thank you Mel46 for kicking this topic off, I have only owned my Forza 300 for 2 days but I had it from the dealer on test for 2 days before that and loved the auto. I moved off from some traffic lights at the front of the queue on the first day and sailed into amzing acceleration, before I knew it 55mph , blimey!! stunning power and all in the hands of a variator, very impressiveMel46 wrote:Here is a quick lesson, as I understand it, and I am not an expert by any means.
Unlike motorcycles, scooters are automatics so they do not have gear boxes. Instead, they have a belt that connects to a round mechanism called a variator which contains some weighted rollers. As the accelerator increases the variator spins faster, which then affects the weights... rollers...and causes the belt to move farther out, which works in the same manner as changing to a bigger sprocket in your geared motorcycle. The rollers determine how quickly the belt will move out to its optimal position. The variator, on the other hand, determines just how fast the machine can go, since it has a limit...the belt can only go so far.
Aftermarket variators were created for those who wanted to increase that maximum limit. Some work better than others, though the engine itself is a limiting factor as well. If you only have 13 hp to work with don't expect it to do what 15 hp can do.
And that is about the life it of my knowledge. I hope that helps some.
The motorcycles I have owned previously always had manual gearboxes because that is the way they came , I remember 20 years ago a motorcycle came onto the horizon with auto but nobody bought it and faded into oblivion, I was always fascinated with that ancient news story, I used to know more but too far back now
ok Mel46 has given us a great start on this but do you know more? have you worked on the variator? had issues?
