Xciting 500i homeless, taken care

[Neil955i]

Ah, so you're looking to build a bit of a sleeper are you Ruffus you old rogue!  Should be fun at the traffic light GP.

[Ruffus]

Yeah, we old grey ones...😂

..this done I considered our regs/recs mostly dying from early sudden heat death:
Something had to be done in this matter!

Why not putting a fan on this "heating device" to reduce its temperature and MAYBE extend its life.
(pls see pics)

- taken a new reg/rec (some are always on stock)
- took a 50mm (diameter bolt to bolt, hight 15mm, brushless) printer fan

- drilled two 4mm holes in this regs cooling matrix
- put fiber shims between metal and fan (heat shielding)

- took scoots 12V charging socket plug (METIN box) connectors and put them on fans cables
- fitted all into the scoot (after testing)

- ignition on, fan blowing nicely

BUT
- METIN handy charging light at dashboard on
(pls see pic)
Since I was too lazy to work into scoots front it will be like that for a while until I might neutralize it.

[Ruffus]

Since my grandchildren say, a handyholder is a "must" on any two-wheeler, so be it.

But what's a handy without charging system?

So I had to put an USB-slot into my dashboard, to match with its voltmeter, it had to be blue illuminated (pls see pic).

[Neil955i]

Since my grandchildren say, a handyholder is a "must" on any two-wheeler, so be it.

So chump me had to look that up on Google!  Never heard it referred to as such here doh!

[Ruffus]

Ha, you see Neil, for what we have this forum😉.

[Neil955i]

As someone once said, the day you learn nothing is a wasted day.

[Ruffus]

There are always some surprises with a "new" scoot.

Warned by reading in some forums about our 500i's "childhood illnesses" as there are:
- thirsty (remedy: different airfilter and mapping)
- eating regs/rects and batteries (remedy: spare reg in metin box or fan on it)
- hesitant starting with low voltage (remedy: piggytail/ tricklecharger or LiFePo4 battery)

Since the first two where already solved, my scoot insisted to have, what we called in old times  a "diesel thinking second" before it cranked and started properly.

To solve this minor nuisance, a 20 Ah lithium battery was inplanted and all headache is gone.

[Ruffus]

Ah BTW, abbrevation METIN- box  comes from helMET IN-box, a wise KYMCO dealer told me lately.

[Iahawk]

Ah BTW, abbrevation METIN- box  comes from helMET IN-box, a wise KYMCO dealer told me lately.

Thank you! I always wondered where that name came from as it made no sense to me. I thought it was something that translated poorly over from Korean.

[Ruffus]

One more thing which bothered me, having a topcase mounted,

sideways access to this underseat tray was pretty limited.

Solution:  (pls see pics)
-took a used VOLVO trunk shock absorber from stock
-this black mounting clips on the end are the same on most dampers, 8mm ball element, so it could be used
-cutted open its damper element
-bent its rod in shape to fit under my scoots seat
-mounted a 9mm pipe clip under the seat
-tapped a 5mm thread on one end
-put a plastic cap on this thread to avoid scratching my tray

Deal done,
-pro: easy access
-contra: I have to open and keep the seat manually to stilt this holder.

[Iahawk]

nice work, as always, Ruffus!

[Ruffus]

Being engineer, certain things on our toys, offend my sense of accuracy.

Such as our KYMCOs overdiligent/ optimistic speedometer.
So there had to be something done to improve this manco a little bit.
After a while of mulling over this nuisance a vague idea lightened up in my grey ones.

Our speedos get their info or pulse from an serrated piece of metal at the front wheel.
Why not reducing this pulse for a certain amount and make our speedometer more accurate?

Thought and done:
- bought a used, pristine front wheel
- cutted out four (4) segments from this indicator plate
- brake discs on again

Testriding and result (GPS comparison):
- at speedo 50 km/h  - GPS shows 49 km/h
- at speedo 100 km/h - GPS shows 95 km/ h
Before I had at speedo 60 - 50 at GPS.
Before I had at speedo 110 - 100 at GPS.

With this results I'm in a tolerable percentage of deviation. Like any modern car where 5% is tolerated.

Second thing I did during this intervention, was.
I had from taking over on this scoot a slightly wobbly (no DUI) feeling when I turned in bends or when longer curves were ridden.

Could not imagine what would cause that, because I checked wheelbearings and they were fine in my opinion. But it proofed wrong.

In this used frontwheel I put new bearings and oilseals and the scoot runs perfectely now, without any wobble or strange move. So if you experience a difference to as is was before, think of wheelbearings.

[Ruffus]

Ah, so you're looking to build a bit of a sleeper are you Ruffus you old rogue!  Should be fun at the traffic light GP.

@Neil, I could not resist when I saw an inexpensive MSR performance muffler. (pls see pics)
Had to be restuffed and refurbished a little bit, but fits nicely and sounds even better. No speed increase measurable.
Even filled with stainless steel wool from kitchen scratchies (14 pc) has this muffler 1/3 of the OE s weight.

The catalizer (uncontrolled metal oxydation cat) I removed because of extraordinary heat built-up (pls see pic db-killer) within the pipe and blueing its connection tube.
At this rear db-killer I experimented to find the proper sound by closing airholes with riviets.

None of them stayed (melted and were blewn away) in place  thanks to enormous heat, caused from catalyzer. Must habe been around 500°C to destroy this aluminium reviets.

DB-killer front and rear are mounted to avoid too much of noise.

[olds_cool63]

The very first Kymco I ever rode was the X-Citing 500, while my wife was picking out the Vitality. Man! What a scoot.

I'd love to have one!

[Neil955i]

Nice job with the exhaust pipe Ruffus!