My Roketa MC54-250B Experiences at 13,200 miles

[cat0020]

one of these looks pretty good also.. :

www.customdynamics.com/LED_battery_gauge.htm

[earlwb]

Thanks all,
Hey Cat0020, those are really nice gauges. I had considered something like that, but since I already had dial indicator gauges, I decided to more or less keep them all matched.

In riding into work the vacuum gauge behaved exactly as I expected it to. At idle after the engine warms up the needle oscillates around the 10 mark, as you decelerate it tends to go up to around the 15 mark, and pretty much the rest of the time as you cruise around it is down near zero at around the 1 mark all the time.

The voltmeter did turn up a interesting thing though. The voltages as the system is working is as expected. But when the fan kicks in the voltage tends to hold its own Ok at speed over about 2500 rpm or more. But at idle the fan starts to draw down the battery slowly. I actually had it slowly work its way down to just in the 12 volt yellow zone on the voltmeter at a long cycle stop light. So at this time, as I see it at the moment is, if you have to stop for a long train, you really want to turn off your engine as it could run the battery down on you waiting a long time for the train to pass. Traffic jams and stop and go traffic could be another issue.
So far the alternator on the Linahi clone engine that I have, isn't quite capable to hold the battery up while the fan is running to cool the engine down.

[joker1961]

Earlwb did you have to change your flasher now that you put the led's in the front? and did you change the marker lights if so what number were they

[earlwb]

Good point, i didn't have to change out the OEM flasher, it worked fine with the LED lights for all the turnsignals. But that might be because I already bought a solid state flasher, expecting to have to change it out. So I guess they had a solid state flasher in there already.

I was going to change out the marker lights too, but those are weird little tiny wedge light bulbs. I have a pair of 1156 large high power white LED lights I was going to use. But I wasn't expecting that the running lights were little tiny wedge bulbs. I ordered a pair of white LED wedge lights, but it'll have to wait a while for me to go to the effort to change them out. So that'll be a later project. Maybe when I go to put in a extra On/Off switch for extra lights.
There is a fair amount of room there, I might go for changing out the light sockets and putting in a couple of larger white LED lights in there instead. But I have plenty of time to ponder what I will do.

[earlwb]

I happened across a website that sells the 1156 and 1157 light socket guts in case you happen to wind up with a socket going bad like I did last year on my Fiji 150. So instead of making your own you can buy the guts to repair your light socket.
www.oemsurplus911.com/automotive/ligtsockets.htm

[luv2cruise]

Apr 19, 2008 22:40:59 GMT -5 earlwb said:

Yeah there is a wiring diagram, it appears to be correct, but it is generic to the whole series of scooters that look like mine, unfortunately it came with the package of paperwork I received with the scooter. I don't know where I put my scanner, I think the scanner wound up at the rear of my storage shed.
So I have taken a high resolution photo of the circuit diagram that I have and I put it here. If your image viewing software lets you, you can zoom in on the photo reasonably well.
home.roadrunner.com/~earlwbollinger/scooters/Circuit_Diagram.JPG
You may have to download the image to your PC and view it using a decent image program.

Oh yeah, and before someone asks, a
A Magneto Resistor is the kill switch.
A Manostat is the voltage regulator.
The thermostatic switch is on the bottom left rear of the radiator and controls the radiator fan.
The Single Stand Stall Switch is on the side kick stand.
The liquid adding valve is interesting, it must be a low coolant cutoff switch. But if they actually put it on your scooter, I don't know where it is at this time.
The Starting Relayer is the starter solenoid.
The water temperature sending unit is on the top of the engine in front of the carb.
The fuel sensor is a potentiometer (variable resistor) mounted on a float arm in the fuel tank.
The Electrion Horn is the of course the horn.
The turn signal flasher is located under the dash inside the front panel on the scooter, along with the alarm remote system and radio.
There is a diode semiconductor pictured on the circuit diagram. It is a power diode mounted in a small heat sink and bolted to someplace on the scooter. I haven't found it yet, you I can't tell you where it is or what it really looks like yet. it may be near the voltage regulator, ignition coil and CDI, which are mounted under the front middle floor panel in between the fuel tank and engine.

[luv2cruise]

I think the liquid adding valve in the wiring diagram is the automatic choke??

