ECOBIKEUSA

Under the Front Handlebar Cover of the Motofino MF150-10D

2008-05-03T22:57:00.027-05:00

Removing the Front Handlebar Cover is necessary to replace brake fluid, the flasher module, or one of the in-cover front turn signal lamps. Other than those items there is no reason to go into it. (If you were trying to get to the horn, it is under the front headlight panel.)

To remove the cover, First remove both mirrors held on with 6mm screw bolt screws using the wrench in the tool kit. Watch it you do not lose the lockwasher sets. Work inside when you take things apart, and have a magnetic pick up wand handy to retrieve dropped hardware. When removing the mirrors, you have to disconnect the orange-green wires connected with wire push-snaps on the left mirror, and light-blue green wires on the right mirror. These connections power the LED flashers in the mirrors. These wires have formed brass connector snaps that simply pull apart, and snap together to re-connect. There is an insulated snap on each mirror wire lead. Fish them out of the side of of the lever recesses to gain access.You will need to remove the front handle part end cover pieces too, which held in place by a single screw at the ends under the cover.

Next remove two screws at the top of the instrument panel, two underneath it, and two at the sides, plus a long screw directly under the cover in the center. This particular screw should be lubricated before you attempt to put it back in.

If you are in here to replace the flasher module, it has a 3-pin snap type connector holding it together. Simply pry aside the snap lever first and pull the connector plugs apart. Now remove the old flasher module from the holder. It just slides out of the circular bracket.
Now you can insert the replacement flasher in the holder, and snap the 3 pin male-female connectors back together. You just push the connectors together unitil it snaps and locks. You cannot mess this up. They are keyed to connect only one way.

If you are replacing DOT 3 brake fluid, or just replacing a little, know that the level should be up to with 1/8 inch of the top reseviour tank lip. To open the tank, you must remove two Phillips head screws on the tank top. These screws are in very tight, and if you strip the screw heads you have caused yourself a big problem! Better to make sure you are using a Phillips head tip (#2) Screwdriver that is in good shape, and meets the screw heads firmly. In other words, a perfect fit.

Some people press down very hard on the screw as they try to back it out. That works, if you don't slip. A sure way to not strip a screw head is to use and impact screwdriver and tap it loose with a light mallet first, then switch to a plain Phillips head screwdriver that fits well to back the screw out.
It never hurts to spray the screw recesses first with Blaster, or other penetrating oil and let it stand a few minutes first.

Anything you are in here for is pretty easy if you proceed carefully.Lamp-sockets twist out of their slots so you can replace bulbs. Grasp and twist counter-clockwise, lift out, to remove a lamp holder.

What may not be easy is replacing the mirrors back on the front cover and routing the mirror lead wires so they are not crushed! Special attention is required! When you replace the mirrors, please be sure that when you tighten down the screwbolts on the mirror mounts you align the protrusion slots in the mirror base with the groves shown as a green dotted line in the AXIS photo at the top of this article. Be very sure none of the leads get between the mirror base and the mount handlebar screw plate. Route the wires in the groves in the mount slot plate. If these mirror wires are crushed in the tightening process your mirror flashers will not work. You may also short the flasher out in the process and have to replace it.

Maintaining the Battery in Motofino and Chinese made Motor Scooters

2008-04-24T22:56:00.005-05:00

As we become acquainted with Chinese Motors Scooters, including the Motofino brand in several models, the maintenance of their storage batteries becomes an issue. If we owners do not understand completely about them it will cost us money replacing them too frequently! To avoid this unpleasant situation of buying a new battery prematurely, every owner should understand what follows here.

Motofino Motor Scooters, and almost every other Chinese and Taiwan Manufactured Scooters use what is called a VLRA sealed lead-acid battery, or VLRA. ( Valve Regulated Lead Acid) This is a good battery construction type because it offers low maintenance and high current loads for starting scooters. Plus they are light in weight and never need re-filling, or leak acid in your Scooter. They also hold a full charge a lot longer then other construction types when stored in the fully charged state.

