Xciting 500i homeless, taken care

[Ruffus]

Dear scooteristi, you might understand seeing a KYMCO 500i hanging around, with sad headlights watching for a new home, appealed to my god heart and took her home.

An aquaintance of mine called in and ask what to do, this scooter seems to eat batteries like me burgers.
Needed only this year three of them. After a short check it came to a rotten regulator/ rectifier, which cooked them up.

Guys didn't come to the idea to measure incoming voltage. When I checked, battery had incoming 17.6 volts and 65°C, pretty hot to my hands.

Well, to shorten the story, it's in my workshop right now and waits for a new reg/rec.
For reasoning I took it for an acceptable price.
MJ 2008, 18000 kms, one owner, showroom condition, new tyres, brakes and shiny.

First modification : LED headlight and running lights.
Second mod: Topcase mounted

Edit: reg/rect. arrived for €28,-  works great
..installed a voltmeter too for further control and less surprise..
..bought a new belt €150,- pretty expensive MITSUBOSHI
..waiting for Dr.Pulleys gliders 29x22 x 30 gr (want quiet cruising) to change at once..

[Iahawk]

all right, Ruffus! I really like that color...I think Kansas Kymco had a similar one?

That looks like an easy headlight bulb change. 500 cc's, I bet that's a fun scoot!

[Neil955i]

all right, Ruffus! I really like that color...I think Kansas Kymco had a similar one?

That looks like an easy headlight bulb change. 500 cc's, I bet that's a fun scoot!

See Hawk, one man’s meat… it looks orange to me so first job would have to be a re spray! 😂. With all due respect to KK RIP

[wymple]

Is the charging system permanent magnet? If so there are r/r that are wonderful stuff to upgrade the system. The most common comes from Polaris. I got mine off ebay for 40 bucks, but there are signs you need to know to get a genuine piece. Check out the Suzuki forums for good info.

[Ruffus]

Next step to personalize this 500i was to eliminate its original airfilter system and put something more adequate in it.
Let her breathe more freely!

In this case a leftover straight monofilter from one of my GUZZIs. (pls see pics)

The original filter box remains in place, only its connection pipe has to be removed (red arrow).

Reason for leaving in place: oil fog from gear still evaporates into and sale considerations.
Amount, we will see?
Fuel map has to be changed a little bit to cope with its second air system and make a really sweet runner out of this heavyweight.
Plusses:
- 10 to12 kmh more topspeed
- smoother acceleration
- less consumption (not fully tested yet, but seems to be 1 ltr/100km)

Minusses:
- access to diagtool and computer neccessary
- light snoring sound when accelerating

[Ruffus]

..and one more feature I like to have on my vehicles, a voltmeter:
to see what my battery, regulator/rectifier and generator has in surprise for me.

Digital, pretty precise, unexpensive and easy to install. (pls see pic)
12.6V ignition on, 13.8V idle.

[Ruffus]

@wymple, yes permament magnet system like most oilcooled.
Regs/rects I usually take from "2up" for €29,- to €35,- apiece.

 They last pretty well if not somehow caked with dust or covered. It's anyway an unlucky solution to put 'em above the scoots muffler within hot air.

But better to change them once in a while than to relocate the whole harness. For this to forebode I need a voltmeter.

[Iahawk]

Ruffus, what are your long term plans for the scoot? Are you just having fun in the short term before selling or do you plan on keeping this for a while? (also very impressive that you can change the fuel mapping, yourself!)

[Ruffus]

@lahawk, well...
...right now I plan to keep it for a while, for there is/was space in my workshop again after selling both GUZZIs. Most probably until next year or if something more interesting comes along. For backup I still have my GRAND DINK 150, which also does very well after implanting a different carburator.

Mapping: I did it myself but in a tuning shop where I had access to some sophisticated technical setup. So I have to give credits to this guys who looked over my shoulder and hinted.

They themselves where interested, since my scoot was the first big, four valve, single cylinder scoot they had there.
Also a change to a little bit "colder" iridium  sparkplug was neccessary to achieve optimal values. (pls see pic)

Of course I let a data backup to them for (their) future use and a donation.

[Ruffus]

Changed rollers to Mr Pulleys and belt to MITSUBOSHI today, wooouw
even better "gliding" than before.
Original were 29/22-33grams rollers in it which were in pretty good shape, no flat spots.
Changed to 29/22-31gram Pulleys, which are actually 31.5 gram, happy riding.

All this measures together with an MAP update and a different airfilter improved fuel consumption from 5.6 ltrs/100km to 4.21 ltrs/100km.
Moderate driven but sometimes full speed (166km/h GPS).

[Iahawk]

sounds like you have a very quick scooter! Nice work!

[CROSSBOLT]

Very nice! I like that voltmeter install! Kaoshiung shoulda done it that way! You show 'em, Italia!

[Ruffus]

Txs all!
Yes. I'm surprised how this scoot is galopping.
Just have to find a way to reduce "intake- snoring" a little bit. Fear it could inhale some slices of pizza when I pass a Pizzeria.

For this voltmeter, reasons are known.
Had this scoot have had one installed from beginning, guys would have found this "battery consumption" maybe by themself.

I simply want to know what my powerstation does.

[Neil955i]

Love bit of intake roar myself.  It was one of the addictive features of my big Triumph triples as they came on song at about 8,000 rpm!  Yep, I miss that.

[Ruffus]

Neil yes, this sound is nice but I want to keep it "downsize" as possible, only performance shown at trafficlights should surprise guys on their supers!😉