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Messages - Quick-Star24

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1
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 Strange Sound
« on: November 12, 2023, 04:43:36 PM »
Quote from: Stig / Major Tom on August 25, 2023, 09:14:23 PM
So, you mentioned 2 weeks ago you were getting the disc replaced.
Did you, is the noise gone?
And sorry, we do not notify you that someone has taken the time to respond to your request for assistance.

hope you got it sorted!
Stig

No, I still have not replaced the disc.....it was delivered but not installed....yet....I now have a fork seal issue and it seems you have to take just about everything on the front end off to work on the forks. all the plastic, screen/monitor/gauge cluster, everything and man am I dreading that. Cyclepedia shows you how to do it but I hate tearing into things and then having trouble getting all back together perfectly. No idea how to know how much fork lube has been lost or leaked out but it's a good bit.

2
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 Strange Sound
« on: August 21, 2023, 03:59:28 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on August 06, 2023, 12:25:47 AM
Easy way to determine if it is warped. Put the bike on the center stand and run the engine up over 2000 rpm to spin the rear wheel. Watch the disk from behind and see if it wobbles in the caliper at all... even a very little bit. May have to put your finger on it while also against the caliper to feel if it wobbles. It shouldn't. The caliper is bolted to the frame so is very stationary.

I can see a brake disk becoming warped due to being overheated. Riding it with the parking brake on would cause a lot of drag and make a LOT of heat. I can also see the disk becoming warped from bad handling while replacing the tire. But that would take a lot of force and likely be VERY obvious while the wheel is spinning.

I'm still not getting notified when there are responses here.....and I often forget to come back and check....anyone who knows me or is around me much knows I have the World's worst memory....and I blame my Monkey Mind racing with a 1,000 things on my mind at every moment....I do pay attention to people when they are looking at me and talking....but subconsciously....obviously....my mind is secretly on something else and so I forget what I heard within minutes.....this is exactly why many millions of people all over the world....except in the USA meditate....to shut down the Mind (Devil) and open a space for a Divine connection....LOL that's it for the Spiritual talking.....please forgive me!

3
Eye Candy | Videos and Pics / Re: Hey~!....I'm walkin' here!
« on: August 05, 2023, 10:24:22 PM »
Quote from: Stig / Major Tom on August 05, 2023, 06:32:25 PM
I use one of the free photo hosting sites - drag my photo to the site from where it has been downloaded from my phone or camera onto my PC - then paste it here. Recently learned how to post pix 'live' - from my phone to this forum while out on my early morning rides.
A personal thing - but, I really don't much enjoy a forum post which requires me to link to a photo. I prefer to make my posts read/look like an article with photos.
Honestly - I've never investigated any other way to post photos on any of the 5 scooter forums which I visit.

Stig

OK thanks!

4
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 Strange Sound
« on: August 05, 2023, 10:22:35 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on August 05, 2023, 05:42:03 PM
Good call on replacing the disc. Not good for that to be warped since a warped disc can cause premature wear of the pads and other brake issues as well as possible tire issues.
I wouldn't ride it outside the neighborhood with a warped disc since braking might be unpredictable depending on how bad it is.
Surprised the issue didn't really show up until the rear wheel was removed/replaced unless it is just slightly warped. But still even then it would not be good to leave it that way.

I cannot believe these discs can get warped....and as I was saying in my post I HOPE IT IS THE DISC that is making the sound I hear. The guy at the shop could possibly be wrong. Of course he did not take the disc off and inspect it.

So I'm replacing it and we'll see if that solves the weird sound situation.

5
Eye Candy | Videos and Pics / Re: Hey~!....I'm walkin' here!
« on: August 05, 2023, 05:04:58 PM »
Quote from: Stig / Major Tom on July 28, 2023, 04:28:37 PM


Stig

Stig......I know there is a discussion here somewhere about posting pics.....but I thought it was just links to photos we could post?

