yet another performance related question

[jasontheparamedic]

Greetings...been a lurker for a couple months but now a first time poster. I live in the USA, state of Florida. I have owned my stock PCX since December 2011. It is white, has approximately 4400 miles as of today. I primarily use the bike for long-distance fuel-effeicient traveling for my home health RN job (still hold a medic license but now I am a nurse). It has been a good bike for the almost 6 months I have owned it, but it doesn't seem like the bike is running to its full potential anymore.

I test rode the bike before buying it. It went 61mph on the speedo, way better than my Elite 110, so I traded it. Now it goes only 57mph by speedometer, assuming not very strong winds. I had it dyno'd and mechanic at Honda dealership says it has just barely over 9 bhp. They state 59mph on speedo and 58mph on dyno (no winds, of course), and its within specs. I beg to disagree but I can't prove it. I wish I had the 4mph back because it does make a big difference on rural high-speed roads.

Oil change and valve adjustment is up-to-date by Honda dealer. I only have a K & N air filter, otherwise rest is stock. Not sure why the slow-down has occurred over the months. That's why I am coming to the forums for help. I love my PCX. I would rather not have to get a bigger bike if I don't have to, since I cannot afford due to rising health-related costs.

Thanks for your assistance.

[gn2]

Speed loss is probably due to wear in the belt affecting the gearing.
Mine has almost 8000 miles and has lost 6mph from what it did when new.

There are no cost effective performance modifications available for the PCX (in my opinion)
If going faster is important to you, then you need to trade it for at least a 250.

I believe Sym and Kymco both sell in the US, you may be able to pick up something cheap from their ranges.

[EddieC]

+1. Belt wear has caused my top speed to drop by 4mph. I have 7,500 miles. I top out at 57mph now.

[jasontheparamedic]

Thank you for your replies so far. Would this Malossi Kevlar belt be a good purchase then to fix this issue? I would imagine anything named "Kevlar" would last a very long time...

http://www.malossistore.eu/Prodotto.asp ... &C=6114895

[gn2]

No.
The only belt worth buying is the genuine Honda supplied one.
And it's not worth buying one of those until you have to.
After market belts wear out faster and are far more likely to break than a genuine one.
Like I said, the way to better performance is to buy something else.

[maddiedog]

I agree with GN2, only go with the Honda belt.

THEORETICALLY, you could increase top speed at the cost of acceleration by shortening the boss on the drive face of the CVT. I haven't tried it, so proceed at your own risk.

Uh, to be more clear, make #3 shorter:

14KWNB01_KWN4E1600.gif (32.03 KiB) Viewed 5424 times

With how many miles you have, you should be able to see how much space is left on the pulleys, to determine how much you could grind without your belt flying off and destroying itself catastrophically. Alternatively, you could replace your weights (#5 in the diagram above) with heavier ones, or some DR pulley sliders to actuate the pulley more, providing more speed.

The Honda drive belt, and a replacement boss in case you attempt my idea, are on mrcycles.com -- the belt (#7 on "Driven Face") is $24.60, and the boss (#3 on "Drive Face") is $3.51. They are available on other Honda parts sites too, but mrcycles is usually the cheapest from my experience.

[maddiedog]

I realize I might should further clarify why shortening the boss will make the scooter faster... The above assembly sits on the driveshaft of the scooter. At low or no speed, the belt rides in the middle of the pulley, closest to being around the boss. At speed, the two faces come closer together, pushing the belt away from the boss, increasing the radius of rotation, and therefore delivering more speed with less power.

This video might be even more helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffePCHt ... re=related

Another way to look at it... The above component is the gears on a bicycle -- more specifically the gears that are attached directly to the pedal assembly. When you start, you always start out in the smallest gear in the front -- 1. As you accelerate, to get more speed, you shift into 2, then 3. This is doing the same thing, but instead of driving a chain between gears, it is pushing a belt out to a farther rotational axis around the boss and driveshaft. By shortening the boss slightly, you make the two drive faces closer together, pushing the belt further out. Sticking to the bike analogy, it's like adding a bigger 3rd gear. You have to pedal harder, but as a result, the rear wheel turns faster.

