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Post by JR on Sept 23, 2014 13:14:53 GMT -6
Too bad i read the whole thread on the cf and looks to be a nice long term bike,,, Too bad they don't hold up to riding the piss out of them in the southern heat either! I know a fellow who is still trying to put his back together to .......uh sell? 
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Post by cyborg on Sept 23, 2014 21:02:28 GMT -6
SSSSSHHHH !!! JR you'll wake him up,,,,,,
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Post by Bashan on Sept 24, 2014 18:30:17 GMT -6
Yes it's true, the Fashion finally broke down under my repeated 70 MPH blasts to work and back. I blew a head gasket and oil got into the coolant. I put a new gasket on and am still trying to get the timing right. I will post some pics when I get that straightened out. Time will tell if I fixed the problem or not.
For those that don't know, I ride 42 miles to work, and 42 miles back. I started out riding the Fashion pretty conservatively. But it held up so well I started pressing the envelope. This is a scooter designed for 60 to 65 MPH and I ended up pushing it to 70 to 75 MPH. That was my bad. At one point I had a funny feeling that something was going south and pulled the oil filter. This is what I found:
This is something that I've talked about before. What you see in the filter basket is the desicated residue of the gasket that stretches across the case, It hangs in space and serves no function. In my case it plugged up the oil supply and I feel that is what led to the demise of my engine. Was this my fault? Yeah, I pushed it beyond it's design limits. Could the manufacturer have avoided this with a little extra time and money? Yep. But I can't blame the bike, I hammered it mercilessly.
In the spirit of full disclosure some of you may remember a thread in the 250 section about me working on a neighbor's bike that had oil in the coolant. Well that was my Fashion. I wanted to post about what happened for the forum but I was embarrassed that I blew my bike up. I lied, I am sorry. I had every intention of coming back after I got it running and telling you how I messed up but fixed it. It took MUCH longer than I thought and it was one of those things that just seem to slip away from you. That is no excuse, I still lied to you all and I am deeply sorry.
What's in store for the remnants of the Fashion? I plan on building a stripped down Madd Maxx bike with no plastic. I want to have road warrior type lights mounted front and back and a gravity feed gas delivery with an aluminum tank. Yep, Frankie's tank, he's headed for the bone pile.
The Fashion was a great bike for almost 10K but I beat it into the ground. If I had rode it like it was meant to be ridden it would still be plodding along. The SYM seems to be holding up to 75 and 80 MPH runs to work and eating up the miles. Time will tell on that. Maybe I need a motorcycle again. Cyborg is trying to talk me into an Indian Scout. It wouldn't take much talking, they are purdy. Rich
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Post by JR on Sept 24, 2014 19:54:07 GMT -6
Yes it's true, the Fashion finally broke down under my repeated 70 MPH blasts to work and back. I blew a head gasket and oil got into the coolant. I put a new gasket on and am still trying to get the timing right. I will post some pics when I get that straightened out. Time will tell if I fixed the problem or not.
For those that don't know, I ride 42 miles to work, and 42 miles back. I started out riding the Fashion pretty conservatively. But it held up so well I started pressing the envelope. This is a scooter designed for 60 to 65 MPH and I ended up pushing it to 70 to 75 MPH. That was my bad. At one point I had a funny feeling that something was going south and pulled the oil filter. This is what I found:
This is something that I've talked about before. What you see in the filter basket is the desicated residue of the gasket that stretches across the case, It hangs in space and serves no function. In my case it plugged up the oil supply and I feel that is what led to the demise of my engine. Was this my fault? Yeah, I pushed it beyond it's design limits. Could the manufacturer have avoided this with a little extra time and money? Yep. But I can't blame the bike, I hammered it mercilessly.
