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I actually preferred a Ford Winstar that I took my Derbi home in than the pain it would have been loading it up into my Jeep, the deck height is so low I loaded that bad boy without any help. Don't think it would comfortably fit anything bigger than a 150, although my scooter fit sideways between the two sliding doors with the backseat still in!! Minivans get great fuel economy and are very practical whether you're hauling stuff or people.

Good point, my Derbi surprisingly has far easier headlight access than my Tao Tao. I can change the bulb or adjust headlight angle in a matter of seconds by just reaching under the front fairing as opposed to a (short) sequence of removing a few fasteners / panels on the fragile Tao Tao.

Not much of a conversation but I feel you on the DWI limited driving privilege, exception being that in NC that applies to my car, not my 50cc scooter

Not so much enjoying the steamy and muggy soup that is the Southeast US during June/July, but then again, it's still well over 100*F in the Southwest/desert, so can't complain since we were at 105*F high here in Raleigh this date last year.

As long as the two smaller holes line up perfectly parallel to the top of the cylinder head anytime "T" is lined up on the case, you've set timing correctly. It doesn't matter if the crank is on the top of the compression or exhaust stroke... same thing ;D

I would agree that a cracked intake spacer could be the culprit. I would try the stock intake box again just to make sure you aren't throwing crazy amounts of air in there and stalling it out. is a tad high for a secret 63 but I did run that on mine with a modified intake box and exhaust.

I've done a couple 100-130 mile days with a 50cc. The first on a mostly stock "secret 63cc" Chinese scoot and then more recently going harder and longer on my Derbi liquid cooled 2 stroke. With the air cooled Chinese scoot, since I was going WOT pretty much 97% of the way, I did take an extra break or two than I normally would have just to be on the safe side. You'd be surprised how tough these things are. Sounds like you've done some planning and have all the supplies necessary ready to go. I wouldn't sweat it one bit on a 150cc, and I'd say as long as you aren't going quite WOT all the time feel free to bump that cruising speed up a little bit (I averaged 35mph on the day on my 50's, meaning cruising in the low 40's with stints close to 50 mph).

I run a MJ with my 50mm BBK, runs a tad rich but overall is very good. It's all about balancing it with the amount of air your engine is sucking in through it's intake system, the stock intake is too restrictive for a 50mm with that rich of a jet. I have a custom intake built with rubber hose, like from a car radiator, connected to the original intake snorkel (with the restrictor with 4 holes in it) and it works great. One of these days I'm going to experiment with drilling out one of the holes to get just the perfect amount of air. If you don't want to do all that, you can just run a smaller MJ with just a tad less performance (but better MPG).

31T sounds a bit dramatic then, if you had more gears I'd say go for it, but with a 4-spd I'd prolly stick with the 34T. I would agree that there's a fine line between tweaking the performance/efficiency and compromising the design and bogging it too much with crazy gearing. I don't know that it would cause damage though, I agree with prodigit that high RPM low load/throttle is worse than low RPM high load/throttle within reason.

A really legit mechanic once told me you get the greatest overall efficiency going hard at low-mid RPM's (within reason) for a few reasons, other than obviously less revs = less combustion, having the throttle open reduces pumping and frictional losses over partial throttle. I shift my cars like a mad man to keep the RPM's under 2k, no problems in a quarter million lifetime miles yet. On a forum for an older Honda Civic Hybrid 5-spd I used to own just about everybody found their best MPG with a "1-2-5" shift pattern, go nearly WOT from a stop through 1st and 2nd to your cruising speed then quickly ease off into 5th.

You really should upjet your carb if it is really that lean, though. I could understand a little choke getting it to haul balls but idk hard to tell, yours sounds kinda severe.

One question I did have for you, prodigit, is how does the parts market for this engine / bike look? For me that's more important than reliability, everything will break eventually, having my Derbi has shown me how much a pain having a rare machine can be for sourcing parts.