I bought a beaten up old (~15 years?) 150cc Yamaha scooter a few months ago to use as a spare and somehow fell in love with the old girl. She’s reliable, surprisingly perky and has a big fat 200kg ass to give me something to hold on to.
Now I’ve been getting less and less happy with my regular mechanic lately. I’ve been saying to him for months that this thing is running on tyres best suited for a lightweight 100cc scooter and I really would like some bigger ones please. He kept making up excuses about why they really didn’t need changing, which I intrepreted as: ‘In other words, we don’t have any bigger tyres in stock and/or don’t know how to fit them and/or can’t be bothered because we make all our money off oil changes.’
Since I had a rare hour spare this afternoon I decided to check out the scooter mod shop that someone had recommended on Xi-tun Road [Taichung]. I changed the rear tyre two days ago so just had the front replaced with a nice fat Pirelli and bugger me, it’s like having a whole new scooter. Braking, handling, comfort… you name it, we got it. Sod the waste, I’m going to have the rear tyre changed over tomorrow as well.
So anyway, after mooching around this store for half an hour I have to admit I started to lust after all those aesthetic mods… I’m beginning to see now why Taiwanese kids are obsessed with throwing money at what I previously saw as superficial crap. I’m now kind of disappointed that my old girl has the heart of a champion but the body of a slug. She’s been good to me and I think she deserves a bit of a spring clean so finally I’ll get to my question:
Is there easily applicable paint available for spraying scooter shells?
and 2) Can I legally change the colour of my bike. If not, can I change less than half of it or something? Or would I just need to have the change noted on my registration card?
Is there anything else I can do to easily pep up performance and/or Really Awesome Cool Factor without messing too much with a tired old engine? (Don’t worry, racing decals and go-faster-stripes already on standby!) I don’t ride it fast but I ride it a lot so anything that improves comfort and/or acceleration is a bonus [it’s a single-cylinder 149cc 4-stroke. And it’s got handlebars!!].
There’s already some information on modifications here and there in the forum.
I know nothing about cosmetic improvements so can’t give you any advice on that score. I keep my vehicles looking pretty tatty to reduce the risk of theft.
But I think just getting your scooter running well in its normal state would be a good start. That means a thorough overhaul done by a good mechanic. Obviously I recommend Eric as he has undergone proper training, is conscientious and thorough and is a very nice chap to boot. But I’m sure he’s not the only good mechanic in Taichung.
In another thread, you said that you never feel the scooter is very safe and that you want to buy a big bike for this reason. But I think if you get your scooter into good mechanical condition, it will feel a lot safer.
[quote=“joesax”]There’s already some information on modifications here and there in the forum.
I know nothing about cosmetic improvements so can’t give you any advice on that score. I keep my vehicles looking pretty tatty to reduce the risk of theft.[/quote]
I live in a gated community and take one of the smaller scooters if it has to get left unattended, so I’m not too concerned about theft. Someone did try to steal it once when I left it at the roadside in a typhoon and somehow managed to get it stuck in an irrigation channel. I’ve always been a function-over-form kinda guy but seeing the pride some of those kids had in saving up and making their scooters look nice gave me a new perspective on the asshole-scooter-punks, yanno? I talked to a few out there and they’re really not bad kids when you get to know them.
Is Eric the short guy with glasses at the Xi-tun scooter place? (Not the big bike shop).
I’m talking scooters in general but I’m actually quite happy with this beast now it has more suitable tyres. I don’t know how many times I banged my head against the wall telling two mechanics that those tyres were just not right sitting underneath 200kg of metal and - to my own surprise - I was right for once.
just replying to one of your questions, “is it legal to change the color of a bike”
As i know it, it is but you have to change the licence as well, (on your licence it should state the color of your bike) i also believe, but i might be wrong, you are allowed only 3 colors.
Now having said that if you know me and you have seen my bike it has about 6 colors and i haven’t changed the licence, yet! My licence says “silver” so if the police stop me and say anything about the color i’m just going to reply with “It’s silver underneath. And it’s what’s underneath that counts, right?”