In the spirit of full disclosure some of you may remember a thread in the 250 section about me working on a neighbor's bike that had oil in the coolant. Well that was my Fashion. I wanted to post about what happened for the forum but I was embarrassed that I blew my bike up. I lied, I am sorry. I had every intention of coming back after I got it running and telling you how I messed up but fixed it. It took MUCH longer than I thought and it was one of those things that just seem to slip away from you. That is no excuse, I still lied to you all and I am deeply sorry.
What's in store for the remnants of the Fashion? I plan on building a stripped down Madd Maxx bike with no plastic. I want to have road warrior type lights mounted front and back and a gravity feed gas delivery with an aluminum tank. Yep, Frankie's tank, he's headed for the bone pile.
The Fashion was a great bike for almost 10K but I beat it into the ground. If I had rode it like it was meant to be ridden it would still be plodding along. The SYM seems to be holding up to 75 and 80 MPH runs to work and eating up the miles. Time will tell on that. Maybe I need a motorcycle again. Cyborg is trying to talk me into an Indian Scout. It wouldn't take much talking, they are purdy. RichCyborg is trying to talk me into an Indian Scout What?
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Post by Bashan on Sept 24, 2014 20:26:54 GMT -6
Jack, find me an 1,100cc Harley that has 100HP and is under $11,000 and I will...uh....consider it.... 
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Post by cyborg on Sept 24, 2014 22:21:09 GMT -6
I must confess too,,, I lied also,,, in reality I'm a really ugly chick with a beard and deep voice,,,,,,,,, that likes chicks lol
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Post by tdi on Sept 25, 2014 1:37:36 GMT -6
I feel bad for you and your Fashion Bashan (boy i love that uggly outdated design)
Anyway i am sure you will get over it and make it better than new. Good luck!
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Post by kz1000st on Sept 25, 2014 5:22:29 GMT -6
Spare me. Given the climate at the time, a little lying was par for the course. Everybody did it.
I could have told Rich it would happen but I would have sounded like a Know-it-All. You see, many years ago there was a guy named Jim63 who bought a Roketa MC54-250B to commute 90 miles round trip in the chilly climate of the Pacific Northwest. He rode on Interstates every day and racked up something like 12,000 miles in less than a year. As an Aircraft Mechanic he thought he was beyond the laws of Physics and common sense and used the thing like a Gold Wing but spent every weekend wrenching on it.
One day he saw a giant white cloud in his rear view mirror coming from his exhaust. By the time he got home he had no coolant in his radiator and the scoot wasn't running quite right. The casting in his cylinder head had failed, all his water had drained into the engine scouring the piston,rings and cylinder so the entire top end was junk. After months of trying to secure the parts he gave up, sold it as a fixxer upper, bought an SYM RV-250 and never looked back. His mantra after that was, "I'm so glad I own a Brand Name scooter." and he happily put over 30,000 miles on it before he switched to a big Kawasaki for the daily commute.
These things have limits. When I ride I hover around 60 mph. Even the guys at the Helix forum say the same thing, "58 to 62 is their sweet spot". If a Honda Helix, way better built than mine, is happy there who am I to argue? I've had one mechanical failure in 10,000 miles and I don't see any reason why mine won't last a good long time.
If I pushed the 250 or 150 all day, day after day, they'd blow. It's a fact of life. Rich and Jim63 are proof.
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Post by JR on Sept 26, 2014 11:00:27 GMT -6
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Post by cyborg on Sept 27, 2014 6:58:38 GMT -6
Let me get this straight JR,,,, you got this thing going for harleys?,,,I can't tell
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Post by richardv on Sept 27, 2014 8:01:10 GMT -6
JR is just playing mind games, me thinks.  |
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Post by JR on Sept 27, 2014 13:25:37 GMT -6
Personally I've never owned a Harley, have rode a bunch of them and I really don't have a real desire to own one with the exception of some of the old classics and then for show and not for riding.
