Hello new Grom clone owner here

[Sharpy]

Hello Hi, I'm Sharpy,I live in Texas. I am no stranger to the chinese rider scene as I been on two wheels for most my life. I had a 2011 Puma Cycles Corp Speedo 50, then a 2009 Johnway /rocketa (dong fang makes these i believe) Mc--54-250. These two bikes were proof that if you took good care of something it'll last as long as you need it. Both survived well over 5000 miles and the speedo 50 im told is still oem and ticking. The not china bikes in cluded my first, a 73 honda xr 80, 86 yamaha IT200 (2 stroke Brazillian beast), 84 Kawasaki LTD 650, and a 94 Kawasaki Concours. Those are what I had.

What I bring to you is an opportunity to check out my experiences and purchase of a 2017 Venom Motorsports Canada x20 aka the Boom 125 Vader or possibly the vader II. Depends on where the bike comes from. I bought this bike at a deal of around 1200 us pesos shipped to my door. I am to expect it between Dec 1st, to dec 6th. I ordered this unit friday and hopefully it ships in the next few days.

I got a few mods and mashups for this bike, once I get it legally registered I got the pile of mandatory mods coming to it.

Carburetor. First off, the carb. Oh my god does that stock carb repulse anyone who knows of it's exsistence. Got the mikuni setup and may try out the other options later. I obtained the jet kits, and air cone with it. The carb will be post registration as it needs le inspection.

CDI. Secondly, the CDI. Got the good ol reem and scream you find on every aftermarket site. I heard of the CDI's rev limiter and it's there for reasons like one, emissions, two, old people, and three, making you look silly in the meetup. Aint havin it. All the mods will be on post inspection.

Exhaust, where there is flow there is an angry californian politician accusing the little guys of a problem them big plants and stations make. I got a pipe bender and a weekend let's make some magic.

Sprockets. Gonna try the 17 tooth, if no worky ill drop one until it does function. I have the new chain ready for application.

Spark Plug, never wanna use a nameless chinese plug, if there is something I want to trust combustible liquid air mixture with it's a zap zap plug with a reputation. Gonna get a reputed one and properly gap it.

Lights, obligatory LED conversion, I like my bike very visible while getting sandwiched at the stoplight. Joke aside I will experiment with a aux light system with rechargeable.external batteries. Speak of, i will replace the batterey later.

Mirrors, big glass cookies are nice if ecerything else is big and round. Neither me or the bike is so I ordered a pair of matching blue/black mirrors. They are still standard. Usually I would keep the big rounds but there will always be the high beam hobbyist or the guy who says in an honest tone your mirrors look stupid.


But that's the plan for my bike and I am sure anyone here would be more interested in my project than me.

But of this wasn't so long you didn't read let me tell you about myself.

I am a Texas based professional driver for van truckload logistics services. I was born in Cali, grew up in green chile land and currently reside in the heart of the lone star. I am not home often where my bike will be due to work, but it will be riding a lot... once I tunw this thing to my preferences. I hope to hear what you all think about this adventure I so impulsively delved into.

[Sharpy]

Well fancy that, the bike was picked up and shipped yesterday and is estimated to arrive on the 1st. I hope it's not bonked and combobulated.

All the mods are already arriving so looks like this weekend is gonna be good

[culcune]

Welcome! Venom has been a good experience for our members who have purchased through them. Oddly enough, most have reported being kind of suspicious of the owner or whoever seems to take the phone calls, but from what I understand all have gotten their bikes, and all were happy (yes, taking the 'Chinese' part into account) with their purchases. As far as 'suspicious' goes, Venom seem to claim a few details that aren't going to ring true, such as the top speed on the 125cc Ninja-ish full-size bike at 75 mph (they might be reporting on the speedo, not true GPS) and other tall tales. You should be okay with them.

[Sharpy]

Originally Posted by culcune

Welcome! Venom has been a good experience for our members who have purchased through them. Oddly enough, most have reported being kind of suspicious of the owner or whoever seems to take the phone calls, but from what I understand all have gotten their bikes, and all were happy (yes, taking the 'Chinese' part into account) with their purchases. As far as 'suspicious' goes, Venom seem to claim a few details that aren't going to ring true, such as the top speed on the 125cc Ninja-ish full-size bike at 75 mph (they might be reporting on the speedo, not true GPS) and other tall tales. You should be okay with them.

I actually feel very optimistic about this purchase. The bike has to make it's maiden voyage nearly bone stock as I want to make it as easy as possible to get it street ready. I do understand that the average top speed of these bikes hang realistically in the mid 40s low 50s. I already have the hardware waiting for me at home, it's a matter of only when I get all the paperwork done I will really start working on every tiny detail of this little machine.

I'm thinking of starting a thread to document my musings and crafts approaching the visioned build. Maybe it'll have enough spring in it's step when im done it'll be the wolf in sheep's clothing at the tiny bike meets.

[kirbo7106]

Welcome to the forum Sharpy! I’ve heard a lot of good things about Venom Motorsports, so keep us posted about your experience with them. I like the Grom clones and want to see what you can do with your bike. Are you planning on making videos for YouTube? Hint, hint!

[Sharpy]

Originally Posted by kirbo7106

Welcome to the forum Sharpy! I’ve heard a lot of good things about Venom Motorsports, so keep us posted about your experience with them. I like the Grom clones and want to see what you can do with your bike. Are you planning on making videos for YouTube? Hint, hint!

