Trike Conversion or CanAm Spyder

[Mike Green]

Thanks for all the wisdom out there. Mrs. Green received 3 different medals/commendations from ,(I'm sorry Streido), HRM The Queen for valor as she served in the Australian Army as a field Nurse in Viet Nam so she has  dealt with major stressors during her life. I'm very serious when I report that I came very close to being killed in this damn wreck and it scared the sh**e out of both of us. Now I'm 64 and made a decision to hang up my spurs this year due to back surgeries. I still own two horses but no longer ride. Except for bicycles as a kid I've never ridden a two wheel device in my life but I was determined to master this scooter and found that I really love riding. From day one I taught myself and did drop it twice along the way. Vivo and Zombie taught me to trust my left side and I became proficient with right turns. Unfortunately not so with emergency stops at high speed. MSF certification pending. The XC500Ri has 980 miles on it spread out over the year from when I bought it new last January. Thanks again for your comments, suggestions.
Mike

[08087]

Mike I've no idea what you've been taught by the other members and I'm no riding expert but I'll share what I do when learning and maybe you can take something from it and go forward from there (maybe not).

Try running in a safe place, maybe a mall parking lot late at night or early in the AM, start out at 5 MPH and do an emergency stop, once you feel comfortable with how you do, move up to 10 MPH and repeat, repeat, repeat until your again comfortable. Your old enough not to worry about what the onlookers may think or say, you may even draw the attention of an expreianced rider and get a few lessons.

Once your up to running at 40 MPH and higgher and doing emergency stops ruteenly (spelling) practice them once in awhile for the hell of it. This is how I taught myself to drive in the snow and ice and I've yet to have 1 accident, owned an outdoor parking lot for 16 years driving all type of cars/trucks front wheel drive rear wheel drive 4 wheel anit slip no anti slip.

I hope your near death exp. didn't injure you to badly and in no time you'll be back on the horse scooting away. Sounds to me you've got a great deal to live for and to go home to so do ride safe.

Dave (08)

[Mike Green]

Thanks Dave, some good advice. I had planned to take the MSF beginner's in Sept. but these injuries got in the way. Will do that ASAP. I do live in a rural area with limited traffic and a state park backed up to my back property. I was able to start riding down to the parking lots and boat ramps in the park and practice practice practice. After I had some confidence I would drive down to Lowe's and WalMart and ride in their traffick and parking lots. After about six months of this I started riding in the Jasmine Hills and Harogate Springs area which was primarily rural hills and twisties and I was having a ball. Just stayed out too late on the Friday night of Sept 07 and it was pitch dark and that's when I ran into Bambi and I admit it, I panicked and braked with all my strength and locked up and flipped the scoot.

[axy]

There is one another problem with scooters, not discussed on forums. They are not the best vehicles for emergency stops.
Anything above 25-30 mph and they tend not to stop or slide in a straight line, but the front wheel tends to slide sideways and you're on the ground.
This effect is even worse in wet.

It is quite terrible on my P250S. When I mentioned that, I got some advices like this was my first scooter: check the tires, check the rims, check the wheel alignment... all this is in perfect condition. I think the problem is in combination of poor suspension and brake components used on ALL scooters compared to motorcycles, weight composition between axles and the fact that engine/transmission do not weigh equally on the sides of horizontal axis, so in case of wheels locking, it tends to pull more on one side. This phenomenon was very noticeable with standard Vespas.

Anyway, I was quite disappointed with this fact and my (then) new P250S, so I have adopted different driving style, keeping more distance and lowering speed. I do not joke when I say that I drive P250S in wet like I drove Piaggio Beverly IN SNOW. It has so poor suspension and braking characteristics.

Even the cheapest motorcycles are better in that regard than the best scooters. I would prefer emergency stop with motorcycle any day compared to a scooter, not to mention the ability to change direction better than scooters etc.

[ts1]

Even the cheapest motorcycles are better in that regard than the best scooters.

Sorry, but you probably haven't tried a Royal Enfield (*) vs. BMW C600/Honda Integra/Yamaha Tmax 530/...
(*) A German friend has 2 (practically unusable) RE Taurus. Now discountinued, but RE Bullet & Co are still in production.

Honda India motorcycles have >50% market share! For sure not because Royal Enfield, Bajaj & Co are reliable and safe.
I would always prefer a modern japanese scooter to the motorcycles I drove in India.

[streido]

The best thing you can do Mike is to book a few hours lessons with a qualified instructor. He will help find any flaws you have in your riding and point them out to you, showing you how to fix it and ride safer. I thought i was a pretty good rider till i took my day traing ciurse a few months ago, some of it was boring stuff i knew already but other things i learned could well save my life in the future, best £100 i ever spent on a scoot related item.

