KymcoForum.com
Scooters - 125 to 300 => LIKE 200i => Topic started by: flying old guy on June 14, 2020, 07:10:26 PM
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Like I said previously. I'm brand new to the Kymco line. Just bought a 2014 Yeager200i and a 2018 Like2001. Before these I have ridden only Japanese bikes for the past 56years. Just wondering with proper care, how well will these little bikes hold up. Thanks.
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So, you figured out I needed something to keep me busy, huh? Well, you are right! Here is my opinion about Kymcos so treat it for what it cost!
The Kymco story, short version, they started in '63 making engine units for Honda since Sochiro-san could not keep up with "the nicest people on a Honda!" The Kaohsiung company was turned loose in '68 to do what they are doing now, building riding toys with a lot of Honda technology. You cannot kill either a Honda or a Kymco except by total impact destruction. Very long lasting, takes forever to breah in, no leaks, no burn, run forever, very little trouble unless induced by owner or dealer, hardly ever need parts ( good thing, actually ), good mileage, non-fattening. Usuall get traded for the next newest thing or parked and neglected. Several two-stroke failures but that's about it.
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Thanks, That's very encouraging. At 71 I still can't get rid of the bug of riding.
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Got the same problem at 79!
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For perspective, my Agility 125 retailed at 1,900$ new, one of the cheaper Kymco's. It has to date, plowed through a deer, tumbled down an embankment around a bend, and been side swiped by a suburban. Nothing but 99cents worth of tie wraps has been needed. The frames are built like a tank and the plastics mainly flex except for the painted panels that will crack when impacted. The engine has endured 19,000 miles of red-line highway cruising with no maintenance other than standard 2,500mi oil interval. If you want a low maintenance reliable bike for scenic drives they will last a long time. If you need everything a 1,900 dollar machine can give you it won't hold back. Driving the scooter has saved me over 11 grand in insurance and car maintenance in the past 3 years alone. Not to mention the purchase price of a car. Whatever you need from a scoot a kymco is in my opinion on of the best options for the money.
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Thank you so much, I love hearing things like this.
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2,500 mile oil changes? A lot of miles for a scooter oil change. Mine (Lance) recommends 620 miles.
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Should I be concerned that my Kymco has a sticker that says "made in China"?
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Should I be concerned that my Kymco has a sticker that says "made in China"?
Whole lot of Kymcos are assembled in China.
This thread might be of interest...…
https://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=29757.0 (https://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=29757.0)
And this review might be of interest...… It's 10 yrs old - but not a thing has changed since then on the LIKE200i
http://www.justgottascoot.com/like200.htm (http://www.justgottascoot.com/like200.htm)
Stig
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Just sold our 2011 Kymco Downtown and BUYING a new 2019
Kymco Spade 150 for the S/O who can handle this rather more easily than the 300cc DT. Not upto the build quality of Honda, etc but the reliability seems to be built in for a much less price with Fuel injection no less.. Reminds me of circa 1970 standard MC.
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2,500 mile oil changes? A lot of miles for a scooter oil change. Mine (Lance) recommends 620 miles.
The manual recommends 2000km for an oil change which I would recommend to anyone to be on the safe side, however, after several sets of oil analysis results from professional labs, I have extended the change to 2500mi as the oil at that point is still fully functional and debris is the limitation. My engine for some reason has worn in and now has very little wear between oil changes. I will add an oil cooler in the near future that has a built in filter which would allow a safe 3,000 mile change. The safe interval varies per engine. Even if this works for me I recommend the manual specs for others unless testing has shown otherwise.
My brothers 2012 Toyota corolla is on 20,000 or one year intervals. The exact engine is a contender for the million miler.
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The manual recommends 2000km for an oil change which I would recommend to anyone to be on the safe side, however, after several sets of oil analysis results from professional labs, I have extended the change to 2500mi as the oil at that point is still fully functional and debris is the limitation. My engine for some reason has worn in and now has very little wear between oil changes. I will add an oil cooler in the near future that has a built in filter which would allow a safe 3,000 mile change. The safe interval varies per engine. Even if this works for me I recommend the manual specs for others unless testing has shown otherwise.
My brothers 2012 Toyota corolla is on 20,000 or one year intervals. The exact engine is a contender for the million miler.
Obviously an owner can do whatever they want - but the 2012 Toyota Corolla owner's manual states 5000 mile/ 6 mos. oil changes. That is what we followed.
