Hi guys!

[ShinyAndy]

Stumbled across your forum when Googl'ing for info on what the rear brake should do on the scooter.

I've had my silver PCX for just over a year now, it's blown over in the wind (whilst on the centre stand, so always use the side stand now!) and been dropped by my other half so is a bit battle scarred now. I'm a complete car nut and generally despise anything two wheels but I'm living in Spain, down in Marbella, and the scooter is a real bonus for just nipping down to the beach/little jobs plus a tank of fuel only costs 7€ and seems to last 3 months

Have a few questions:

1. How much play should there be on the rear brake lever and how much work should it do? I know that you mainly use the front but my vague recollection of riding bikes back in the 80s was that the rear actually felt like it should stop you, not just slow you down a tiny bit

2. It's just come back from the first 1000km service, aside from looking clean for the first time in 6 months it feels a lot slower. I have no idea what they actually did as it was a bit of a cockup with the dealer telling me the first service would be free, then the person left, then everyone denied such a thing so there was a lot of shouting and finger pointing when I collected the thing! Is there anything I should check?

3. I've noticed a slight graunching sound when I come off the throttle and cornering, at first it sounded like it was the centre stand hitting the ground but I'm not convinced as I think I would feel that. Is it something to do with the CVT?

I've noticed quite a few threads on people not trusting the bike in the wet and changing the tyres etc. The roads here are like polished marble and there is no grip if there is any moisture on the roads and I've had a fair few hairy moments - at one point it got so bad I thought I was definitely going to come off so gave things a check over. The rear tyre pressure was really low so pumped it up to what it should be and suddenly the bike handled exactly how it should be so I would make sure people check that first

[maddiedog]

Wow, BLOWN over? That must have been some crazy wind!

1. Not too much play. The left lever brake is actually a LINKED brake, not a rear brake. It actuates one of the pistons on the caliper of the front brake, and actuates the rear drum brake. Often, there is too much slack in the rear brake cable. Eddie wrote an awesome how-to showing how to tighten the cable here: http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=243. From my experience, the PCX's linked brake works well, but you definitely need to use the front brake for quick stops.

2. Put the scooter on the centerstand on level ground, and unscrew and remove the dipstick. If you don't know where that is, it's the little silver thing on the engine on the right side of the bike, just below the passenger footpeg. Once you have the dipstick out, wipe the oil off of it, then reinsert it into the hole without screwing the dipstick in. Pull it back out and see where the oil is on the crosshatched section of the dipstick. Is it above the crosshatches? If so, it's overfilled, which can cause slugishness.

Otherwise, they may have adjusted your valves back to spec, which some people has found actually gets them some slowdown. Eventually, your primary drive belt will wear down, which will cause less top-end speed. Can you go the same speed as before the service, or is it definitely slower?

3. That's not good... I'm not sure what that could be, but your CVT should be nearly-silent. Some people get some slight chattering as the CVT engages at initial acceleration, but I've never heard of chattering at deceleration. The issue in your CVT could be causing the sluggishness mentioned above.

It's also possible your rear wheel bearing went bad, I've heard of a couple of instances of that happening on the forum. If you put your scooter on the centerstand and spin the rear wheel with the bike off, is there resistance, or does the wheel spin easily?

You would notice if you were dragging your centerstand, it makes a LOUD metal-grating noise....

Welcome to the forums, and report back to see if we can help troubleshoot more.

[ShinyAndy]

Thanks for the advice, will give things a once over.

So you would normally use the linked brake to stop you? I don't feel like it would do anything, just seems to scrub off a tiny amount of speed - maybe I'm going too fast I saw that guide (it's what brought me here) looks fantastic if a little daunting!

Didn't get a chance to check the top speed, just felt sluggish on acceleration but I'll blow the cobwebs out of it at the weekend

I'm not suggesting that the noise was the CVT, just clutching at straws! It sounds just like it is the stand scraping but obviously isn't and it doesn't do it all the time, generally it's when I´m going around a roundabout (you have any of them in the US yet?) slowly. I'll check the rear wheel, seems crazy that anything would fail after 1000km!