All that is good, but they have a couple things about them an owner cannot ignore and refuse to do to get them to last a long, long time, which they will with just a little maintenance attention. To get long life and performance you must:

1. Charge them fully when first placed in service.
2. Take the battery out and read the open terminal voltage every 90 days minimum, and then re-charge the battery to a full charge state if necessary.
3. When placing in storage for the winter, remove the battery, fully charge it, and put it away to re-install in the Spring.
4. NEVER jumper the Scooter battery with an Auto Battery to start it! Do a manual kick start instead! If you make this mistake you will damage the VLRA scooter battery permanently, even if you were successful with the jumper start.
5. NEVER charge a VLRA Sealed Lead-Acid battery with an automotive battery charger of any kind! That includes the ones with a 2.0AMP trickle charge setting. If you do, you will permanently damage your scooter battery! You might think you got a way with it, but while you may have partially charged it enough to work a few days, you have ruined the battery. Next time you try that your battery will fail!

You might wonder why these things/rules are true? It all backs up to the VLRA construction method to make light-weight and small battery. To make this tiny high current delivery battery using VLRA construction it has to have many more electrode plates than conventional lead-acid types do internally. Not only that, but these plates must be spaced very close together physically. VLRA batteries also also constructed with advanced lead calcium technology, and include sulfphation retardants.

While all that does make for a powerful little battery, it also greatly restricts the amount of charging current you can use to charge it! It does means it will take a long time to fully charge a battery of this type at the low charge current rate allowed. VLRA batteries must only be charged with a battery charger capable of delivering from just .3 to .5 DC AMPS, or 300 to 500 Milliampers. NO MORE, or you will melt or warp the internal plates, thus shorting them and destroying the ability of the battery to deliver current. That is why so many are destroyed by automotive battery chargers which can deliver anywhere from 2.o to 60 AMPS!

If you are a scooter owner you really should acquire a cheap volt-ohm meter so you can read the open battery terminal voltage of your battery. That voltage reading tells you the charge state of your battery. You also need a low-current battery charger. Typically they can be found a most serious scooter shops, and online.
They are the wall transformer plug in type, with battery clip-on leads. Always check the specification of any charger you are considering acquiring to be sure it is truly a low current type. It needs to only be capable of a charge rate of .5 DC AMPS at 12.8 volts. A .3 AMP charge rate is just fine, but more than .5 AMP is not!

Here is some charging information based on your open terminal DC Voltage readings:

State of Charge
100% - Reads 12.8 to 13.0 Volts - No action needed.
75% to 100% - Reads 12.5 to 12.8 Volts - May need slight charge - 3 to 6 hours.
50% to 75% - Reads 12.0 to 12.5 Volts - Needs Charge -5 to 11 hours.
25% to 50% - Reads 11.5 to 12.0 Volts - Needs Charge - At least for 10 to 13 hours.
0% to 25% - Reads 11.5 Volts or less - Needs Charge - 20 hours - completely depleted.

A peculiar thing about reading battery charge voltage state after removing the charger is that
you will only get a true reading after you have removed the charger for 10 minutes. There is a time lag as the voltage stabilizes in a VLRA.

Whenever a new battery is filled with acid sealed it will need charging. The very act of adding the acid only brings the battery to a 75% charge state.

Motor Scooter 50 to 80cc Engine Upgrade Kit

2008-04-19T12:11:00.010-05:00

Many people start out buying a 50cc Motor Scooter and are disappointed about the slow top speed, because depending on driver weight and the gross scooter weight those machines will only run at 30 to 35 miles per hour. For some state laws classifying these 50cc scooters as a "Moped," that performance is all that is legally allowed.

But what about the heavy person who needs to climb hills? Or the normal weight person who wants to climb hills too? A little more engine power is necessary to do it.

The least expensive method to get a little more power is to upgrade the Chinese GY6 50cc engine to 80cc. If you are mechanically able, and have a weekend free to do it, you can upgrade your engine to 80cc with the "ECOBIKEUSA 50 to 80cc Engine Upgrade Kit" No really exotic special hand tools are necessary.

Details on this kit can be found on www.ecobikeusa.com Click on the 80 cc upgrade kit page.

A 15 page instruction is available to explain how to accomplish the engine upgrade.
I do not recommend upgrading a cheaper 50cc scooter that does not have a front disc brake. Those front band braked scooters don't have enough braking power to stop quickly enough with an upgraded more powerful engine!

