my new Helix, maintenance and first ride

[Iahawk]

I posted earlier about how I bought a 96 Honda Helix with 7100 miles last Wednesday. I wanted to give an update on what I've done and how it rides.  I spent 3 long days / nights tearing it down for a good cleaning and doing all the maintenance. It's put back together, now, and I took it out for the maiden voyage  this morning.

Maintenance performed:
oil change, Mobil 1 10w-40  (old oil was fresh)
coolant change, Honda HP Pro coolant (old coolant looked good)
brake fluid flush, Prestone DOT4  (old fluid was low and filthy..never changed?)
final drive oil, Valvoline synthetic 75-90 gear oil
new air filter, HiFlo Filtro (old one was dirty and oily)
new spark plug, copper NGK (had the old split fire plug, looked very old)

CVT cover removed and took apart and cleaned up variator and clutch. Old belt was still within spec but looks original. Clutch bell was blue from overheating at some point. Will replace all these components in the future. First time I've ever seen an old school Honda variator packed with grease..not a pretty sight. Rollers have flat spots and everything looked original in there.

Body came apart in a pretty logical way. The fussiest parts were the floor boards and front inner fenders. There are specific orders to install things...if you screw it up you need to remove certain parts and reinstall in correct order.

Very surprised to find almost no corrosion..on anything. The fuel tank was the only thing showing any rust. It was on the flat part of the tank where the top and bottom pieces are pressed together. Water must sit on this horizontal surface. I cleaned it up and soaked with our friend, ACF-50. I did use anti sieze on most bolts when reassembling to prevent future corrosion and to ease removal.

I pretty much pulled everything off the scoot except the dashboard and the front 'hood/fender' as I could clean everything I needed without removing these final parts.

My 'to do' list includes:

new fuel filter, new windscreen (current one has odd clouding / hazing that doesn't appear to polish out), new tires, muffler gaskets to stop exhaust leak, rubber bushings for the shocks...don't want to spend all the $ on new shocks, yet.

I'll also need to pull apart the front caliper as one pad is much thinner than the other, telling me a slide pin is stuck..will want to clean and relube caliper and put on new pads. Will check rear brake when I pull wheel for tire replacement. Assume it will need a thorough cleaning and probably install new brake shoes.

I only found 2 broken tabs, both the result of impact damage. I fixed one and just need one of those metal clips that slip over the tab for a screw to go into to fix the other.

Last big screw up...I noticed a wire was unhooked and one rerouted from the rear brake switch..I assumed correctly that this was done to bypass the rear brake safety switch that is pressed to enable the scoot to start. It also unhooked the rear brake light, so only the front brake activates the brake light..not good...but I can live with it, briefly. It will jsut take a LOT of disassembly to get to that wire under the floor cover.

Next step is polishing out the paint. It looks good from 10 feet but every panel is marred or scratched when you get up close. No broken panels or cracks, which was good to see.

I'll attach a few pics and then give a brief first ride review.

[Iahawk]

a few more observations...the tires are a total pain in the rear to check tire pressure. They are tiny, there are a lot of wheel spokes and it is damn near impossible to get an air gauge or pump on there. I'll have to get that addressed with the new tires and more accessible valve stems.

Seat comes off with 1 screw and provides full motor access. CVT cover is accessed after removing 1 piece of lower rear trim, muffler accessed after removing lower trim piece from other side. Nice design.

The CVT cover is also held on by 2 long bolts in the middle, not 10 little bolts around the perimeter (a la Kymco).

Here are pics of the very blue clutch bell and the greasy variator.

[Iahawk]

first ride impression: I went out for a 23 mile ride...would have gone farther (and faster) but not trusting the rear, underinflated tire.

keep in mind my only other 2 wheeled comparisons are my People S200 and Ninja 300...so this feet forward riding position is strange..but very comfortable. This thing also rides like an old Buick. VERY soft...soaks up the biggest bumps...bumps that are jarring on my other rides are not even felt on this.

Seat is huge, soft and cushy..vs the hard seats on my other rides.

Power is very smooth. This scoot isn't particularly fast off the line but it has a nice, smooth power delivery. No clutch shudder or shaking at all (even with the ancient cvt parts)

So good power, super smooth and very comfortable. I can see why people would want to tour on this.

Bad? tail light is about knee high...terrible placement for visibility and safety. I'll be adding a super bright LED bulb, soon. Plus I ordered a 'brake free' helmet mounted led brake light (pure coincidence, I ordered it last week, but it should significantly increase my visibility on the Helix)

Front amber turn signals are on at all times, acting as running lights, which is nice. I'd like to upgrade the turn signal bulbs to led's at some point.

The dashboard is the coolest thing on the bike. It is digital and looks like it is out of a 1980's Honda car.  Digital fuel level, coolant temp and speedometer. Odometer is old school analog, with the little numbers that roll over.

So fun bike so far. Don't want to drop a ton of $ on it before I make sure it doesn't have any major engine problems or other expensive issues.

there do seem to be a ton of bushings in the suspension and engine hanger that may wear or be worn..so this could be a bit of a money pit if I want to get it all back up to snuff...but first impressions of the overall build quality, body condition and riding feel are all positive.

If you've read this far..thanks, and I apologize for the extra long posting today.

[CROSSBOLT]

What! No picture of the instrument panel?! Nice job! When you teardown/inspect/ service/ repair you really do ot big! Hooray!

