Hello gang!
Long time lurker first time posting. I own a scooter service/performance shop in San Marcos, Tx. and specialize in Chinese and Taiwanese scooters. I truly love the GY6 based engines, very fun and powerful. However, I am a bit of a snob... My favorite bikes are by Derbi, Aprilia, and Kymco by far. I have owned 8 Derbi scooters so far and currently own 2, and 6 Aprilias total owning 2 now. I also like Kymco particularly. I feel this brand is by far the best bang for the buck and possibly under rated! I have owned 7 Kymco scooters so far and currently own 3, currently looking for a good deal on a Venox 250. Ok, so now you know a bit about me, including how much I love two strokes damnit!!!
ON TO THE SCOOTER AT HAND!
So I recently found this gem of a deal, 2005 Kymco People 50, $50 no title or keys but all complete and in great need of clean up.
Buddy seat removed and bike washed
Then after getting the fuel flushed, replacing the fuel/vacuum lines, flushing the oil tank and pump, flushing the gear oil, replacing the plug, replacing the belt, flushing the brake fluid, and all the other little misc things to maker her safe I went ahead and put a healthy 100 miles one it. Top speed via gps was about 46mph.
Now on to the changes and customizing!!! First I pulled the headset and am replacing the handle bars, grips, and gauges with downhill bars and a KOSO DB01R digital gauge with tach, speedo, and all the little indicators as before. The bars and grips on are on order so I don't have pics of those yet, instead, you will see pics of my stock bars stripped down. Also, since I am ridding of the whole top set I am putting a new headlight on the bike mounted to the frame and poking through the front plastic cover. I will be doing some fiberglassing to make the finished cover plate using the chrome plastic cover.
The headlight mounting
Then a shot of the light mounted with and without mock up bezzle
I pulled the wiring harness at the main plugs to remove lots of not needed wire and the gauge lighting.
Here is the gauge I am using, better pics soon once mounted on bike. I will do my best to offer more. Also some of you may have noticed the missing blinkers etc, that info is coming up.
I hate hate hate the chrome bling trim on these bikes, so, I have taken it all off and prepped it for black paint. First remove all the trim.
Then scuff with a paint scuff pad
Scuffed on the right, stock chrome on the left. Personally I actually like the scuffed look, kinda like aluminum and would look good on a dark colored bike. Ready for paint!
Took the parts home and cleaned them with hot water and soap after being scuffed.
Adding LED bulbs to the rear, no real modifications needed, adding LED bulbs to the front, requires drilling new holes, running the wire, and mounting. I am choosing to run my blinkers as running lights on all the time, but still blink using one relay per right/left side activated by the blinker relay. Simple and accurate.
Here is the particular items for the front.
Bulb socket
Front LED
Load sensing blinker relay
Mounted front LED
If you notice I bent the LED bulbs on one side inward toward the reflective are, this made a huge difference in how bright its total output is.
The rear was simple, just replace the bulb dummy!
I have a Tecnigas pipe for it, a 17.5mm and 19mm Delorto carb that I will try out as well as a new intake manifold and reeds. Eventually this bike will get the Malossi 70 kit and Malossi full transmission. For now I will be running the stock engine with higher compression, light exhaust porting, and 6g Dr. Pulley sliders in the stock variator.
Tomorrow I will be finishing the wiring harness and I will share the details of how to wire that up as well as the finished painted trim parts. Later I will show the finished product in good outdoor light so you can get a good idea of the changes. Hope you like what I have going on here. Any questions about what I am or have done are very welcome.
More to come...
Update:
Got the painting done and it looks great! This particular black looks a lot black powder coating. I'm very pleased.
And I got my relay pack for the blinkers setup and finished as well. I will make a small write up in the middle of this for how to wire this up including a wiring diagram in case anyone wants to setup running lights as well.
Here is the gauge and bracket for this temporary setup with the stock bars.
I used the stock threaded hole for my bracket that the stock plastic headset bolted to.
I am pretty happy with the outcome so far. I'll try my best to have a relevant write up on the blinker/running lights over the weekend. Should have the plastics cleaned and buffed along with the newly painted parts installed by this weekend as well. The goal is for this to be done and driving by Monday. My final finishing work will be molding the chrome plastic cover over the new headlight and painting it black. Later I will take on painting the wheels, trans cover, and front shock down tubes black.
Stay tuned!!!