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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 18, 2011 18:37:10 GMT -6
When I look at those trunks, I want to pack them full of underwear and go for a weekend away.
I could have driven all day today. Especially when it costs less less than 10 bucks to fill up.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 18, 2011 18:35:02 GMT -6
Was an awesome day up here today. High 60's, low 70's. Blue sky. Wish I had a helmet cam - spectacular views of the mountains and lake today.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 18, 2011 18:23:17 GMT -6
I just came in from a 2+hr drive on the new Sunny Helix. I'm going to do a new thread on a JCL 250b and this Helix clone comparison. Short story, likely selling the better looking JCL and keeping the Helix. I basically put gas in it and drove 95 miles for the ceremonial first ride in the Helix. I am still trying to get the JCL to start cold and run properly, then I'll need to look at the vibration is has now at 50mph on the chinometer. Sunny Helix has some build quality issues, not entirely worse than the JCL, just different. Frame paint is probably the biggest; Sunny thumbs down, JCL thumbs up. I rerouted most of the wiring on the JCL for my own piece of mind, but the Sunny required it. Some stuff that would get chafed or cut after a while. The guy that put his scoot on my bill, cut/wore his rear light wiring harness that I had to fix, remember? Mine was actually tied up with a harness clip and screwed into the tail light housing - however in the infinite Chinese wisdom, they chose to run the last length over the back wheel. Mine was up and over the heat shield, but still able to make contact with the rear wheel in extreme bottom-out conditions. The suspension is not Cadillac-like, it is worn out 1970 Buick Lesabre-like; no shocks. On a bend with a whoopdee-doo at approx 50mph, the wallowy suspension sends you into a little speed-wobble. But the rest of the time its smooth - tires likely helping that. Tires are quiet - JCL sounds like snow tires. ***** You don't counter steer - you can pretty much steer it like a snowmobile - turn the direction you want to go. Not sure why, but completely different steering characteristics than the JCL. Speedo seems farther out than the JCL. We did a 73 mile run that showed as 131 miles on the chinometer. Seat is softer on the Helix. That foot brake is hard to get used to. My foot sits beside it fairly well, though I still find it in the way. The rubber foot mats stay put though they look like that they aren't in place because the nibs don't sit well in the holes. The mirrors vibrate like hell, pretty much useless except to tell that something it behind you. They are mounted on the front cowl. Mirrors on the JCL are much better for vibration on the handle bars. The Helix mirrors have turn signals on the front of them. Also has a spoiler with an LED brake light across it. Can't see the odometer unless you stand up. Not that it matters since its clocking almost twice as much as it should. No clock/date display. Speedometer and turn signal indicators are easier to see on the Helix then the JCL. No tach. No radio. But more dedicated aftermarket parts for the Helix that you can imagine. No trip meter. Dash lights are extremely dull. Not sure why they put the effort into these 2 lights on the bottom corners of the dash - "FATTEN" - wth does that mean?? With the lower trunk and upper trunk, way more storage space then the JCL. Saw lots of Harley tours today. They look at the JCL and ask what it is cuz it looks like it's a bike. People look at the Helix and they know right away its a scooter. I wanted the JCL to be the better scoot - I've worked more on it than driven it. The Helix was a gas-n-go so far. I'll tear it down more and improve paint and finish when the weather turns worse, but for now I can drive it and the JCL won't start and doesn't run well when it does start. You be the judge Attachments:
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 17, 2011 13:59:39 GMT -6
I let it run until the fan came on, pulled it out and it was clearly extended. I guess I was checking it too soon before and didn't see it extended.
I can push them in about 1/4" when cold and retracted.
I'll have to wait till tonight for it to cool down now and see how it starts. I adjusted the air fuel ending up about 1/4 turn out farther than it was. It was out about 2 full turns originally.
But what ever changed after the first few days maybe more of the issue. My idle is up and down, not smooth no matter where I adjust the air fuel screw. Seems to run ok down the road though. I'll see what happens tonight and tomorrow for cold starting and idling.
Thanks for your help
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 17, 2011 12:02:17 GMT -6
2007 JCL 250b First few days when new it started right up cold, idled high, came down slow. Gradually it would not start cold anymore, hot is fine. When I do get it started after about 5mins of trying, there is no high idle anymore. Not sure though if that could be because of it being heated up while trying to start for so long. I figured enricher for sure anyway. Had one delivered, pin is in the exact same position as mine - extended I believe. When cold, should I be able to push the pin in against the spring, or should it be retracted fully when cold? I pulled it out of the carb today and it started right up. New one and my old original do not make a difference. When I pull it out hot, it's in the same position it was in when cold, so logic tells me it doesn't do anything, brand new. Old one is on the right, new one on the left Attachments:
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 16, 2011 18:35:29 GMT -6
aaaarrrrggg
I deleted what I wrote. Better not get political here on my "friend" from 'Pakistan'.
