PDA

View Full Version : Decisions made...


Aviatrixie
11-18-2004, 04:44 PM
Hi everyone... it's me again... and I promise to try to stay on topic this time. :)

I've been a good girl and studied hard. There is a lot of information here once one digs in, I've discovered. After hours of browsing Provoscooter and this forum and riding down to discuss pros and cons with Steve, the chief mechanic in the shop at Wayne's World of Cycles, I went ahead and ordered the Michelin tires at my local shop and made arrangements for him to install stage one for my Vino. I'm ready to order, with a couple of caveats.

I really want to be able to use my Vino for serious transportation. I'm the kind of person that, given a choice and weather permiting, will always ride my bike instead of my car. When my father was in the hospital last summer I went to see him every day I could, and made many of those 154 mile round trips to Morgantown, WV on my motorcycle. I would NOT want to do that on my Vino, but I WOULD like to be able to hop on it and run to South Hills Village to do a little shopping, being more like a 50 mile round trip. To do so I'm going to have to mix it up with a lot of cars, and even tho my derestricted Vino seems to be above average in performance, I've decided I want that extra performance that stage one offers. 50 to 55 seems about ideal, and Steve agrees.

Now the Caveats... First, I see a lot of talk of loss of reliability when one stages a small 2 stroke. I suspect if the upgrade is done properly that shouldn't be an issue. I'd love to know what the peak engine rpm is on a stock Vino vs. a stage one Vino. I'm sure it's higher, and that will of course shorten the time between top end rebuilds.

Which brings up the second caveat... what about the lower end? Has the increased power and rpms shown to be detrimental to a stock crank?

And lastly... noise. I'm sure the expansion chamber is going to be louder, and I can live with a bit louder. But I live in a sleeepy little Pennsylvania town, and I do ride my motorcycle to work a lot (seasonally, of course) and sometimes I do get home late. I'm an airline pilot and sometimes I simply don't get back to base until after midnight.

I'll keep my motorcycle for the longer trips, but I'm having a ball with my Vino. I just want it to be more than a ride to the local convenient mart. Will stage one give me that at midnight without waking up the neighborhood?

TAA,

Erika

devonrs
11-18-2004, 05:32 PM
short answer, yes, it will, and no, it won't wake up your neighborhood...
granted it is much louder than stock, but stock is just quiet. after a couple weeks of riding my stage one, (which i at first couldn't stand the sound of), i hardly even notice it, until i ride my girlfriend's stock vino and am in shock at how quiet it is!

Davey-boi
11-19-2004, 12:11 AM
To answer your low end power question.... it will suck, and even worse than stock. From 0 to 10 mph your low end torque and acceleration will be hurt, but your top speed more than makes up for it in the end seeing as how you'll be topping out at 50mph, but you won't hit 55mph (great for those 45mph roads). As for stage 1 being detrimental to your crank, I doubt it. It is working a lot harder, but not enough to worry about. Guys running big bore 70cc kits use their stock cranks and I havn't heard any problems.

I don't know if you have read this, but modding your vino also brings down your gas mileage. You might not care, but I thought it's only fair to let you know. Stock you get around ~80-90mpg, stage 1 you'll be getting ~65-70mpg.

Aviatrixie
11-19-2004, 12:08 PM
Hi Devon and Davey, and thanks so much for your opinions. As to the noise of the stage one pipe, I was browsing the archives here and noticed that in a thread titled "How loud is the Technigas Next R pipe" on 10-05-04 you both had comments. Davey, you said it was rather loud and buzzy. Devon, you said "pretty d*** loud and annoying" and about like a chainsaw and very buzzy. That does sound to me like it's pretty loud.

At least I see that it does seem to have a silencer mounted on top of it, so that should help some. Perhaps there are other silencers that would work better without impacting performance. I'll look into it.

I'm also wondering if I should get the Next R or the RS, but I'll put that into another thread with the appropriate title.

Thanks again for your help!

XPS1210
11-19-2004, 12:20 PM
no matter what if you change from the stock exhaust... it's gonna be louder...

Performance usually means it's louder..

To be honest with my leoVince ZX pipe... the intake is louder while on the scooter... and I can hear a nice tone when passing a car on the right side of me... IE: parked cars on the road... I like the "rumble" it makes...

It's not Ping-y or to high pitched... once again IMO!

Aviatrixie
11-19-2004, 12:38 PM
Hi Jered.

Yes, I know it's going to be louder and I can accept quite a bit louder. I just hope it's not so loud that it has the neighbors complaining or the police pulling me over. I shouldn't think it would be that loud, but chainsaws can be extremely loud from what I've seen. Then... I can't imagine this pipe would be near as loud as a chainsaw. Could it?!!!

Lennox
11-19-2004, 04:57 PM
ok, ALL aftermarket pipes ARE LOUD!!!!

Here is a quick scenerio..... I live in Fort Lauderdale Florida, there is alot of traffic ALL the time. I also live near the airport. At first, I did not think that my pipe was loud. I recently took my scooters to Key West. Key West is a quiet little island....... only then did I realize just how loud it was!!

Davey-boi
11-19-2004, 05:02 PM
It is better to have a loud pipe I think, makes stupid drivers more aware of you.

Aviatrixie
11-19-2004, 05:10 PM
Hello Lennox :)

I have accepted the fact that it's going to be a lot louder than the stock muffler. I'm going to do it anyway, as I really want to be able to use my Vino for serious transportation and it seems to me that greater speed will make my scooter safer and more practical. I already have my Michelin S1 tires on order.

Isn't Key West lovely?!! My husband and I vacationed there with the kids several years ago. While we were there hubby and son each rented mopeds and I rented a Honda Elite scooter so my daughter could ride behind me. We had a ball scooting around the island! Scooters are perfect for getting around Key West and we saw them all over the place whilst we were there.

Anyway, I hope my Vino will be just loud, and not really really loud!

Thanks for your input.

Erika

Lennox
11-19-2004, 05:18 PM
check this out...... http://www.provoscooter.com/vbull/showthread.php?t=421&highlight=west

King Vino
11-21-2004, 10:05 PM
I moved the Pgh side talk to the Pittsburgh thread. You Pittsburghers are so much work :D LOL