KymcoForum.com
Scooters - Big Bore => Xciting 500 => Topic started by: ClayMation on September 08, 2017, 03:03:32 AM
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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?
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Don't know your scooter. ...but owner manual for all scooters I've owned says mid 20's psi for front tires.
Tire age? Miles?
Inspect tire for distressed tread or sidewalls?
Steering head (bearings)have side or front movement?
Front fasteners secure?
Need to find cause of this sudden front issue!
Stig
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Listen to Stig! Big change like that needs to be found and corrected RIGHT NOW! Something is loose, broken or way different than what should be.
Karl
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Manual says 29/36 F/R for solo riding and 32/36 F/R for dual riding.
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If you have changed nothing, yet the ride has changed suddenly, then the cause needs to be found IMMEDIATELY. If you can't see anything obvious, then you may want to closely inspect the shocks for leakage which would cause them to allow more bounce than normal. If you can't find the problem, I'd recommend taking it to a professional IMMEDIATELY. This is one case where you don't want to take chances.
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What about the tyres cupping? That would account for the bouncing. When my 500 started wandering around, i found the tyre pressure to be too low.
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The SUDDEN nature is what concerned me most when I read this. Could it be TREAD separation? Whatever it is may not be an easy correction. But it's definitely a cause to not ride until the reason is found... That's my opinion. I've seen too many bad things happen even with 4 wheel vehicles.
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Hey guys,
Thanks for all the concerned replies.
The feeling I mentioned has improved and i'll tell you why.
First, as soon as you guys suggested a little less front wheel pressure I lowered the PSI from 40 to about 37 and I also changed my rear suspension settings from 2 to 4.
I definitely plan to get new tires on there at my next pay check by the beginning of next week and I definitely plan for those tires to be Michelin City grips. I can get the whole thing done for $260 which includes tire price and labor so i'm happy about that.
The next service itself will cost about 360$ so that will spike me up to more than 600$ for all of it.
But once that's done my next service will only cost about 200$ I believe. I heard the 5000 mile service is the most expensive.
Thoughts?
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Run the tire pressure according to the scooter specs, not according to the max pressure on the tire sidewall. Seems like you need to back the pressures down even more. Be careful.
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Run the tire pressure according to the scooter specs, not according to the max pressure on the tire sidewall. Seems like you need to back the pressures down even more. Be careful.
The reason i've been upping the PSI to 40 lately is that I had a weird experience last month where, after me and my girlfriend went to Ojai on the bike (about 80 miles from my place of residence in southern cal) I experienced the PSI being reduced from 34ish to like 20. I attributed this to the extra weight (we also had the top cases full of about 30 pounds) and the long haul, it's like 160 miles round trip.
But ever since then i've been checking the PSI every other day and it seems to be maintaining the pressure ever since then. I have no idea why that occurred but I am sure, having not noticed it till I drove with it after a few miles, that it caused some minor cracking of the side wall of the stock maxxis tires.
Anyway, I feel it's ridiculous to have tires that only last 5000-8000 miles so i'm getting the city grips ASAP because I have no doubt they should last 10,000-12,000 from what i've researched.
I know 5000 miles might seem like a lot to hobbyists but I am not using the bike for hobby and weekend play, I am using it as a primary form of transportation, which is why I have almost 5000 miles on it despite only owning it 4 months.
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This scoot has a lot of torque, so rear tyre is byebye quite often... 😀
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I would never run that excessive of air pressure. You will gain almost 4 psi from a cold to hot tire further making it worse. If you are loosing pressure either the rim, valve stem/core, or the tire has a screw/nail/something in it causing a leak and should be looked at promptly. Excessive pressure will also lead to uneven or premature tire wear.
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The reason i've been upping the PSI to 40 lately is that I had a weird experience last month where, after me and my girlfriend went to Ojai on the bike (about 80 miles from my place of residence in southern cal) I experienced the PSI being reduced from 34ish to like 20. I attributed this to the extra weight (we also had the top cases full of about 30 pounds) and the long haul, it's like 160 miles round trip.
