At 13,800+ miles I now consider my PCX as near dangerous on dual carriage ways or fast A roads. I have to keep the throttle wide open all the time and only get an indicated 55mph (the reality is probably under 50mph). The result of this poor speed is following traffic gets frustrated and makes risky overtakes a common experience for me (cars trying to slip by dangerously when they wouldn't do normally, tailgating etc.)
The drive belt gets replaced at the 15000 mile service, but I think it should be done at the 12.5k service at the latest. I don't know if roller weights (?) get renewed or are just inspected.
An economic consequence of having the throttle pinned is I'm now only getting 96mpg on a run where before at similar speeds I could expect 120-125mpg
You could just copy-paste the links into the text portion of the message if it won't let you use it in link part of the editor. Not sure why backslashes aren't allowed though, weird.
As for the belt, if you have an impact driver, it's really easy to change out. Your rollers shouldn't need surfaced, but the belt will definitely need replaced. My belt at half that mileage is already affecting top speed on my bike, I'm down to 58mph at wide open throttle now.
It's possible to grind down the center spacer between the two drive faces, but you'd have to be really careful to get the new spacer perfectly smooth, or you risk damaging the drivetrain.
Currently ride: Nothing right now - mostly mountain biking with my boys until they're old enough to ride Previously rides: 2011 Honda PCX 125, 2005 V-Strom DL650, 1974 Vespa Ciao, 2011 Honda PCX 170 (tons of mods - takegawa 170cc big bore kit, gears, etc), 1996 Honda Nighthawk 250, 1987 Honda Spree, 2000 KTM 125SX, 2003 Honda Silverwing, 2007 Genuine Buddy 125, 1998 Honda PC800, 2008 Buddy 125 (white), 2008 Buddy 125 (red), 2001 Honda Reflex, 1987 Honda Elite, 1988 Honda Spree, 2007 Yamaha Vino, 2007 Honda Metro, 2x 125cc pure-chinesium dirt bikes
My PCX had already slowed to 57mph top speed (pre J Costa variator) even at the 4800 mile mark (if you look closely you can see the mileage). It seems like the belts wear down quickly causing a decrease in top speed even at early miles. It seems disappointing that this would happen so soon. I am now at 8000 miles and it gets worse. My J Costa basically gets me now only to 61mph at its very best, when it used to get me 61mph to 64mph. I need to get a belt to see if this will indeed fix the problem. I would look for a bigger bike but money is tight right now. This is too bad considering there is a dealer in the area with new '09 Aprilia Sportcity 250's for $3900 after all taxes, fees, etc are taken into consideration.
this is amusing, i thought my bike was feeling a little sluggish so i ordered exactly what is suggested before i saw this post, fitted them last week and wow, what a difference. back up to its usual 63ish mph. when comparing the new to the old weights you could see flat spots on them and the belt had warn a lot too.
i actually leave my job in 2 weeks, i am thinking of buying a new set of tyres, belt and roller weights just in case
The belt gets a really hard time to be honest and 10 miles is the absolute maximum I would leave it It wears on the outside edge and lowers the gearing. As well as replacing the rollers I'd check the variatior faces for groves caused by doing a constant speed
The extra few miles per hour from J.Costa is the only thing that has kept me from going insane due to gradual loss of power starting around 3500 mile mark as this bike is used intensively for travel (as I'm actually a home health nurse nowadays). The good thing is I have a spare belt from these guys.
They have the best OEM prices I have ever seen. And since the financing has fallen through on that Aprilia 250 from a couple weeks ago, I dodged a bullet in piss poor reliability and even higher general service prices and requirements than what Honda demands. Thanks to gn2 and some guy I net at my usual Honda dealership for steering me away from trying the Aprilia deal again in the future.
I just need to buy an impact wrench to change my belt, as I now am about 8200 miles and quickly rising. I put on the J. Costa by borrowing an impact wrench but I would prefer to buy my own soon. My rear tire has gone bald with all these miles! However, I have an appointment later this week to buy and have them put on.
Next I will buy a feeler gauge to attempt my own valve adjustment in about 3500 miles.
I hope that goes well.
qed wrote:The belt gets a really hard time to be honest and 10 miles is the absolute maximum I would leave it It wears on the outside edge and lowers the gearing. As well as replacing the rollers I'd check the variatior faces for groves caused by doing a constant speed
i'm with gn2 here, i would say it was around the 10k mark i noticed. then after it's 12.5k service i had a look and spotted the hairline cracks a belt gets when wearing, compared it to the new and there was a huge difference in belt size, just bought a spare belt and rear tyre as i leave my current job on friday. no more cheap parts
