Sunny - Roadrunner 300 - DF300TKB : Various ? By texomaev (Read 13,394 times)

[texomaev]

Adjusted alignment with Toe IN - Very, very, bad idea, Even low speed was uncontrollable. Readjusted with Tow Out, and the control returned. So now I've got to fine tune the alignment, and get the steering play figured out. It looks to be in the upper area around the handlebars itself. I posted a little video of the drive with the tow in adjustment on the photo/video blog listed in my Signature.....

[new2scootn]

Interesting... been following your "journey" on this and ScootDawg and enjoying parallels to my own. Do you think you gave her a little too much toe in? Sure sounds like it. After balancing all three wheels on mine I have gotten up to 82 mph with hardly any vibration but occasionally get a hard braking induced oscillation in front end so i'm thinkin' a little toe in might be needed. Keep an eye on all of those front end bushings and keep 'em tight-they seem to loosen up after a couple hundred miles of ridin'. Check out ScooterDoc forum for more info on my and others journeys with this beast.

[texomaev]

Jan 19, 2013 10:20:46 GMT -6 new2scootn said:

Interesting... been following your "journey" on this and ScootDawg and enjoying parallels to my own. Do you think you gave her a little too much toe in? Sure sounds like it. After balancing all three wheels on mine I have gotten up to 82 mph with hardly any vibration but occasionally get a hard braking induced oscillation in front end so i'm thinkin' a little toe in might be needed. Keep an eye on all of those front end bushings and keep 'em tight-they seem to loosen up after a couple hundred miles of ridin'. Check out ScooterDoc forum for more info on my and others journeys with this beast.

82MPH, Very impressive. I'd settle for a safe ride at 65-70 mph. I might have put a bit more tow in than I should have, but it certainly seems to handle better right now with the tow out adjustment. This is at the moment just from eyeballing it. I've got to obtain some long aluminum rods or something I can use to measure more accurately using the rear wheel for reference. I've not balanced the rear tire yet. Have no clue how to remove a rear motorcycle tire at the moment. If I do get it removed, I've got to find a shop that will actually balance it. No motorcycle shops in my area.

[alleyoop]

From the Video it looks like the tire is out of round and oscillating that will also cause a bad shimmy in the front.
Alleyoop

[texomaev]

I found the source of my steering play. There's a clamshell something like halfway between the bike where the handlebar shaft, and the lower steering assembly shaft meet. The clamshell is clamping down hard on the lower shaft, but barely onto the upper shaft. Photo:

.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8396085516/in/photostream" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8396085516/in/photostream

[alleyoop]

Take the Clamshell off and file or cut down the space between the slots so that it closes more.
Alleyoop

[texomaev]

Jan 19, 2013 14:42:36 GMT -6 alleyoop said:

Take the Clamshell off and file or cut down the space between the slots so that it closes more.
Alleyoop

Thanks, that sounds like a good plan.

[texomaev]

Jan 19, 2013 13:26:14 GMT -6 texomaev said:

I found the source of my steering play. There's a clamshell something like halfway between the bike where the handlebar shaft, and the lower steering assembly shaft meet. The clamshell is clamping down hard on the lower shaft, but barely onto the upper shaft. Photo:

.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8396085516/in/photostream" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8396085516/in/photostream

UPDATE: I was able to resolve the problem very easily. Noticed the clamshell portion for the top handlebar shaft was not closed all the way when removing the clamping bolt. Then I noticed that for some odd reason both sides of the clamshell was threaded. Therefore, the bolt was NEVER clamping the shell closed. I purchased a slightly smaller diameter hardened bolt that slid through the clamshell, and used a nylon locking nut. Now It's clamped as tight as it possibly can be, and no more wiggle/slop from the handlebars to the wheels. This made a tremendous difference in the handling of the bike.

[alleyoop]

Great, makes sense since the shaft had splines on it so that the splines on the Clamshell would fit onto the splines and hold nice and sturdy.
Alleyoop

[texomaev]

I noticed the shocks were adjustable and at the lowest setting. I raised it up to the next highest, and wow what a difference that made along with lowering the tire pressure to 20psi. Rides much closer to a two wheeler now with regards to leaning into turns. 10 psi was to low, bounced a lot. 30 psi bounced a lot as well. 20 psi seems to be the sweet spot with the out of round tires on the front. I think once these are replaced, I won't have anymore issues with regards to driving at highway speed. Only other thing, I might look into is installing aftermarket steering dampeners just to make potholes not so scary.

[texomaev]

Jan 18, 2013 21:09:19 GMT -6 alleyoop said:

Very cool, that is the problem with china scoots nobody will touch them. I don't know why they are just turning down backroom money which is where they make their money anyways. Must be that they have a lot of the brand scoots they sell BROKE BACK THERE

Also if the tires took more than 3 ozs of weight they are crap. The dictation for a good tire is for it not to take more than 3 ozs of weights to balance otherwise it is not made right. When I balanced the tires that came with my trike unbelieveable one took 10oz and the other 8ozs and still I had a bouncey bouncey on the roll. I then got the Kenda 205/65x10 tires which are 3" taller and they are smooth. One took 1 oz and the other 2 ozs plus they are softer nice smooth roll.
Alleyoop

Alleyoop

OK, I found this cool tire comparison calculator, that can handle motorcycle tires. Now what choices should I look at with regard to replacing the OEM 120/70x12 's, or should I stick with the OEM size? I don't mind modifying the fender hardware, in order to raise them if needed.

.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php

[alleyoop]

Well you can go taller for more diameter, about all you will find is probably 3 inchs taller so that equates into 1 1/2 on top and 1 1/2 on the bottom so see how much you can raise the fenders to accomadate that much more. You would need about 1/2 clearance.
Alleyoop

Here is what I did to my Trike I went with 3 Inch taller tires but I had to raise the Fenders. I had a hot rod welder make my Fender Holders Adjustable to I can lower or raise them:


And I got the Middle 205/65-10 Kenda Tire. The OEM was 225/40-10 which is the one on the left.

[texomaev]

Jan 20, 2013 20:59:53 GMT -6 alleyoop said:

Well you can go taller for more diameter, about all you will find is probably 3 inchs taller so that equates into 1 1/2 on top and 1 1/2 on the bottom so see how much you can raise the fenders to accomadate that much more. You would need about 1/2 clearance.
Alleyoop

Here is what I did to my Trike I went with 3 Inch taller tires but I had to raise the Fenders. I had a hot rod welder make my Fender Holders Adjustable to I can lower or raise them:


And I got the Middle 205/65-10 Kenda Tire. The OEM was 225/40-10 which is the one on the left.

Nice to see the comparison photo. Going to see what is typically available in the 12" diameter sizes. Need to stay with same width, but taller if possible. OH, I also am having a hard time finding speed ratings on these types of tires,. Got to have highway rated specs, at least 70+ mph.

[alleyoop]

Yea when you look for them ALWAYS GOOGLE FOR D.O.T approved tires many are not and are only rated for around 62 mph.
Alleyoop
.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-tires/tire-data.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-tires/tire-data.htm

[texomaev]

Replaced the OEM tires with a set of Michelin's. Much smoother ride with less bounce. Still have some front end flutter that I don't like at high speed, so I'm experimenting on getting rid of that now. Here's a photo of experiment #1:

.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8417764770/in/photostream" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.flickr.com/photos/mbarkley/8417764770/in/photostream

PS: Look at the tread on the front tires in the photo. We mounted them in accordance to having the arrow rotating forward, but it looks to me like the tread is going backwards.