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The Things I've Learned:
Restrictions: There were no restrictions on my bike, but I hear about a lot of them being all over the place. First there's something in the carb that restricts fuel deliver, there are restrictions in the airbox that reduce the air you take in reducing speed, then there's a washer in the variator preventing the belt from riding high, then there can be restrictions in the exhaust such as a washer welded on to prevent you from reaching your top speed. Remember to try to stay within the confines of the law when thinking about your speed. Illinois requires a class L license for anything that goes over 30mph.
Valves: Valve Adjustment is crucial! When you get your scooter initially the valves are extremely tight more than likely and this causes plenty of problems, making your scooter hard to start and reducing performance while making it unable to maintain idle, and dying, etc.! Adjust your valves to .003 in, .004 out if you have a scooter like mine.
Oil: Oil is as important as it is in a car, you can't have too little, and too much is bad too. When you first get your bike you need to use that dinosaur based oil and after 2k miles or so it's allowable to use synthetic oil.
Gear Oil: Gear Oil is important too! Without it you risk seizing your engine or something I guess. High quality gear oil will also increase your performance a bit over the stock junk that comes inside your scooter from China.
Idle Adjustment: You want to have your idle high enough that your headlights don't dim and low enough that your back tire doesn't spin. It's a difficult balancing act for a newb, and your A/F adjustment will mess with your idle too if it's off by too much.
A/F Adjustment: Your air fuel ratio is apparently crucial to the engine. Too much fuel won't do much damage unless you're off by quite a bit, but too much air makes your engine run too hot risking all sorts of damage. If you have a freeflow filter you will not be able to adjust the A/F properly if you have a stock idle jet, you will need to restrict your air intake enough that you're not getting too much air. An idle jet of 38 should fix this.
Air Filter: Your air filter is an airbox when your scooter comes stock. This airbox is designed entirely to restrict air in a very specific way so as not to deliver too much air to the scooter. It is there to prevent damage, but it can also reduce performance in some cases, such as after installing a big bore kit. My airbox was damaged which caused me to have to replace it with a freeflow filter which was cheaper than replacing the stock box. The freeflow filter gave me nothing but trouble until my problems were identified at the cycle mechanic. My filter had to be taped in order to resemble the restrictions on the airbox so as not to deliver too much air during idle. Until I got my 38 jet I had to run my scooter with a ghetto-taped filter just in order to run.
The Battery: You want a decent sized battery. A flatout replacement for your stock is NOT good enough! You need something with more amperage, learn from my mistake. I can't even have a stereo plugged in without the battery draining on the way to the store. This also has to do with your stator being able to supply enough voltage and your idle being high enough not to discharge the battery.
Clutch Springs: Clutch springs come in three non-uniform varieties from each brand. there are 1k, 1.5k, and 2k, plus others. Each number represents the additional RPMs that your clutch should engage at. I installed 2k springs in my clutch so that my takeoff acceleration would be much better, the only thing it restricts is how slow you can go. Too tight of springs may mean you can only go 10mph or higher. If you want to keep your low end speeds and you're satisfied with your takeoff then there isn't really a need to change them. I just really like my better takeoff.
Variator Weights: I've learned a lot from messing around with my variator weights, and I would highly reccomend you buy yourself a kit of sorts to test out the different combinations until you find your perfect match. These really depend on your location, the roads you take, your weight, and other variables such as how fast you want your topend to be versus how fast you want your acceleration. There are Rollers and Sliders, stock scooters normally come with rollers, and they come in a variety of weights. Sliders, especially Dr. Pulley sliders, advertise higher topend and faster acceleration in general, however you need to add an additional 1g to equal the same weight of rollers. You will need a gram scale in order to weigh the ones that come with your scoot. The ones that came in mine were 6.5g. I myself found the perfect balance at 6.5g in the form of sliders, which is the equivalent of 5.5g rollers. Your variator weights are crucial in finding your optimal performance.
CDI: I don't know much about the CDI, but I do know that stock ones often come with a restriction which causes your scooter to be unable to reach its highest rpms. A high performance cdi removes this restriction and offers a better rpm range for better acceleration and top speed.
Re-Jetting: Rejetting is difficult and time consuming and requires you to take apart your carburetor multiple times. First you have to buy a range of sizes of jets, then you have to do what is called a plug chop every time you install a new jet. This indicates whether you go higher or lower in jet number. My main jet is 85 due to the free flow filter, my idle jet is 38, again, due to the free flow filter. My stock should have been somewhere around 78 main and 35 idle. Rejetting to the perfect size is very much worth the trouble because you get better performance, gas mileage, and longevity out of your scooter. Having the wrong jet size can severely impact performance and longevity.
P! Sticker: Possibly more crucial than a gremlin bell, this sticker is from the Anime show FLCL and stands for "the pillows" an amazing Japanese rock band.
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