It has been suggested (but not confirmed) that the PCX is actually speed-restricted by the ECU, so you might not see any gains at all though. I'd imagine at the very least you'd gain back the speed you lost though.

[jasontheparamedic]

This website is amazing! Very good prices on OEM parts. Thank you all for your replies. I've been riding just barely under a year, first with an Elite 110, now the PCX. At least I have an idea of what I can potentially do to get my 4 mph back that I have lost. I know it seems like I am quibbling over a few miles per hour, but here are my reasons...
A) My Elite had the same problem (gradual overall loss of top speed from 53mph to 47mph, at 4500 miles!), hence I traded it in for a PCX that goes 61mph (a big help for my home health job, since I sometimes drive up to 120 miles/day)
B) I would not have bought this bike had I'd known that top speed would drop so much also...
I guess I just want my 4mph back, nothing more.
Shortening the boss does seem a little extreme for me and beyond my capability, but I could handle a simple belt change.
Thanks to this forum I am less ignorant of how scooters work now, but I still have much to learn.
Another good thing about the mrcycles website is that I can buy and replace the cracked panel from falling on my side last night going to see a patient. It was a light rain that suddenly occurred. Roads got very oily. I hydroplaned on a residential road and suddenly fell on my left side. Thankfully my speed was very low. Bike still rides fine, but I'm sore, no broken bones. Thank goodness for helmets.

[TC3]

Sorry to hear you dropped the bike but at least there was no serious damage to you or the scoot

[maddiedog]

Yeah, glad to hear you're okay. The fairings are pretty straightforward to get off to replace, reply back if you hit any snags and we'll help you through the process.

[Fiah]

You could change the gearing by changing out the gears at the rear wheel, but finding a set of those is not going to be easy me thinks.

[jasontheparamedic]

Defintely does not sound easy for me to figure out.

On a another note, after doing some shopping around for new panels and a belt I noted that while mrcycles had good prices, this website had even better prices!

http://find.powersportsplus.com/?q=*:*& ... 2PCX125%22

I just bought a left front panel, floor panel, variator left side cover, and a new belt for $70 plus $9 shipping. Mrcycles wanted around $100 before shipping.

[maddiedog]

Awesome, I bookmarked them for future reference.

[gn2]

Take back what I said about drive belts after seeing those prices, could be worth your while getting one after all.
In the UK a genuine Honda PCX drive belt is almost £90, at current exchange rates that's $145
Looks like I will be ordering any PCX parts I need from the US as of right now.

[jasontheparamedic]

Glad I could be of service. I guess whoever is the first to replace the belt and measure the results can post here for all to see.

[PCX 125 CANDY RED]

This website is amazing! Very good prices on OEM parts. Thank you all for your replies. I've been riding just barely under a year, first with an Elite 110, now the PCX. At least I have an idea of what I can potentially do to get my 4 mph back that I have lost. I know it seems like I am quibbling over a few miles per hour, but here are my reasons...
A) My Elite had the same problem (gradual overall loss of top speed from 53mph to 47mph, at 4500 miles!), hence I traded it in for a PCX that goes 61mph (a big help for my home health job, since I sometimes drive up to 120 miles/day)
B) I would not have bought this bike had I'd known that top speed would drop so much also...
I guess I just want my 4mph back, nothing more.
Shortening the boss does seem a little extreme for me and beyond my capability, but I could handle a simple belt change.
Thanks to this forum I am less ignorant of how scooters work now, but I still have much to learn.
Another good thing about the mrcycles website is that I can buy and replace the cracked panel from falling on my side last night going to see a patient. It was a light rain that suddenly occurred. Roads got very oily. I hydroplaned on a residential road and suddenly fell on my left side. Thankfully my speed was very low. Bike still rides fine, but I'm sore, no broken bones. Thank goodness for helmets.

What site with good price for oem parts do you mean ?!

[gn2]

What site with good price for oem parts do you mean ?!

I doubt you'll get a reply from Jason, he hasn't posted on here for over a year.
http://www.hondapcx.org/memberlist.php? ... file&u=229

As he is in the USA and you are in "Europe" I doubt his parts supplier would be of use to you.
Makina Parts in Greece tend to be quite cheap, but check your local eBay for good deals.