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View Full Version : Technomoto variator mod for top end?


Albatros
09-29-2005, 05:55 PM
O.K. I'm not a genius but I think I got this figured out correctly. I'm having a bit of a tiff with somone over the workings of the variator and clutch. I think the guy is giving out bad info but he thinks he is not. If I'm seeing things clearly it works like this:

At low speed the variator is wide open as the weights are not being flung out which keeps the belt low on the face of the variator and high on the clutch. This configuration just like on a bicycle would give low speed with high torque. This is also why variators can rattle at low speeds.

As engine rpms and therfore variator speed increases, the weights are thrown outward which closes the variator together and the belt rides up the variator face and is pulled into the clutch causing the belt to ride lower on the clutch. This is why variators quiet down with increased throttle and rpms. The torque goes down and the speed goes up.

There is a sight that promotes cutting off the little struts on the technomoto variator. The sight says that this will increase top end. I say no way. The little struts only contact the starting clutch when the bike is at idle and help keep it tight. If these struts are pulled away from contacting anything in the tranny as the engine rpms increase then how can they be hellping top end? Once above idle the variator is closing and the belt starts to ride out of the variator not back down into it. If anything, having the little struts might push the variator together at idle and cause a loss of low end performance as the belt is held higher on the variator face and would be like pulling off in your car in second or third gear.

This is how variator restrictors work if I am understanding things correctly. At low end they hold the belt high in the variator so you can't take off to fast due to a lock in torqu and at the top end they hold the variator open so the belt can not clib into a higher position on the variator and we all know that if the belt doesn't spin out to the outside of the variator we lose top end.

So now can someone tell me how cutting off the little struts on the Technomoto variator can possibly give anything but low end performance and then only if the struts are holding the variator faces to close at take off to begin with?

If anyone has cut these little struts off let me know, cause if they weren't acting like a restricter in the first place, all you did was losen the variator and now it is probably just very noisy. It can be fixed with a washer. If it is now loose, it would have been even with the little struts left in place and would still need a washer to make it quiet down. Now I just beleive you might have been talked into waisting your time on something that did nothing to help your top end in any way. :spiny:

Zuma-Zuma
09-29-2005, 08:03 PM
It has been done here, and isn't promoted as a "top end" booster. It gives a bit of extra on the bottom. When the scooter is moving, the variator is already closing, so the little tabs aren't on anything at all. Its just for the "jump", and not much more. At higher speeds, the variator weights (rollers) battles forces with the torque driver spring. And its the rollers that usually adjust more bottom, or more top, while giving to one, it takes from the other. I personally dont think the techno variator is worth doing anything to. Its a very weak part.

XPS1210
09-29-2005, 08:22 PM
you are correct that it opens the variator more when at idle and allows the belt to ride lower in the pulley faces... giving more of a bottom end increase....

it does NOTHING at all for top end... Doesn't hurt the top end... but adds power to the bottom end... for take off

burnt_toast
09-29-2005, 08:51 PM
go w/ malossi :cool:

XPS1210
09-29-2005, 09:03 PM
go w/ malossi :cool:

I have to agree... Malossi, polini, athena, stock.... anything but technomoto... I can't stand using it personally... but some have had good results...

Albatros
09-30-2005, 05:14 PM
Yeah, My tecnomoto was included in the stage 1 and I rode with it for about 10 miles then went back to stock. My stock variator works much better. I'm thinking I'll just keep using it until my weights wear out. I figured the guy was giving out bad info on the variator. Everything else on his site looked o.k. but the variator thing now has me suspicious. I wrote him an e-mail and he replied that he stands by cutting off the little struts to increase top end. Oh well......