6
General Discussion / AK 550 Strange Sound
« on: August 05, 2023, 04:32:28 PM »
Early spring I had a new tire put on the rear wheel after I took the wheel off myself.
Either right after putting the new tire and wheel back on or shortly after the bike started making a strange sound.
Was not sure if I could keep riding or not till I got it checked out. I did ride it but not a lot.
Just took it up to Cleveland Moto....the guy has a great Scooter business and sells Kymco's.
He got mad because I did not mention the strange sound when I emailed him and instead just wanted an appointment for thorough check-up and maintenance.
He said he has a few AK's still sitting in his shop for over 3 months or more waiting on parts.
So he did not want another scooter taking up space. I asked him when I got there to ride the bike and see what he felt was causing the sound. He had no idea after riding it.
A week later he calls to say the bike is done and mentioned the rear brake disc was warped. I HOPE HE IS RIGHT!
Just ordered the disc from bike-parts UK. I told him I rode it home 2 hours when purchased with the parking brake on. The guy at the dealership rode it out of the shop to the parking lot and I got on it and rode home, not knowing he had put the parking brake on.

But why is the rear disc just now in the last couple months making this sound?

He said I could still ride it and the brake works fine. I put new pads on it when I took the bike apart to paint it. I asked him if he was sure that sound was nothing major that could cause me my life and so forth and he said it is not anything major...it's the warped brake disc.

Jeff

7
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 Not starting
« on: June 28, 2023, 04:57:47 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on June 28, 2023, 01:35:41 PM
Which OFF position did you turn the knob to?
If to the right then the bike was not really turned off but just the lights were off.
If to the left, then the bike should have been turned off... especially if you saw the ring around the knob turn red and heard a beep.

Sounds like you need to keep it plugged into a Battery Tender if possible. That is still very quick for the battery to run down unless there is a bad cell in the battery. It is not unusual for a relatively new battery to have a bad cell that runs it down quickly. Not common, but not unusual. I've read on other forums of rarely a motorcycle owner getting a brand new battery that was effectively doa. Not surprised that it would not start with just 9.2 volts. Need at least significantly over 11 volts. I've been able to start my AK with 11.7 V showing on the dash... but just barely. That was before I started keeping mine on the Battery Tender when it is parked in the garage.

Red light on left grip blinking is the heated grips system error indication. The blink "code" indicates what or where the error is in that system. If the battery volts is too low then that would be the issue... or possibly the cause. Hard to say without more investigating. Charge up that battery and see what happens when the dash shows more than 12.3 V.
I had not rode the bike for a couple of weeks since I was painting whole bike and wheels. After finishing it up the other day I took a quick 5 mile ride even though I’m waiting for new rear brake pads.

8
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 heated grips LED
« on: June 28, 2023, 04:53:46 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on June 28, 2023, 01:40:45 PM
Replied a little bit in your other thread on this.
Likely if the battery is low that can result in a heated grips controller fail and that is what that blinking light was showing. The heated grips system is one of the few systems that have a direct fault indicator. Of course the other indications of the low battery voltage is no starting, but just enough volts to turn on the dash lights. Likely no problem with the heated grips system but just a low battery.

Thank You RJ

9
General Discussion / Re: AK 550 heated grips LED
« on: June 28, 2023, 12:35:24 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on December 05, 2021, 08:17:34 PM
Question for others with an AK 550. On my ride yesterday I noticed the LED on the left grip base that indicates the heated grips are turned on I noted that the LED was lighting that only from the bottom. I was thinking, but don't remember for certain, that the entire bar was lighted more evenly... or at least that there may be a LED also at the top to make it look more evenly lighted. But I might be wrong about that since I didn't take a really close look at it before. I was wondering what others with this scooter see with that LED indicator?


During that ride yesterday I also separately had that indicator flash red a few times so I turned off the heated grips. After a few miles I turned them back on and all was good for the rest of the ride. The owner manual says to turn off the scooter and then back on to restore the system but it seemed to restore itself without doing that. I did at one point stop and turn off the AK and turned it back on but no difference in the heated grips performance. I only had them on the lowest setting and they were plenty warm to hot the entire ride when I had them turned on. The heated grips symbol on the dash display did not flash or do anything other than what was normal. I have had the heated grips LED on the left grip flash red once before on my way home initially and I figured that was because I was messing with it. Running it through all the settings, turning it off then on, etc. But that was a month ago.

I rode my bike 3 days ago.
This morning it would not start.
Strangely the Heated Grip light was blinking Red.
Also the dash said 9.2 volts.

No idea what is happening.
After work I’ll jump start it.
But why would heated grip light blink red? Was not using them…just trying to start bike and go to work.

Jeff

10
General Discussion / AK 550 Not starting
« on: June 28, 2023, 12:29:34 PM »
Rode my bike 3 days ago several miles.
This morning it would not start.
Red light on left grip blinking.
Dash says 9.2 volts.