Motofino Electrical Maintenance and Troubleshooting

2007-06-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

Motofino scooters have troubles with electrical systems, just like any motor scooter vehicle made, although they rarely show up until after they've been driven and owned for awhile.

Problems with scooter electrical systems seem to fall in Three categories.

1. The weather exposure moisture generated difficulties.
Exposure moisture problems are caused by leaving the scooter outside in the rain.
What happens is water gets into connectors and sometimes the starter solenoid internals, which causes rust and failure. Moisture ingestion over time affects and rusts control cables if not lubricated annually too. Water problems hurt every manufacturer's scooter, not just Motofino. We highly recommend buying a Motofino Scooter cover which is easily slipped over the bike and folds and stores in your underseat box. Using a scooter cover will pay you back electrically and keep the scooter a lot cleaner too.

2. Component Failure.
Parts like switches and blinker units can fail. Fortunately, Motofino stocks all parts so it is not hard to get a replacement for your particular Motofino scooter from ECOBIKEUSA. Again, keeping moisture and dirt out of control switches is a big protection. It doesn't hurt to spray your control switches liberally occasionally with a healthy dose of WD-40 to help them reject dirt and moisture too. Just saturate the switch area on the handlebar, and operate the switch a few times. Enough soaks in to help it a lot. A Silicon spray is also good, but WD-40 often also clears a sticky switch better because it is a solvent petroleum based oil too.
The ignition switch rarely gives any trouble especially if the key slot is injected with some spray grease every year. You do this by using a pin to push away the key cover and injecting spray grease lubricant down in the key slot. You'll find the ignition key switch operates much easier and smoothly when you do this too.

Control Switch failure of any kind is the most aggravating for any Scooter owner, and of these failures two are a classic pain! The first that really puzzles most of us is the failure of the Run-Kill" switch. If this switch fails, you can crank the starter all day, but the bike will not start, because the ignition circuit is disabled to the CDI unit. The idea behind a "Run-Kill" switch is of course safety, so there is a quick way to shut off the engine. Sometimes the switch fails and won't activate the ignition when placed in the "Run" position. (Circle Symbol) Other times the snap in lead connectors to this switch are corroded or loose, and just aren't making contact, so you think it is the switch when it isn't! This is where an Ohmmeter, or continuity tester is a must to see if the switch actually makes contact and goes open when you operate it before you spend money to buy a new one!
While we're on this "Run-Kill" switch thing (You'd be surprised the number of guys who say there scooter won't start, when in fact they forgot to be sure the switch in in the "Run" position!)
The second major control switch failure is that of the turn signal switch. Oddly enough if your turn signal switch is of the type that is circularly mounted on the left handle bar, it probably hasn't failed, its just out of adjustment! This is a spring loaded push-button release switch and the problem will show up as the push-button cancel switch will not release, or won't turn on either a right or left turn when you push it in that direction.
To fix it, and the reason we call it a pain, is because you have to remove the switch unit from the handlebar. To do that remove the upper and lower Phillips head screws from the back of the handlebar mount, so you can access the actual switch rear plate cover. When you look at the inside of the switch back cover plate you'll see two little screws holding the metal tension plate in place. Back these tiny screws out until they are a little loose, and then test the turn signal function and cancel.
Back the screws out until these functions work again and then re-assemble the two long handlebar mounting screws to put the switch back on the scooter handlebar.