But ever since then i've been checking the PSI every other day and it seems to be maintaining the pressure ever since then. I have no idea why that occurred but I am sure, having not noticed it till I drove with it after a few miles, that it caused some minor cracking of the side wall of the stock maxxis tires.
Anyway, I feel it's ridiculous to have tires that only last 5000-8000 miles so i'm getting the city grips ASAP because I have no doubt they should last 10,000-12,000 from what i've researched.
I know 5000 miles might seem like a lot to hobbyists but I am not using the bike for hobby and weekend play, I am using it as a primary form of transportation, which is why I have almost 5000 miles on it despite only owning it 4 months.
I would dare to say that very, very few on this forum are hobbyists. Most are dedicated cyclists with many decades of experience under their belts and most have forgotten more than you and I know. Seriously, they have really forgotten. ;)
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I would dare to say that very, very few on this forum are hobbyists. Most are dedicated cyclists with many decades of experience under their belts and most have forgotten more than you and I know. Seriously, they have really forgotten. ;)
If that's true i'm guessing the guys who say they only have 5200 miles on their 2009 xciting500s must only be using it as a spare bike to their other 3 main bikes.
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We are fairly fortunate to have great year round riding weather here also. When I was working I mostly rode one of the bikes for the daily commute. At the moment I don't have a need to commute and I can keep the mileage down on each having a choice of 5 bikes at current to ride or choosing my truck or one of my Jeeps. :D
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The 500 is a big scooter. I hope you won't be disappointed, but doubt you will safely get much more than 5000/7000 out of any brand of rear scooter tire on that big bike. Big scooters famously eat rear tires at a prodigious rate. Nature of the beast. Have heard some owners mention going through 2 or 3 rears a year.
I'm running City Grips on my small scooter, and love them. Got 12k on the rear and at 14k the front is still going....but all this on a scooter approx 1/2 the weight of your's. Big scoot = big everything...incl. running $ for tires.
My VW Beetle's radial tires rotted long before they ever wore out the tread. Tall tire, low weight, low HP = long life.
Stig
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The 500 is a big scooter. I hope you won't be disappointed, but doubt you will safely get much more than 5000/7000 out of any brand of rear scooter tire on that big bike. Big scooters famously eat rear tires at a prodigious rate. Nature of the beast. Have heard some owners mention going through 2 or 3 rears a year.
I'm running City Grips on my small scooter, and love them. Got 12k on the rear and at 14k the front is still going....but all this on a scooter approx 1/2 the weight of your's. Big scoot = big everything...incl. running $ for tires.
My VW Beetle's radial tires rotted long before they ever wore out the tread. Tall tire, low weight, low HP = long life.
Stig
How is it possible that guys get 12,000 miles on 800 lb motorcycles but I can't get that on a 500 lb maxi-scooter?
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I'm guessing because many of the large motorcycles are used as touring vehicles with predominantly highway miles. More rolling miles versus stop and go. Generally a 500cc scooter isn't used as a touring vehicle as frequently. Also motorcycle tires have a larger circumference so they have more rubber on them to wear before they fail. A 16 inch rear motorcycle tire inherently has more rubber on it than the 10 inch tires on the rear of my Helix. And they have more surface area to dissipate heat. Hope that helps.
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Normal rear tire wear on a maxi scooter will be 3500-7000 miles depending on how you ride.
If you dark side you can get over 20,000 miles.
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My thinking is that-
Your 500, and any most every scooter, has a lot of its weight unsprung......thete is much, much less unsprung weight on any motorcycle.
Also this is the reason scooters have such lousy ride qualities!
But I'm no expert on these things....
Stig
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How is it possible that guys get 12,000 miles on 800 lb motorcycles but I can't get that on a 500 lb maxi-scooter?
Also motorcycle tires have a larger circumference so they have more rubber on them to wear before they fail. A 16 inch rear motorcycle tire inherently has more rubber on it than the 10 inch tires on the rear of my Helix. And they have more surface area to dissipate heat. Hope that helps.
