CF Moto Fashion By Bashan (Read 26,507 times)

[Bashan]

I was just starting my 42 mile ride home from work Wednesday when a red light lit up on the dash. I was surprised because I didn't know the Fashion had idiot lights. Luckily it's a mileage reminder to change the oil, a very nice touch I think:

So yesterday I loosened the dipstick and drain plug according to the manual:

And got the nasty break in oil out:

I like how CF Moto puts the screen plug on the side on all their scooters, it's a lot easier to work with:

Have you passed out from excitement yet?! Hey, I laid on the garage floor to take these pictures, I'm gonna use 'em. The screen actually caught some crud, I think it's the first time I've seen that on any of my scooters:

Now I have to drain the transmission oil and go to Wally World today and fight the Christmas crowd to get some fluids. The Fashion takes motor oil in both the crankcase and transmission. I'm not real comfortable with that but hey, follow the manual. Rich

[cookees]

We use gear oil in the transmissions. However on my 1st Fashion ( 2006) I followed the manual and used 10w-40 in the gears...never a problem.

Bike is now with it's 3rd owner and has 18,000 on the clock.

[Bashan]

Time for another oil change and I thought I better do the gear oil too. The problem is you have to take the CVT cover off to get to the drain...go figure. You also have to take some plastic off to take the CVT cover off...go figure:

Remove the two 10mm bolts and the cover comes off:

Remove the two plugs and drain the oil:

Fill until it dribbles out and replace the plug when it stops. The manual calls for motor oil but I used regular gear oil:

While I was rooting around I discovered the PAIR pollution canister had blown up:

So I removed the whole system and capped the reed valve tube:

While I was removing pollution devices I thought I'd take the vapor canister off. I repaired a V5 once that quit because of this system, I thought I'd do a preemptive strike. Here is the beast in it's natural lair:

Here it is flushed from hiding with it's anatomy revealed:

The idea is that the vacuum from the airbox draws vapor off of the gas tank when the vac valve opens. The problem is the check valve lets gas through if the bike tips over, or sometimes the canister gets plugged. When this happens you lose your tank vent and the bike stalls.

To remove the system you remove the vent tube from the check valve and run it up higher than the tank with an old gas filter on the end to keep dirt out:

Then you plug the tube to the airbox with a cork. It's vital to also plug the vac tubes:

The big vac line you see runs to the fuel pump:

Speaking of the airbox I've had a few members ask what the smaller air filter is:

For some reason CF Moto, or Honda I guess, decided to filter the air into the CVT....go figure. Also here you can see the attachment for the vapor canister hose that must be plugged:

The airbox is your typical Chinese traffic jam with the crankcase vapors collecting in the reservoir. You've got to periodically empty it via the tube with the stopper:

If you don't the oil starts coming up into the carb intake tube:

When you reassemble everything you can see how the airfilter for the CVT fits into the cover:

For what minor criticisms I may have voiced, I gotta tell you, I love this scooter. It's not real fast off of the line but it'll cruise at 65 all day and will pop 70 if you want it to. It handles well and you can carry a boatload in the two trunks; two full face helmets will fit in the top one. I get 70 to 80 MPG and it uses no oil. I'm really glad I got one thanks to Cookees before they quit selling them and feel like I get to experience one for the ages. Well, on to the battery system in a few days, later, Rich.

[jct842]

Sure wish I had bought that model over the majesty. While I got it apart I will be removing as much un necessary crap as possible. I will also be doing some changing on the air filters, at least reroute the intake to them as they seem like they are aimed at where the dust is the most.

As far as I am concerned that helix clone should be made forever, it just works and is a whole lot more basic than 90% of the larger scooters made today. Wish some one would make a basic car too......no frills, no radio or electric windows, nothing extra and thus affordable for most every body. john

[one1]

Nice, It's a cool scooter. Same motor as the Legacy: www.alternativecruisers.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=f5f4f0b7b18eeedbb130d3ad32455254&topic=19620.0

I dig the dash on it.

[justdon]

I think thats a beautifull scooter.And very practical..Seems like you can go shopping and bring home a lot of stuff in the trunks..

[Bashan]

You're probably aware that Qlink rebadged CF Moto products, they didn't actually make scooters. I bought a Qlink Pegasus from Cookees and they gave me great warranty service on a wheel issue. Of course I had a little inside pull from my pal. The 244cc motor was used in the V cycles and the Fashion. I believe the new Jet Max is a horizontal 250 so the old workhorse is history. CF Moto promises product support though so parts should be around for a good long time.

Yep, the carrying space on the Fashion is astounding. I carry a lot of paperwork back and forth to work along with my chilly morning clothes and a laptop. I still have room to spare and have never had to leave something behind because of space. When I got the bike I had planned to put some kind of saddlebags on. I soon realized this would be a waste of time and money. Did I say I really like this scooter? ;D Rich

[Bashan]

I posted this over on the 250 Tech board but I guess I'll add it here for continuity. The battery runs down on the Fashion over about 5 days of inactivity. I've heard some folks blame the charging system on CFs but I think it's a vampire in the LCD dash, JMO. I did a milliamp drain test by putting a multimeter in series with the battery with the key off and got a 12 mA reading:

I think anything over 10 mA is too much for a scooter battery so I installed a cutoff switch. I know it doesn't look safe but there's a plastic dome on the front of the seat that fits right over it and protects it:

I've bought a better cutoff switch I'm going to install when I get some time. It's the type with the big plastic key:

Cookees and Mike from HPS Motorsports suggested I check the rectifier to see if it had a bad diode causing the drain. To do that you unplug the rectifier and do the same milliamp test. As you can see I got the same result indicating the rectifier has nothing to do with the problem. Good call though, I should have checked that before I blamed the LCD dash.