[earlwb]

That is a good thought about the liquid adding valve, I think you are correct.
thanks

[scooterollie]

Luv it - "Liquid adding valve"! Getting a laugh out of the translations almost offsets the pain of ownership. (LOL)

[earlwb]

Yeah, the translating is fascinating. A few months ago, we were trying to figure out what a Japanese Windows Error Message was for our internal company application would be in English. The Japanese Phrase had us all stumped, until someone in Europe figured out it was a "Unexpected Null Value Encountered" being displayed. So we had a Japanese Error Message, with a Chinese lady doing the literal translation (the Chinese don't seem to have a problem reading Japanese interestingly enough), and all of us trying to convert it to something meaningful, and a French guy figured it out. Yay for the French. Amazing Global Communications nowadays.

[earlwb]

Anyway, today I was converned that the battery on my MC54-250B might be getting weak, as I was getting weird voltage readings riding to and from work, so I broke down and bought a new battery. Batteries Plus usually always has oodles of batteries to check out. So I wound up getting a battery like the original Yuasa. The battery in the scooter is the same as the Honda Reflex since they more or less copied the Reflex anyway.

As I ride into work, the voltage starts out at a little over 12 volts (12.55-12.6v), then it charges up to 13.6 and during charging the alternator is putting out upwards of 14 to 15 volts. Later as the engine heats up, the radiator fan kicks in and really loads the alternator down good. So now the voltage with the fan on reads about 13 volts at 40 mph or faster, but won't go any higher voltage-wise. Then you come to a stop light and have to stop and idle, and the voltage indicated slowly drops down to about 12 volts. If it is a long cycle light, it can drop down into the high 11 volts range.

So I figured maybe the battery was weak, so I bought a new one and installed it, and it does exactly the same thing. Darn it all, there went $68 bucks. But the OEM battery was about a year old, so maybe it wasn't a bad idea to replace it anyway. With summer coming fast, the radiator fan is likely to stay on all the time later. So I might use the old battery as a spare and carry it along a few days this summer, just in case the battery does get run down on my commutes to and from work.

So it looks like the alternator is barely able to keep the battery charged and maybe not able to, if you have a lot of stop and go traffic or a long stop because of a train. So that fan draws some serious amperage when it fires up.

I am going to try to get a video clip of the voltmeter operating as I ride the scooter. As soon as I figure out a good way to mount the mini-cam to my handlebar for recording the results.
I doublechecked the voltmeter I installed in the scooter and the voltmeter is pretty close in accuracy to my Fluke digital multimeter. So I am confident that it is reading OK.

[spazoo]

[message from previous owner]

Earl, I am glad to see all the good work you have done. I don't think I could have found a better home for the scooter.

I'm having a great time with my scooter. I've put 4,000 miles on the Burgman and I have not had any problems.

It looks this has been a win/win situation for both of us. I hope to see you on one of the DFW rides, soon.

-Spazoo

[earlwb]

Your Burgman 650 is a super fabulous ride for sure.
Thank you very much again, I am enjoying the scooter a lot. Plenty of hobby time material with it.
We'll see each other again on a DFW ride for sure.

[hossbob]

well my Machoman 260 Touring MC-54 is on the way from scooternitro.com from reading the post i hope i can handle the work i'll have to do on it i have learnd a lot from this post and wil post some pic's when i get the bike i cant wait as gas is $3.57 here in orlando fl any tip you guys have plz let me know i have ot had a bike or scoot in 10 years or so

[JiuJitsu]

My tip is "don't panic when you change out the coolant", it can be a PainITA, and take some patience, but it will all work out! Air bubbles can take some time to work out, and the scoot may run super hot, and the fan won't kick on, but stay diligent until SURE it is full and all is well!

Thanks Earl!

[earlwb]

Thursday Night my new Pirelli Tires arrived. So today I replaced the old rear tire with a new Pirelli one.

You can tell when a tire has reached its safe useful life by when the wear bars start to appear. After the wear bars appear, it is time to start looking to getting the tire replaced. Generally you can typically wear out two to three rear tires for every front tire. Granted you can use the tire longer, but its traction and handling start to become compromised, and it is easier to get flats as the tire is much more thin in the middle.
Here is a wear bar example on the Kenda Tires (130/60-13 size).


Oh yeah, this is also a good time to replace the OEm valve stems with better ones. I got a couple of valve stems at the local HOnda Dealer. They had some third party stems on the wall behind the parts counter. The Honda brand rear valve stem was going for $12.85, and the front one for $8.50. But the Bikemaster Straight Stems were selling for only $4.85 a pair. Made in Taiwan too.

