My Jonway YY250T 244cc @ ~4500 miles  By  keltex78 (Read 22,032 times)

...and now this morning, I have found that a friend and co-worker was just involved in a serious accident while on his bike. He was making a left hand turn and the driver of a car approaching from behind didn't see his signal and rear-ended him yesterday evening. He is in the hospital with several broken bones and some injuries to a lung that has people worried...
D8

man I am really sorry to hear about your friend hope all is well

Just officially turned over 1000 miles this morning...

One change I neglected to mention previously, I added some foam weatherstripping to the windshield under the front nose shroud. I'm getting a lot less noise from vibration now after all the work I did over the weekend.

I have the same cover and it is over 5 yrs old and still going strong. I have over 10,000 miles on my scoot. Life is Good...

Whoa... I have to agree with Spandi. I've recently been diligently looking around for a 250. The Internet is loaded with shiny-new CHINESE models now for under $2,000 delivered. I have not seen similar TAIWANESE models ANYWHERE for under $3,000. Most are running $4,000 to $5,000 even though the season is over.

For various reasons, I REALLY want a step-through, FLAT-floor scoot with small, scooter wheels (no bigger than 13") I have about settled on a used Kymco Grand Vista.

Even THESE outdated Taiwan-made scoots STILL run anywhere from $1,600 to $3,500 even USED, from a private seller. Then, there is still $500+ shipping from out-of-state, and all the hassle associated with title, license, etc. New Kymco or Sym versions run near $5,000 or more, plus tax, title and such from a dealer... Nearly THREE TIMES the cost of a Chinese 250.

The shiny-new Chinese 250's on the "net" are VERY tempting for $2-grand. And they are most likely much more reliable than the older Chinese scoots. However, I'm just getting too old and arthritic to constantly fix, repair, replace and do everything EXCEPT ride.

I honestly use my scooter for serious transportation, and want to be able to go from Dallas, 35 miles to Fort Worth, reliably, at 70 mph and back. Like I do in my Honda car. So I'm willing to gamble about twice the price of a new Chinese scoot, for a scratched and dented used Kymco with a lot of miles on the clock. Yes, I could also ferret out a used Honda Reflex, or even a Suzuki Burgman 400 for similar money. I just like the design of the Kymco better.

That's just me... However, if you have sources of new, or even used Taiwan scooters which compare "apples-to-apples" with new Chinese scoots, and don't cost double, PLEASE LET US IN ON THEM! I'd LOVE to find a good Taiwan 250 for under $2,000.

Sincerely,

Leo in Texas

My scooter has just rolled over 3000 miles just over a week ago and is still running strong. Still averaging 73-74 mpg consistently. Only issue is that my speedometer has failed unexpectedly. My normal highway speed is ~60mph, which, as best I can tell, is when the speedo is reading about 70. The other day, I was accelerating down a hill to get up to speed when I noticed my speedo suddenly start bouncing and then rapidly climb to where it read 100+mph. Since then, my speedo reading is crazily erratic at any reading over ~55mph. Below this range, the speedo reads normally. Over that and it will bounce and slowly climb until the needle is well past the 100mph max.

I finally decided to pull the plug to replace it with an NGK, but found that spark plugs come in three sizes, Small, Medium, and Large, and I have the Small and Large sockets, but am missing the Medium (about ~18mm?). So, I'm going to Harbor Freight this week to get a few items and will grab a spark plug socket while there.

What about the air filter? I've read a lot on these bikes and apparently, they originally used a foam air filter, but my 2013 model has a removable K&N-style filter. Is this a reusable or a replaceable filter on this bike? Should I clean and oil it like a normal K&N or should it be replaced?

I'm changing oil every thousand miles and it's consistently clean. Other observation; when changing the oil, when the plug is pulled, only a small amount of the oil, maybe only half will drain from the case. Not sure how others do it here, but I've started using low-pressure compressed air to compress the case slightly via the dipstick opening. This forces MUCH more oil out of the case. On my last change, I also flushed it out with fresh oil to make sure the waste oil was removed. The waste oil is still clear and appears to be in very good condition when changing.

