nut on it (I believe), and the included toolbox does not provide this size of wrench.
The carburetor adjustment screw requires a long philips head screw driver, the provided screwdriver is short, and falls apart as you use it...
etc..
Installation:
First you'd have to start with unpacking the bike from it's cage.
Unmount all cage bolts, and wiring, remove cage, remove wiring, remove parts (wheel, fenders, etc..), and remove bubblewrap and plastics.
Second, open the trunk, and get the items out (battery, installation manual, mirrors, CD-ROM, ...)
Third, installing the handlebars.
4- mounting the front mud guard / fender. If not done before the front headlight mount, it'll be a tad more difficult to reach.
5- Front headlight compartment, you'll have to mount the wiring too.
The EVO comes with 2 Halogen bulbs, and LOW-HIGH beam are very effective (much more than on the ATM50, but less than a car.
After that, mount the rear trunk rack, and trunk if you have one. It'll help with putting more weight to the rear wheel when putting on the front wheel.
6- Unmount the front from the cage (held by the front wheel axis). get the bike out of the cage, and let the body rest on a hard ground, on it's center stand.
Lift up the front and put some wooden logs under the front body panel, so the front will be lifted up (bike now rests on wooden logs and center stand (you can add cardboard over the wood, not to harm the paint)).
7- Remove brake plastic, mount front wheel
7b- Mount rear shocks; having some items in the trunk push down the bike, and the front wheel mounted, helps.
8- Check oil levels, add if necessary, add tag, and fuel up.
It's not necessary to remove remaining oil. Initially the oil needs to run in the bike for 50-100kms, so no need to drain the bike of factory oil. Just run some accelerations/engine braking for 50-60km's, and change factory oil then.
9- Install battery
DONE!
Total installation time 1 person:
2:30-3:00 Hrs
(guesstimate, 2 people, 1-1,5hrs).
Impressions:
1- Bike comes with 2 x ?25W? Halogen headlight bulbs!
2- A bit complex to install
3- There's a hatch in the under-seat storage compartment, usually on the ATM50, to reach the carburetor, however opening the hatch looks on nothing. There's just a hose of the airbox going into the carburetor, but all you can see is part of the engine and CVT case, and the hose. Makes me wonder why the hatch is there.
4- There's a small hole in the under-seat storage compartment, this hole is to reach the idle adjustment screw with a long Philips screw driver. It is possible, but difficult to find the screw.
You'd have to stick the screwdriver in the seatbucket hole, while keeping your head under the rear wheel to find the screw, and be able to adjust it.
5- On the right of the handlebars there's a plastic looking glass, which should be for the hydraulic brake system. However, the looking glass is just over the metallic brake reservoir. I can't see the oil level in it, just metal.
6- The button layout is different from your standard chinese scoot buttons. The engine kill switch is actually a switch, not a slider switch; the blinkers are one triangle switch, not the slider switch with center button, like on most bikes; bike also comes with an emergency 4blinker switch!
7- The dashboard shows a speedometer that's relatively correct with my GPS (within 1MPH tolerance). The speedometer is in KM, and miles. The mile readout is difficult to see, yellow small numbers on a white background. The ODO is in KM. Maintenance is set to 50/100/300/1000, and every subsequent 1000 km's, not Miles. There is a brake led on the dash (when using brakes it lights up), and the fuel gauge seems to work nice (unlike the ATM50, where the fuelgauge would go down only after consuming 50% of the fuel in the tank).
Most of the dash leds are hopelessly inadequate. During daylight (in sunshine) it's almost impossible to see if the blinkers are on, the brake light is on, or headlights. The leds used are way too weak!
8- The fuel tank holds approx between 2.25 and 2.50 Gal of fuel. With the breakin, I am currently a little over 100km for half a tank, that's about 65MPG, this is with break in, and hard acceleration!
9- Riding!
I noticed the engine was extremely quiet, especially at idle. The volume levels where well below a whisper, more quiet than the ATM50, and while riding, tire noise of cars next to me seem to make more noise than the engine. Engine vibration from 5 to 50MPH are virtually non existent. At idle the handlebars and mirrors vibrate some, but nothing too bad. I haven't tested my bike at speeds over 60MPH yet, because I'm still breaking in the engine.