[Ruffus]

@hawk, congrats.
I'm little bit jealous...not to have MY hands on..
Good job.
And you saved me from buying a newspaper today.

[Iahawk]

OK, final update for the day. After the morning ride I went back out to the garage and spent about 3 hours doing a machine compound and polish on the painted body panels. Meguiars 105, 205, Mirror Glaze #7 and then a top coat of Griot's Garage Hybrid ceramic spray wax. Looks great, except for all the deep scratches and mismatched touch up paint!

And then the 'oh, crap' moment...apparently my initial 1 or 2 mile rides weren't enough but the 23 mile rides was enough to show the dreaded oil leak! A dime sized drop on the floor under the motor. It looks more like engine oil than gear oil and looks to be coming from behind the cvt case, almost in front of the back tire. Hard to see in there...bottom of cvt and motor were a little damp...damn...guess that's the next project, finding the oil leak.

I can hear John Grinsel loudly saying 'that's why you don't buy that old junk!' (just kidding, John!)

took a few post polish pics and one of the oil spot. Have a great rest of your Sunday, those in North America, at least!

[Kansas kymco]

Enjoyed the update. Just got home from picking up a GV , will tell a odd story in a different thread.

[Iahawk]

What! No picture of the instrument panel?!

for you, Karl!

[Iahawk]

Enjoyed the update. Just got home from picking up a GV , will tell a odd story in a different thread.

thanks, and looking forward to hearing about your new purchase!

[Ruffus]

@hawk, great.
This dashboard looks at first glance to me a little bit like "Spaceship Enterprise", interesting.
There could be only three reasons (IMHO) for this oil leak.
A) too much greasing of CVT and therefore liquifying..running out of the lower air vent
B) one of those two oil seals (either  CVT  to crank or clutch to transmission) are leaking. Both are easy to replace.
C) the O-ring which seals the starter motor within the motor block is dryed out and ...to be seen with a mirror where its coming from
Eager to see and read your updates.

[Iahawk]

Ruffus, thank you for the suggestions. I will need to tear into it more to diagnose..but I don't believe it is coming from the cvt cover. The scoot was on its side stand in the 'oil spot' pic so the bike was leaning over, making it more difficult to see the true path of the leak. It was wet behind the cvt cover/swingarm...if I reached my hand under and then put my fingers behind the cvt (between cvt and rear wheel) I could feel it was oily.

I think I'll need to remove cvt cover and the airbox, which sits above it to get a better view.

Unfortunately I am going out of town for the rest of the week so will need to put all scooter work on hold.

After the polishing yesterday, and wiping up the oil drip, I moved the scoot back to its usual parking spot, put on center stand and placed white paper towels under it to capture any drips...and of course there are none...which I suppose is good

[Ruffus]

..ah, could be simply the oil seal at wheel bearing.
Axle towards wheel. Or the one on the RH side of your gear, direction wheel.

[Kansas kymco]

a few more observations...the tires are a total pain in the rear to check tire pressure. They are tiny, there are a lot of wheel spokes and it is damn near impossible to get an air gauge or pump on there. I'll have to get that addressed with the new tires and more accessible valve stems.

Seat comes off with 1 screw and provides full motor access. CVT cover is accessed after removing 1 piece of lower rear trim, muffler accessed after removing lower trim piece from other side. Nice design.

The CVT cover is also held on by 2 long bolts in the middle, not 10 little bolts around the perimeter (a la Kymco).

Here are pics of the very blue clutch bell and the greasy variator.

Had a little time so I decided to change oil in the old Riva 180Z I just purchased last week.  I usually do maintenance on any scooter I buy.  Seat is held on by 4-10mm bolts, side panels are 2 metric Allen head bolts each side.  Oil filter 3 Allen head screws. 

What I found was oil and filter were clean and newer lithium battery. No anti-freeze to change (air cooled) and no brake fluid to change (old mechanical drum brakes). Unlike your Helix the scratches on this are WAY BEYOND rubbing compound. Will take all the panels off and repaint with hardened black urethane paint. Since it's a all black scooter I'm going to have the seat redone in a tan UV resistant vinyl,  the original seat has a split in the vinyl.  When I have more time will check the CVT belt (probably original )  and change the air filter.  Haven't checked the date code on the tires just ordered in two new  tires. 2640 miles so could be origanal.

[Iahawk]

KK, that sounds like a fun little scoot. You're probably right, most of the stuff is probably original with those low miles. That will be a nice little scoot when you're done...and a rare one.

[Kansas kymco]

KK, that sounds like a fun little scoot. You're probably right, most of the stuff is probably original with those low miles. That will be a nice little scoot when you're done...and a rare one.

Yamaha imported them for 3 years 83- 85 before they took a hiatus then came back as a 200 for a few more years.  They  were 1 year ahead of Honda for a large displacement scooter from Japan.

I hope you don't mind me tagging on to your thread Iahawk, I didn’t think there would be much interest in a old scooter thread.

Rare and old is not always a good combination.  Yamaha had 3 version of the Riva 180, the standard model,  the Riva 180Z, and the deluxe model. If I had the standard 180 I could order in a seat cover. The 180 Z and Deluxe got a upgraded seat and are not available.  I'm checking my source in Greese to see if they have one. The Riva 180 was sold in Europe as the Cygnus 180.