I got vomited on by a vulture yesterday, something I hadn't considered as a possibility when riding a bike. I was riding down a small county road and noted a lot of buzzards on the side of the road. I slowed down to avoid them and they all took off as I approached. They had been eating a deer carcass that had been left in the ditch. As one was flying overhead, it released a large glob of carrion-mush which hit the road directly in front of me, with some splattering on my bike and jacket.

My rear tire has already reached the end of its life as well. At only 3200 miles, I have completely worn down through the tread on the rear tire while the front still looks practically new. Yesterday I ordered a set of replacement Kenda's from Motorcycle Superstore for $34/each shipped: www.motorcycle-superstore.com/15040/i/shinko-sr429-front---rear-scooter-tire
Ordered and shipped the same day! I've ordered from them twice so far (first time was my helmet) and have been very impressed each time. I'm swapping both tires together even though the front tire is in good condition so I can actually get these balanced and get a smoother ride from now on out. Along with the tires, I ordered the replacement angled metal bolt-through valve stems through KurveyGirl to head off any future issues.

My current tire is pretty well worn out; I was hoping to get significantly more mileage from my tires. I hope the Kendas last longer:

Update @ ~4500 miles:

As per my last update, the factory tires were pretty well gone at 3500 miles. I replaced those with a pair of Shinkos and I have to say the process went really well!
itistheride.boards.net/thread/4916/tire-change-resources
I installed the new tires (along with bolt-through right-angle valve stems) using the zip-tie method and it worked great! I was able to break the bead using my $15 (Sale+coupon) Harbor Freight bead breaker then brute-force removed the tire from the rims using tools I already had. That was the hardest part of the job. I used the jumbo Harbor Freight zip ties and a spray bottle of soapy water to mount the new tires, which went on easily. So far, I've put about 1000 miles on the Shinkos and they've been great! It has a much smoother ride, and my chicken strips are much smaller now...

Next, I've replaced nearly every bulb on the scooter with LED replacements that are all much brighter while using much less power. I'm hoping to create a new thread in the near future with info on the bulbs I'm using. I have a burned out low-beam element on one of my headlights, so I'm replacing those. I noticed that the headlight reflector assembly is keyed for H4-style bulbs, so I've ordered a pair of 45W H4 bulbs and the H4 plugs to splice into the wiring harness. Better quality bulbs, with an extra 10W/each should mean a good bit of extra light without too much heat on the reflector. I'm hoping. I'll post here with my success story if it all works out well.

Finally, @ ~4300 miles, I completed my first valve adjustment; nothing to it on these 244cc motors. When I received the bike, I was disappointed that I didn't get the 257CC Linhai model I had ordered, but after a single valve adjustment, I'm glad to have this one...

I recently noticed several large cracks appearing around the mount holes on the bottom of my trunk. I intended to repair the trunk with fiberglass resin but ultimately purchased a replacement trunk from eBay. I purchaesd this trunk:
www.ebay.com/itm/310788231341
...for $35 shipped and like it a lot. It's made out of a better quality plastic and doesn't rattle like the old trunk did. It's smaller and won't carry quite as much, but is deeper, so it will hold my full-face helmet. The locking mechanism feels much better, and the trunk retention system feels very secure. I like having the option to remove the trunk, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really use that feature. I'm surprised at the difference in quality between the factory trunk and the cheapest aftermarket trunk I could find! The factory trunk is junk compared to this one...

I've also developed a noisy rattle in the CVT. I took the variator apart and didn't like the way it looked so I've ordered new roller weights and will be putting it back together once they come in. I ordered a set of Dr. Pulley replacement roller weights in 26g. which matches the factory weights I removed. I also purchase a new drive belt since I already have the unit fully pulled apart, even though I still have a lot of life left on the factory Gates Powerlink belt. I'll keep that as a spare to have on hand.
Full story on the CVT saga here:http://itistheride.boards.net/thread/5251/noisy-cvt

At about 4000 miles, I pulled and replaced the spark plug with a new iridium NGK, but was surprised to find that the factory plug was also a NGK (non-iridium). Color looked good, didn't look like it was running rich, or too lean.

Also, the mounting bracket for the air filter had shattered into pieces! I ended up purchasing a new filter (~$10) and installing that....