Acceleration was very good, all the way from 0 to 40MPH, I'd say it accelerates faster than most cars; from 40-55MPH it accelerates just like other cars, and from 50-60 acceleration is a bit slow, but I expect to gain at least another 5-7MPH after break in.
The 13in wheels do provide some centrifugal force, making the bike feel more like a motorcycle at high speeds (when turning, the bike has the tendency to go straight, due to the centrifugal forces on the wheels. Something you won't notice on a 10in tire 50cc scoot.
At ~43MPH I did notice an oscillation in the front wheel, the front tire is not balanced.
In the beginning it seemed that the bike's idle was set too low. Every time I released the throttle, the engine would stall, and would not start unless I revved the throttle. I adjusted idle to higher, but once the engine was warm, idle became higher than 2.2k RPM, and I had to lower it again. I'm sure it had something to do with the engine breaking in.
The engine revs upto 5 or 6k RPM (depending on acceleration), and stays there until the CVT maxes out.
It makes for a very MPG friendly setting, while still accelerating quite nice!
Overall I think the gearing fits the engine very well!
The bike, despite being 3x the displacement of the TaoTao ATM50, does not engine brake very well. While engine braking, it almost feels like the engine provides minimal resistance (as if the valves where in an open position). This definitely helps with MPG, as it's able to coast a lot better than the ATM, however it's not like a neutral on a car; rather it remains in high gear until RPMs drop to 3k RPM (~20MPH), then the variator kicks in until 5-10MPH, where the clutch disengages.
The brakes of the EVO150 are hopelessly underpowered! Even at city riding, the pads are too small, the front disc gets really hot...
Both front and rear brake provide less than adequate braking power. In an emergency, braking will be very hard, and it's not possible to lock the wheels at all!
This is very unlike the ATM50 I had, which could lock the wheel.
On a positive side note, the EVO150 has no squeeking drum brake (yet). The ATM50's rear drum squeeked like hell!
The worst part is that the scooter is actually made for people upto 5'5". I'm 6'3", and barely fit on the scoot. The handlebars hit my knees, and I have to either open my knees to steer, or put them together, otherwise the handlebars hit my knees.
10- Quality:
- Most bolts used are painted green bolts. They won't rust easily, however I did see some rust on the rear shocks.
- I immediately gave the bike a nice touch of corrosion X (thanks to my friend Hank, who suggested it), especially at the exhaust and shocks.
- The wheels are 13 in, alloy wheels 3.5x13 tires.
- The tires came from the factory with 40PSI on the rear, and 36PSI on the front.
I did have to release some air on the front, as the tires are lower quality and are rated upto 32PSI.
- The starter is amazingly powerful! It starts the bike almost like my BMS TBX260 fuel injected bike. The bike starts almost instantaneously.
- The saddle is probably one of the best saddles I've ever seen on a chinese scooter! It is about as comfy as my Honda VT750's stock saddle, and that's a lot more comfortable than many harley's out there.
- The shocks are quite hard, tuned like sports bikes. The saddle takes a lot of the road vibration away, but I would have preferred shocks that are at least twice, if not 4x softer.
- The throttle has quite some play. The throttle handle moves left-right about 1/2 in, which is quite much! I'll look into it later, to see if there's no solution to it.
- I forgot to use the nylon strips to tighten all the cables and wiring within the front headlight. Now when I ride, the wiring touches the plastic, and causes some unwanted noise, that could have been avoided.
- The EVO150 comes with one front wheel nut. It has a second nut installed that fits as well. My suggestion is to tighten the second nut, and then the first nut, both on the front wheel.
I'm schizophrenic about losing the front axle while riding, so I prefer to put 2 nuts on the axis for improved security. The stock nut comes with a metal sealing. Once you loosen the nut, you'd have to throw it away, so make sure everything is in the right place, before tightening it!
- The rear nut is a large single nut, that's not secured by an industrial fastener safety pin (aka pic below):
If I where the manufacturer of this scooter I would use these nuts on the rear wheel instead:
Conclusion:
Overall I'm really impressed with my bike!
It's of significantly higher quality than my ATM50, though costing only $100 more! (granted, it came without a rear trunk)
Me being 6'3"can adjust to the small size bike somewhat, but would probably recommend the PowerMax 150 for a large person, as that bike has a saddle that allows you to sit halfway between rider and passenger on the seat.