[axy]

Sorry, but you probably haven't tried a Royal Enfield (*) vs. BMW C600/Honda Integra/Yamaha Tmax 530/...
(*) A German friend has 2 (practically unusable) RE Taurus. Now discountinued, but RE Bullet & Co are still in production.

Honda India motorcycles have >50% market share! For sure not because Royal Enfield, Bajaj & Co are reliable and safe.
I would always prefer a modern japanese scooter to the motorcycles I drove in India.

Sorry, but I was not even considering in my post what is driven east of Turkey.  

Royal Enfield or Bajaj are not exactly common in Europe or USA, so we can skip that part of the story. I am referring to brand name Western scoots compared to brand name Western motorcycles (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawa), even in lower displacements like 500 or 600.

[08087]

Sorry, but I was not even considering in my post what is driven east of Turkey.  

Royal Enfield or Bajaj are not exactly common in Europe or USA, so we can skip that part of the story. I am referring to brand name Western scoots compared to brand name Western motorcycles (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawa), even in lower displacements like 500 or 600.

Larger Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha scoots are poor compared to cycles?

[LoveMyKymco]

Main difference between a CVT using ANYTHING and ANYTHING with a manual gear box is the fact you can down shift to slow down with a geared drive, you hit the brakes on your CVT transmission anything it goes to a "neutral" like state of where the onset and offset of the front drive gear is lower which cause the belt to do a "rubber band" like effect. Therefore there isnt really any extra engine braking that will help, or far inferior engine torquing than needed for quick stops.

[LoveMyKymco]

Also for the record Bajaj are by far the biggest hunks of poo Ive ever had an unfortunate fate to come across. I had a Bajaj Legend 4 speed that was like shifting a mack truck, crunch crunch crunch slam finally I have 1st gear. 20 slams on the floor board for 2nd, 3 and 4th like butter?!? Mine had 136 kms when I got it, had 1100 when I gave it to a kid I wished ill.

[Pimpy1]

I can stick up for the Axy post about the People 250.  It's like trying to stop a charging elephant by pulling back on the ears.  It is all over the place. My Super 8 on the other hand, even with rear drum brakes, is much better in a fast stop.  I can do a controlled high speed skid to stop on a gravel road. If I tried that with my People 250 I would be picking up plastic scooter body parts scattered down the street. Some scoots are so top heavy and have a poor suspension set up it is almost to hard for anyone to control.

It is not my poor riding skills either.  I used to race x-country enduro on my KTM and did a bit of trials with an old Bultaco 350.

[axy]

Larger Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha scoots are poor compared to cycles?

Take any 600 cc bike and try emergency stop or "deer avoiding" maneouvre versus any 500-600 scoot, at 50 mph, and let me know what happens...
YES. They are CRAP compared to motorcycles.

[axy]

I can stick up for the Axy post about the People 250.  It's like trying to stop a charging elephant by pulling back on the ears.  It is all over the place. My Super 8 on the other hand, even with rear drum brakes, is much better in a fast stop.  I can do a controlled high speed skid to stop on a gravel road. If I tried that with my People 250 I would be picking up plastic scooter body parts scattered down the street. Some scoots are so top heavy and have a poor suspension set up it is almost to hard for anyone to control.

It is not my poor riding skills either.  I used to race x-country enduro on my KTM and did a bit of trials with an old Bultaco 350.

Finally somebody who understands what I am talking about.

I would take handling, suspension and stopping ability of Piaggio NRG 50 over P250S ANY TIME!
I wonder what is the purpose of the second disc in front, to pay double for the pads probably... it locks after applying 25 % of braking force anway.

[Vivo]

Balance and weight distribution....

The GSX-Rs, Rs, CBRs are backed up with pure racing technology/engineering. Everything is considered in designing these machines for public consumption. There are reasons why the fairings are shaped as such, why they placed the pipes at such places, engine placement, brakes, stands, etc. That is the main reason why these nice motorcycles handle very good.

As to scooters... What? gy6 technology? 10-inch wheels? What...? My Super 8 looks good ,yes, but the wind drag is awful... All scooters have most of the weight at the rear...hmmm what else...

[ts1]

The NC700D "must" behave worse than the NC700S, because the "D" is called a scooter. (Although everything from tire over frame to 6-speed double clutch transmission is exactly the same, only fairings and wind shield differ.) Just the name makes the physical driving characteristics.
Professional riders who tested the C600 (*) and Tmax 530 "must" be wrong, because the didn't realize they speak about "only scooters".
And I was wrong with the HD Sporty - what a superb bike that was and just I couldn't realize its potential.

(*) Stop from 100kph in 39m - many ABS motorcycles need >40m.
Yes, they are better race bikes which can stop even faster. But to say every scooter is worse than every motorcycle is imho just: bullsh**.