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Post by romei on Apr 17, 2016 11:21:31 GMT -5
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Post by romei on Apr 12, 2016 20:06:12 GMT -5
Well I did the seat mod today. I met my local upholsterer after work and we skinned the seat hump and I cut as much foam off of it as I could while still leaving enough there to sit on and be comfortable. We put the skin back on and I brought it home and installed it. I was disappointed. It may have given me another 1/2 inch of leg room, and that's all. A lot of the foam that I cut down was in the back support area because honestly, that's where most of the foam was. Anyway, I'm looking around the garage and I see a stack of beach towels and I thought, what if I raise my seat level now, because if I do that I could sit back a little farther. So I put about 4" of towels on my seat and it was awesome. So I'm looking around the garage and I see a boat cushion, you know, the throw-able flotation ones that are about 2" thick. I grab that and put that on the seat instead of the towels and it's perfect. I mean it couldn't be more perfect. So I'm talking to the wife about cutting the boat cushion down to the correct size and her sewing me a custom cover and it hit me. The Airhawk will raise me the height I need so that the bike fits me perfect. I found one on Amazon for $75 and bought it. A cruiser medium. I'll post back with some pictures once I get it and put it on. I know that the riddle is solved.
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Post by romei on Apr 11, 2016 14:36:48 GMT -5
Thanks folks. I'm in PA and I just picked it up Saturday during the snowstorm. So I only have 40 miles on it so far but my first impression is pretty good. It has great power and acceleration and cruises nice on the highway. It's small enough that you still get the nimble scooter feel at low tight speeds. I'm 5' 10" and the leg room is non existent so it is somewhat uncomfortable right now, but I saw a seat mod in the Forza forum knowing before I bought the bike that I was going to do it. Basically, that seat bolster behind your back gets removed, skinned and all but an inch of the foam gets cut away. Then cover it back up using the existing material and it gives you several more inches of room to stretch out and still looks pretty much factory.
The dealership also had a few 2013 new leftover Silverwings for $4999 which was very tempting but those and the Burgmans they had just seemed so big and heavy that I would have struggled with them anywhere but on the highway. But man, what a deal if you're looking for a highway bike.
That windshield does beat you right in the chest and face. I read in the Forza forum that some folks put the tall Givi's on and regret it later because it's tall enough that they have to look through the windshield all the time. I prefer to just look over the top of the windshield so I ordered the factory Honda tall windshield which is just a bit shorter and hope to put it on Friday.
All in all though, I love the deal, and love the bike so far. I think I'm going to keep loving it too :-)
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Post by romei on Apr 10, 2016 16:45:58 GMT -5
I saw a deal that I just couldn't pass up. Brand new left over 2014 Forza for $2999. Wound up being $3670 after dealer freight/setup/tax/tags and paperwork. Income tax return successfully spent :-)
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Post by romei on Mar 9, 2016 20:44:11 GMT -5
I included all of these models in the subject because they are all the same body and frame style. You can also include the Bintelli Valor in this class. I just had cause to repair the ignition switch in my wife's Puma Valentine 50cc scooter.
The body is assembled from the front to the rear, which means that if you have to remove the body panels, you must do it from the rear to the front or you will certainly break a lot of plastic tabs and you eventually have to do it that way anyway.
You can pull the front luggage rack off and the very front panel by themselves but all that gets you is access to the turn signal plugs and the ignition switch plug. If you want to work on or replace the ignition switch itself, which requires removing the leg shields and running boards, you have to start at the back of the bike and remove all of the body panels from back to front. It can be done in about an hour or less if you know this going in but if you go into it blind like I did, you'll easily be there for three hours or more and do a lot of cursing.
I bought a replacement ignition switch from ebay but it wound up being the wrong one. I couldn't find the right one, so I installed a toggle switch just near the ignition switch and bypassed it. So she still uses the ignition switch for fork locking only, and the toggle switch turns the scooter on and off.
Anyway, I thought this might come in handy for others who might have this body style.
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Post by romei on Oct 9, 2015 18:59:46 GMT -5
There is an older thread about motobuys, but it got hijacked so I wanted to create a new thread keeping in line with the purpose of evaluating the dealer.
I bought a BMS Chelsea 150 from motobuys.com in the end of August. I pretty much knew what I was buying before I pulled the trigger because I had recently purchased a used Puma Valentine 50cc for my wife. They are both made by Znen and are of fairly high quality. They are pretty much the same bike but with different sized engines. The folks at motobuys were friendly and knowledgeable through their live chat. They had the best price on the net ($200 cheaper than most competitors) and offered some cool free stuff, like a helmet, gloves, a tank bag which I converted to be a scooter bag that hangs from the hook, and I think there was something else but I can't remember what it was.
As soon as I made the payment, they started delivering. Email communication was immediate, friendly and concise. They created the shipping order within an hour and the next day it was in transit to my house. I received my free stuff in about 3 or 4 days via USPS. The transport company that shipped the scooter was Road Runner and they completely sucked. The scooter was supposed to be here by 9/1. It made it all the way from California to about an hour and a half away from my house by 8/30, but then the delays started. Finally, on 9/4 the scooter reached the local terminal by my house and I decided to take my utility trailer down and just pick it up myself rather than wait any longer.
I brought it home and unpacked it. The crate had been dropped and the front of it was severely bent and the welds that held the angle iron that held the front wheel in place were broken. This caused the angle iron to dig into the sidewall of the front tire and damage it. That didn't really bother me much because I had planned on replacing the cheapo Chinese tires asap anyway. The rest of the bike was flawless. It was almost fully assembled. After a thorough PDI, I took it for a ride and I am very pleased with it. I ordered 2 Shinko white walls and put them on.
I contacted motobuys just to let them know what a shoddy job the shippers did and they were going to send me a new tire even though it wasn't their fault. I declined and let them know that I had planned on putting better quality tires on it anyway and not to bother. My purpose in contacting them was to let them know that their shippers were sub par, not to get a replacement tire. I was impressed that they were going to replace it anyway.
Anyway, we kept in touch via email and they let me know about 10 days later that my MCO, bill of sale and paperwork was on the way. I received everything from them as promised. They were very professional and I will easily do business with them again and again. I do not have anything nice to say about roadrunner though. I wouldn't ship rotten fruit with those guys. I do however understand that online dealers have to maintain a competitive edge and saving some dollars on shipping can make or break them. I'm thinking that prolly most of the online dealers use the same jack leg shipper anyway, simply for that reason.
A final note: I was surprised how easy it was to get a title and registration here in Pennsylvania. I took the scooter, the MCO and bill of sale to a notary. She verified the VIN, did all the paperwork and 2 days later I had a tag, registration and a PA title.
I hope this helps any prospective buyers out there.
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Post by romei on Sept 16, 2015 18:23:05 GMT -5
Thanks guys. Much appreciated. I like the garden hose idea. I think I'll go with that next time.
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Post by romei on Sept 15, 2015 21:04:41 GMT -5
I'm a long time biker but am used to big steel spoke wheels. I recently got into the whole scooter thing. I bought a Puma Valentine 50 and installed a 83cc BBK for the wife and I bought a BMS Chelsea 150 for myself. Both came with the cheap stock Chinese tires which I promptly removed and replaced with Shinko white walls, which I'm very happy with. Problem is, I boogered up every rim no matter how careful I was when I swapped the tires.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a careful way of doing this?
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Post by romei on Sept 10, 2015 17:15:59 GMT -5
Sorry, I replied with a post for a different setup than you have and then couldn't figure out how to delete it. My bad. Maybe try a good quality oil filter (band) wrench to hold the pulley and a breaker bar to loosen the nut?
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