I just did a 900 mile oil change on my LIKE200i. Less than a Qt. and less than $6. Manual states 1250miles.
Stig
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Even if this works for me I recommend the manual specs for others unless testing has shown otherwise.
Not sure I understand. Do you mean testing used oil from one's engine to check for deterioration and debris, reflecting the need for more or less frequent oil changes?
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It is a large topic but every single engine is slightly different. Even of the same batch off an assembly line one engine will wear lubricants at a different rate then those beside it. The spec interval is a conservative number that insures the highest wearing powerplant has oils changed before the lubricants reach their minimum performance. It is best(if the resources are available) to cater the maintenance to the optimal operation of your engine. I change fluids when they reach a minimal level of effective lubricant. I keep higher minimums than even the manufacturers to ensure the best lifespan. Change, primarily debris displacement is a large wear factor for most machines. The optimum usage of an engine is a given rpm, set torque, and continuous running. Obviously cars use engines in a different manner than say generators. With the advance of synthetic lubricants and filters designed for synthetic oils, the time before reaching the debris max or the lubricant minimum is longer. I am not just talking about oiliness by the way. There are numerous aspects of oils and the contained additives that all effect performance. If filtration is still effective and engine debris is at a minimum, and the oils remain structural intact, then there is no need to disrupt the system by changing the fluids at that point. Which is why Mobil one has there 20,000mi or one year guaranteed oil and matching filter for the engines that can use it.
On a side note, we are talking marginal gains here. For the average operator standard intervals are fine and recommended.
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Very interesting, and most of it makes sense to me, however I have a couple questions.
"I change fluids when they reach a minimal level of effective lubricant."
How do you know when that is?
"I keep higher minimums than even the manufactures to ensure the best lifespan."
By "higher minimums" do you mean lower mileage/more frequent oil changes than recommended?
How did you come to be so knowledgeable about all this?
I'm especially curious about this topic as I use expensive oil and wonder if 620 mile changes are overkill.
Apologize if this discussion is hijacking the thread, figure oil is of prime interest and importance to all scooterists.
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The topic is a bit to large to get into here. It mainly applies to cars as motorcycles fill the oil with garbage long before the oil itself is dead. Also the high and fluctuating oil temps on little engines take their toll on the oils. Even though these scooters don't have a wet clutch the engine usually makes enough garbage to warrant spec changes without additional filter systems. Besides, as Stig pointed out a quart oil change doesn't cost much. I buy a 5 quart Mobil 1 10w-40 for $20.99 which comes to only 4 dollars a change.
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By higher minimums I mean that I change the oil before it degrades to the point considered acceptable by the engine design. That point is found by testing a few oil change samples to find close to what your oil is at for a given interval. Samples can be mailed to Blackstone Labs.
I would never try to stretch your interval limits. It is a balance between the positive benefits of consistent fluid and the negative aspects of running worn/contaminated oil. You can't go wrong staying on the short interval side which is why I will not recommend pushing limits to anyone. I don't want to encourage anyone to go down a path that could potential damage their machine if the balance is overshot.
Remember this is just another "proven" opinion of oil:) Don't trust a word of it.
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..............I will add an oil cooler in the near future that has a built in filter which would allow a safe 3,000 mile change. The safe interval varies per engine. Even if this works for me I recommend the manual specs for others unless testing has shown otherwise.
I often wondered about the possibility of installing an oil cooler to my Agility. It would be interesting to know your plans about directing oil flow through an oil cooler ?
Maybe via some kind of adaptor at the big oil drain plug (as suction from the air cooler) ?
And oil flow from the sump to the oil cooler via the small oil drain plug at the left of the engine ?
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The idea of an oil cooler is interesting. The filter in an oil cooler is even more interesting! I am too cheap to pay $20 for an oil analysis on my scooter when an regular oil change would be so less expensive. But I did have a car with annual oil analysis that safely went 170,000 miles and 9 1/2 years without an oil change! Sadly, the lack of oil filtration changes the game for a small engine.
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Now I'm the one worried about a long interval! That's insane man.
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I often wondered about the possibility of installing an oil cooler to my Agility. It would be interesting to know your plans about directing oil flow through an oil cooler ?
Maybe via some kind of adaptor at the big oil drain plug (as suction from the air cooler) ?
And oil flow from the sump to the oil cooler via the small oil drain plug at the left of the engine ?
