[ProDigit]

Maiden Voyage, first ride impressions:

Ok,
I had my first 20 mile maiden voyage today, and it left me a bit disappointed.

While I certainly appreciate the slightly larger body, which fit my 6'4" tall body just fine, it comes with the downside of weight. The bike weighs about 25+LBS more than the smaller body 125cc versions.

About the engine,
I always heard Lifan engines were good, but this one isn't really.
It's got good torque down low, but falls on it's face past 5k RPM. Past that, I expected the power to keep coming, but no. It's just flat...
I'm fairly sure the EGR has something to do with it, but
Riding past 5k RPM in a gear, is like shifting to a higher gear. The acceleration nearly stalls. It's pretty unusual for a 150CC not to be able to reach 65MPH, let alone 55MPH.
The TaoTao Evo 150 had a much better engine in that aspect. Much smoother, and more power.

Risers, install fail:
Anyway, today I tried installing the handlebar risers, but the riser pieces didn't fit the design; even though they were made for a similar sized handlebars for the CB300F, and other Honda bikes.

Gearing: Install success:

The gearing stock makes this bike totally useless, unless you plan on going 25-30MPH.
I've read comments of people saying their bike engines seized from hitting the redline for too long.

I always felt like, if the average forum hooligan recommends a 17T, because the 15T is too small for them, and finds the 17t mod acceptable, then I know it'll still be too little for me.

On a positive note, the 18T sprocket did fit perfectly, up from 15T, however, the cover couldn't close anymore.
Somewhere on the top left on the sprocket cover, the cover touches what I presume is the starter motor. Not the motor itself, but an extension on the engine that mounts the motor (I believe), so I couldn't grind or unmount that.
So all I had to do, is grind off maybe a few grams of metal (roughly 0.5cm, or 1/4" on the top left of the cover), then coat it, and install the sprocket cover.
Bike runs just fine with the 18T.

A 19T is available, but I presume it would take considerable amount of modding.


Acceleration went down significantly in 1st gear, however, 1st and all other gears also last a lot longer. I'd say the bike accelerates about as fast as most cars accelerating a bit faster than normal.


Even after the 18T mod, I really feel this is a 3 gear bike instead of a 5 gear.
I quite literally shift from 1st into 3rd at around 5k RPM, and do the same to 5th around 5k RPM, and am wanting for 2 more gears to at least hit 45MPH.

The bike with the 18T, still manages to run at around 6k RPM at 45MPH, which is plain dumb, and a waste of energy if you want to use it for cruising comfortably.
That engine should be running at no higher than 5k RPM cruising.

I've ordered a 30T rear sprocket, that will hopefully lower the 6k RPM at 45MPH to 5.25k RPM. That's really the best I can do.

Exhaust

My second finding was that the fiberglass I put in the exhaust can, was being blown towards the exhaust tip muffler/filter material, and kind of blocking the flow.
So I installed a baffle tube, with fiberglass surrounds, and restructured the remaining fiberglass in the muffler.
Not sure if that did anything, but I was able to hit 60MPH on the indicator (GPS confirmed 56MPH). That's a 7% underread, nearing 10% when the tire thread is gone.
Sound wise, I found that below about 5k RPM the bike sounded great, but past 5k RPM it became too loud and droning for me.
With the baffle, and fiberglass padding, it sounds a bit quieter. Especially at lower RPM ranges, but at 5+k RPM at open throttle it still sounded too loud for my liking.

EGR delete, maybe, maybe not...

While an EGR delete is a good mod, I don't look forward to peeling all the plastics off the bike. Unlike the GROM, this one doesn't have matching plastics. It just looks like a grom, but the fairings are different, with different mounting points. I can see a lot of the plastic pieces breaking off, bolts or screws shearing off...
The carburetor doesn't seem to be the type that one can rejet (I may be wrong about this).

I just don't like taking the bike apart, unless something really breaks, and needs fixing.

Rejetting

I'm fairly sure the bike needs a rejet. Though the idle smells a bit rich, and at 5+k RPM it may be running a bit lean, sensing from some backfire pops, and the choke (opening the choke just 20% I get the impression the acceleration is slightly better, but opening the choke at 100%, acceleration plummets).

Also, quick throttle blips from idle can sometimes stall the bike, another possible indicator on rich idle jets.

The idle screw helped raise the idle RPM to 1200, however when the engine is running hot, idle may be around 2k RPM for a few moments, until it cools down a bit.


Some PDI fails:

The handlebars weren't properly tightened. I felt like they were tilted to the left, and I could easily bend them back to the center from the front wheel.
I found only one suspension bolt was tight. The other was locktightened, but I could still tighten for about 1 to 1.5 full turns.



Conclusion:

Overall, I'd say this bike isn't really ready for primetime.
From the vibrations to the acceleration curve (lots of torque, but no HP)....
The bike does seem to accelerate past the 8.5k RPM redline, though it's not very pleasant, as any vibrations past 7.5k RPM are quite a bit more than at 5k RPM.

I'm waiting on the 30T sprocket to see if it makes any difference in the way the bike handles.
I'd say this bike is nice to mod, slightly better than the 125 vader.