Tuning for hills & torque?

[ehkewley]

I purchased a Honda PCX 125 over the summer. I really enjoy it, but wish I had known about the 150 before hand. I picked it up as a compromise with the girlfriend over her fear of speed. This was contrary to what I learned in motorcycle training, but I wasn't about to argue the point. Anyway, she was delighted that it couldn't be taken on the highway legally, and that it topped out at around 60mph or so. To be honest I'm still afraid of the freeway.

We like to ride two-up and have a lot of fun on it. Unfortunately it tends to lug under power when taking larger hills. We mostly like to tour around 30 ~ 45 mph, but end up slowing down when taking larger hills. I'd like to trade the top end speed for higher rpm's and more power on the hills. I was reading information about the dr. pulley rollers and thought a lighter roller of their brand might help. I'm using a US spec stock bike, but other than that I don't know what the original weight is.

I wouldn't mind losing 10 ~ 15mph to shift torque elsewhere. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[you you]

I purchased a Honda PCX 125 over the summer. I really enjoy it, but wish I had known about the 150 before hand. I picked it up as a compromise with the girlfriend over her fear of speed. This was contrary to what I learned in motorcycle training, but I wasn't about to argue the point. Anyway, she was delighted that it couldn't be taken on the highway legally, and that it topped out at around 60mph or so. To be honest I'm still afraid of the freeway.

We like to ride two-up and have a lot of fun on it. Unfortunately it tends to lug under power when taking larger hills. We mostly like to tour around 30 ~ 45 mph, but end up slowing down when taking larger hills. I'd like to trade the top end speed for higher rpm's and more power on the hills. I was reading information about the dr. pulley rollers and thought a lighter roller of their brand might help. I'm using a US spec stock bike, but other than that I don't know what the original weight is.

I wouldn't mind losing 10 ~ 15mph to shift torque elsewhere. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Change the girlfriend

[Mitch Detailed]

I purchased a Honda PCX 125 over the summer. I really enjoy it, but wish I had known about the 150 before hand. I picked it up as a compromise with the girlfriend over her fear of speed. This was contrary to what I learned in motorcycle training, but I wasn't about to argue the point. Anyway, she was delighted that it couldn't be taken on the highway legally, and that it topped out at around 60mph or so. To be honest I'm still afraid of the freeway.

We like to ride two-up and have a lot of fun on it. Unfortunately it tends to lug under power when taking larger hills. We mostly like to tour around 30 ~ 45 mph, but end up slowing down when taking larger hills. I'd like to trade the top end speed for higher rpm's and more power on the hills. I was reading information about the dr. pulley rollers and thought a lighter roller of their brand might help. I'm using a US spec stock bike, but other than that I don't know what the original weight is.

I wouldn't mind losing 10 ~ 15mph to shift torque elsewhere. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Change the girlfriend

Lol, the biggest recommendation is lighter rollers, they won't give you the top end speed, but will help acceleration.

[you you]

That's what I would do, and carry the minimum amount of weight

[ehkewley]

I'll keep that in mind. Yes I'm not worried about losing top end speed.

[maddiedog]

Lighter roller weights should help, but it's no substitute for a bigger engine on a bigger bike.

[ehkewley]

To be honest here, I already included lighter rollers in my first point. I mentioned that I understood a switch in over all top speed would occur. I'm looking for specifics. I understand you can't tune the hell out of these things, but recommending switching bikes or "girlfriend" (albeit funny) in the "performance" section isn't the advice I was hoping for. Is this section merely here to prevent others from clogging up the main section?

I had imagined that someone would have more information (or experience) on using different types of rollers. I've seen combinations, lighter ones, different types (dr pulley), but have never worked on a scooter before, so would like to get more information or headed in a general direction before purchasing a bunch of weight variances and screwing something up.

[Mitch Detailed]

To be honest here, I already included lighter rollers in my first point. I mentioned that I understood a switch in over all top speed would occur. I'm looking for specifics. I understand you can't tune the hell out of these things, but recommending switching bikes or "girlfriend" (albeit funny) in the "performance" section isn't the advice I was hoping for. Is this section merely here to prevent others from clogging up the main section?

I had imagined that someone would have more information (or experience) on using different types of rollers. I've seen combinations, lighter ones, different types (dr pulley), but have never worked on a scooter before, so would like to get more information or headed in a general direction before purchasing a bunch of weight variances and screwing something up.

Yes, you included rollers, but it seemed to me when reading you were skeptical of the advantage being worth the effort. What you have to understand is these scooters don't yield a high amount of buyers, and even less on the people actually pushing the limits for performance on them. Its also a relatively new scooter to the market and aftermarket parts availability is quite low, with distribution becoming another issue for those that do make parts for them.

First id recommend you to purchase the helms manual. Its 40 us dollars for my scooter, and has every bit of information I need to replace parts. The second thing I can recommend is getting a lighter set of rollers and posting the results of your findings.

