Stripped nuts and bolts, a little bummed

[bigalsnow]

I bought a new/old stock 2009 super 8 a couple days ago.  Being a body man/fabricator/painter, the first thing I did when getting it home was to tear it apart in preparation for a black/white paint conversion installing BMW emblems, reminescent of the European BMW Policia special scooters.  Yes, I am also a BMW motorcycle owner.  I started with the seat and seat tub, and was surprised to find two nuts and bolts stripped upon removal.  A few minutes later I went to the foot pegs and found two of the four alan head bolts were stripped upon removal.  The worst one was the one in the bottom of the battery tray, that was just a shaft that once was a bolt.  I spend a couple hours running taps and dies to restore these situations.  Keep in mind, this is a brand new scooter, and the strippage was found upon disassembly, not reassembling process, by a professional mechanic.

My question about Kymco scooters, is this typical?  I really hope mechanically this scooter is more sound than the body parts. 

Wrench heads, do tell if I got a lemon or not.

[Vivo]

My super 8 is 2 years old and I have no problems with it whatsoever....

[CROSSBOLT]

Your experience is unusual and I am on my second Kymco. Your experience is more typical of what you get from a dealer or some of the shops. I cannot see where the dealer set-up monkey would have any business in the areas you described so that puts it in the manufacturer's court. Good luck with that! "What were you doing taking a new machine apart!" "How dare you!" I imagine such comments from your dealer or Kymco USA if you were to tell them. Drilling, tapping and heli-coils is a good path, in my opinion. Let us know how it all turns out.

Karl

[bigalsnow]

I agree with the "manufacturers court" CROSSBOLT diagnosis.  I dealt with it, and once I had taps and dies broke out, everything was resolved, just a little disappointed after dealing with Honda quality.  You ask "what were you doing taking a new machine apart"....I did not like the colors of the factory machine, and especially the decals.  I have owned it a week, and should have it put back together next week in black/white colors with other logos.....I will definitely post the results on this page.  I hope to have many happy years of around town riding on my Super 8.