They just don't get it - put way more effort into how to rip people off rather than make an effort to get along and go with the flow.
Jeff - I can PM you that whole story. Makes me want to grab my small sledge and break crap
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 16, 2011 16:01:13 GMT -6
Doing 40-45mph thru a stupid confusing intersection in town on the way home, both hands on both brakes. I'm on the hwy, cross traffic has stop signs.
White pickup waiting to make a right turn in front of me. Grey Infinity waiting on the left to come out on front of me. Steady traffic in both my direction and opposite direction.
White pickup coming from the right lurches out then stops - I'm looking right at him.
Grey Infinity on the left sees a small break in my oncoming traffic - squeals out across the intersection to turn left in front of me.
Split second for my brakes - I squeal a bit and move over near the shoulder to be beside him.
In a second he goes from burning out to burning in - sees me beside him and nails the brakes and steers into the oncoming traffic. Nice maneuver buddy.
I never stopped, still moving, but let him get back into my lane and out of harms way. Then he nails it again to get back in front of me and out of oncoming traffic.
Few hundred feet later he pulls off the road on the shoulder - I guess to clean his pants. I carry on home another mile, pour a whiskey and cranberry and go check the hot tub.
I didn't feel threatened in the least even though I squealed down from 40+ to about 10mph. I wouldn't really call it a close call because I was in complete control, even though this guy made a boo-boo and pulled out essentially right beside me smoking his tires.
But had this been a Monday after work, maybe I wouldn't have been on the ball quite as much - like I said before - stuff happens. I'm capable of being on the ball and controlling a situation, I'm also capable of having a hard day at work and thinking about the butt-head that still owes me $1500 for his scooter that I "helped" him buy and hasn't paid for - while I'm going thru a busy intersection.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 16, 2011 10:49:39 GMT -6
his bike may need more oil in the front shocks. Maybe - but the first thing his bike needs is someone else to do the work ;D I'm dying to get into my yellow Helix clone this weekend and see if its a little better. Regardless I'm not overly impressed with my JCL 250b so far. Seems like these Helix clones ran much better out of the box. I'm still farting around trying to get the 250b starting cold properly. Buddy here is riding his Helix clone everyday with no issues other than hanging wires that should have been corrected at PDI had he performed one.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 15, 2011 10:47:19 GMT -6
Forgot to mention that his fan will stay on if it was cycling when you shut down, unless you take the key out, then it shuts the fan off. I like that. My JCL doesn't do that and I think about it everytime I shut it down when the fan is cycling. I think it should run for a minute if it was on, to help at least get some of the hot air out.
Also noticed he has bottomed out the front wheel on the lower cover. The suspension on the Helix clone is Cadillac soft-like. My JCL doesn't move. Not nice or safe on bad bumps. Not sure if all JCL 250's are all like mine. However if the Helix suspension is bottoming out easily from new, that is an issue too.
