Lance Soho 50 Review

[kz1000st]

Dave is a tough sell. He liked it.

http://www.justgottascoot.com/soho50.htm

[Steven]

Nice scooter and article. I always enjoy the reviews you find. I used to read them all the time at Doc. I noticed you haven't posted any there lately?

[kz1000st]

Well, Thank You. I subscribe to Justgottascoot.com and always enjoy Dave's evaluations. He takes no advertising dollars and, like Consumer Reports, delivers honest, fact based opinions on the products he tests.

[Steven]

I was looking at your scooter list. Got a friend who just bought a used CF Moto and has had a lot of trouble so far. Nothing major but he just can't keep it running all the time. How is your CF Moto doing?

[kz1000st]

It's doing well. 10,500 miles, one transmission shaft broke almost immediately but I fixed it on my driveway with a shaft I got from Parts for Scooters in 48 hours. I believe that most problems are owner problems. My three China bikes have all done well. If you use them sensibly, they will last.

[Steven]

I don't understand? How could a broke shaft be a owner problem? Did you do something wrong? I was talking to my friend yesterday and he says his scooter is making a funny noise around the CVT area he thinks. It only has 4000 miles on it and he doesn't even ride in the rain and has kept his CF Moto serviced very well. He is very disappointed to say the least.

[kz1000st]

Owner Problems are very simple to explain. I bought my scooter from a man who is 6' 8" tall and weighs 285 pounds. I found two helmets in the scooter when I got it home telling me that he rode two up with his wife. I would imagine he exceeded the Gross Weight Rating by a considerable amount and it caused a stress in the shaft.

As I patiently tried to explain to the Admin over there Chinese scooters have much lower limits than a Japanese scooter. If you stay within those limits a Chinese scooter will do fine. Exceed those limits they're toast. A former member here, Jim63, tried to use a Roketa MC54-250B as a commuter. His ride was close to 90 miles a day including many miles on the interstate. Ultimately the engine failed on his Linhai Yamaha clone quite spectacularly. The cylinder head literally broke pouring coolant into the engine trashing the entire top end. He dumped it and bought an SYM which was more suitable for the job.

In contrast the Admin over there used his Roketa on 800 mile trips successfully. He stayed on State Highways instead of Interstates to keep from flogging it. Still, in the time he's owned it, that Admin has done 5 PDIs in his words. A PDI is what you do when you first get something, after that it's called an "Overhaul". He's very conscientious about maintenance and uses it sensibly. Used insensibly it would probably suffer the same fate as Jim63's.

I don't know what's up with your friend's CF. It seems to me that he didn't lube the rollers and they're sticking which might account for the noise. Have him register here and we might be able to get it straightened out.

[wheelbender6]

Nice scoot. How much more speed do you think you could get out of the Soho if you deristricted it?

[kz1000st]

I would think 45mph or so. I had a ten inch wheel scooter up to 40. An SYM built bike should reach that.

[Steven]

Owner Problems are very simple to explain. I bought my scooter from a man who is 6' 8" tall and weighs 285 pounds. I found two helmets in the scooter when I got it home telling me that he rode two up with his wife. I would imagine he exceeded the Gross Weight Rating by a considerable amount and it caused a stress in the shaft.

As I patiently tried to explain to the Admin over there Chinese scooters have much lower limits than a Japanese scooter. If you stay within those limits a Chinese scooter will do fine. Exceed those limits they're toast. A former member here, Jim63, tried to use a Roketa MC54-250B as a commuter. His ride was close to 90 miles a day including many miles on the interstate. Ultimately the engine failed on his Linhai Yamaha clone quite spectacularly. The cylinder head literally broke pouring coolant into the engine trashing the entire top end. He dumped it and bought an SYM which was more suitable for the job.

In contrast the Admin over there used his Roketa on 800 mile trips successfully. He stayed on State Highways instead of Interstates to keep from flogging it. Still, in the time he's owned it, that Admin has done 5 PDIs in his words. A PDI is what you do when you first get something, after that it's called an "Overhaul". He's very conscientious about maintenance and uses it sensibly. Used insensibly it would probably suffer the same fate as Jim63's.

I don't know what's up with your friend's CF. It seems to me that he didn't lube the rollers and they're sticking which might account for the noise. Have him register here and we might be able to get it straightened out.

My friend just found out that today that he has a bearing out in the transmission and the bad part is it spun in the case. He's looking at options because it will be very costly to replace the engine case.

He has really took care of this scooter and is very up[set at the moment. Also he only weighs 180 and never rides double.

[kz1000st]

Get metal shim or a feeler gauge material, wrap it around the outside of the bearing and press it in. Coat the outside of the shim with loctite first to lock it in place. It's very odd that the bearing would lock and spin. Usually the balls prevent that from happening. I had a Honda Big Ruckus break a bearing cage in the transmission. It simply started flopping around and making noise. Especially odd since CF Moto installs Japanese bearings and they're usually top notch.

[Steven]

Get metal shim or a feeler gauge material, wrap it around the outside of the bearing and press it in. Coat the outside of the shim with loctite first to lock it in place. It's very odd that the bearing would lock and spin. Usually the balls prevent that from happening. I had a Honda Big Ruckus break a bearing cage in the transmission. It simply started flopping around and making noise. Especially odd since CF Moto installs Japanese bearings and they're usually top notch.

I would not call that a quality way to fix it or would want to adventure very far from my home like that? He has it torn down. He was thinking he could take it to a machine shop and have it properly fixed but after inspecting it he discovered the case was cracked and what led to the bearing failure. Also he mentioned after getting through all the anger of this happening that the bearings were cheap Chinese bearings and not Japanese as you stated.

He's looking at a used Reflex now and hoping at best to part out what he's now calling junk. He is really mad. Do you need a good parts scooter? He might give it away?

[kz1000st]

No thank you. Mine is running just fine. That's odd he has Chinese bearings. Mine are all Japanese. Not only that but when I replaced the drive belt I discovered it was a Japanese Bando Kevlar belt. Maybe in the years before mine they didn't use quality units. I've seen the inside of my case when I did the transmission shaft. It's built the same as a Honda Big Ruckus and reinforced fairly well. He must have gotten a bad one. Fortunately mine isn't. It was the last year they built the Fashion for mine (2009) so they must have gotten the bugs out.

Sorry about your friend. His experience isn't normal.

[kz1000st]

Lance has finally released the official video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-S4YEneFY