Printable View
Right. So after I cut my front tire up on something that resembled a paper knife blade which someone accidentally left in the middle of the road, I had to buy a new front tire from taobao.
Together with that I got me a pair of stock shocks to replace the old non-working ones and a USB charger. I took the bike to the mechanic yesterday, and I'm (hopefully) picking it up tonight. Will post on the results.
So I had a MWUPP USB charger and a mobile phone holder installed. They have proven to be quite an asset. I put over 200 kms on the bike this Tuesday, and all this time I was riding according to baidu map GPS. The phone holder and the phone charger did their job really well.
The new front tire is nothing to write home about - it's OK, I guess... And nothing beyond that. Being a CST, I think it will last me forever - Chinese plastic tires usually do.
As for the shocks - that's disappointment in spades. Nothing changed. Well, I mean, I thought the new shocks may make a lot of difference, but they didn't. I guess it's not the shocks' problem though. It looks like the mount points on a Jetmax are engineered in such a way that the shocks are angled so that they can't compensate for the road bumps. That's some weird engineering... Probably whoever engineered the frame and the shocks thought that the scooter will be used under a full load all the time... I don't know.
What bothers me is the fact that near the right left bottom shock mount points there are two holes that may allow me to reposition the shocks for better bump absorption. I wonder if those are indeed intended for it or they serve some other purpose. The manual seems to be all silent about it.
Below are the pictures of the shock absorbers' bottom mount points:
Attachment 18644
Attachment 18645
As we can see, there are two more holes that look like they could be the mount points for the shock absorbers. I somehow think that if I move the shocks forward a bit, the compression geometry would greatly improve.
I think I may try it when I got enough spare time to. The only consideration I have is that on the right side the holes aren't really in line with the original mounting point (they are a bit recessed).
Anyways, if that doesn't work, I wonder what those are for at all!
Update: So those mounts aren't for the shocks. As it turned out, those were for the pre-production disc brake setup. One of the prototypes had rear disc brake on the right side of the rear console, not on the left one. So once the brake caliper was relocated, the mounting points remained on the console for whatever reason.
When I replaced my horn, I had a closer look at the music system on the Jetmax. The amplifier has USB input only, no 3.5 jack. So today I tried USB-3.5 converter from Taobao to play music from my phone. Unfortunately, no luck there.
It means that if I want to properly upgrade my music system, I'll have to go with a new amplifier and 4 decent speakers (the stock ones are absolute crap). Good sound systems are up to 1200 yuan from Taobao, so I think I'll wait on it.
So I've been riding quite a lot these days and went to quite a few places around Nanjing.
My impressions are as follows:
1. The scooter is much more suited to an open road than it is to city riding. Weather protection and wind buffeting are great. When it may feel a bit heavy and hard to maneuver in the city, long-distance riding is not a problem.
2. The scooter is comfortable on good roads. Suspension works fine and the seating position is just great. Doing 2 hours non-stop isn't a problem. Your arms, shoulders, butt and neck feel good snd I think I could've ridden for a much longer time. Still on bad roads with irregular bumps the suspension is a nightmare.
3. Engine is great. There is a noticeable clutch/transmission engagement lag between 50 and 60 km/h, but besides that it pulls good. It never overheated, even though when I crawled through the city it was 30 km/h in stop'n'go traffic in 32 degrees Centigrade.
4. The brakes could be better hands down. When they heat up, the feedback is very spongy and it takes a heavy scooter quite a lot of road space to come to a stop. ABS would be a welcome addition, but alas, we have none and it's not even an option.
On a side note, if anyone is reading this, I have a question: Has CFMoto stopped scooter manufacturing? Jetlux and Jetmax aren't on the website any more and the shops in Nanjing don't have them either, so apparently, there's no supply.
So I've got me some spares off of taobao and am taking my scoot in for the service. I'll be doing the following:
1. Change the brake pads, front and rear.
2. Change the air filter insert.
3. Change the spark plug (got an original CFMoto one from taobao).
4. Change the pulley weights, since by the sound of it they are far from perfect.
5. Change old and oil filter (1450 ml, if the old filter is being changed). Got me semi-synthetic oil 10W-40 Motul. Will see if it makes any difference to the engine sound.
6. Change the transmission lubricant (I haven't gotten me any, so the local laoban will be using his).
7. I'll ask the laoban to adjust my valves (0.05 － 0.07 inlet; 0.15 － 0.17 outlet), hopefully he'll do it.
8. Check the belt wear and see if it needs replacement (I'll replace it if it's required, but now I don't have it on me).
9. Add coolant (will see if it's below the level - I have 2 cans of CFMoto coolant at home from someone anyways).
I may even wash the scooter if I feel like it. But that's a big "if".
No, I didn't wash the scoot. Three days of rain will do it for me anyway.