I'm starting to think his bike is a return. Something just seems very different in quality compared to my yellow one that was shipped at the same time. Again, I'll give better details when I get into mine in case anyone is interested in picking one up.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 15, 2011 10:23:10 GMT -6
I don't know what your scooter looks like but I am just wondering if you could do a simply modification. Of course head on air flow is always going to be stronger then a diverted air flow. However, if your head on flow is being restricted by the screen then maybe a diverted flow would actually be better and prevent stone damage. What I am thinking is to creat a box in front of the radiator using the screen as a front. But allow about an inch or so between the screen and the actual frount of the radiator. This would allow for air flow from both sides, top and bottom plus through the screen. I would think this would compensate for the screen blockage. OK, now tell me that's how you already have it...LOL Bob No fancy install right now. I cut it to fit behind the black plastic shroud behind the front wheel, pulled the edges out around and then screwed the lower side panels and faring back on thru the black plastic shroud. The screen is basically up tight against the black plastic shroud, not touching the rad. I considered the size of mesh but maybe still went too small. Thanks for the idea. I'll probably put more effort into it in the spring. Soon it'll be keeping the salt and snow out
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 13, 2011 19:05:28 GMT -6
OK - for anyone following or interested in this style, I got a couple more notes. As I stated I above, I had a torn wiring harness on the other guy's Helix-wanna-be to repair. Turns out it didn't wrap around the wheel. It was routed under the fender and sitting ontop of the wheel. It wore until all 5 wires broke into 2 pieces. Now, how did we miss this? 1) I wanted him to go thru his bike and check for bad stuff - he had not intention, everything is ok until it breaks 2) The majority of the rear wheel on these styles is hidden The lowest I got on Saturday was on one knee to show him how to drain the oil. I didn't look at anything unfortunately, but as this relationship seems to be going, I would have had less trouble if I had have seen the poorly routed harness first off and zip tied it up before the damage happened. However, last night I walked over to my yellow Helix and the same wires are properly routed up and over a rear cover. So he got a dud in that area. But it still goes like snot. Can't believe how good it is running. Also noticed that the side stand cuts the engine off and can't be started when down - like it should. And it has a red Stand light that comes on the dashboard. My JCL side stand doesn't affect anything and I can start it with the remote while on the side stand. There is no left hand rear brake lever. Starting with the right hand on the button and pulling the front brake lever with the same hand can be awkward. However if you get in the habit of using the foot brake on the right floor panel, it frees up your right hand for the starter button. It does take a bit of getting used to that right side foot brake. Just not a normal thing on a bike. ***** I find you are restricted in your footing because of the foot brake. I can place my feet high in the foot wells and sit back on my JCL. Can't do that with these Helix types. So anyone that wants to get one will really need to do an extensive PDI. I have no problem with it. It's annoying to see stupid stuff like that, but I'd rather have the extra 5g's in my pocket and buy a pack of zip ties, tube of silicone, dielectric grease etc. I'll fill you in more on what to look for on this style and how they are running as the details come in. Attachments:
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 13, 2011 18:39:12 GMT -6
Honestly it does sound like the screen is having an effect. The faster your running the engine the more air moement it needs over the coil. So the fact it is working fine when idleing leads me to believe it is the screen. As I think I said I have ridden at 60+ MPH in 90+ heat and the fan always cycled on/off. Due to the colder weather you may want to just waittill next summer. But eventually I would recommend you try removing the screen as a test. I have heard of some scooter models having a problem funneling the air properly over the coil from the fan. So if the screen removal doesn't solve it I'd take a look at how the air is moving over the coil. Bob As much as I want to take it out and see if it makes a difference, I think I'll leave it now as you say because today is supposed to be the last warm day this yr. It's capable of cycling and maintaining middle of the gauge, so if it has to stay on then I agree it must be compensating for the screen. Spring time will tell I guess, unless we get some awesome days this fall.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 13, 2011 18:27:05 GMT -6
WOW grocerygetter, you are willing to put up with a lot more crap from assholes than me. Simply explain, that your time is yours. If he would like to purchase some time for you to look at his scooter, that can be arranged, and that it is time plus materials, no negotiations on material cost or parts. Especially since he refuses to work on it himself. Time costs $100.00 per hour. Or he can drop it off at the motorcycle shop across town somewhere. The person sounds like a leech. BTW - will you fix his car for free, it likely needs an oil change, his toilet is likely stopped up because he is so full of crap, and his lawn likely needs to be cut since he is lazy. I don't want to come across as a smartass, but sometimes you just have to draw a line. Thanks for the humor - I need it! BTW I'm getting that stuff at work all day too! I've got a hard road ahead of me getting this guy to become more independent.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 12, 2011 11:08:15 GMT -6
Finally closed the dispute with PowersportsMax and got one of the 2 Sunny / Helix clones out of my garage. Long story on why its fall now and I'm only getting to these, I won't get into that here.
The burgundy one was purchased for someone else, the yellow one was for me. The other fellow isn't too good at turning a wrench unfortunately, had I known the level of his capability and desire I wouldn't have gotten involved with him. He doesn’t want to do any of the work himself. I have enough of my own stuff to do, so I tried to guide him thru and gave him use of my garage and tools, but he didn’t even want to change his own oil or fuel filter.
Anyway I'm still not completely into a full PDI on these yet because of his lack of interest but the little I helped him with still reinforces the poor build quality I stated in my above post. I'll have more details when I get into my yellow one.
However - after dumping the acid packs into the battery, letting it sit for an hour, fueled it up, and it started reasonably after a few cranks. Idled low so I turned it up a few 100 rpm. Ran smooth, quiet. Took it out after it reached temp and checked for any odd feeling at low speed, then nailed it a few times and bedded the brakes in. zips to 40mph like no ones business – I’m really impressed with the pickup and performance initially, we’ll see if it holds up.