3. Connector Plug or Wire Connector Failure.
Generally speaking, compared to other motorscooters, the Motofino is excellent in the connector plug area, but still it is good to know these wire connectors do sometimes develop connection problems, so you need to know what to expect. In a Motofino, the plugs and snap-together barrel wire connectors are high quality and brass plated. Even through plug connectors have a postive snap together tab on the molded nylon plug, and its snapped, doesn't always mean connection is made. It should be, except sometimes a plug wire pin will back out a bit from the plug body so it doesn't make contact! Be sure and examine where each wire connects to a plug pin to be sure that pin hasn't backed out of its slot on the plug. Check the female and male side of the connector. If one is backed out, simply push it back in so it snaps in place.
Scooters, more perhaps any other vehicle, have a tendency to wreak havoc on electrical plugs and connectors because of moisture pin corrosion, and the vibrations caused by our relatively high RPM engines.
One particular check you should make once in a while is the connector plug connections to your CDI unit. Any loose connection their can promote failure of the CDI unit, and cause you scooter to hesitate a speeds, or start unreliably. If the pins on your CDI unit are badly corroded, and you can't clean them up, get a new one from us. A Blue unit is for a 50cc Motofino, and a Black
one is for a 125 or 15occ.
CDI units are made to advance spark as dictated by the output curve of the engine alternator.
It isn't a good idea to use a generic CDI for best performance. Get a genuine Motofino unit.

All Motofino, like other Scooters use a "plug together" system of connecting electrical components and switches. It's always a great idea to examine all of the connections before you invest in a new part. Here is a generic diagram showing how everything is wired. It is generally correct except some of the color coding of wires may not be the same in your unit.

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Mechanical Tips for Maintaining Motofino and other Motor Scooters

2007-05-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

Putting the wrench to your scooter can be intimidating if you are completely unfamiliar with them and how they are made. One of the things to know is how to remove and replace various bolts. On a Motofino and other Asian manufactured scooters, the bolts, nuts and threaded receptacles are all metric sized using Asian metric pitched threads. Most of the bolts by size are 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 MM, with some fittings like oil drain plugs at 17mm. Fortunately you can usually always buy a couple bolts or nuts at your local auto parts store.

Probably the biggest "gotcha" serious mistake new scooter owners make is not bagging the parts removed in plastic sandwich bags and labelling them as to where they came from! Often when it comes time to re-assemble they forget where they came from. For bolts and screws of various sizes it really makes a difference if they are bagged and labelled for source placement.
You can put a stop to wrong assembly if you do this.

Another difficulty for the new is not realizing bolts and threaded screws need to be lubricated before they are put back in! Yes, use a little oil or spray grease on the threads before you attempt to put them back. Greasing, or oiling them first makes a world of difference in how easy it is to start the bolt back into the scooter frame hole. This, along with starting the bolt, or nut by hand, and turning it in a few threads goes a long way to prevent getting cross-threaded with various threaded fasteners.
Always start by hand before you ever use a wrench on it. Be sure the fastener is not cross-threaded, by feeling the force you have to exert to start the bolt on, starting threaded fasteners squarely to prevent cross-threading.

On older scooters or one that has been stored mostly outside you can run into a nut or bolt you simply can't remove. Some steel bolts and nuts may have rusted, and seem impossible to remove. Rather than applying great force with your wrench and risking damaging that fastener, get a spray can of penetrating magnetic catalyst. This stuff is available at auto parts stores. The one I like is called "Blaster," the original bolt buster. It is a penetrating lubricant, and when sprayed on a rusty bolt or nut a couple times and allowed to work a few minutes, you can remove that frozen nut or bolt. PB Blaster is manufactured by B'LASTER/B.C.C.I. in Cleveland, Ohio 800-858-6605. It will allow you to wrench remove a frozen rusty fastener, so you can replace that part you're trying to remove.

You need to realize when tightening things back together you don't need to be overly aggressive with torquing things in. Put the bolt or nut on, and tighten down snugly, but not extremely tight to the point of stripping threads from overtightening. Bolts don't require much torque in body areas where it is usually 15 to 25 inch pounds max. Wheel nuts and engine head nuts can be much higher, from 8 to 16 ft./lbs. maximum, depending on its location. A cardinal rule for tightening fasteners on a scooter is tighten firmly using a hand wrench, and always error on the low side. You can always check it later to see if it is too loose, and re-tighten it. Otherwise consult a shop manual specifying the bolt torque for that particular item if you do have a torque wrench to set it. Shop manuals on scooters are often incorrect, but getting better.

