Taotao Lancer & Powermax w/ a tall person

[feartheclown]

Let me start off by saying I'm 6'5" w/ a 34" inseam & 210lbs. I was looking into buying a Taotao Powermax 150cc however the company, killermotorsports out of Dallas, recommended that I might consider the Taotao Lancer instead due to my height since it is a slightly larger scooter.

Could anyone please provide any insight into the ridability of either of these 2 for a person of my stature and naturally the level of comfort or discomfort I might experience?

Shouldn't be for any kind of heavy use, just to put around town and ride to work sometimes(20 minutes no highway) and slowly wean myself into the 2 wheel world. Thanks!

[feartheclown]

Also if anyone has a better recommendation than either of those 2 please feel free to recommend though I need something under $1200 with shipping included. I haven't been able to find many used options where I live(OKC) as this is pretty much a motorcycle town, not a lot of scooters.

[kz1000st]

You're a pretty big guy. Why not a bike? A 150cc Chinese anything will be working pretty hard and they won't last under the stress. Have you looked here? An older Japanese scooter might be a better bet.

www.craigslist.org

[feartheclown]

The reason why not a motorcycle? I really couldn't tell you, I don't have a lot of riding experience nor do I know anyone with a bike so there's a little bit of fear there for jumping on a bike haha. I figured this would be a fairly cheap way to ease myself into the 2 wheel world and gain some experience working on something that is cheap and not terribly difficult. The used route is a no go in OKC, CL is definitely somewhere where I looked.

Anyways, I did end up scooping up the Lancer, just waiting for it to arrive now. Figure I'll look pretty funny on just about anything with 2 wheels in the price range I'm looking at so we'll see how it goes, I'm pretty pumped regardless.

I could always go reverse-Gattica style and get my legs shortened rather than lengthened!

[rks]

I can understand the pumped feeling....felt the same way while waiting for mine to arrive from California. That was almost three years ago. Scoot is still going strong, even tho it has carried at least 10 lbs more than your weight, every mile of it's 5,800.

I might suggest that you familiarize yourself with a PDI, and take the time to perform a good one, before starting your new scooter. Very important if you want a dependable ride, or expect to get any kind of longevity out of it.

And finally feartheclown.....Welcome to the madness

[feartheclown]

Indeed thanks to this board i already have good intentions for the PDI. Thanks for the welcome. Hopefully things go great and i can become a scooter embassador for tall people, a mode of transportation most of us discount due to size. We'll see. Worst case scenario my wife just got a free scooter.

[rks]

I hope you keep us updated.

[feartheclown]

Naturally. Not much to update right now. Out of the country til Monday. I will say the shipping was crazy quick from killer motorsports. Ordered it Tuesday expecting it to arrive this upcoming week but it made its way to my garage yesterday. Based on pics from my buddy all appears to be in great condition from first glance. More to come Monday or Tuesday.

[feartheclown]

Completed uncrating and basic exterior inspection. Everything received in pretty good condition, only area of imperfection to exterior is on paint where the nuts were put in where the trunk will attach, though minor there is some paint chipped there.

Will say scooter is larger than I expected which is a good thing! From the normal riding position with my knees in it will definitely create some issues turning. However, seated from the passenger position it looks like it will be a perfect fit. There is plenty of clearance for my legs and my arms are plenty long enough to comfortably reach the handlebars without having to be hunched over. Seat is pretty comfortable just from initially sitting on it without riding it though a custom built seat that allows me to sit more in the middle may be something I look into in the future to allow for an ideal riding position for me but won't really be sure until I take it out for a spin.

On to the PDI!

[rlshepard]

You made a good choice with the Lancer, I got mine last summer (From killer also), just hit 1K miles. Just did the valve clearance adjustment and man she's running fantastic! I have to sit on the passenger seat as well (I'm 6ft) but it's a nice comfortable ride.

Enjoy and keep us updated.

[kz1000st]

The people at Tao Tao did it right when they decided to enter the scooter market. One of the first things they did was purchase the online dealer GS Motorworks. If you search the old site under "Vendors" you'd see that they got high marks selling various brands of 150cc scoots from the members.

I spoke to John Sanchez their head of the Parts Department on many occasions about their scooters, before Tao Tao owned them. He said that they didn't buy scooters that caused warranty headaches and knew which were the good ones. Tao Tao used their knowledge to build good scooters right off the bat. Most troubles you do hear about come from faulty prep or abuse. From what I see on the web most of the independent scooter dealers sell Tao Tao, a sure sign that all is well with the brand.