What gets me more than anything is the folks who for whatever reason seem to think they'll fade out and ride off into the sunset and be history like some other machines of the past. My wife and I just got back from a nice scooter ride, we intended to go for a 3 hour ride to a lake we love but our plans got changed and we went on a nice little ride to a fall car show up on the mountain by where we live.
While there motorcycles of all kinds came and went, need to understand this is one of the prettiest and most desirable places for bikers to ride. Nothing for me to see packs of motorcycles coming down the road on a pretty day like this numbering in the hundreds sometimes. Today I would be safe to say that out of 10 bikes 8 were Harleys so somebody still likes them, they have went from all stages of sales and changes over their storied history and are still here over 100 years later.
Like them or love them that record speaks for itself and they have earned the title of American Legend.
JR
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Post by JR on Sept 27, 2014 13:43:08 GMT -6
Spare me. Given the climate at the time, a little lying was par for the course. Everybody did it. I could have told Rich it would happen but I would have sounded like a Know-it-All. You see, many years ago there was a guy named Jim63 who bought a Roketa MC54-250B to commute 90 miles round trip in the chilly climate of the Pacific Northwest. He rode on Interstates every day and racked up something like 12,000 miles in less than a year. As an Aircraft Mechanic he thought he was beyond the laws of Physics and common sense and used the thing like a Gold Wing but spent every weekend wrenching on it. One day he saw a giant white cloud in his rear view mirror coming from his exhaust. By the time he got home he had no coolant in his radiator and the scoot wasn't running quite right. The casting in his cylinder head had failed, all his water had drained into the engine scouring the piston,rings and cylinder so the entire top end was junk. After months of trying to secure the parts he gave up, sold it as a fixxer upper, bought an SYM RV-250 and never looked back. His mantra after that was, "I'm so glad I own a Brand Name scooter." and he happily put over 30,000 miles on it before he switched to a big Kawasaki for the daily commute. These things have limits. When I ride I hover around 60 mph. Even the guys at the Helix forum say the same thing, "58 to 62 is their sweet spot". If a Honda Helix, way better built than mine, is happy there who am I to argue? I've had one mechanical failure in 10,000 miles and I don't see any reason why mine won't last a good long time. If I pushed the 250 or 150 all day, day after day, they'd blow. It's a fact of life. Rich and Jim63 are proof. Remember Jim's sad BS story well, bottom line he didn't know what he was doing in the first place, ordered the wrong parts two times because he didn't know how to measure a piston and blamed his ignorance on the Chinese scooter, how many times has that been done.
Also as far as Jim was concerned yea he never looked back and for a long time was alive and well on the Sym forum.
symforum.com/index.php?topic=2298.msg15668#msg15668
Happily put 30k on it? Easy to do with a parts bike to help. I do remember the always throwing the crap in other people's faces on old Dawg after he stepped into high cotton with the name brand scooter. Read how much he loved his $5000 a piece syms after getting the shaft put in him by a dealer. Notice he never mentioned that on Dawg either.
Also he rides a Goldwing now.
JR
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Post by kz1000st on Sept 27, 2014 14:00:57 GMT -6
No matter. The 54B failed. Badly. Same as Rich's. What happened after that becomes Window Dressing.
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Post by JR on Sept 27, 2014 14:53:29 GMT -6
No matter. The 54B failed. Badly. Same as Rich's. What happened after that becomes Window Dressing. But he got 12k out of it riding the piss out of it 90 miles one way a day and paid under $2k and in 2011 he paid $10k for two new Syms and with 15k one was done and it cost him $200 to get the news. They wanted $3500 just for a engine on it and $2k to rebuild it so all that BS put a dent in the higher priced better than the cheap Chinese junk theory now didn't it?
I remember listening to the better than thou crap on dawg but for sure he didn't want to face a plate of crow later. Now on all of this I'm not saying Sym is a bad scooter, just saying that they fail too and the difference between the two? The $10k was an expensive lesson. He could have got 30k on two 250B's for less than $4k.
JR
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