Taotao Lancer & Powermax w/ a tall person

[cheapeto]

I would humbly suggest you take your states motorcycle safety course as a next step in your blooming scooter addiction man!! And get some good riding and falling down gear.
Enjoy that pony man!!

[feartheclown]

Some pics to end out this topic. My recommendation if you're tall is go for it. 6'5" with no problems. Passengers definitely a negative though.

[thumper650]

+1 for the M-cycle course. Took the both and it's saved my butt many times.

Also how do like your "Built" helmet. I have one and I hate it compared to my Shoei, I guess that's the diff between a $50 helmet and a $350 one.

[feartheclown]

I'm probably going to take the course once we have some consistently warm weather here.

In regard to the helmet i have nothing to compare it to. I will say once i hit 30mph i can definitely hear the wind pick up in the helmet. I probably would want something better if I was planning on doing some highway travel.

[thumper650]

Additionally the course might get you a break on insurance. If you don't already have a license, in MA at least, you don't have to bother with the registry test.

My Bilt helmet is very small on my head and sort of uncomfortable, by comparison. But on the plus side it's cheap so I don't mind if it gets scratched up or stolen. I lock it depending on the neighborhood I'm parked in.

Lets hope the weather warms up soon. !!

[feartheclown]

Hehe i was actually able to buy insurance for the whole year through progressive for $75. Getting it tagged was the expensive part, $140. Bastards do it on a set rate based on years tagged.

The major plus to the safety course is it waives the skills test for your license here in oklahoma.

Getting my license is priorty number 1 right now.

[feartheclown]

Well hopefully this isn't a bad sign. Hit about 70 kilometers on the bike. Needed to run about half a mile down the road to the store to grab a couple items, this start was the first time the bike had a hard time starting. Get to the store just fine. When I go to leave bike won't start! Won't start normally and won't kick start. Ruh roh.

So the fun begins. Before the battery was completely dead it sounded like the starter was turning over but the engine just wasn't going. So I think maybe the fuel filter we stuck on there was the problem. Put the original fuel filter on, same problem, I also learned that replacing the fuel filter with a full tank of gas is NOT awesome as I end up wearing some gasoline haha.

Next I decide to put back in the original spark plug. Same issue, won't start. I pull the fuel line going to the engine and fuel drips out. About 30 minutes deep at this point and pretty frustrated. So I take a deep breath, watch a youtube video about kickstarting(this is my first experience attempting to kickstart something) as the battery is completely dead so its my only option. So I decide to add some fuel throttle twist to my kickstarting and voila she starts up!

That was about a week ago. She's been only a kickstarting machine at this point. I also experienced a new issue which has led me to the conclusion I'm getting to as the root cause, I can no longer idle and not expect it to die. The only time it has died was luckily while I was getting gas and had just pulled away from the pump but was still in the parking lot. Since then I've been able to tickle the throttle to keep it from dieing when I'm stopped though it would definitely die otherwise as the RPMs slowly drop from the normal 17-1800ish we had it set at.

So far 2 symptoms, it will only start with a kickstart and it will die while idle. 3rd symptom: a coldstart takes about 10 minutes of playing with the throttle and kickstarting, once its warmed up though it will kickstart immediately.

Conclusion: I expected this around 1000 miles not 50, the valve needs to be adjusted. Appears to have all of the symptoms. Hopefully not a sign of future problems!

Edit: An interesting thing for sure, the bike definitely has a good look! Haven't driven it anywhere without someone asking me about the bike. Even had someone at a light start asking me where I got it and for how much and how much mileage it gets etc.

[cheapeto]

Damn, I really had hopes you would NOT run into these same issues I've been reading about for years now. Damn.

[kz1000st]

One of three things. Valves, bad gas from the station or the carburetor is loose on the intake manifold. Don't panic, it's probably something little.

[scooter]

I have the EVO 150. I'm 6' 220, 2k miles on it in a year and it's running great. Can't say enough about it. Moves me fine for my 45 mph commute every day. However just bought a 250 to see if I can cruise 60 to get out to my property I bought on the back country roads.

[rks]

Did you adjust the valves as part of the PDI? They won't go out of adjustment in 50 miles....unless you under or over tightened one of the adjuster retaining nuts.

Sounds like fuel air mix is way off. Like KZ said, big air leak somewhere. Check clamps on both sides of carb

As far as the stalling at idle....turn up the idle speed screw...see if that helps. Once you get it to run on it's own, adjust the a/f mixture screw.

[feartheclown]

I feel pretty confident it is the valves. I didn't do a valve adjustment as part of the pdi, the 1 i followed didn't say it was needed and the web resources i used that mentioned it at all said it would need to be done usually after the engine breakin.

Hose clamps are good, checked and double checked (tech support guy here so I'm well versed in troubleshooting and starting with the easiest stuff first, it's typically the answer haha!).

In regard to the air fuel adjustment, i feel like we achieved what needed to happen with it during the pdi which was after the engine was warm it would idle at 17-1800 rpms, back wheel turning forward at idle very slightly, and no choking or lack of power from the engine. These things are still persistent too.

So the bike right now has what i call a good idle and bad idle. When the throttle closes there are actually 3 behaviors, first is the rpms sit at 17-1800, after about 10 seconds they slowly drop and the scoot will die after about 30 seconds. The 2nd idle behavior is identical without the initial 10 seconds of normal idling. The 3rd is the bike will attempt to straight die out and make no attempt to idle at all.

The inconsistent behavior around going to idle is what makes me lean towards the valve adjustment and the fact that once it's moving it is still riding great.

Everything else you guys mentioned though well be checked out during that procedure too.

[scooter]

I'm sorry if you already mentioned this, but have you desmogged this and put good hoses on? The emissions is a joke, really. I wish I could have kept mine and I tried. But the crappy parts kept causing vacuum leaks. After removing it all I was able to tune it and it's very consistent. Plus at 70 MPG it's not like it's a major cause of pollution. But I would have liked to keep it. I had the float stick once when it had 200 miles on it. Not one problem in a year and 2k miles after that, knock on wood.

[rlshepard]

Hey feartheclown I think you're on the right track, I've got the same machine and had similar symptoms at about 700 miles. Hart start, inconsistent idle. Adjusted the valve clearance and whammo no when I tap the starter she running nice smooth idle at ~1800.

Another challenge I ran into was with the fuel evaporator, kept causing a vacuum in the fuel tank. Dang thing would die at 3/4 half a tank and not start until I poped off the fuel cap and let some air in. I just pulled it off and stuck it in my tool box. problem solved

[Gene563]

Feather,
When you were going over your scoot, doing the PDI, did you happen to notice 2 wires (Green & White/Black) and a connector in around the battery compartment?
I just received my Lancer yesterday and started going through it and I saw the connector I described, but don't know if it has a purpose. Furthermore, in a Youtube video on PDI, the guy had an issue with the same wires (no connector, though) and he tracked them back and cut them off.
I will probably just tuck them under for the time being until I find out more.
BTW, how do you like the bike? I'm anxious to get out on mine, but that will be a while yet.

Thanks,
Gene