[feartheclown]

Here's a pic of my 6'5" frame on this scooter. Finally got the wheel on yesterday. Had to put everything else off til this weekend.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2zjatsk.jpg

[feartheclown]

PDI nearly completed... Got it started today. Everything has been pretty smooth. Couple of issues we have run into...
Fuel filter replacement - Autozone couldn't find an exact match so ended up buying 1 that is slightly larger.
Plastic screw holes - In a couple of spots things are attached using a screw screwed entirely into a plastic fitting that we discovered was broken on arrival, 1 on the floor board and the other 1 on the side plastic fitting of the bike right above the taotao motors sticker in the above picture. Using some JB Weld to attempt to fix both, won't know how well it works til tomorrow after it dries.
Spark Plug - Mistakenly took the spark plug out without a magnetic socket, of course it got dropped. My buddy insisted he could get it out with his hand and knocked it back in the plastic housing on the side of the engine all the way to the back of the engine. Ended up having to take off the plastic housing on the side of it. Bought a magnetic socket when I got the new spark plug.
CVT Fill hole - The fill hole doesn't appear to have been properly created and there appears to be a thin layer of metal on it almost like a piece of skin giving it the appearance that its not actually a hole. Stuck a zip tie in there to determine if this was actually the fill hole which it was as the zip tie went straight through easily.
Hose Clamps - The hose clamps are by far the worst part of the assembly of the bike, way too many of them use these:
http://m4.sourcingmap.com/photo_new/20120709/g/ux_a12070900ux0246_ux_g03.jpg
Luckily its an easy fix with zip ties.

Here's a vid of the scooter starting up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dvE0GJbQ74

[feartheclown]

FINALLY finished everything up tonight. Took a 5 minute drive in the 32 degrees here, adrenaline pumping! Didn't even realize how frozen my hands were til after I got off... finally realize why people love things on 2 wheels with motors.

My natural riding position puts me just on the front of the passenger portion of the seat and there is plenty of room. Ride was pretty damn comfortable. Now I just need to work on my driving and confidence.

After that first ride there is no doubt anymore that this will be my go to vehicle when I'm driving around the city or going to work and am alone.

[rks]

Uh-oh...sounds like someone else has caught the dreaded scooter fever

Only one treatment I know of to help reduce symptoms........more and more miles in the saddle......have fun, and be careful

[cheapeto]

I would humbly suggest you take your states motorcycle safety course as a next step in your blooming scooter addiction man!! And get some good riding and falling down gear.
Enjoy that pony man!!

[feartheclown]

Some pics to end out this topic. My recommendation if you're tall is go for it. 6'5" with no problems. Passengers definitely a negative though.

http://i61.tinypic.com/1zqyeki.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/1zyuf4x.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/2lyyyx.jpg

[thumper650]

+1 for the M-cycle course. Took the both and it's saved my butt many times.

Also how do like your "Built" helmet. I have one and I hate it compared to my Shoei, I guess that's the diff between a $50 helmet and a $350 one.

[feartheclown]

I'm probably going to take the course once we have some consistently warm weather here.

In regard to the helmet i have nothing to compare it to. I will say once i hit 30mph i can definitely hear the wind pick up in the helmet. I probably would want something better if I was planning on doing some highway travel.

[thumper650]

Additionally the course might get you a break on insurance. If you don't already have a license, in MA at least, you don't have to bother with the registry test.

My Bilt helmet is very small on my head and sort of uncomfortable, by comparison. But on the plus side it's cheap so I don't mind if it gets scratched up or stolen. I lock it depending on the neighborhood I'm parked in.

Lets hope the weather warms up soon. !!

[feartheclown]

Hehe i was actually able to buy insurance for the whole year through progressive for $75. Getting it tagged was the expensive part, $140. Bastards do it on a set rate based on years tagged.

The major plus to the safety course is it waives the skills test for your license here in oklahoma.

Getting my license is priorty number 1 right now.

[feartheclown]

Well hopefully this isn't a bad sign. Hit about 70 kilometers on the bike. Needed to run about half a mile down the road to the store to grab a couple items, this start was the first time the bike had a hard time starting. Get to the store just fine. When I go to leave bike won't start! Won't start normally and won't kick start. Ruh roh.

So the fun begins. Before the battery was completely dead it sounded like the starter was turning over but the engine just wasn't going. So I think maybe the fuel filter we stuck on there was the problem. Put the original fuel filter on, same problem, I also learned that replacing the fuel filter with a full tank of gas is NOT awesome as I end up wearing some gasoline haha.

Next I decide to put back in the original spark plug. Same issue, won't start. I pull the fuel line going to the engine and fuel drips out. About 30 minutes deep at this point and pretty frustrated. So I take a deep breath, watch a youtube video about kickstarting(this is my first experience attempting to kickstart something) as the battery is completely dead so its my only option. So I decide to add some fuel throttle twist to my kickstarting and voila she starts up!

