What the Heck Happened?!?
 

So, my ZNEN Amore 150 has just 2K miles on it. I have been religious with maintenance - probably more than necessary - but I really want to know my bike and what I'm doing with it.

I've been hearing a little bit of a rattle, so I took it in to the dealer. It sounded like a pocket full of nickels. He said there was a definite rattle, and that it could be a crank bearing. He showed me one, and it essentially looks like a giant open-faced skate bearing. Visual aids help immensely. He said that if it was, it would get worse. I took it on a good 30 mile ride afterward, and when I got home decided to pull the CVT cover off - something I hadn't done yet - and just get a view of things.

So, I spread out my carpet and began removing cover bolts and placing them in order before me so they could go back in the correct locations. When I pulled the cover, out dropped a big wire stay clip. Yup. I thought, "There's my noise". I also noticed nicks and dings all around my pulley. I emailed Jason, and he told me exactly what I was thinking. That's not normal. He told me to drop it off when I could. I put things back together and gave it a quick ride. There was a little difference, but not as much as I had hoped.

It rained for a couple of days, so the bike sat. When I started it up to take it in, there was an awful clatter. Noisy, but it ran. I dropped it off with them and walked the 0.9 miles home (it's nice to have a shop that close to the house and good walking weather). Yesterday I picked it up, and this is what they found ...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...tor/Pulley.jpg

Notice all of the bits missing from the variator. Here they are :

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...iator/Bits.jpg

Here's a picture of one of the sliders :

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...tor/Slider.jpg

Notice the gap around the center bore of the variator. There must be .150" slop. The sliders were put in to replace the damaged stock rollers not even 500 miles ago. Jason said he had never seen anything like it.

So I put it to you folks - the educated and experienced - to give me some opinions on what went wrong so I can watch for future reference. I'm chalking it up to factory defect, but what could have been the cause of so much bad in so few miles?

Looking at a Pollini kit, it looks like there's a pressed bushing inside the pulley that the shaft fits through. I don't see that on mine. It looks like the bearing surface is just the aluminum of the casting. IMHO, that's just shoddy manufacture.

They replaced the whole variator assembly under warranty, and it's a new bike again.

I have ordered a Dr. Pulley kit. In fact, I had ordered that before all of this. Hopefully that will not only take care of the problem forever, but also give me better mileage to boot.

Improperly installed sliders, or variator nut had worked itself loose, would be my guess....seems like whoever took it apart, could tell you. Don't see how 500 miles could do that to sliders that were installed correctly.

The heck
 

Looks like sliders were reversed, was it that way when purchased new?

When I put my sliders in wrong, I knew in the first 50 feet something did not sound/feel right, as I picked up speed I could not get past 45 mph.
Came back to my shop, and took them back out and rechecked the orientation on DR.Pulley, flipped them, and off I went.

No, it was a lot more than just the sliders. The sliders were just a symptom of the problem.

The sliders were put in at the dealer to replace the stock rollers that were worn out way too early.

The shaft mics out at 23.97mm all around, but is scored pretty badly in one area. There is a bushing (or what's left of one) from the inner pulley, but the ID on that checks out at 26mm. That's a full 1mm of slop on either side.

I had a chance to ride to work this morning and noticed a distinct lack of noise that's been there since the bike was new. Being new to scooting I had just always assumed that it was normal CVT noise. I mean, the bike was new; that must be normal, right? Apparently not so.

I am guessing that because of that slop - and someone can correct me if I'm wrong - There has been an imbalance in the pulley since it was new that has just been getting progressively worse. It feels like a new bike.

The plate bushings failed. This is very common. When you replace your rollers/sliders, you should always replace the plate bushings with bushings of equal or higher quality than the weights you are using.

You should never only replace weights, always replace the bushings and weights at the same time.

Your whole variator is chewed up, you'll need a new one. I recommend KOSO, my KOSO variator has 4k on it, and it's still very nice. The KOSO 115mm Performance Variator w sliders kit from Scrappy Dog Scooters is a great kit at a great price.

Here's the thing ... this bike has just 2K miles on it and it's already gone through a set of rollers and a set of sliders. Weights, bushings, none of that stuff should have failed this early in the game. There was something wrong from the factory.

They did replace the whole kit under warranty. It feels like a new bike. Like I said before, there is a noise that's been there since the bike was new that's now gone.

That center bushing in the inner pulley - looking at the length from the seat to the keeper grove - should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30mm long. At best, it's only about 14.5mm with one end being all jagged and broken. A piece of it is wedged into the roller side of the pulley. Lots of pieces are nowhere to be found. I'm guessing that because of the failure of this bushing, the inner pulley was allowed to slop around causing my imbalance and noise and leading to ultimate failure. I'm surprised that it held on as long as it did.

I already have a Dr. Pulley kit ordered. That should be in next week.

Um actually, the CVT components failing "this early in the game" is COMMON. I replace the CVT components right out of the crate, unless they are very high quality (WHICH I have yet to see on a Chinese bike).

I'd also replace the belt with a high quality belt such as a Gates or Bando with aramid (kevlar)

Since you heard a noise when new I'm guessing it was a bushing problem. Otherwise, I recall that years ago there was an issue with non-Dr. Pulley sliders. The material they were made from was too hard and ate up variators. Dr. Pulley issued a statement defending theirs lest all sliders were made out to be a vile betrayal and Dr. Pulley suffered from the bad press.

I talked things over with the shop, and I am going to hold off on the Dr. Pulley replacement for a while. I want to get some miles on the replacement stock parts and see if there was a causative problem. If all goes well and I hear no weird stuff for the next several hundred miles I will think about putting on the aftermarket stuff. Otherwise I may have to do some more digging.