There's a lot to it and yes a smaller diameter tire spins faster which increases wear. Another factor in my case is the road surface one rides on. I'm convinced that the guys getting higher mileage life on say the Suzuki Burgman 650's are running mostly on asphalt roads vs the grooved concrete freeway I run on. The grooved concrete is like say taking a belt sander to the tire, it wears faster and tends to make it wear a little uneven mostly on the front tire. Another factor is manufacturer and tread compound. Example my B650 the OE Bridgestone Battlax tires I can get in the neighborhood of 8,000-9,000 miles on a rear tire and about twice that on the front. With Pirelli Diablo tires both front/rear are completely bald in 5,000 miles.
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I'm guessing because many of the large motorcycles are used as touring vehicles with predominantly highway miles. More rolling miles versus stop and go. Generally a 500cc scooter isn't used as a touring vehicle as frequently. Also motorcycle tires have a larger circumference so they have more rubber on them to wear before they fail. A 16 inch rear motorcycle tire inherently has more rubber on it than the 10 inch tires on the rear of my Helix. And they have more surface area to dissipate heat. Hope that helps.
Most of my miles have been freeway miles to be honest. I would estimate at least 60% of the 5000 miles were put on there on the freeway.
Secondly, these tires aren't that small, they're a lot closer to motorcycle tires than a small scooters tires are. Rear rim is 14inch and the front is 15inch. Plus the rear tires are actually larger in diameter than the front, which makes them look larger even though the rim is smaller.
I'm still surprised how little the life is stated to be.
hypothetical question, could the xciting handle larger rims/tires than stock?
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Normal rear tire wear on a maxi scooter will be 3500-7000 miles depending on how you ride.
If you dark side you can get over 20,000 miles.
What is dark side? Ya mean, pushing the limits of the unknown?
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My thinking is that-
Your 500, and any most every scooter, has a lot of its weight unsprung......thete is much, much less unsprung weight on any motorcycle.
Also this is the reason scooters have such lousy ride qualities!
But I'm no expert on these things....
Stig
What do you mean by lousy ride quality? For the most part the bike has performed admirably other than my settings mess ups.
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Many scooter riders, from a 650 Burgman down to a 50cc China complain about their scooter's rough ride. First question from many is " what aftermarket shocks should I buy?" That rarely has much impact over the stock shocks. Scoots have small shock travel after the rider takes a seat, and have much unsprung weight.
Big heavy scoots generally feel better .....but many new to scootering riders still complain.
Stig
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Many scooter riders, from a 650 Burgman down to a 50cc China complain about their scooter's rough ride. First question from many is " what aftermarket shocks should I buy?" That rarely has much impact over the stock shocks. Scoots have small shock travel after the rider takes a seat, and have much unsprung weight.
Big heavy scoots generally feel better .....but many new to scootering riders still complain.
Stig
I would assume any bike would not feel great on squiggly concrete or extremely bumpy roads. In decently paved roads the xciting500 feels extremely smoothe.
On uneven roads it feels not too bad, on the worst roads it feels, i imagine, how any other bike its size would. I had a vespa style scooter prior to this, with very small tires and that felt pretty bad on the worst streets.
Comparatively the xciting is like driving car.
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What is dark side? Ya mean, pushing the limits of the unknown?
Darkside refers to putting an automobile tire on the rear of a scooter/motorcycle. They will last many, many more miles than a dedicated two-wheel tire but I personally have some serious safety concerns about them. Since you commute like I do, I recommend getting the tools and training to learn how to mount and balance the tire yourself. The initial investment in the tools pays for itself very quickly.
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Since you commute like I do, I recommend getting the tools and training to learn how to mount and balance the tire yourself. The initial investment in the tools pays for itself very quickly.
If his tires are anything like the radials on my B650 or MyRoad, Hell no they are way to stiff for doing them by hand.