Wondering how to deal with the self-tapping steel screws that hold body panels and scooter ABS cast structures in place? Easy, Go get a $1.99 magnetic pick-up wand tool. Usually you need to use a Phillips head screwdriver with a #2 tip. Back out the body screws you want to remove and actually pull them out by using the magnetic wand on the screw, to make the last couple twists to remove the screw. Saves worlds of time, helps you not drop that screw somewhere, and prevents loss. Another tip is to get a little magnetic parts dish, to put the screws in temporarily, until you have enough to bag and label from a particular area. Note that often body screws are of different lengths and thicknesses. Put them back where they came from, and don't mix them up.

So how are plastic, or ABS panels on the scooter held in place? First, with the self-tapping screws of course, which often screw into a cast screw receptacle on the scooter body structure made of a molded thermoplastic. That's the same stuff that holds your dashboard parts in your automobile! Other times, a panel is secured by the screws going through a metal clip, which is sandwiched on an adjacent body panel tab, and are sometimes tricky to remove.

You can expect scooter side ABS panels to mate with each other using metal clips and slide-in tabs in the adjacent panel. Removing any panel is a matter of removing the obvious screws, then prying up gently to see which side of the panel pops out. Whichever side pops out means you have to remove that panel by pulling the panel to the left or right, or maybe up or down, to remove the panel. Forcing the panel usually results in you breaking the tab locking slot piece of the panel, the part that tabs into the adjacent panel! Experiment with it, and you'll discover the trick.

Handlebar covers on Motofinos don't have tabs that can break. Just remove the screws in the face of them, the ones underneath, below, and in front, depending on the model and gently pry it
off. They fit tightly, with little plastic extrusions that snap in to each other, but they don't usually break.

Another thing I like a lot about the Motofino scooter line is you can actually order a complete hardware and bolt kit for a Motofino scooter. Body screws and clips are often misplaced when people work on their scooters and are lost. If you find yourself in that predicament call EcobikeUSA. We mail out an envelope of 6 ea. body screws and clips for just a couple bucks, so you don't have to buy a whole $49.00 hardware kit just to get your scooter back together!

What about a way to secure plastic body screws that screw into other thermoplastic parts and not a steel clip? I like to use a bottle of Clear fingernail polish and its brush applicator. I simply paint the screw threads with a coat of fingernail polish and screw it in immediately. When the polish sets up it will hold that body screw from loosening from road vibrations and use.
I also use it on the screws that are held in with a clip, and it works great. I suppose you could use a locktite, but this is much cheaper, holds just fine, and you can easily remove the screw later if you want to.

In our next blog we can cover electrical wiring, plugs, and wire pins, etc.

Chinese made Scooters are Good!

2007-04-30T22:29:00.000-05:00

As more people in the United States migrate to owning a motor scooter to offset the cost of automobile operation, some strange things are happening in the marketplace. Owning and operating a motor scooter has not been historically common here, although ownership is escalating incredibly because they offer basic simple transportation while saving enormously on gasoline costs for people.The Chinese manufactured Motor Scooter has really come into focus as more people buy them, because they are so efficient and cost less. At least so far...

Some of the strange things happening include the belief that a Chinese mainland manufactured scooter is somehow inferior. That simply isn't true, since most are manufactured in factories with international ISO standards. More, many are partially owned by U.S. business interests, and other major international scooter giants whose brands are well known worldwide.
Another thing happening is some dealers in well known scooter branded companies are working hard to discredit the genius of the Chinese motor scooter, trying to protect their product from a price-value erosion from the competitive Chinese made scooter. A situation has developed wherein some scooter maintenance facilities, dealerships in some towns for Honda, Kawasaki, and others, simply refuse to service or repair a Chinese made scooter. Frankly this laughable, since there own products contain parts manufactured in China!

There is nothing really different about a Chinese motor scooter. Even a very basic motorcycle, or scooter mechanic can work on one successfully. That likely extends to any small engine mechanic who understands small 4-cycle engines and procedures in a rudimentary manner.

So the whole reason why people with Chinese machines are discouraged in finding someone to work on them is really rooted in the fact that people in the traditional product lines are protecting their profits! A Chinese made scooter costs way less sometimes. They have investments in product that they want to sell and service at much higher prices, so where is their incentive? Obviously the winds of change are blowing fiercely.

Some people think if it is made in China, we in the U.S. have somehow been short-changed and are losing money. Nothing could be more off-target and wrong to believe. Multi-million dollar U.S. companies have been built on the supply and factories in China, who serve our needs very well as our scooter market grows. These are companies like Motofino, T'nG, and others.