I'm in the process of replacing the speedometer cable. I could go rooting around in the dash looking for the gremlin but I think I'm just going with the new cutoff switch and save that battle for another day. Rich

[Bashan]

I was halfway to work a couple weeks ago and noticed my speedometer was reading 0 MPH even though the engine sounded like I was doing about 65 or 70. Obviously something was amiss. On inspection at work the speedo cable was hanging loose by the wheel. I zip tied it off and made plans to replace it. I might have snapped it off when I pushed the bike around the basement and accidentally hit a floor jack....my bad.

I know this is kind of boring stuff but I thought I'd post it anyway in case it might help somebody else in this fix. Also, any Helix clone owners can get a look under the hood. Luckily, the plastic comes off pretty easy on this bike. You have to get the underpan off that you see laying on the floor and then things dismantle easily:

That big 'ol headlight hanging off to the side really gets people's attention. It actually has a better visibility factor than any motorcycle I've ridden:

While I was in there I wanted to look at the radiator. There's been a lot of reports of cooling problems on these bikes. I thought I could get an idea for an upgrade if that happens during the baking summer heat here in 'Bama. As you can see the radiator looks pretty big, as is that LOUD horn you see.

But what I think a potential problem might be is this smallish off center fan. Any thoughts would be appreciated on this:

I'm thinking I might mount another fan next to it if I have some running hot issues in a few months. The radiator has this weird fill cap on the right on a hose that's totally inaccessible without taking off the plastic....go figure.

From everything I've read and compared on the service manuals CF Moto made a perfect clone of the Helix, so this is Honda's design. You can see the fan thermoswitch in the first pic::

Well, on to the speedo cable. Just unscrew it from the instrument cluster, I'll look for the LCD power gremlin next time I'm in here, I have other fish to fry right now:

You have to rotate the wheel until the slot and tab line up:

Then grease the cable mount:

And bolt it on:

Then reassemble the plastic in reverse order. Rich

[Bashan]

I installed the battery cutoff switch I got from Auto Weinie. I mounted it to the cowling under the seat by using zip ties:

Inside view:

When you turn the red key and take it out it shuts off all the power which is confirmed when the clock goes out:

The switch cuts the ground which is just as effective as the positive side. The top of the battery looks better without that cheap switch on it:

It looks like I'll be riding every work day for about a week, it's supposed to be dry and warm. I should really rack up some miles on this puppy. Rich

[justdon]

You do a good job of explaining things and posting pics showing what you do.I don't own one but thanks for the info it will help somebody alot.The more i see yours the more i want one..

[terrdnf]

I like that couch er scooter!! Rich you document your articles super! hope the weathers good this week for ya! stay safe
terry

[Bashan]

Well here I am at 3,000 miles and I need a tire and an oil change:

The rear tire may not look that bad in this pic but if you look carefully you'll see the center tread is just about down to zip:

I've read a lot of crap from "experts" on the forums that say this scooter runs through rear tires in a 1,000 miles because of the 10" wheel. What a load of crap and I'm kinda mad at myself for almost believing them up to this point. Most motorcycles I've ridden will go through tires in 3 to 5K so this is perfectly acceptable. Also, this scooter does not have the overheating issues I've read about. It's been triple digits down here in 'Bama and the temp gauge remains two bars below the red range. So much for negative urban myths about the CF Moto fashion.

First off I did the oil change and found a small mass of dark material:

On the oil change 500 miles ago there was a lot more of that crap. I figured out that it is gasket residue from the part that spans across the open area of the case. I don't know why they leave this part on, it serves no purpose. If you're rebuilding an engine cut it off. Change your oil often on a new engine to catch this in case it disintegrates. I'm sure I've got the bulk of it now and doubt I'll see any more.

I've never taken the rear wheel off of a CF 250 and had heard it was a real nightmare....again, urban myth. First, put the scooter on the Harbor Freight lift, best investment I ever made:

The muffler is a solid piece of iron and I get the feeling it's a structural component. To remove it you've got four bolts around the muffler and two on the exhaust bracket:

The swing arm is loose with the muffler off so use an impact to get the 24mm axle lock nut off:

With the swing arm off the collar is revealed:

Pull the wheel off and go get a new tire put on:

I found a great shop in Calera Alabama not far from me. Ken Wood owns 2n4 Wheels and services/sells ATVs and scooters....and just about anything else you could put a wrench on.

While I was there shooting the breeze with him a guy stuck his head in and thanked him for getting his Gold Wing running. Ken sold me a Pirelli and put it on at a geat price.

So inspect the brake pads and put some grease on the axle:

You'll want to clean the lock nut and threads with brake cleaner and keep the grease off of them:

Wheel:

Collar:

Swing arm:

And torque the axle nut to.....mumble mumble,.....impact...mumble. I know, I know....shut up.

Bolt the muffler on:

I hope this helps if someone needs to change a tire on a Helix clone. Rich

[jct842]

ure wish I had bought one of them instead of the damn majesty I got stuck with. When they run they are great but to get parts is a nightmare. And then there is the crap plastic tupperware that takes an hour and a half to get off to see where the engine is! A helix or it clone is the only way to go if you want to ride on a highway. john

[cookees]

....dem power tools sure does help!!!

( BTW GREAT POST)