I am looking at different possible solutions for an oil cooler as I do wring out that poor little engine for long stretches. There are several commercially manufactured GY6 cooler units. The issue is finding one that matches the kymco.
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The idea of an oil cooler is interesting. The filter in an oil cooler is even more interesting! I am too cheap to pay $20 for an oil analysis on my scooter when an regular oil change would be so less expensive. But I did have a car with annual oil analysis that safely went 170,000 miles and 9 1/2 years without an oil change! Sadly, the lack of oil filtration changes the game for a small engine.
What car and what oil+filter combo? I have a Duratec v6 in a Mazda 6s and am trying to decide on an oil and filter to use after the rebuild.
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Should I be concerned that my Kymco has a sticker that says "made in China"?
I've never seen a Kymco with a "made in China" sticker! It's a Taiwan company with a back-door relationship with China, but they don't make a big deal about it. In fact, Kymco is pretty near silent on it's relationship with China.
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I've never seen a Kymco with a "made in China" sticker! It's a Taiwan company with a back-door relationship with China, but they don't make a big deal about it. In fact, Kymco is pretty near silent on it's relationship with China.
Take a look at a LIKE200i on dealer floor. If memory serves it faces rider on the leg shield.
Stig
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My 2018 that I just bought has a "made in China" sticker on the right lower panel below my (R) foot. To be honest, if I had noticed it when I bought it a week ago, I probably would passed on it.
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What you don't know won't hurt you in regards to the Kymco scoots. Unless you're talking about maintenance.
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170,000 miles on the same oil? I am interested to hear how this is done; are you using an oil centrifuge or some type of dark arts?
No disrespect intended, but I suspect there may be ways to do this.
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+1
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I am looking at different possible solutions for an oil cooler as I do wring out that poor little engine for long stretches. There are several commercially manufactured GY6 cooler units. The issue is finding one that matches the kymco.
Thanks, I never knew about the oil cooler units and got quite exited after I saw the adaptor which get installed at the big drain plug hole. But when I had a close look at how the system actually works I started having serious doubts whether installing such a system is a good idea. In fact - I am more than convinced that systems like that can easily cause serious engine damage.
The reason being - in a system like this the adaptor with banjo fittings, oil cooler radiator, and external hoses get installed BEFORE the oil pump. In other words - the oil pump needs to suck oil via the complete cooling systym before it can feed oil to other components at the outlet side of the pump.
It is common knowledge that in cars, ldv’s trucks, tractors, etc. oil filters always get installed AFTER the outlet side of an oil pump. Having watched some videos, I noticed that some people even install external in-line oil filters on these scooter cooling modifications. To my mind this is not a good idea at all - an oil filter should NEVER be installed before an oil pump, it can easily restrict oil flow at the suction side of the pump. Specially when the oil is cold, or during high engine RPM’s.
In short - I think the additional resistance caused by the adaptor with small banjo fittings, the hoses, radiator, and possible oil filter can easily cause major engine problems.
I noticed that at least two sellers recommend the installation of high flow oil pumps during modifications like this, and I think I know exactly why - a standard oil pump could easily fail to suck enough oil through all the restrictions !
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You stated the main reason I haven't bought one. I'm working on one for the agility which hopefully wont stress the pump If I get the flow design correct. I will let you know when I get one built. Might be a bit.
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About chinese machinery or products in general: my opinion based on in country obsevation is you can get any quality you want from china depending on how much you want to pay.
China products would be formidable if their government was not communist...
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.......... I'm working on one for the agility which hopefully wont stress the pump If I get the flow design correct. I will let you know when I get one built.......
Thanks, I will appreciate !
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I am looking at different possible solutions for an oil cooler as I do wring out that poor little engine for long stretches. There are several commercially manufactured GY6 cooler units. The issue is finding one that matches the kymco.
Somewhere I have a photo of a LIKE with an oil radiator mounted on the floor in front of the center panel.
Strange looking. Think it was a mod done in the Philippines.
Saw a couple of guys cutting up $1.99 furnace filters to use in their $8,000 Burgman 400's.
I had a Sears mower that ran for 30 years without an oil change.....drain bolt was frozen.
Lots of ideas out there.
Stig
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170,000 miles on the same oil? I am interested to hear how this is done; are you using an oil centrifuge or some type of dark arts?
No disrespect intended, but I suspect there may be ways to do this.
For fishcutter44: I would be happy to tell you about my experience. Since it is "off topic" please send me an email to dcyaeger67@gmail. com (Dale or Duddy03)