There isn't anything too complicated on removing the rear wheel. First put the bike on the side stand as it makes it easier to loosen the axle nut. You will need to remove the muffler to get easy access to the axle nut. There is a exhaust pipe clamp bolt and two mounting bolts that need to be removed. Then you can slip off the muffler and use a wrench on the axle nut. I opted to use a big long breaker bar as it takes less muscle to loosen the nut. The factory really tightened that nut down too. Then after getting the axle nut loose, you put the bike back up on its center stand. Then you can loosen the lower shock mount from the support strut and tie it to the rear license plate bracket to keep the shock out of the way.


There are three bolts mounting the caliper to the support strut. You'll need to move the rear brake caliper out of the way. Simply take off the three bolts and slip the caliper up off the rotor and off to the side out of the way. Do not touch the brake lever, you do not want to move the brake pads without the caliper having the rotor in between the pads. There are two bolts holding on the rear support strut. You remove the two bolts and of course the axle nut, then slip off the support strut. Then slip off the spacer. To remove the rear wheel, you will need to tilt it out at the bottom a little and in at the top a little and then slide it off the axle.


I used my Harbor Freight Tire changer for removing and mounting a new tire. I like the 40 inch long tire lever they provide.
www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=42927&CategoryName=&SubCategoryName=
I also used a couple of 24 inch long tire irons as well. The Pirelli Tire is more stiff than the Kenda or Chen Chin tires and so it goes on with some extra effort.
24" tire irons:
www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=93230&CategoryName=&SubCategoryName=
Here is a photo of the tire changer and me using the bead breaker to pop the beads loose on the old tire.


For those of you new to how one changes a tire, here is a great link to someone that explains the process in greater detail.
Note that there is a small trick to getting the tire bead over the lip of the wheel rim. You angle the tire bead so it is more in the center of the wheel and that gives you more room to get the bead onto the wheel. See this pic here:
www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
How to change a tire out...
www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
and here is another article on how to do it as well.
www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-tires/change-balance-motorcycle-tires.htm

I used a 11 gallon air tank, that I filled up as the local gas station. I found a station with a good air compressor and I pumped the air tank up to a little over 90psi. So the air tank is good for something like 4 or 5 tires. You need some kind of a air compressor or air tank that has some volume to it so you can get the tire inflated and the beads seated good. But don't over inflate, you could blow the tire out.
And here is the new rear tire all ready to go.


What is interesting is that the Pirelli Tires are made in Brazil. At least the 130/60-13" tires are from this photo.


I'll replace the front tire later. I am in no hurry to do so at the moment.

One final thought is that a tire sometimes comes with a mark on the side to indicate which direction the tire rotates when installed on a wheel. But if you screw up and get the tire on reversed, it is not a problem. I have yet to find anyone that can give a definitive answer as to "why" a tire needs to be mounted in a certain direction, and what it does if you don't do it that way. On the Pirelli's they mount the tire one way for the rear and the other way for the front.

[earlwb]

Here is the Spreadsheet of my data log of how my scooter has been behaving from when I first acquired it. As you'll notice the gasoline miles per gallon has been decreasing as the summer is starting and it is warming up. So I assume that the gasoline companies have been changing out their fuel formulations for summer.
home.roadrunner.com/~earlwbollinger/scooters/Scooter_MC54-250B_gas_mileage.htm

[fufu2wheel]

I know my mt. bike tire have reverse directional between front and rear tire usage.
As mounted for front wheel direction, the tire offers better corner grip and less rolling resistance; as mounted for rear wheel direction, the tire have center (forward moving) grip for better acceleration. But the Mt. bike tires have deep treads, large knobs on the tire.

[hossbob]

well just got off the phone with the trucking comp. and i will have my new soccter MC54-250b on 4/29/08 from 12:00 noon to 6:00 WOOT i cant wait its like christmas

[yarddogbbq]

here is some info from a tire web site for another reason that makes some sense, to the rotation mystery:

"One of the more critical marks on a motorcycle tire is the rotation arrow, or arrows. Today's specialized tires generally have a tread pattern that must go in only one direction. Some manufacturers even state that their tread patterns are designed to disperse water, and by mounting the tire backwards, they won't work.