Unfortunately I won't have much for making videos right now, but hopefully I can snap pictures of the bike as I recieve and work on it. Bike is due for arrival tomorrow but I already pre set the carb and unpacked the new exhaust. They will be nearly ready to mount save for the exhaust which I am debating minor adjustments before the install. All i need is a good pipe adjuster and the shorty exhaust should fit nicely.

[Megadan]

First off, welcome to the club. You seem much like me in the want/need to modify classification of owner/riders. Always a way to improve something.

The CDI "upgrade" is something I have been doing a lot of reading and research on, and I have come to two conclusions.
1. Almost all of the "high performance" CDI boxes that advance the timing, advance it across the entire RPM range, and do not have a curve. This means they are advanced even at idle/Start, and thus making the bike much harder to cold start. Most testing I have seen, when compared to a stock CDI, shows almost the same timing and curve beyond 3000rpm - making for little to no increase in performance except at lower RPM's.

2. The best 2 options are either a CDI with a programmable ignition curve. The one I know of was linked by JerryHawk, and is $80 through Aliexpress ( I will link below ). The other method is essentially free, and simply requires slotting the pickup's bracket holes to be able to manually advance it. This method was tested against all of the "Performance" CDI's on a GY6 scooter, and plotted out showing a better/similar curve to most of the "performance" CDI's, while also maintaining the low RPM ignition retard to allow for better starting.

Here is a video showing a similar comparison.

Programmable CDI. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Digi...460.0.0.xxJ8G4

[humanbeing]

Originally Posted by Megadan

...a CDI with a programmable ignition curve. The one I know of was linked by JerryHawk, and is $80 through Aliexpress ( I will link below )...

That shop just 1 of the re-seller. Official online shop of the developer "光印" is https://motoefi.taobao.com/category-57662968.htm

[Sharpy]

All useful info as it seems my CDI has been delivered but is nowhere to be found. Must have looked like a cell phone to someone and ended up getting boosted. To that I say someone now has the most dissappointing "cell phone" and that should be no biggie as im only out a few bucks and what's a few dollars out of a amazon build right?

1 like = 1 I thought it was a cell phone

[SlendyMayne]

You can grab older models of a GoPro for about 100-150 or get a knockoff brand for less. I'm planning on getting one myself for insurance reasons and also to post videos

[Sharpy]

Originally Posted by SlendyMayne

You can grab older models of a GoPro for about 100-150 or get a knockoff brand for less. I'm planning on getting one myself for insurance reasons and also to post videos

I'll eventually get one when my activities permit it sure.

[Sharpy]

Quick little update on the project. The bike is nearby in a frieght terminal preparing for transport. While I have time still I thought I would pick up the most important parts of all, external fuel filter,red and blue threadlocker, and a surplus of metric nuts, bolts, lock washets, lock nuts, and a diy homemade fender delete kit.

My sprocket, chain, and mirrors are still in the mail. As for the cdi I'll see what happens with the stock cdi. If I find it lacking ill do the slot mod.

Let's hope they feel like bringing me my bike monday and see if we can get it legal and built!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Sharpy

Quick little update on the project. The bike is nearby in a frieght terminal preparing for transport. While I have time still I thought I would pick up the most important parts of all, external fuel filter,red and blue threadlocker, and a surplus of metric nuts, bolts, lock washets, lock nuts, and a diy homemade fender delete kit.

My sprocket, chain, and mirrors are still in the mail. As for the cdi I'll see what happens with the stock cdi. If I find it lacking ill do the slot mod.

Let's hope they feel like bringing me my bike monday and see if we can get it legal and built!

The exact same thing I went through with my Hawk when I bought it. I had all of the upgrades on order or on hand before I even got the bike lol.

Definitely post up some pictures when you are done!

[Sharpy]

Yoooo! Here it is the bike has arrived! Time to start assembley.

[Sharpy]

Finally! Here she is fully assembled and fully upgraded, I did all the adjustments and tightening and reassembly and man it's been a good couple days. So far I got most of the parts I need on the bike.

Here are the mods so far:
Mikuni 22mm w 115 jet & airbox delete
17t front sprocket
petcock
10 amp quick disconnect switch for battery

Unmounted
low mount exhaust, needs pipework.
Better mirrors because seeing is believing and the glass cookies aren't cutting it.

Extras:

-Bicycle Bell, because a hooligan bike needs to be extra annoying
-Phone Mount: To mount the real speedometer, like anyone follows the speed limit here regardless. Dashboard is purple though so that's k.

To do list
-mx bars
-MSX 125 SF Fender Delete (The fender bolts are identical and theoretically the delete kit should fit perfectly with minimum adjustments)
-replace axles with grom axles, mount proper tires.
-stiffen front forks, wayyy to soft
-adjust rear shock, moving it to a more firm location should put my ride height just right
-replace headlight LEDs. the lower running light is not working, I pulled open the headlight and the diodes are too weak to emit any noticeable light. I am going to hard wire a new LED circuit to run when the light switch is on, it will have proper high beam low beam when finished.
-LED signals and lic plate lamp, to draw less juice and relax stress on the fuse.

What didn't work:
The other cdi, it blew up because it was improperly filled and a piece of rock shorted the board. Good smell though. I opted to keep the stock CDI until the tunable one comes my way.

Parking lights, only the tail light illuminates when the switch is on. Not a problem as I can wire a setup that will properly illuminate my marker lights.

The end result:
It's alive!

Took me about 5 hours total to get it running but I am so far satisfied with my purchase. Tell me what you guys think,