11
Technical | How To / Re: Brake Caliper Issue
« on: June 20, 2023, 10:52:18 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on June 18, 2023, 11:30:40 PM
Possible to get a photo of that?

If you mean side to side between the brake pads then that MIGHT be normal. Verify the assembly to make sure the spacers are in right. Verify the caliper is seated properly on the caliper mount. The bolts will only tighten to what is allowed when the caliper mounting bit is tight to the bike side caliper mount.
Going to take the bike to the shop friday morning. Not going to mess with it any longer. Thanks for the suggestions.....

Jeff

12
Technical | How To / Re: Brake Caliper Issue
« on: June 18, 2023, 05:30:51 PM »
Quote from: rjs987 on April 15, 2023, 10:09:31 PM
Definitely don't beat the caliper back on. It should slip on with just a little jiggling and moving around to get the pads over the lip at the disk edge.

Did you make absolutely certain you did NOT activate the parking brake or that you did NOT touch the rear brake lever?
Doing either of those with the caliper off the disk will cause the pistons to be pushed out and make it impossible to get the caliper back on without spreading the pads.

When I replaced the rear tire, and the front tire for that matter, and took the caliper off the disk I inserted a paint stick wrapped in some card stock (a bit of junk mail) to keep the space between the pads.

If the caliper will not fit over the thickness of the disk you can use a few putty knifes (putty spatulas) between the pads and pry them apart. Do this slowly. I use a thin pry bar between the putty knives to do this if needed.
This is also assuming the short spacer is in place in the right way (should fit up against the bearing race on that side).

Here is the document I wrote up and posted in a thread in this sub forum for doing the rear wheel remove and replace, including replacing the tire on the rim and balancing with Dyna Beads.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1za6fOBjIUv364F9nwP9_mNgzOEtrC0ThA4GcpAJxHgE/edit?usp=sharing

The first time taking the rear wheel off I had a bit of trouble with the caliper going back on as stated here. Now I have taken much of the bike apart to paint it and have a new problem with the rear brake.....the wheel don't want to turn. The caliper went on OK with a little giggling.

It does look like the brake DISC is not centered in the Groove on the caliper. But when put the bolts in and tighten them you would think this centers it all......looks like I gotta take the caliper off and try to figure it out.....but I would love for there to be a way to ADJUST it while it is on and bolted up.

13
General Discussion / Re: Time for new tires?
« on: April 29, 2023, 05:22:39 PM »
Quote from: Neil955i on April 23, 2023, 08:11:47 AM
I’ve seen some Greek motorcycle tyres and I wouldn’t trust my hide to them! 😂🤣

Metzelers are NOT Greek tires......

14
Kymco News / Re: 2023 Kymco USA
« on: April 29, 2023, 05:12:27 PM »
Quote from: NorWeWa on January 10, 2023, 04:06:25 AM
 
Sure would be nice to see a few of these models make it to the USA.

Art

The Bikes? Or the Girls?

15
Kymco News / Re: Spoke with an actual "scooter shop" today re. KYMCOUSA
« on: April 29, 2023, 04:54:01 PM »
Quote from: Stig / Major Tom on March 31, 2023, 10:18:01 PM
I've never been inside a real "scooter shop" before - a shop which only sells and services scooters! - but there is one over in the state capitol. (45miles)
They sell Kymcos as well as SYM, GENUINE and LANCE.
Today I spoke with the lady who runs the shop about her current experiences with KYMCOUSA.

She said that parts availability was "hit and miss there for awhile. Apparently someone in the warehouse was not restocking the parts. But lately things are better."
She said she has no problem keeping normal consumables in stock..."belts, rollers, etc."
She also mentioned that Kymcos are so reliable - that unless one has been in a wreck - they do not often need more than the normally consumed parts. "Brake pads, etc."

Some day I hope to drive over there for a visit. She said they'd be glad to do my tire change. (no tire purchase necessary)

I might ask my local big-all-brands motorcycle/atv/speedo/scooter shop about their recent experiences with Kymco - but one gets all kinds of answers over there.

Stig

That would be in Columbus? Can you share the dealer name? I bought mine at ASK POWERSPORTS in Columbus but that shop sells all sorts of bikes and some scooters as well as the Zero electric bikes which I thought about before buying the AK 550.

Jeff

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