Got a 2009 Yamaha Zuma, 125cc

[Kincurd]

Yeah, out here, you would just need to register it I think and you can take it out on the road without any kind of plate. Any road where a bicycle is legal. Can also park it where the bikes park, unless it states otherwise.

I'm coming from riding a 500cc previously and already have my mc endorsed driver's license. For my commute, that extra bit of power suits me well for the 40mph Speed Limit spots, and crossing certain intersections.

Oh and the 50cc Zuma has been around for awhile. Hasn't changed much over the years. You'll find lots of support for it online.

[Xringer]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this new model 50cc is the first 4-stroke.
So, there isn't going to be a ton of people riding them yet.
Plus, a lot of people aren't going to buy a 2012, if they can find a left-over or used 2-sroke.
They think a 4-stroke can't be hacked to get a lot of extra speed.
Whereas I am interested in being able to climb hills, and MPG of course.

Kinda funny, but I got interested in 50cc mopeds about 50 years ago.
Got my own in 1963. At the time, I would have loved a 250cc (like my brother had),
but in Bermuda, you had to be 21 for anything larger than 50cc.

Those black USN socks and while sneakers were cool back then..

[Kincurd]

A lot of stock features on that scooter I'd prefer on a modern scooter. I think the closest you get are the scooters common in South and Southeast Asia.

So I've found there are fuel-tuning tools available for the EFI Zuma 125. Not sure just how useful that is to the MPG-minded, but in theory, it would allow you to tweak the fuel injection to force the bike to consume less fuel. Then again, maybe the tools only useful for adjusting the settings back to stock if they get out of whack, or adjusting them accordingly if you put on a 150cc.

I'll be looking into this more later. Definitely something to consider down the road. Along with the CVT swap and gearing/weights. A manual tranny swap is probably out of the question for me.

For now, my money has been going towards updated riding gear, as well as an aftermarket air-filter and magnetic drain-bolts. The only ecomod I really have under my belt with this bike is keeping the tires at 40psi (about the most they can hold. I tried giving them more but it settles back to 40 pretty quickly).

Still have some adjusting to do with the nut behind the handlebars as well as accurate MPG tracking. You'd be surprised how easily you can throw off your numbers when with different tank positions and pumps and a 1.6 gallon (6 liter) tank.

[Xringer]

Those guys who reviewed the Zuma 50cc 4-stokers out in San Francisco had GPS units mounted on the handle bars.

I've used my GPS nav units to calibrate my SG2 in different cars.
It really helps to know if your factory odometer and MPH display is off a bit.
I've heard that some scooters readings are way off on MPH. Fast and slow.

Anyways, you might try making a test road-trip with a GPS recording your miles, starting right after you get a fill-up (on a flat surface).
And ending back at the same pump..


So, now that the weather is getting a bit warmer, how much fun are you having on that new scooter??

[Kincurd]

GPS is somewhere on my list. I think it'll be nice when I finally get me a smart-phone. Then I'll just dock the phone on the handlebars and use the GPS app for my speedo and such.

Adjusting the speedo is pretty straight forward on the Zuma 125, from what I gather.

Well, without GPS, still using my odometer, I just hit 100mpg this morning for my last tank. Definitely something for me to smile about, on a stock Zuma. Well it's mostly stock. I deleted the mirrors and added some blindspot mirrors in the handguards. Plan on adding more flat mirror surface somewhere in there as well. The mirrors are functional enough for my tastes. Check my blind spots, see nothing, look over my shoulder, good to go. I hate relying on mirrors, especially on a bike; but they're handy for checking before you look over your shoulder. See something in the mirror, don't bother looking over your shoulder; etc.

[Xringer]

I have a nice mirror on my bicycle, and I use it just like you said.
If I see anything back there, I know about what and where etc.
But if I see nothing, I still have to take that quick rubber-neck to make sure.

It's real nice for riding on narrow bike paths. It's a good heads-up when those dang
racing bikes come shooting up behind us going about 25!
Many of the speed-boys yell, "On your left".. But some don't..

100 MPG sounds pretty dang good! I saw a 2-stroke 50cc Zuma in town today.
The owner says it's pretty fast and does very well on the hills.
He was a big guy and he was zipping right along, the last time I saw him..

[Kincurd]

Yeah, sounds about right. I think the shy people should at least have a bell on their bicycle (and use it).

Those helmet mirrors for bicycles are basically what I'm goin' for; if that size works for me, I'll just use the 'inspection' mirror tool, like the kind you get at the hardware store; to make something for the bike. That, and/or make my own mirrors with the cuttable-mirror sheets they sell at autoparts stores.