There isn't many people out there that have made definitive comparisons of before and after. This scooter is new technology, and with new technology comes new r&d, and time for that r&d to happen. Wish you the best.

(also, lighten up a little bit. This is a forum board, not wikipedia. Changing girlfriends is all a joke, nobody really expects this to happen. But if you did you would be my hero. )

[ehkewley]

#1 You're mistaken. There are many people modding and working on the honda PCX. There's the clubpcx forum with a lot of info, and over in Thailand there's a whole community around the bike with tons of aftermarket items. Here's a quote from the person who started this forum after leaving another forum..

"I hope that this community grows and one day is comparable to the Thai PCX forums, with thousands of members and hundreds of vendors offering a myriad of parts available to the PCX."

#2 Even though the bike is new, the concept of CVT and shifting torque is an old topic. Someone who worked with these in the past would have enough information to provide a decent starting point or things to avoid. It's like a mechanic switching cars. Sure it's not a 1:1 equivalent, but there are some commonalities. I've spent a fair time googling, but have not been able to find a good starting point. In addition, most people seem to want to change weights for top speed, or to even out other changes they made to the CVT.. springs variator, drive gear etc. I don't expect the forum to be wikipedia, but I was hoping for performance talk in a performance forum.

You can suggest a bigger bike, but let me ask you this? Why do people buy 50cc bikes, and then do all sorts of crazy stuff with their little scoots? I don't want to bore out the engine or fly up hills at the speed of a 300cc. I simply want to get a bit extra umph on the hills by using what is already there. We already know that a motorcycle with the same engine would make it up the hill easier if you downshifted.

I can go out and buy some rollers or sliders, but I don't know how big of a percentage I should cut the weight. Also some people go half stock half modified sliders... there are a lot of variables (pun?) here.

#3 You lighten up. I laughed at the joke previously and even stated I found it funny so as not to offend the other person.

[Pcxdemon]

I purchased a Honda PCX 125 over the summer. I really enjoy it, but wish I had known about the 150 before hand. I picked it up as a compromise with the girlfriend over her fear of speed. This was contrary to what I learned in motorcycle training, but I wasn't about to argue the point. Anyway, she was delighted that it couldn't be taken on the highway legally, and that it topped out at around 60mph or so. To be honest I'm still afraid of the freeway.

We like to ride two-up and have a lot of fun on it. Unfortunately it tends to lug under power when taking larger hills. We mostly like to tour around 30 ~ 45 mph, but end up slowing down when taking larger hills. I'd like to trade the top end speed for higher rpm's and more power on the hills. I was reading information about the dr. pulley rollers and thought a lighter roller of their brand might help. I'm using a US spec stock bike, but other than that I don't know what the original weight is.

I wouldn't mind losing 10 ~ 15mph to shift torque elsewhere. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi bud,

Have a look here on this link from ClubPcx, ive done hundreds of tuning options regarding few variators,stock vario,diff weights and so on......

http://www.clubpcx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=547

Hope you will find it useful. What i remember i think i used 10g rollers/
sliders on stock vario without any top speed loss with much better acceleration standing start and up hills....

Cheers

[Mitch Detailed]

Well here is the only answer I can give you given the variables.

Not much before and after comparisons have been done by non company represented people for the variators. Some people have stated gains, and some losses after installing an aftermarket variator. roller weights are similar to a flywheel in vehicles. Lightening it up reduces reciprocating weight, but unlike a flywheel, it will restrict top speed a bit.

I don't know what else to tell you, nor will anyone else without posting their findings that are comparably new. You're looking for more torque, without pushing displacement further. Long story short, its not easily done.

[Spleege]

I am a pcx 150 owner and i went with dr pulley 20x15@16g. as your bike accelerates, your sliders move. in order to maintain torque your going to have to maintain the most efficient speed. the transmission is CVT right. continuously VARIABLE transmission. the key word here is variable. you have no control on gear ratios. you only have control over the throttle and therefore rpm,s. gear ratios are constantly changing. this is the major downfall as far as i am concerned with CVT. In retrospect i would not buy another motorcycle with CVT. It severely hampers riders control. I have seen alot of mods out there however understanding the nature of CVT, there isnt much you can do. I did get another 5mph for a top speed of 70mph constant out of the dr.pulley sliders. but I'll never have the flexibility of conventional belt driven systems or good ole chain and sprocket.

[ehkewley]

Agreed, CVT definitely seems limiting.

pcxdaemon thanks for the thread link. I read all 16 pages... you've done quite a bit it seems.

10g sliders sound good to me. It also sounds like you recommended the Takegawa Variator as an option in that thread. I think I'll stick to sliders for now. I'll also pickup a washer as well to deal with the gap introduced by the slider.

Spleege, what were you hoping to improve? Overall performance or top speed?