Magnum "Ancestor" for Common Parts Shopping? By ellpee (Read 554 times)

[ellpee]

One thing one can be sure of with an Ice Bear scooter is that if the part you need is only available from THEM, it ain't gonna be cheap. But one hears all the time that in general, trike scooters are simply two-wheelers that somebody modified to be a trike. That suggests that if you know what two-wheeler was the starting point for a trike, you might find some of the more common parts at the various on-line vendors at better prices.

So my question: does anybody happen to know what two-wheeler is the "parent" of the Ice Bear Magnum? They call it a 300, but the engine is actually something like 276cc.

I'm wondering about this because my Magnum wouldn't start this morning, and upon opening the engine compartment I found that the air box had jiggled completely loose and was just bouncing around in there, allowing outside air directly into the carb intake. Closer examination showed that the plastic tab on the airbox that is supposed to bolt to a steel bracket had broken off. I wound up manufacturing something out of semi-flexible plastic to enable me to re-secure the airbox, but if that comes loose in a few hundred miles I'll want to buy a new box.

(Under the heading of "strange coincidences," I had to do something very similar to the airbox on my Roketa not long after I bought it; some metal bracket thingies INSIDE the box had broken off, and I had to build something to replace them.)

And a final PS, the tab that broke off was at the front end of the airbox, and there was a second, intact tab at the back end, but nowhere was there any metal bracket or anything else on the scooter frame to which that tab could have been connected. I'm guessing that on the original, two-wheel scooter, whatever that was, there was probably a second fastening point for the airbox, and on the Magnum, having it only fastened at one point makes it prone to serious vibrations that sooner or later cause the plastic to fatigue and break. So owners of Magnums or other Ice Bear Trikes, that might be something to keep an eye on.

OOPS, never say "final"! Was just googling around for filters and intakes, and saw some that it looks like you just clamp onto the air intake of the carb, no air box involved at all. But other than the diameter of the hose, how would I know which one will be the equivalent of the OEM air box and NOT adversely affect the performance of my scooter? There's a whole slew of different ones.

[parsonsj11]

lol.. That's one of the mods I been thinking of doing.. rip off airbox add unifilter. rejet carb.. change exhaust.. get a few more HP out of it..

[skyrider]

Now there is another reason I ride a Honda. K & N sold me a filter that will last the rest of my life.

[ellpee]

K&N is one of the brands I saw while googling, but once again, would want to know either that the replacement for the OEM air box is going to be equivalent, i.e., not require re-jetting or re-exhausting or whatever, OR would want to know up front what other mods I was buying into by going with the K&N (or whatever) air filter.

[ellpee]

Jul 23, 2014 12:52:00 GMT -6 parsonsj11 said:

lol.. That's one of the mods I been thinking of doing.. rip off airbox add unifilter. rejet carb.. change exhaust.. get a few more HP out of it..

Oh, BTW, what kind of scooter do you have? A Magnum? Some other Ice Bear Trike? Some other Ice Bear non-Trike? None of the above?

[parsonsj11]

lol.. I have 2010 Magnum. You might check the 2 wheel Forum for more information on air breather. that's where I've been going for tuning information... The same info there for mods on the 2 wheelers would apply to three wheels too.. as far as engine performance...

[ellpee]

Yeah, problem is, I don't know WHAT two-wheeler to ask about. Dongfang? Aeolus? There are many "300's" to be found on the internet, with lots of different names. I'm hoping somebody on the forum will chime in and say "Oh, yeah, the front end of the Magnum is basically just a Ching Chong SwiftWind 300 with the rear end modified into a trike."

[alleyoop]

Yea the only way is to find a match on the skins, mine was a roketa 250.

[rapidjim]

Jul 23, 2014 11:57:54 GMT -6 ellpee said:

One thing one can be sure of with an Ice Bear scooter is that if the part you need is only available from THEM, it ain't gonna be cheap. But one hears all the time that in general, trike scooters are simply two-wheelers that somebody modified to be a trike. That suggests that if you know what two-wheeler was the starting point for a trike, you might find some of the more common parts at the various on-line vendors at better prices.

So my question: does anybody happen to know what two-wheeler is the "parent" of the Ice Bear Magnum? They call it a 300, but the engine is actually something like 276cc.