The feeling I have after the service is that the engine sounds much less noisy. That's a plus.
The new brake pads are really spongy. The brake lever travel (left and right) has increased, but so has the ability to modulate. Feels different from the previous "brakes on / off" feeling, and I think it's a bit closer to how proper brakes should work.
Pulley weights on the scoot area joke. They are very lightweight (8g or so each), so they provide no acceleration until about 40 km/h. That is non-understandable for me. Since scooters and bikes aren't allowed on highways in China, the top end is basically useless. Good steady pick-up would have been much more useful, yet in the city the thing feels gutless.
I will probably change the pulley weights for some heavier aftermarket ones. If I can find the suitable ones, that is. Probably those from a Benelli 250 or a Skywave 250 would work, I'm not quite sure yet.
As for the belt, it's in great shape after 10K km, and is in no need for replacement. All the wear tolerances are legit and within the manual specs. I haven't replaced the belt and am seriously hoping for it to do another 10K km before it dies.
So far the scooter has been OK, and with less engine noise it's a bit of a more pleasurable ride.
Hello my nonexistent readers, yesterday I had a few more parts installed on the scoot.
1. Front shocks - I had 270 ml of 10W fork oil added in each (actually I have no idea how much oil there should be exactly, but I found this amount for Benelli BJ 250 scoot, and, since the scoots are more or less the same... Looking for specific info on CFMoto Jetmax is a waste of time - looks like they're never taken apart, or, if they are, no measurements are taken).
The result is great. Better than I expected, actually. The scooter floats no more and goes exactly where you point it. When we opened the shocks, each of them had about 70ml of old dirty oil.
The fork oil seals were replaced too.
2. Rear shocks - I had yet another pair of shocks from Taobao (just search for 川南本田弯刀cfmoto春风摩托车捷马250-6改装后减震／孔距315mm) - they work much better than the original ones (both adjustable and non-adjustable original CFMoto rear shocks are crap, since they don't absorb the shocks).
On a side note, these shocks are quite a bit longer than the original ones, but it hasn't told on the scooter handling anyhow so far. Probably they will sag a bit in a year or so. Took a pillion - pillion said it was much better than before.
Replaced the rear tire with a new stock one, now the bike is firmly planted.
Installed Dr. Pulley weights (21 x 17) - I can't really say that there is any difference in pick up. Seems that the clutch started to engage at lower rpms, but, since the scoot doesn't have a tacho, I can't be 100% sure.
Front right windshield fixture (bolt/thread) has broken thread, the bolt just slid in. It cause the windshield to vibrate and make this annoying sound. Fixed it with another nut there. That was a pain in the ass to get right.
Overall on the quality of the metal used in the scoot - it feels like the scoot is made of plasticine. You disassemble it, you assemble it, you disassemble it again, be prepared for worn threads and tons of headache. Chinese green screws aren't up to the task either...
So these are my impressions of the scoot's performance after I installed Dr. Pulley slider weights:
1. Now I have a feeling that the scooter has a well-distributed torque over the rev range. The flat spot at around 60 km/h is gone, and the scooter picks up speed progressively and predictably (albeit yet pretty slowly).
2. The clutch engaging at lower RPMs isn't all that good, since now when I have the scooter on the center stand and fire it up for a warm up, I can see the rear wheel spinning at idle RPMs. That is dangerous indeed, and I can't say I like having this happen.
3. At traffic lights the aforementioned problem persists, and the scooter would try to launch itself forward at idle RPMs. That is annoying.
I think I'll be switching to the original roller weights in the near future.
I have installed new handlebar switches (the installation was pretty straightforward) and found out that the old left one had a broken high beam flash button, and the old right one had a broken tip that was supposed to fix the handlebar switch in place on the handlebar.
I was quite surprised to find out that that tip was plastic rather than metal.
I also installed cheap plastic taobao hand guards on the scooter. Now it's much more comfortable to ride in the rain and in cold weather.
Just got back from a week-long trip. It's a pleasant surprise that the scooter battery took a week of no riding just fine, and the scoot started as usual. The only annoyance was the fact that the whole dashboard (except for idiot lights) went dead all of a sudden without any obvious reason. A day later though the dashboard magically came to life all by itself.
It has finally gotten real cold in Nanjing, and once again I'm impressed with the scoot's fairing. Still, I'm getting me one of those aprons you see locals riding in, since I believe it will enhance my winter riding hundredfold.
Update: I got my apron from Taobao, and indeed it made winter riding much more comfortable! Wonder why I didn't think of doing it last winter!
Hello my non-existent readers!
I wonder if anyone has ever thought of / tried replacing original Jetmax's clutch, variator pulley and torque driver with Japanese scooter parts (Yamaha / Honda / Suzuki / Kawasaki)? If yes, and if it worked well, I'd be super happy if you could give some suggestions here.