Sure, there have been start-up companies that failed miserably because they brought in inferior scooter products which did not perform. These Chinese manufactured machines were ordered to be made for the U.S. Market by U.S. interests and entrepreneurs who had no scruples about the quality of the product. They paid to have them made and branded according to their own wishes on an OEM basis. One can still buy these gray-market machines on Ebay. Fortunately, problem machines aren't quite the problem now with all our Government control on EPA, Safety, and imported vehicle requirement's, so it's tougher to bring in the bad stuff.

Motofino, which has a full line of very competitively priced Motor Scooters for example recently discovered their pre-mature engine failure rate was about one in eight thousand machines. Wonder what it was for GM in their Hay day of U.S. production?
Life happens. Maybe one day we'll all get fully aboard?

Unloading a Crated New Scooter

2007-04-11T14:06:00.000-05:00

If you have a new scooter truck delivered to your home you still have the chore of unloading it, since the driver doesn't have to do that for you. This is not a tough job if you've got a couple guys, or one other guy to help you tilt and slide the scooter down off the tailgate, but it does take some effort. Pay attention to your footing.
Everything done at an angle, never lifting the full weight of the crate makes it easier and safer for you. All you do is guide and restrain, to allow the crate to settle to the ground slowly. The scooter is well packaged in a banded crate so that helps much.
Once you have the crated scooter on the ground you can move it by hand truck or other means.
Some people slide a common kitchen broom head under one end of the crate and pull the handle, making it slide. That's an old trick used a lot to load airplanes.
Otherwise, if you have no help to unload, you may elect to pay for a lift-gate truck delivery. Sure, it is expensive to pay for but far better than a medical bill for straining your back if you try to unload alone.

New Chinese Motor Scooter Lock Lubrication

2007-01-20T00:19:00.000-05:00

A lot of people who buy a new Chinese motor scooters fail to realize that the key operated locks on the scooter need immediate initial lubrication! Better dealers will do this for you as part of their customer scooter set-up routine. If you bought a scooter or cycle online and have uncrated and setup the bike yourself you need to do it.
Choices of a lubrication type are many. If you plan to garage your scooter it is easy to just squirt the inlet of each key lock, ignition or seat, generously with a squeeze plastic bottle of dry powder graphite key lubricant. Push away the key shield so you can direct the powder well down into the mechanism. Plan to follow up again with an application in a few weeks. Graphite is a mimimal lubricant and will not last a long time.
Perhaps you are one in a damp climate and have to leave the scooter outside. A better choice in that circumstance is to inject key locks with sprayable white lithium grease from a spray can with a plastic tip nozzle inserted to direct and inject grease down into the lock. Don't forget to catch the spring release mechanism of the seat too!
If you do not lubricate the locks the keys will be difficult to turn. After a few months in certain situations maybe impossible without damaging the key.
A little attention now can save you from being stranded somewhere because you can't switch on the ignition or unlock the seat to get to a gas filler port.
Amazing how easy key mechanisms work once lubricated. It certainly doesn't hurt to lubricate the key itself.

Motor Scooter Tire Maintenance

2006-12-20T01:20:00.000-05:00

Maintaining the tires on your motor scooter is one of the biggest safety things you can do for yourself. Your tires are your link with the road. If you neglect them, it will eventually cause some pain, and at the very least, early expense...

So what is vital? tire pressure, tire pressure, tire pressure! The reason we say that is under-inflated tires are the primary cause of tire failure! If you want long life from the tire, the correct pressures will reduce rolling friction and road heating on the tire, and that will promote performance and longer tire life. Sure that alone is a big benefit, but the biggy is a reduction in side wall flexing. Side wall flexing? Yeah, that is the distortion of the tire wall because it is under-inflated. When you drive on an under-inflated tire, the side walls flex a lot, or little, depending on how much under-inflated it is. This constant flexing eventually breaks down the tire chord fabric holding the tire together. The more road heat caused by this situation, the quicker the wall chording breaks down.

