Honda PCX150

[sendler]

It seams that I never made a thread about my 2013 Honda PCX150 here even though I have been bragging about it on other forums. Needless to say it is great on gas. And not just with hypermilers. check out fuelly where most "normal people" still break 90 mpgUS.
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Honda PCX MPG Reports | Fuelly
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I will copy some previous posts.
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I rode my new PCX150 around some tonight and I am very happy with it. I normally ride my CBR250R which is a great high speed minimal touring bike but I also wanted a super light automatic to teach people how to ride on and the zero down financing made it easy for them to hook me again.
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Have you ever noticed how when you switch bikes, it is easy to pick out the things the new bike doesn't do as well as the first bike? Well I'm not noticing too much wrong with the PCX. It is pretty dialed in all in all, especially the PCX150 which is quite a bit quicker than the 125 I rode last week. I'm glad I spent the extra $400 to get the benefit of the improvements that Honda incorporated after only one year. I also think the seat slants you forward less on the new model. I may not even end up modding it much. It is that much faster up the hills than the 125.
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I like the riding experience. There is a strange freedom from thought riding a low powered, super light automatic. Floor it and follow the road. Simple. Relaxing. No decisions about what gear to use or how fast to go because you often going about as fast as it can go. I have heard mountain bikers say the same thing after switching to a single speed. Just pedal.
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Below 10 mph the small wheels are a bit too quick to turn in but once up to speed the PCX feels very well balanced. No head shake or wobs coming back down the giant hill at 60 mph that I just went up at 51. The combined brakes stop nice and even, and it even looks cool enough that people don't automatically dismiss it as a scooter. It is so light and easy, I could flip the keys to any novice in the parking lot and they would never drop it. The PCX150 is a really good compromise of price, size, and performance.
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[sendler]

I rode the PCX150 to work today. 40 miles each way. Backroads at 55 mph on the way up and superhighway at 60- 65 on the way home. Whoever said you can't go on the big road because of the wind performance needs more experience. This bike is very stable in dirty air as it is on gravel and the air coming over the front is calm. The speedo of my US version is dead on with the gps. I also set up to check the odometer and it too seemed to be pretty close but I forgot to check it again more toward the end of the ride. I only used full throttle a few times, even staying off the stop on the biggest hills. There is some sort of electronic limit at 68 mph which comes on as a slow surge. And I can hit this speed on the flat with no draft. I oscillates smothly in a sine wave at maybe 1-2 Hz. This is much slower and gentler than most rev limiters I have seen which have more of 10Hz sawtooth pattern. I got my tach in the mail today so I can check to see what rpm this is and if it is a rev limit or a speed limit. If I had another 3 mph, I would never get dropped or become an obstacle in the truck lane. I may have to see if my variator is letting the belt all the way out and make a change to something else if it isn't. It's going to be hard to get really accurate fill ups. I filled to the bar at the bottom of the filler neck last night but tonight as I was adding fuel it was low, low, low, and then splash! Fuel shot right out the top and made a mess. So I didn't get a good fuel economy calculation but it looks like at speeds over 60 mph/ 100kph, my CBR250R will beat the PCX on gas. I still enjoy riding it though and if I wasn't running late both ways, I could keep it to 50 mph on the back roads and turn a good number. The high beam is awesome! Better than many cars. The tires shake a little. Maybe I will ask my excellent Honda shop manager if warranty will balance them once since there are no weights on either wheel. There is a slight tendency for the rear top hop sideways just a little bit over some of the bigger humps in the highway that develop across the paved over expansion joints. All in all a really nice bike. Especially the way that Honda has smoothed the air over the front of the high quality bodywork.

[sendler]

Tried to run the PCX out of gas while carrying a fuel bottle but didn't have time to keep going. I made it to 149.5 miles and added 1.538 gallonsUS at the fill up for 97.2 mpgUS. Maybr Satyrday I can run it dry to determine the true tank capacity and fuel remaining when the last bar starts to flash. The last couple bars on the fuel gauge go by too quickly to be useful. Something like 12 miles for the 4th, 8 miles for the the 3rd, and 6 miles for the 2nd to last. Maybe 6 more miles on the last bar before it starts flashing but then it will flash for 35 miles. I am close to 100 mpgUS so you can translate all of those miles remaining roughly into .01 gallonsUS remaining.
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600 miles already. Time for the first service. Will change to Mobil 1 4T or I might even try regular Mobil 1 since there is no wet clutch. The valve clearance check up is due but it might be a couple more weeks before I get around to tackling that.
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The tires tend to shake at speeds over 55 sometimes. Other times not so much. There aren't any wheel weights on either wheel. Rather than make my service department tear the wheels off to balance them, I am going to try some Dynabeads in the tires. I also started to detect a very slight steering head oscillation at 65 mph that starts with the tire vibration. Just barely noticeable.
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A scooter's low center of gravity and a seating position which is less conducive to sticking out a knee or hanging off the seat means more lean angle for any given curve than a sport bike. My tires show only the slightest chicken strips remaining unused even though I don't do any hard cornering.

