building a "better than Yamaha quality" scooter.  By  ccr (Read 2,744 times)

ccr,

Welcome to the site, AND, absolutely have a bone for your hard work!

You're doing some fabulous custom work on the scooter. It would seem that it might be more time and cost-efficient to simply search out another scooter with low miles to replace it, but I suspect you REALLY enjoy the engineering aspect of your build, to the extent that you'd rather "make your own" than just buy something else. And THAT is more than OK! A lot of us are that way... LOL!

Your drawing of how the scooter may look is VERY impressive! Hope Yamaha sees this and offers you some freelance work in their styling department!

I know very little about Taiwan except that I absolutely LOVE my old Kymco Grandvista (Grand Dink elsewhere) 250. It seems to me that Taiwan-made scooters offer SUPERB quality and reliability.

Please do keep us posted on your build! It will surely be an inspiration for many of us who hesitate to perform major work on our own rides!

Also, please keep us posted on what living in Taiwan is like! It looks like a very nice place, even though it obviously has scooter-thieves just like here in America... LOL!

Whatever you're riding/driving until you finish the Yamaha, best wishes from Texas!

Leo in Texas

Well, its been almost a year, and its time for an update.
The lack of funds has made me have to make difficult cutbacks on this project.
But I will strive to complete this bike before September.
So watch this space!!!
firstly
I have decided to reduce the engine size to a mere 130ccs and the cylinder head to only a 2valver.
the cylinder is a 55mm watercooled aluminium casting. i was not happy with the 1mm thick skirt at the bottom, cut to fit the factory bore of the case.
see example:

so i bored out the case and lathed out the original cylinder liner!
This presented another problem. as the liner did not sit perfectly central in the casting. further cutting had to be done and then an even thicker liner had to be inserted.

the block was placed in an autoclave (a mans oven for cooking with metal) until it had expanded enough to allow the liner to fit.
then it was cooled slowly over the course of about 3 hours to allow the aluminium to shrink around the liner without cracking or deformation. as with all block to liner mating, the liner will end up slightly off center and so its better to bore the liner to spec after its been mated. so all bored out and mated together honed and ready to roll.


sorry, am i boring you?

next update coming soon.