The other big reason for noting wheel direction has to do with the manufacturing process. The tread rubber is initially a flat strip that's cut to length, at an angle, and then spliced together with the two ends overlapping, creating a hoop. Under acceleration, a tire mounted backwards will try to peel back this splice. The opposite is true for the front wheel, where directional forces are reversed under hard braking.

Another mark to look for when mounting a tire is a painted balance dot, or dots. Most tires are pre-balanced by the manufacturer. They will then put a mark on the tire indicating where the valve stem should line up."

ydbbq.

[earlwb]

yarddogbbq,
The plies being spliced together in a certain direction makes some sense, Thanks.

hossbob, good luck on your scooter, the best part is to come soon.

[earlwb]

Here is a short video clip of the voltages from the battery and alternator with the radiator fan off:


Here is a short video clip of the engine idling at a stop light and the fan turns on. That happens about 1 minute into the video and you can see the voltage inexoriably drop down towards the 12v tic mark. In this case the 12v mark is really 12.6 volts and the center 13 volt mark is really 13.6 volts. This video is actually working, I don't know why it is displaying this error message.


This is the typical engine vacuum at idle with the engine warmed up good. If the engine is idling slower and or still cold, the vacuum readings are all over the place.


This is the engine vacuum while cruising at 30 to 35 mph, the faster you go the more the needle sticks to the zero end of the scale.

[fufu2wheel]

Guages are cool, but a bit complicated.. I would loose focus on traffic with that many guages.. Again, guages are cool.

[earlwb]

Awww, one needs it to look like an airplane cockpit. More fun that way. I am still trying to decide on a permanent fuel pressure gauge or not. I can squeeze in a little one there someplace.

Maybe a engine temperature gauge using a thermocouple too.

Anyway, the new Pirelli rear tire is amazing. it is so much more perfectly round than the Chen Shin or Kenda tires that it doesn't feel out of balance at all. I didn't even bother to balance the wheel/tire even. The bike almost feels like a different animal. Before when you started up the engine and rev'd it up to warm up the engine some and wait for the enrichener to disengage, at around 3,000 RPM the bike would wiggle and bounce some from the out of balance rear wheel. After putting on the new tire, that is pretty much gone, very little left. It is eally smoother now.
So I can highly recommend getting the better Pirelli, Michellin, and Avon tires for sure.

[rusty]

If the battery is staying charged and the scoot starts good, don't worry about it. bout all of them will do that at low RPM, even your car dose the same thing with everyting turned on.
Just keep letting the wind hit you in your face and have a good ride, spring is here.

Rusty

[JiuJitsu]

Sweet deal on that new tire!
Something to look forward to, though I'll have to get someone else to do the work for me...

[kens97sto171]

Apr 29, 2008 8:16:09 GMT -5 fufu2wheel said:

Guages are cool, but a bit complicated.. I would loose focus on traffic with that many guages.. Again, guages are cool.

Check out this dashboard from a Semi truck.. Its a from a Peterbilt Model 387. Shows:
Speed, Tach, Oil pressure, Oil Temp, Coolant Temp, Trans Temp, BOTH Drive Axle Temps, Air Pressure Pri and Sec tanks, Turbo boost on BOTH turbos, and FOUR others I cant think of and cant read the gauges to find out.

From this truck.

[scooterollie]

Earl, know what you mean by the tire shake of those brands. Had that problem with both brands - one on my 150 and one on the 250. Tires on the Linhai 300 are "Duro" but seem perfectly round and balanced. Sure does make for a nicer ride, too.

[earlwb]

I can agree rusty. But I thought it would be nice to video the voltages some for future reference.
The older OEM Yuasa battery did drop below 12v a couple of times though. Which prompted me to get a new battery. Those pesky long cycle stop lights could make for problems.
Getting stuck waiting for a train to pass makes it worthwhile to turn off the engine for a while.

Toggle Switches, yeah, that is what is missing, I knew I forgot something. Lots of toggle switches.

[earlwb]

Today on the way home, a jillion cars behind me at a stop light waiting for the go signal. Then just as the stoplight turned green I give it the gas, and "poof" the engine just dies. All power gone, deader than a doornail. So the cars let me get off to the side, so I coasted down the hill and onto a side street. There I took off the battery cover and checked the OEM fuse and it looked Ok, but I went ahead and replaced it. Sure enough everything back to normal and AOK. When I got home I took a jewelers loupe and looked closer and there it was, a micro-hairline crack in the fuse element.
So it pays to have a pack or two of extra fuses on hand. You never know about those OEM fuses.