That was about a week ago. She's been only a kickstarting machine at this point. I also experienced a new issue which has led me to the conclusion I'm getting to as the root cause, I can no longer idle and not expect it to die. The only time it has died was luckily while I was getting gas and had just pulled away from the pump but was still in the parking lot. Since then I've been able to tickle the throttle to keep it from dieing when I'm stopped though it would definitely die otherwise as the RPMs slowly drop from the normal 17-1800ish we had it set at.

So far 2 symptoms, it will only start with a kickstart and it will die while idle. 3rd symptom: a coldstart takes about 10 minutes of playing with the throttle and kickstarting, once its warmed up though it will kickstart immediately.

Conclusion: I expected this around 1000 miles not 50, the valve needs to be adjusted. Appears to have all of the symptoms. Hopefully not a sign of future problems!

Edit: An interesting thing for sure, the bike definitely has a good look! Haven't driven it anywhere without someone asking me about the bike. Even had someone at a light start asking me where I got it and for how much and how much mileage it gets etc.

[cheapeto]

Damn, I really had hopes you would NOT run into these same issues I've been reading about for years now. Damn.

[kz1000st]

One of three things. Valves, bad gas from the station or the carburetor is loose on the intake manifold. Don't panic, it's probably something little.

[scooter]

I have the EVO 150. I'm 6' 220, 2k miles on it in a year and it's running great. Can't say enough about it. Moves me fine for my 45 mph commute every day. However just bought a 250 to see if I can cruise 60 to get out to my property I bought on the back country roads.

[rks]

Did you adjust the valves as part of the PDI? They won't go out of adjustment in 50 miles....unless you under or over tightened one of the adjuster retaining nuts.

Sounds like fuel air mix is way off. Like KZ said, big air leak somewhere. Check clamps on both sides of carb

As far as the stalling at idle....turn up the idle speed screw...see if that helps. Once you get it to run on it's own, adjust the a/f mixture screw.

[feartheclown]

I feel pretty confident it is the valves. I didn't do a valve adjustment as part of the pdi, the 1 i followed didn't say it was needed and the web resources i used that mentioned it at all said it would need to be done usually after the engine breakin.

Hose clamps are good, checked and double checked (tech support guy here so I'm well versed in troubleshooting and starting with the easiest stuff first, it's typically the answer haha!).

In regard to the air fuel adjustment, i feel like we achieved what needed to happen with it during the pdi which was after the engine was warm it would idle at 17-1800 rpms, back wheel turning forward at idle very slightly, and no choking or lack of power from the engine. These things are still persistent too.

So the bike right now has what i call a good idle and bad idle. When the throttle closes there are actually 3 behaviors, first is the rpms sit at 17-1800, after about 10 seconds they slowly drop and the scoot will die after about 30 seconds. The 2nd idle behavior is identical without the initial 10 seconds of normal idling. The 3rd is the bike will attempt to straight die out and make no attempt to idle at all.

The inconsistent behavior around going to idle is what makes me lean towards the valve adjustment and the fact that once it's moving it is still riding great.

Everything else you guys mentioned though well be checked out during that procedure too.

[scooter]

I'm sorry if you already mentioned this, but have you desmogged this and put good hoses on? The emissions is a joke, really. I wish I could have kept mine and I tried. But the crappy parts kept causing vacuum leaks. After removing it all I was able to tune it and it's very consistent. Plus at 70 MPG it's not like it's a major cause of pollution. But I would have liked to keep it. I had the float stick once when it had 200 miles on it. Not one problem in a year and 2k miles after that, knock on wood.

[rlshepard]

Hey feartheclown I think you're on the right track, I've got the same machine and had similar symptoms at about 700 miles. Hart start, inconsistent idle. Adjusted the valve clearance and whammo no when I tap the starter she running nice smooth idle at ~1800.

Another challenge I ran into was with the fuel evaporator, kept causing a vacuum in the fuel tank. Dang thing would die at 3/4 half a tank and not start until I poped off the fuel cap and let some air in. I just pulled it off and stuck it in my tool box. problem solved :s

[Gene563]

Feather,
When you were going over your scoot, doing the PDI, did you happen to notice 2 wires (Green & White/Black) and a connector in around the battery compartment?
I just received my Lancer yesterday and started going through it and I saw the connector I described, but don't know if it has a purpose. Furthermore, in a Youtube video on PDI, the guy had an issue with the same wires (no connector, though) and he tracked them back and cut them off.
I will probably just tuck them under for the time being until I find out more.
BTW, how do you like the bike? I'm anxious to get out on mine, but that will be a while yet.

Thanks,
Gene

[Gene563]

Update:
I saw in a wiring diagram someone had posted up here, that those wires appear to be for a security/alarm system. I didn't cut them out though; I just wrapped the connector in plastic, taped it all up, and tucked it in the battery compartment.
My PDI is completed and I've only tested the bike around the block. I'm anxiously awaiting the paperwork so I can register it and get out on the road.