Post by gitsum on May 9, 2013 14:22:37 GMT -5
I sold my SYM HD 200 EVO and bought a Tomos Nitro 150 
A lot of people thought I was crazy, but there were two reasons I felt were well worth the trade off.
First: getting SYM parts is extremely difficult and expensive, the HD 200 uses a heavily modified 4-valve water cooled GY6 engine and almost all parts are proprietary.
Second: The HD 200 was a fantastic cruiser/tourer. My wife and I put 5000 miles cruising two-up all over Arizona and New Mexico. Sometimes we would cruise at 65mph for hours at a time, short stints on the interstate at 75mph were doable. But were the pavement ended, so did the fun. The HD 200's suspension was on the stiff side, it has a very high center of gravity, it's not really light weight at 297lbs, and the 16" tires were relatively narrow (especially the front) feeling nervous and slippery on anything not paved except hard packed dirt. I couldn't even find any dual sport tires in the sizes I needed.
I gambled on the Tomos Nitro (made by SYM) hoping that it would fare better on dirt roads. Through research I already new it was a generic GY6 (157QMJ) and parts were universal and abundant. The very first day we rode it we ended up on a relatively decent dirt road and we were very pleasantly surprised. Even with 12" wheels vs. the HD 200's 16" the ride was much smoother. Ground clearance was good for a scooter and it seemed to have a little more suspension travel that was more compliant. The lighter weight (55lbs less), much lower center of gravity, and wider tires made it feel secure and planted when cruising at a leisurely pace through loose dirt and gravel. Light ruts and rocky terrain (within reason, this isn't a dual sport bike) did not upset the chassis too much or vibrate us to death.
After a deliberate and proper break-in, we were happy with the overall performance. We could cruise two up at an indicated 55mph (about 52 actual) with some throttle left, and we could maintain 45-50mph on the steepest grades, CHT gauge maxing out at 360 f, but usually running 300-340 at cruising speeds.
The test: Let the tire pressures down to 18 front and 25lbs rear (normally 25/31) and lowered the rear shock settings a notch. Started on a rough dirt road that went up a canyon ending in a switchback road climbing the back of the canyon wall. The road got very steep and rough, more than we expected, but we kept going. One 50 yard stretch was very steep and rocky, I had my wife climb off. The back tire sawing back and forth loosing traction, the scooter powered up at low speed mildly scraping the plastic panel a couple of times on the underside, but not any hardware. I whipped out my trusty camera to take some gnarly pics and I forgot to put the batteries back in after recharging them!
I promise I'll get some next time, sorry.
I would never recommend anyone take anything but a true dual sport up a trail like this, and not without some serious off-road experience. The point? Well there were quite a few times the pavement ran out on the HD 200, and if the surface didn't look real nice we turned back. We did a few dirt road excursions, but again there was a few places we stopped. There are a ton of fantastic dirt roads in the mountains and hills in southern Arizona, and we just want to have the freedom of trying any of the reasonable looking routes.
I certainly do not plan on abusing the scooter up any rough mountain grades again, but it is nice to know we could if we had to. That opens up a lot of possibilities ;D
I was happy when I checked the air filter after the adventure and found that virtually no dust/dirt had been sucked in the stock snorkel. Another nice plus is that the second time I checked/adjusted the valve clearances it only took 15 minutes.
Simple, capable, and smaller. Call me crazy, but I really like this air-cooled GY6 scooter more than the HD 200 EVO. But then I've always liked the way a small 50cc scooter feels...
A lot of people thought I was crazy, but there were two reasons I felt were well worth the trade off.
First: getting SYM parts is extremely difficult and expensive, the HD 200 uses a heavily modified 4-valve water cooled GY6 engine and almost all parts are proprietary.
Second: The HD 200 was a fantastic cruiser/tourer. My wife and I put 5000 miles cruising two-up all over Arizona and New Mexico. Sometimes we would cruise at 65mph for hours at a time, short stints on the interstate at 75mph were doable. But were the pavement ended, so did the fun. The HD 200's suspension was on the stiff side, it has a very high center of gravity, it's not really light weight at 297lbs, and the 16" tires were relatively narrow (especially the front) feeling nervous and slippery on anything not paved except hard packed dirt. I couldn't even find any dual sport tires in the sizes I needed.
I gambled on the Tomos Nitro (made by SYM) hoping that it would fare better on dirt roads. Through research I already new it was a generic GY6 (157QMJ) and parts were universal and abundant. The very first day we rode it we ended up on a relatively decent dirt road and we were very pleasantly surprised. Even with 12" wheels vs. the HD 200's 16" the ride was much smoother. Ground clearance was good for a scooter and it seemed to have a little more suspension travel that was more compliant. The lighter weight (55lbs less), much lower center of gravity, and wider tires made it feel secure and planted when cruising at a leisurely pace through loose dirt and gravel. Light ruts and rocky terrain (within reason, this isn't a dual sport bike) did not upset the chassis too much or vibrate us to death.
After a deliberate and proper break-in, we were happy with the overall performance. We could cruise two up at an indicated 55mph (about 52 actual) with some throttle left, and we could maintain 45-50mph on the steepest grades, CHT gauge maxing out at 360 f, but usually running 300-340 at cruising speeds.
The test: Let the tire pressures down to 18 front and 25lbs rear (normally 25/31) and lowered the rear shock settings a notch. Started on a rough dirt road that went up a canyon ending in a switchback road climbing the back of the canyon wall. The road got very steep and rough, more than we expected, but we kept going. One 50 yard stretch was very steep and rocky, I had my wife climb off. The back tire sawing back and forth loosing traction, the scooter powered up at low speed mildly scraping the plastic panel a couple of times on the underside, but not any hardware. I whipped out my trusty camera to take some gnarly pics and I forgot to put the batteries back in after recharging them!
I promise I'll get some next time, sorry.
I would never recommend anyone take anything but a true dual sport up a trail like this, and not without some serious off-road experience. The point? Well there were quite a few times the pavement ran out on the HD 200, and if the surface didn't look real nice we turned back. We did a few dirt road excursions, but again there was a few places we stopped. There are a ton of fantastic dirt roads in the mountains and hills in southern Arizona, and we just want to have the freedom of trying any of the reasonable looking routes.
I certainly do not plan on abusing the scooter up any rough mountain grades again, but it is nice to know we could if we had to. That opens up a lot of possibilities ;D
I was happy when I checked the air filter after the adventure and found that virtually no dust/dirt had been sucked in the stock snorkel. Another nice plus is that the second time I checked/adjusted the valve clearances it only took 15 minutes.
Simple, capable, and smaller. Call me crazy, but I really like this air-cooled GY6 scooter more than the HD 200 EVO. But then I've always liked the way a small 50cc scooter feels...
% of our riding is on the pavement, and so far it looks like the Tomos Nitro can handle the occasional dirt road just fine, we'll see.
m01VE"][/video]
