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I'm wondering how much investment you guys make annually on your kymco xciting500.

I'm particularly interested in knowing how you guys manage to cut costs of maintenance, what your break downs are and how much you ride.

I am especially interested in knowing a annual price break down from guys who ride their bikes a lot as opposed to just on the weekend.

I know money must be spent on the bike to keep it running properly. But is there a minimum baseline we should be spending annually to keep these machines running optimally?

I love my xciting500 and would love to figure out how to only spend a few hundred a year on maintenance if possible. I don't wanna spend as much as if I were owning a car, that's kinda one of the reasons I own a bike instead of the car (insurance is much cheaper, gas is much cheaper per gallon).

So, besides gas, looking primarily at maintenance charges, what's the experience of you guys who ride a lot?

Hi,

In the last couple of days I am getting what I can only define as a wavier and bouncier ride than I am use to on this bike. It started yesterday and continued today, I checked the cold pressure this morning at 39 PSI for both tires. I just changed the rear shock settings to 3 from 2.

What else might cause this that I should be looking out for?

Hello all,

This is my first post and i'm super 'xcited' that there is such a thing as a Kymco forum.
 
So, i'll delve right into my experiences and concerns.

First off, I live in Southern California (Los Angeles area) and I upgraded to the kymco xciting 500 abs 2016 model after I had a SSR Turino 150cc (cheap chinese vespa knock off).

The reasons I did the upgrade were:

1-Needed to get on the freeway desperately because i'm still relatively new to LA (came here in 2015) and i'm still searching earnestly for long term, consistent work. I also do freelance work that is sometimes 50 miles away, so I needed to be able to jump on the freeway when ever possible.

2-Low Maintenance potential. I figured with a better model bike made by a more reputable company like Kymco i'd have to invest less and do maintenance less outside of my service updates every 3000 miles.

So, I have about 3300 miles on the bike now after having purchased it brand new at Berts Mega Mall in west covina about 3 months ago.

For the most part the bike has been handling the freeway driving fairly well, I have been able to keep up with "most" freeway speed driving except when I am forced onto certain freeways by navigation (I wear earbuds when using my iphones navigation through siri or google maps). On some freeways here in California it is literally impossible to go slower than 80-85 safely because NOBODY obeys the speed limits. The 118 for example, or the 5 as another example.

That said, there have been multiple occasions where I was forced to 'push' the bike to 85-90 for a few minutes at a time because of these unreasonable driving conditions.

The other thing is, I wouldn't say I "hard accelerate" but there are instances (again, on the freeway) where I am forced to go from 0 rpm, to say, 3 or 4 rpm because of dangerous road conditions courtesy of guys doing 90-100 mph in large SUV's.

I took it for a brief inspection at berts mega mall last week and was told by one of the service techs that he thinks the belt might be 'slipping' a little due to 'hard accelerating" and I told him I don't hard accelerate, unless going from 0-2 or 3 on the rpm scale is considered hard accelerating. That means 0 to 2000 to 3000 rpms when I have to usually more 2000 than 3000, and I try my best to give it a second before going from 2-3-4 on the rpm scale but sometimes I don't have that luxury due to safety concerns.

Now, I could choose to stay mostly off the freeways but the reason I purchased the bike is to use it mostly on the freeways.

Secondly, this service tech told me my tires have "slight pre-cupping" which means ever so slight signs of cracking at the point where the side wall meets the tread surface, but none of that on the tread surface itself. I've been making sure the PSI is at 35-36 at least 2-3 times monthly. Lately i've been checking them more and keeping them about 38 PSI.

He also told me my brakes have about '60% left" in them which was another shocker.

Now, there was a single time I drove with the parking break half way engaged for less than a mile, but as I said it was only half way engaged or I would've noticed it sooner and I wouldn't have been able to drive as fast as I was with my girlfriend on the back also. I usually keep the rear suspension settings at 4-5 when she is on it and 3 when I am by myself, since I go shopping a lot after having installed a top case on it.

Based on all the above info, what should my approach be to this situation? I have a service maintenance coming in about 600 miles (out of my own pocket) but I kind of loathe the idea that i'm already having to consider pouring other money into this bike after only owning it for 3 months.

My second inquiry is about upgrade parts. Should I stick to the Kymco factory belt drive or seek out an upgrade model? And then tires, are there any tires that are considered an upgrade to the maxus factory installed ones, which would be great for both freeway and surface street driving? They're telling me these tires will only last 6000 miles! A HUGE shocker since i've seen motorcycle tires last 15000 miles. I'm honestly not yet ready to pour money into this bike, and the reason I bought it is so I wouldn't have to do it so soon.

Another thing, it's my main mode of transportation. I don't have a car.

What should I do?

Thank you in advance for all your responses.