The 50cc just didn't factor into my considerations, when I put 30 miles on 5 days a week, just for the work commute. They'd be nifty for tiny little trips.

The 125cc Zuma is the perfect bike for my current work commute though.

And to answer your earlier question which I neglected in my last post, I have kind of taken this scooter for joy rides, of sorts, but haven't taken it offroad, yet. I'm not sure if there's any offroad places I could ride it too, whilst avoiding the highway. Haven't looked into it yet. I don't really see this scooter as much of a toy, but more of a mule.

100mpg, yeah. It brought a smile to my face to hit that magical number.

Route, weight, riding style, weather; all of them have a huge effect on MPG, moreso than it would with a car. According to all my tanks, I've got a total average of 96.4mpg right now. My first fill-up was on 3/20 though.

What seems to help, is when I really push the most miles that I can out of the tank. For one, I guess it makes it a tad lighter, but secondly, I tend to get really light on the throttle and hypermile even more than I normally would care to when I get on that orange empty square. Just a theory though.

Ps. I pump the tires up to 50psi now and they've been holding it for at least a week. I'll continue checking weekly; but it looks like I was able to break in the tires to my higher PSi needs, and it no longer deflates to 40psi. Perhaps also due to the warmer weather. Who knows!

[Xringer]

I once tried a helmet mounted mirror (it had good reviews), but found it was almost worthless, due to head motion.
For some reason (maybe my vertigo?) I couldn't get the amount of visual info, that I wanted.
Maybe if the aft field of view was larger or clearer, I would have been happy.
The other problem was, helmet mounted mirrors are easily knocked out of adjustment!
I think my wife felt I was wasting too much ride time tweaking the mirror..


Our new bikes got some dirt bike style mirrors, that are larger than many,
have a good adjustment holding ability and give me a useful aft view.

Here's my wife's bike. She really likes the mirror. Way better than our old ones.



~~~

Zuma brags about their dirt-bike 'looks', but not very many people take them off-road.
Like a Honda CRV, they aren't really made for that.

When I was a kid riding my 50cc moped, I liked going for joy rides.
Just the wind in your face and the scenery in Bermuda made it fun..
Plus, the speed limit was 20 MPH.. So you could actually speed on a 50cc..
Getting up to 45 was a blast on those roads.
After two years, it took some getting used to being back on the right side of the road..

Anyways, getting 90 or 100 MPG during a joy ride makes in more of a joy you can afford..
(At least for now)!

[Kincurd]

There's people taking Zumas (or BWS 125s) offroad in Taiwan. They tend to redo the suspension and put in a new fork with a bigger front wheel though. (Also, probably an extra center frame brace) So yeah, not much stock Zuma 125s offroad.

I was thinking more or less taking it on dirt roads, no jumping or mud; if at all.

Good MPG is part of the fun. As Matsu said: Enjoy ride to try get low mileage result. Try many ways, but with fun!!

Going to do to some more tinkering. Lighter low-profile aluminum handlebars should be going on this weekend. I want to anodize them first, if I can manage it. I'm just using some aluminum tubing with 10-11-gauge wall thickness. It's pretty hefty but a 24" straight bar of it only weighs 300grams.

It's all baby steps at this point, but when I'm through with this bike, it'll be awesome. Lots more work will get done in the winter time.

[Xringer]

Unless that aluminum was a real good alloy, I would stick to the stock steel.

One day I while riding a nice smooth dirt trail down in Mexico, I looked back and the
wind took my sunglasses off..
While I was stopped to get my glasses, my buddies kept going..
I knew they were heading for another main road, but I didn't know the way.
There were way too many intersecting trails. I needed to spot those guys,
before I became extremely lost in an unfriendly area.

I was speeding to catch up. I was looking in the distance, but couldn't see them.
Suddenly, my Honda 90 hit a deep rut. It jarred the heck out of me.
I bounced a bit and my feet left the foot pegs.
In the next second, I realized that I was going right into a dry creek bed.
I think the vertical drop was about 2 feet. Without my feet on the pegs, it felt a lot like 4 feet!
When the bike hit the gravel, all my weight was on the handlebars.
The bolts holding the handlebars, weren't tight enough to keep the bars
from rotating downwards about 70 degrees.
Meaning that I couldn't do anything but brake and wait to slam into the
other side of the river bank.
It took me 20 minutes of grunting to pull those handlebars back up.
If they had been even slightly weak, I would have broke them during my crash landing..

I did have a chance to ride a big dragster once. Didn't do too well. 1/4 mile in 17 something.
But I clearly remember the miniature handle bars. It was a short aluminum tube, (thin walled)
and was so short, you would never think of using it on a highway.

Why did I get asked to drive a dragster? I had been sick that year and weighted only about 120 pounds..