I plan to look into upgrading my transmission this summer - might as well look into Japanese mods.
Attachment 19086
Attachment 19087
Attachment 19088
No curb-jumping; never loaded more than a rain racket and a few bungee cords in my top box. It just happened.
The thing that frustrates me most (besides having to wait for the part for over a week since nobody stocks spares for Jetmax any longer) is the fact that it is all not real metal.
It may be painted like metal and feel like steel on the outside, yet inside it's some bread-like porous rice crap.
What a pity Chunfeng, what a pity.
Its aluminum cast. Its caused most probably by vibrations.
If overloaded it has no elastic range and crack from one moment to next.
That's the typical compromise between weight and durability
Sent from my GN8003 using Tapatalk
Right. Well, anyways, I've already ordered a new handle. Will replace the broken one in a week or so. Nothing critical :)Quote:
Originally Posted by ShuBen
Got a new handle from taobao and finally fund time to install it. As good as new :)
Wanted to install fog lights on the front fork, like some Kymco i300 owners do, and... my front forks are not suited for the light mounts. That's a pity... On the side note, there aren't a lot of custom parts for the Jetmax out there, unfortunately.
Had a chance to look at Kymco i300 ABS side by side with my Jetmax. I have recently been thinking of changing my scooter for the Kymco, and was very happy at the chance.
Kymco definitely has a better build quality. The plastic panels look better and the paint quality is better than that on Jetmax. The space is a problem though. The rider's triangle feels pretty cramped on the Kymco, compared to Jetmax.
The underseat storage is significantly smaller too, just like the space between rider's legs (I can fit a crate of beer bottles onto my Jetmax right there, doubt I could do that on Kymco).
Kymco sounds better, handles better and is faster off the line, but these are the things I can probably fix with replacing my variator and clutch.
Rear shocks are way better on Kymco, which makes it be a more comfortable ride.
Overall, I'm not going to change my scoot anytime soon, since Kymco didn't really impress me that much.
Oil leaks now. I've found that the right side of the engine is covered in oil. Don't know why it's happening - I've added the oil according to the manual when replacing the oil filter. No idea where the oil leaks from or why it leaks. Oil pressure / engine check light doesn't light up though, so it seems that all is alright. Will see how it goes.
So I went for the regular service at 15,000km. I replaced the spark plug, oil filter, oil, belt (I didn't go for the original one here, bought Powerlink's 22.5 x 906),transmission oil and air filter. I also replaced the whole front pulley (variator) assembly. Changing the belt and the variator assembly hasn't resulted in anything - the bike has as slow pick-up as it did, and is still really unpredictable at launch. The mechanic said it might be due to the EFI valve. I found that on taobao and will probably replace it come next salary.
I am indeed very interested in the result of that. Another plan for the next salary is to get a fatter tire to smooth the bumps out and to replace the whole rear brake system. It looks like there have been 2 variations / revisions of the Jetmax, and the only rear brake pads I can get from taobao are for the newer version. My bike apparently has an older version brake caliper.
Will post updates as they come.
Could there be a chance to get pics at times, would be grateful of pics :)
Interesting thoughts about reasons to buy a scooter, I agreed on many points, maybe even will have to buy a scooter after my Jawa :)
I have scooter pics at the start of the thread, you are welcome to have a look at those. I will also take a few more pictures tomorrow / before the end of the week and post them here.Quote:
Originally Posted by moilami
Checked, nice, thank you :)
Родимый, из-за чувака на новой аватарке, чесслово, чуточка наложил в штаны.
:lol8:
Yeah, it's me :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Zorge
Replaced my rear brake caliper and brake disc yesterday. Like I previously said, it turned out that Jetmaxes had 2 generations (at least). The brake caliper I got from Taobao was marked as the "new gen" one. Fitting it was not a problem. No idea what is new about it, except for the fact that it accommodates different brake pads.
Also changed the rear tire. Installed a Maxxis one with a taller profile (150/70-14 VS 140/60-14 stock). The new tire smoothes minor bumps out a bit better, yet still the rear of the bike is stiff as hell. Will have to think of something to improve it out there.
So... The new problem has come up. It was there before, but it was not as persistent. It goes like this: when the bike is idling, it stalls. It is very annoying, especially when you are stuck in traffic and move at a very slow pace. It's OK if you give it some throttle, but otherwise it just stalls at low RPMs. I'm taking it to the repair shop for computer diagnostics some time next week and hopefully they can sort it out.
It is very annoying indeed and not only in traffic lights. However, if you don't have EFI you should be able to try adjust idle jet in carburetor in a way that the engine have higher RPM when idling.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve_Halt
moilami the scooter is an EFI one with the proper ECU installed. I would've fixed it myself if it were a carbureted one just by disassembling and rebuilding the carb. However, it's not the case here. So much for more complex bikes and environmental regulations