[sendler]

Another good tank done. 150.9 miles and 1.525 gallonsUS for 99 mpgUS.
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I did my first oil change at 715 miles with automotive Mobil 1 5W40. Let's see if that makes any difference.
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I got my Koso tach installed.
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MINI RPM METER
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I only had to take off the windshield panels to feed the cable down and could reach in through the spark plug access panel to wire it up It is a really simple instal as this model is powered by a button battery so it only needs the red wire to be wrapped round and round the plug wire for inductive pick up, and a ground which I crimped on an eye and bolted with the valve cover bolt. Don't forget the front of the engine pivots up and down, opposite of the rear wheel, so leave enough slack in the main cable before tie strapping it down. The programming had to be set to ".5" which shows that the PCX ignition system does not use a waste spark. The refresh rate is speced at <.5 sec and it is happily much quicker than that and seems to be just right. Not too jumpy to read but not so slow that it is missing things. The only draw back to the easy installation due to on board power , is the lack of any back light. It works perfectly with the only drop outs occurring during decel fuel shut off for some reason. It comes on automatically each time it sees a spark signal and records the max rpm. A normal rider doesn't need a tach but I might end up playing with the trans so it is good to know the rpm.
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This also answers the question of the limiting that I feel at the top speed of 68 mph. That is evidently the smooth application of the rev limiter at 9,600 rpm.
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My PCX150 variator pulls at 6,800 when cold and 6,600 after the belt warms up during hard acceleration below 50. 50mph is already pretty well "locked up" at the top of the pulley and runs at 7,000 rpm on flat ground while occasionally showing 6,800 when coasting down hill. I may decide to raise the pulling rpm from 6,600 to 7,000 with different weights or by shimming the spring in the back pulley.
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[sendler]

I didn't feel like waiting for GiviUSA to get the rack for my B33 trunk so I made one myself out of 1"x1/8 aluminum angle. The bolts are m8x1.25 by 65 mm long. The spacers are aluminum tube 39 and 34 mm long. The PCX tail piece is marked on the inside for the cut outs. Cut away the plastic webbing from the universal plate as shown for the first bolt hole. The B33 case looks nice and is aero enough so as not to make any difference to reaching the limited top speed but is a little small for a backpack with a laptop. I may have to spring for a larger case and just use this one for it's good looks, and as a back rest and to hold the second jacket and helmet of a passenger.

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[sendler]

I also did my seat "humpectomy" by myself. The two humps are cut away individually, leaving the middle piece of the seat tub for support of the new foam which was stacked from two layers of rebond I got as a scrap for free. A washer fluid jug provided the two pieces of plastic to support the foam from underneath. I didn't even need to glue anything in as it just stays by itself. Even just two layers of foam is a little too thick so I may fine tune that some more later. The fabric store had a nice selection of vinyl that matched the seat pretty well so I cut out 4 circles the size of the washer fluid jug cap and glued them on underneath and on top to cover the holes with some special vinyl repair glue. It seems very durable so far and save me the $120 that the upholstery shop wanted to do the mod.
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[sendler]

I had a chance to try the brakes on the PCX the other day and they work very well. On a country road at 55 with a car in my distant mirror pushing the pace. Topped a crest on a left hand sweeper to see a school bus stopped on the other side of the road. I grabbed two handfulls of brake and the bike stopped perfectly and surprisingly shorter than I thought it would. No drama. perfect balance. I even had room to check my mirrors and let the car behind me have a bit more room. Great combined brakes and nice tires.

[sendler]

I went out on the PCX150 to try to measure some baseline performance before I started any mods. I already have a good idea that the fuel economy will run about 98 mpgUS with no top case and about 95 with the Givi B33 on the back. I'm still waiting for a bigger windshield. To see what the performance is like for a heavy rider I added 90 pounds of iron weights under the seat and did some timed runs and hill climbs. The timed runs were a washout as it was very windy. I had average 0-50mph times of 11.8 going one way and 14.0 seconds coming back the other. Call it 13 sec. for now. within 5 miles of my house is a perfect 3 mile long hill. Rolling into full throttle at the bottom at 30 mph, the PCX was able to get up to a steady 48 with 260 pounds on board. I would like to find a bit more hill climbing performance so I removed the snorkel from the inlet of the air box and am considering trying to drill the stock muffler to trade some added volume for less back pressure saving me the $400 for an aftermarket complete exhaust. Removing the snorkel (which was pinched when thy built the bike) cause no increase in sound, contrary to the CBR250R which now lets out quite a growl from the intake. I haven't ridden the PCX yet but did disconnect the battery to try to trigger the fuel ecu to adapt to the change if there is any.
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[sendler]

I lowered my Givi windscreen by heating it along the hand crease and bending it back. The noise is much better as the air strikes lower now at the collar bone. It is still the perfect height to give a good wet weather crouch, leaning forward with your line of sight just over the edge where the turbulence over the top of the screen acts as a blow drier to blast water drops straight down so I never even have to wipe my face shield until I get into slower boulevard travel. It didn't make much improvement to the fuel economy even though it looks more aero now and I never had a chance to do any timed runs before moving on to installing the slider style variator weights. It took a surprising amount of heat. That polycarbonate is rugged! It took one heat gun in each hand to get it hot enough to move. Take some masking tape and pull the shield back partway to hold it while you apply the heat all along the handguards and crease. Measure before and after with a tape measure as shown. I moved mine down and back 2.5 inches in two stages. That is as low as you can go as the mirrors become a problem at that point. I ended up doing some additional trimming at the top two corners with an 1/8 inch router bit in my dremmel tool. Very easy and no chance of cracking. Play it careful from line as the blade can chatter wide on you. It is easy to sand another 1mm with a sanding block to get the final shape. It's quieter, better in the rain, and the hand protection moves out a little wider.
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[IMG]http:/https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/391670_375563599189425_1929654951_n.jpg[/IMG]
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[Grant-53]

I found a series of articles on super tuning scooters at motoIQ.com that might be helpful. The one for the Honda Ruckus covers the most modifications to the drive train.