My initial feeling is that I like it better than my JCL. The JCL tires are nasty - howl like winter tires, hard like solid rubber. The JCL shorter wheel base and slightly higher center of gravity make it slightly harder to do slow turns; the Sunny Helix feels completely comfortable making slow turns in our dead end.
The seat on the Sunny is softer than the JCL and fits better. The Sunny seat is like boat-seat pleather - the JCL is like hard corduroy. The trunk space is far more than a normal scooter - you have the large trunk behind the seat, then the large one on top. However the top rack trunks on both his burgundy one and my yellow one, were either warped in packaging/shipping or factory seconds. They are requiring some work to make them close. We cannot latch them shut and they require a good shove sideways to even get the opening to line up.
The trunk on the JCL was painted better and closes with no issue. His burgundy one had the rubber gasket partially glued around the trunk opening, and it was nasty – stretched over a corner missing it, not seated along the edge; someone who could care less if they worked there. Fortunately my yellow one went down the assembly line and got missed by the glue demon - I siliconed my own gasket on centered and straight. The JCL came with the gasket loose in the trunk as well and I siliconed that one on too.
The power is right there - I wouldn't touch a thing. My JCL needs something, chugs sometimes, doesn’t hold speed up large grades, and was assembled with no exhaust flange gasket at the head. I was trying to avoid the valve adjustment on my JCL for no good reason, thinking maybe mine would be the one that is set ok, but I'll have to get on that and see if the adjustment brings it back to the level of life I would expect out of it. And get the exhaust flange gasket.
He told me today he had it at 90mph on the hwy - of course it isn't doing that, not sure if he believes me or not. But that is out quite a bit more than I would have expected. From driving with the traffic on my JCL, the Chinometer doesn’t appear to be out as much as the Sunny – I’ll verify with the GPS soon.
I wasn't sure what to expect from the JCL being my first scooter, but after riding the Sunny Helix, I know my JCL needs some fine tuning. I have also developed a slight vibration at 55mph on the JCL.
His Sunny tires are much nicer, higher sidewall, softer rubber, normal looking tread and quiet. The Sunny rides smoother than the JCL for the little bit that I rode his, I'll have to do a longer run to be more accurate on that but I'm assuming the tires are making a big difference.
I am still excited to get into my yellow Sunny and do a full PDI and drive it before it gets too cold.
So as far as doing a proper PDI - the guy at work came in today with a slight problem. He tells me he's going to come by after work so I can see some wires hanging out the back, and his turn signals aren't working. Oh boy here we go. Somehow I have to get this guy to understand this is not my scooter, and he knows how intensely I went thru my JCL tearing it down to the frame and coating each wire connection and rerouting wires, zip tying and shortening vacuum lines etc. The Sunny looks like it requires at least that much attention, plus painting on the already rusty frame and I’m pretty sure a little more TLC than the JCL needed.
So without bending down to see what he has going on, I see the wiring harness has wrapped around the rear wheel and been pulled out - stranded frayed copper everywhere. He wants me to fix it. I'm assuming the light sockets are toast too. Guess I'll know more tonight. I'm positive it could have been completely avoided had he gone thru it like I told him.
None of these Chinese scoots should be considered 'plug n play', and he shouldn't own one. Or pay me $100 and I'll go thru it like it should be.
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Post by grocerygetter on Sept 12, 2011 8:03:18 GMT -6
On my Roketa 250 54B the fan cycled on/off no matter how hot the temp was outside or how fast I was riding. To be the fan should not be staying on all the time expecally at only 70 degrees. If you start the motor and let it sit and idle does it cycle on/off and control the emgine temp no matter how long you let it sit? Bob If i let it idle long enough from a cold start, the fan will cycle on and off. seems to maintain the gauge at the halfway mark, so the system appears to be keeping up. Just think it shouldn't be on all the time at higher speeds in cool weather. Coolant level is holding the same. I tipped it way over when i refilled during PDI. It made a difference and got a bunch more in after that. Not sure if it would still have an air lock though. What else would it be doing if in fact there was still air in there? I would think it wouldn't be maintaining temp constantly like it is. I'll remove the screen this week and see if that makes a difference. BTW it's cooling down fast up here, only in the 60's here the other day, and the fan did not come on at all, until i stopped in the driveway at home for a second before i shut it down. So everything seems consistant with outside temp.
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