Can you see it? No! the damage is internal to the tire. Sometimes a tire that has been run under-inflated for a long time, and then inflated to the correct pressure fails shortly thereafter. It's called a blow out...

This situation is true of any vehicle tire, but for a motor scooter rider blow-outs are not an option.

Note that even a cheaper grade of 4-ply rated 2-ply scooter tire each has a load capacity of 350 to 400 lbs. So the tires can handle quite a heavy load. Tire load capacity is not a particular safety issue, because even cheaper tires have plenty.

How do I know what the tire pressure should be? Look at the tire itself for the answer. Inflation pressure is molded right into the tire! Another choice is to check the manufacturer's tire pressure label on the scooter. Sometimes the manufacturer will suggest a slightly lower pressure for the front tire. This occurs for reasons of the center of gravity of a particular scooter, and the bearing weight on the front wheel.

Some people think reducing the tire pressure helps the tire have more traction. Those are the people who have never watched a motorcycle race. Those guys lean over 45 degrees sometimes at far greater speeds than a scooter runs. Ever see one slip? Nope traction, and plenty of it.
Notice next time you watch a race look when the bike is coming in to stop. Those tires look completely inflated, and of course they are. Nice and fully round!

There are a couple more things a scooter rider can do with tires to enhance safe riding. For one thing a good inspection of the tread regularly. Often a bit of sharp gravel, metal or glass fragments will be discovered lodged in the tread grooves. Put the scooter on the stand and rotate the tires to look closely. When you find a piece of something pick it out. Otherwise it will eventually inbed deeper into the tire and be a problem.

The last thing to check is the cap on the tire air stem. That little plastic cover protects the tire air valve. If it's missing it allows dirt to accumulate at the pressure valve. Not cool! Ten cents will fix it. Put on a new one.

My pet peeve is when a new scooter owner puts tire shine on his scooter tire. That stuff looks nice, but it's so slick it it can cause a person to slide out of control! Wash your tires with soap and water and leave it at that!

Motor Scooter Muffler Inspections

2006-12-18T01:07:00.000-05:00

Motor Scooter Riders need to be aware that a Scooter muffler, and anything connected to the muffler system, needs to be checked once in awhile!

What are we looking for? Loose bolts and fittings, fracture cracking of metal muffler attachment flanges. In short, anything mounting the muffler, or connected to it. As the scooter ages it becomes an even better idea. Time works against the muffler mountings, just as it does in any gasoline engined vehicle.

The why look? is to prevent an event which could put your personal well-being at risk. It is no joke to be thrown out of control while your rear wheel attempts to eat your muffler or attached parts at speed!

Chances are if it happens you won't go out of control, but you could when something falls off and engages the rear wheel. The point is, why risk it?

Automobiles have mufflers and parts falling off on our roads and highways all the time, but cars have four wheels, you have only two. The mufflers and pipes falling off would be a serious road hazard if it weren't for the work of the State DOT crews cleaning junk off our highways. The idea is a car can lose a muffler and is more stable during the destruction than a motor scooter.

So what's the big deal here? The big deal is that scooter engines, either 2 or 4 cycle turn at high RPM. The exhaust pulses cram into the muffler setting up ultrasonic vibrations which have the power to loosen bolts and nuts, given some time. Worse, our engines are run at different RPMS,
up and down, thus parts get the full vibration treatment!

OK, you say your muffler bolts are locktited in. Great, that will certainly be a big asset to prevent loosening and should always be done. Problem is it can still fail over time, albeit a longer time, still no excuse not to check those muffler attachment points for lose bolts... While you're snooping around look at the welded muffler attachment flanges too to insure they don't have a crack developing on them. Welded steel tabs are bad that way, even if not rusted!

For the most part, the motor scooter manufacturers use isolating hard rubber vibration dampening pieces in their muffler mount arrangement. Some don't, and those are the ones that need frequent inspection. Let's be honest. Nobody really looks at the muffler system.
Most believe if it was about to fall off they would know it! Feel a strange vibration sometimes?
Look at the muffler mount.

I figure if I help one person avoid some inconvenience and a bad experience it is worth it to encourage a muffler mount inspection as a routine item to check. How often? You decide!