I'm wondering about this because my Magnum wouldn't start this morning, and upon opening the engine compartment I found that the air box had jiggled completely loose and was just bouncing around in there, allowing outside air directly into the carb intake. Closer examination showed that the plastic tab on the airbox that is supposed to bolt to a steel bracket had broken off. I wound up manufacturing something out of semi-flexible plastic to enable me to re-secure the airbox, but if that comes loose in a few hundred miles I'll want to buy a new box.

(Under the heading of "strange coincidences," I had to do something very similar to the airbox on my Roketa not long after I bought it; some metal bracket thingies INSIDE the box had broken off, and I had to build something to replace them.)

And a final PS, the tab that broke off was at the front end of the airbox, and there was a second, intact tab at the back end, but nowhere was there any metal bracket or anything else on the scooter frame to which that tab could have been connected. I'm guessing that on the original, two-wheel scooter, whatever that was, there was probably a second fastening point for the airbox, and on the Magnum, having it only fastened at one point makes it prone to serious vibrations that sooner or later cause the plastic to fatigue and break. So owners of Magnums or other Ice Bear Trikes, that might be something to keep an eye on.

OOPS, never say "final"! Was just googling around for filters and intakes, and saw some that it looks like you just clamp onto the air intake of the carb, no air box involved at all. But other than the diameter of the hose, how would I know which one will be the equivalent of the OEM air box and NOT adversely affect the performance of my scooter? There's a whole slew of different ones.

I agree and disagree with you on your statement about parts directly from Ice Bear aren't cheap. I guess it is how you define cheap. Ice Bear's price for Ice Bear specific parts are no different than any other Chinese "Distributor" ie. Roketa, SUNL. If you think these parts aren't "Cheap" try buying parts from the "Big Four", Honda, Harley, Yamaha, Suzuki. I will agree that shipping isn't cheap, mostly due to UPS and their dimensional weight shipping practice. How much weight can fit into a certain size box. Hoepfully you will never need a major size body part like a rear deck, you will pass out on shipping charges.

The motor part of a 300cc trike is a LinhaiVog motor, with one exception, the standard Linhai/Vog piston will not fit an Ice Bear, the skirting and wrist pin hole placement is different, which tells me so is the crank. Now saying that, external common parts are available aftermarket from places like Scrappydog and Partsforscooters. You just have to know what you are buying. Most of the time I get my 300 parts directly from Ice Bear because I know they are the same part.

As far as your air box and carburation is concerned. Chinese machines are manufactured to run lean to pass the EPA and CARB standards. Any changes to the air box will cause a leaner condition, therefore, if you go to a free flow air filter, you are allowing more air (leaning it out) and have to rejet to compensate. This is why more and more scooters are going to fuel injection. Ice Bear is thinking of doing the same thing, at this time it is just thinking. Of course if they do the price of the machine will go up. If you are not confortable in spending the time of rejetting, I would suggest you stay with the original air box or take it to a shop that can do it for you.

Just for the record, I have only ever sold one air box for a 300cc, now the 150cc is a different story. Ask Alley about that air filter LOL.

[ellpee]

Jul 28, 2014 8:02:01 GMT -6 rapidjim said:

I agree and disagree with you on your statement about parts directly from Ice Bear aren't cheap. I guess it is how you define cheap. Ice Bear's price for Ice Bear specific parts are no different than any other Chinese "Distributor" ie. Roketa, SUNL.

Agree, parts from Roketa have also been pricey when they were the only game in town. Fortunately I've been able to find most things for my Roketa elsewhere.

As for bulky parts, as you (Jim) know I crunched my rear deck recently and had to do a fiberglas repair job on it, but it didn't come out too bad; new paint is even fairly close, though not as shiny. Just have to see how it holds up on all these bumpy mountain roads. I did a smaller fiberglas patch job last year that's still OK after several hundred miles, so I'm trying to stay optimistic.

Well, the airbox is well attached for the moment, and I'll be watching it closely for awhile. The way I repaired it incorporates some less rigid plastic that should absorb some of the vibration, so I'm hoping that will keep it in place and prevent the hose from twisting/vibrating off the carb intake. I've tightened the clamp at the carb as well as I can, but it can still be rotated by hand, and the little molded-in grooves don't seem sufficient to hold it in place.

Hey, about airbox/rejetting, since I'm running the Magnum way up in the mountains it was running much too rich out of the crate, and I had to re-jet it in the leaner direction to get it running dependably. How's that for irony? It'd be something if I switched to free-flow and had to un-re-jet it!