[gn2]

So you would normally use the linked brake to stop you?

Normally you would use both brake levers, left lever first then the right one after a second or so.
In the wet vary the pressure, less right lever than in the dry.
Remember that if you lock the front wheel in the wet (or dry) you will almost certainly crash.
If you find you are having to brake hard then you are not reading the road ahead properly and/or riding like a cnut.

[ShinyAndy]

Was just getting my head around the linked brake affair that's all! I can stop fine with the front brake and the "rear" as per a normal bike, just found that using the linked brake didn't really do much and wondered if that was normal

[EddieC]

I would agree with you. Its fairly normal. I use both brakes for just about every stop.

Only in wet conditions do I use the combi brake only, but I usually go a LOT slower when its wet.

[TC3]

The combi brake I find quite effective and mostly just use that to come to a stop. Only very quick stops require I use the front too. Your rear brake does sound it needs adjusting as should be better than you describe

[ShinyAndy]

Having read the guide I wonder if it's the same thing, the lever sits perfectly flush to the handle, it is just that you have to pull it in quite far for anything to happen which I'm guessing just means an adjustment at the rear? Is there a guide to what the lever deflection should be?

I also checked performance, still seems to sit at 110kph OK it is just acceleration from stopped that seems sluggish

[EddieC]

yes I would get that cable adjusted soon and it would result in less play in the handle and you wouldn't have to pull it as far for the same amount of braking. There is also a nut adjuster at the rear end of the rear brake push rod where you can adjust your rear brake effectiveness. Let me know if you need a picture. I also believe adjusting the rear brake is covered in the user manual that came with your scooter.

[duive01]

I'm a complete car nut and generally despise anything two wheels

Funny, I'm totally opposite, love two wheels and dislike four wheelers, blocking every street in every city and outside!

[maddiedog]

I only brake with the linked brake, other than emergencies. Check your rear adjustment, like Eddie suggested. Turn the bike off, put the bike on the centerstand, and tighten the nut at the bottom of the scooter, just left of the rear wheel, until your wheel doesn't quite freespin. Back it out a turn or so, until it freespins unless you pull the right lever.

My rear brake was undertightened from the factory, so badly that it wasn't getting used at all. Yours might be the same way, so please check and report back.

[Cascanciu]

Hi ShinyAndy!. Welcome to the forum. Nice to see there's someone else posting from Spain. Just a quick note from my part. The manual recommends to put the bike on the center stand and let it idle for 3-5 minutes prior to checking the engine oil level. That's what I read and that's how I do it.

I haven't ever been to Marbella, but I have been several times to Cádiz and the roads are exactly as you describe, slippery. You do not get that much rain down there (we get most of it up north where I live) so if it does rain, it'll make bad go worse, since the dirt on the road will form that dangerous and slippery mixture of dirt and water. The bike handles fine in the wet, and so are the tyres. Just use your common sense, ride clear from the white marks on the road, and enjoy.

My bike hasn't been serviced yet (reading 700 kms in the odo), but my unit also has a little bit of play in the combined brake lever. I'll get them to fix that during the first inspection, so for your peace of mind, you may consider it normal. I brake using the left lever most of the times, and help myself with the right one if I need that extra bit of braking power. Works good for me.

[iceman]

I mostly use the front brake (rhs) to gently slow down to a stop as I find the rear combo (lhs) does not do very much and when it 'bites' it still does not slow down as nicely as the front brake - it bites just about half way in or slightly more.

I've only had the bike running once when on the center stand, and only to see how noisy it is when not wearing my helmet as my bike is noisy idling and riding (almost embarrassing riding early hours of the morning). When I had the bike running when on the center stand, my rear wheel did not rotate at all. With the bike off and on the center stand, the rear wheel turns both ways without any noise. It seems this is not how things should be?

[homie]

I'm going to have to dragged in kicking and scratching for service. I wonder if it's just not better to screw up your own scooter trying to service it then pay someone to screw it up... at least you would know where things went wrong.