Hello, llary. I’m betting I’ve got the most riced out scooter on here. It’s a 57,000nt scooter…with roughly 60,000nt in mods. For a total of 117,000nt.
And is it fast? Well, no…actually it’s slower than a stock scooter…but I get plenty of compliments from young boys at the gas station…and they’re all that really matters…aren’t they?
But seriously…it used to be fast. When the engine was modified…but I burnt out the over sized piston…and I was broke at the time…so I slapped the original one back in. But since the rest of the bike is set up for a modded engine…it is in fact slower than average now. Doesn’t stop me from being the quickest scooter on the road though. On my half dead 50cc scooter, I’m still pretty quick…people here are just slow.
Anyway…let me post some pics…hold on.
Before rice:
After rice:
I know someone is going to come in and say they like the before pic better…and I’d like to give them a very warm :upyours: in advance. Actually that’s fine…everyone’s taste is different.
Is Eric the short guy with glasses at the Xi-tun scooter place? (Not the big bike shop).[/quote]No. His shop’s on Jinhua North Rd, a more convenient location for you I believe. You’re in Dakeng, right? So you just have to come down either Dongshan or Taiyuan, turn left onto Beitun then right onto Jinhua North.
Hello, llary. I’m betting I’ve got the most riced out scooter on here. It’s a 57,000nt scooter…with roughly 60,000nt in mods. For a total of 117,000nt.
And is it fast? Well, no…actually it’s slower than a stock scooter…but I get plenty of compliments from young boys at the gas station…and they’re all that really matters…aren’t they?
But seriously…it used to be fast. When the engine was modified…but I burnt out the over sized piston…and I was broke at the time…so I slapped the original one back in. But since the rest of the bike is set up for a modded engine…it is in fact slower than average now. Doesn’t stop me from being the quickest scooter on the road though. On my half dead 50cc scooter, I’m still pretty quick…people here are just slow.
Anyway…let me post some pics…hold on.
I know someone is going to come in and say they like the before pic better…and I’d like to give them a very warm :upyours: in advance. Actually that’s fine…everyone’s taste is different.[/quote]
I’m gunning for ‘hilarious’ with my mods. I just took some “before” pics and want to see how ridiculous I can get this thing using only 10,000 Japanese Yen (NT$3000) and a few spare hours.
Great minds think alike though… I have a can of red paint sitting in my garage ready to make an awesome black & red two-tone scoot (the only reason being that the front shell is really easy to take off and I can’t be bothered painting the rear).
Of course a lot of that budget is going to be blown straight away on some all-important decals. Then there’s the funky blue bolts and ‘racing style’ red twistgrips. It would cost too much for a custom high-brightness light fitting so I’m going to just drill two holes in the body and bolt on one of those Hartford light assemblies. If I’m feeling particularly ambitious I might get the jigsaw out and fit a proper light assembly in the front body panel but that almost seems to be defeating the point of the exercise. If there’s any change left over then I have to buy some of those stupid road downlighters that no true rice rocket is complete without. I’m hoping that another 10,000 Yen bill will surface though so I can also have a pimpin’ aftermarket exhaust fitted.
You talking about the metal plates where the passenger puts their feet? Yeah they just screw on. You can get them for the whole front floor as well…but my dog sits there.
Make sure you get the bolts with spiderman and superman as part of the bolt for the front fairing.
You talking about the metal plates where the passenger puts their feet? Yeah they just screw on. You can get them for the whole front floor as well…but my dog sits there.
Make sure you get the bolts with spiderman and superman as part of the bolt for the front fairing.[/quote]
You can get spiderman bolts?! After all this time cursing those f’ing scooter punks I now feel like a little kid with his pocket money waiting to buy exciting bits of crap.
PS: I had a rethink on pimping out this bike because it’s actually a nice reliable old 4-stroke and it seems a shame to do anything drastic to it. I do have a beaten-up old 125cc 2-stroke with timing problems that would probably respond better to a ‘special tune-up’ than the Yamaha. I don’t mind if it blows up in the process because I only kept it as a loaner for friends who stay over and fancy a spin around the local scenery. I’ll take it to the shop tomorrow and shout, ‘TA DA! what do you think we can do with this fella then?’