Frame Welds on Chinese Motor Scooters

2006-12-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

Scattered throughout the web forums on scooters you come across complaints occasionally of poor welds. This is because something welded has failed. No doubt in a few instances the construction of the weld was poor, as many factories both with and without ISO certifications have been building motor scooters in China. Maybe that's not too surprising since the object of the OEM builder is sometimes too concentrated on price, and not safety.
In general the welding is very good on most Scooters. Especially so in the Motofino brands I hawk. By far the biggest problem is buyer ignorance!
People will too often buy a scooter without checking the specifications for max load! Just dumb! You cannot buy a bike rated for 100Kg, and put two fat people on it and expect the Scoot to hang together! Seems obvious.
1 Kilogram is 2.204 lbs. If the spec says ok for 100Kg., that's all it is rated for. An awful lot of riders already
weigh 220 lbs! Not much chance the scooter will survive a long time without breaking a support weld if routinely subjected to 440 lbs. when people try to ride two!
Notice the Scooter usually withstands this abuse for a time, but may fail at any time when overloaded. Why not check the load specs and buy one rated at 330Kg or more? duh...
In my mind, a 100Kg load capacity is only a good choice for a single rider weighing under 175 lbs. who drives on smooth surfaces. Keep a little safety load margin.
The good Chinese scooters sold in the United States are those which meet federal highway safety standards and EPA emissions criteria. Despite the Federal Highway certification, you can cheat it by buying something with a low load carrying capacity if unaware of the rating.
Motor Scooter frames are by and large welded tubular steel. Very strong and tough. One characteristic is they are soft, or mild steels. This is good because these steels bend, instead of snap. The welds are more brittle, and do snap, when severely overloaded. My purpose in pointing out load carrying capacity is only in the interest of personal safety for riders. I have no other "axe to grind."

The Aggressive Chinese Motor Scooter Industry

2006-12-01T01:21:00.001-05:00

Ever wonder why so many inexpensive Chinese Motor Scooters have arrived in the U.S in the last 3 years? The ethic of "work hard work," making and selling them is responsible. Making them attractive for export. China is truly doing that!

China is Wooing the buyer everyday to commit to container loads of motor scooters. Many business people in the U.S. have had a number of ISO certified factories build them on an OEM basis, for the market in the United States. We all seem to be gobbling them up as a fill-in alternative for transportation of the gas-saving type. No arguement on the fuel savings, since they all seem to get 80 to 120 miles per gallon. Safety, and comfort is sometimes another issue. Not everyone can ride one, or wants to do it, but many welcome the availability of a cheaper mode of personal transportation.

Ningbo, China is a major seaport from which many containers of motor scooters depart, bound for the United States. Within 200Km of Ningbo are several motorcycle and motor scooter factories. If you examine the factories you will discover the people there are very committed to the work. Competition and productivity among workers, and factories is very keen. I was surprised, knowing that this is a Communist country. Each factory in the industry sports ISO certifications at various levels, and while cheaper less desireble motor scooters are being exported, for the most part the quality of the product is very good. Especially the engines and controls, many which are cloned designs from Honda and others which were produced in China, and are even today. A lot of Taiwanese know-how also filters to the mainland.
China is, and isn't divided. People travel regularly from Taiwan to mainland China.

Seemingly, the biggest problem for the United States buyer is how well the selling OEM corporation in this country supports parts and service, or even technical issues. Even more important,is how much money they spend to insure they are building a quality product in China. Often, they could specify better! The Chinese are very attentive. If you say you want this built, you will have it at the price you asked to pay. That may not be the best interests of the end user in this country!

For the most part, OEM builders in the U.S. have realized they can't have China make junk and expect to sell it here. Word gets around fast. Better quality Chinese made Scooters are available. The brand I hawk is Motofino.

Still quite reasonably priced compared to the major Taiwanese or Japanese Scoots. The better body panels make a big difference along with the engine components. It turns out all Chinese made scooters look amazingly the same. That's because all the body designs belong to the "people." Any factory can use these communal molds to make product and they do!

In future posts I'll try to talk about things like hardware and welds, longevity of product. We have lots to share!

My First Post

2006-11-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

Here we go! All you cheap scooter fans are gonna love this!