coolant motorcycle

Can any one tell me differences in motorcycle coolants, comparing
Mutool, Engine Ice, Maxima, Honda's non-silicate corrosion inhibitor
coolant, Prepboy's Proline coolant for aluminum engine, ordinary
Prestone 5 yr automobile coolant, recycled coolant?
I have a Tank-sports Motorcycle 250 cc Touring scooter (Chinese
scooter). I feel it is very low quality that overheat very often, even
I changed coolant to Honda coolant.

 

I think your last sentence sums it up. Good coolant won't fix bad
design.

Later,

Charlie

 

Agreed, redoubled in spades.

 

Or that it's just a crap bike....

 

message

Remember when everyone had the same attitude about Japanese products? <G>


Ed Cregger (including me)

 

message

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Umm, my experience with Chinese products has been that QC is lacking upon
assembly.

The actual products are "close enough" copies of Japanese originals that
parts are interchangable in most cases and that the parts are of good enough
quality that many shops are subbing cheap Chinese parts for expensive
Japanese parts with no one knowing the difference.

Wire harnesses and connectors are another matter entirely. Most do qualify
as junk.

Ed Cregger

 

Yes, indeed.

Unfortunately, in may (not all, though) cases, Chinese bikes *are* crap.

Poorly designed, badly enginered, appallingly built. But they'll get
there.

 

I learned to ride on a Honda 160 (single carb) in 64/65. It was a good bike
that took tons of abuse. Ditto a friend's Honda 50cc step through and later
his 305cc Dream. Yes, they were expensive, but that was because of the
American importer, not Honda.

Today we can buy stuff direct from China via the internet, thus eliminating
the robber baron importers of yesteryear.

One must keep in mind that most of these Chinese products were intended for
the people of China and not for export. Apparently, constantly having to
work on your Chinese motorcycle/skooter is the accepted cultural norm in
China. Never having known truly refined bikes, like Hondas, they know no
better. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

Ed Cregger

 

Agree 100%.

Upwardly-mobile people will shun it, because the carmarket is rather
different. Brand names ar all, *especially* for the upwardly-mobile.
Which is why people buy Audis instead of Volkswagens, which make the
same car, effectively.

But others will, sure.

I was there a couple of years ago. You hardly see any motorcycles on the
streets of Beijing. They don't wnt motorcycles: they want cars. If they
buy a motorcycle, I was told, it's just for the cheapest transport while
they're saving for a car.

The idea of a motorcycle as a recreational vehicle doesn't compute
there.

 

They did. They made a two-stroke triple. Wartburg and DKW made strokers,
too. And Trabant, of course!

And - a little known fact, because I doubt they ever got to the US -
Suzuki's early little Jimny jeeps were powered by a version of the GT750
Kettle two-stroke engine. I remember holidaying in Crete, in the
mid-1980s, and these little things were bumbling around. Amused, I was.
especially when I found they had a three-into-one exhaust.....

Suzuki also put two-stroke lumps in a couple of small vans.

 

Not yet, I'd wager. I'd say a lot of people in Europe back in the 40s
and 50s felt exactly the same way while pottering to work on the 98cc
stinkwheels.

 

It was more a simple lack of disposable income as Europe was rebuilt,
but yes.

 

The Isetta's I've seen were made by BMW and have four wheels - at first
the wide front door and narrow tail fooled my eyes into thinking that
there is a single rear wheel!

 

I muist say I thought they had three, as well!

In the UK they were called "Bubble cars". They were quite popular until
the Mini appeared, which killed them stone dead. I remember them from my
childhood. They're very collectable now.

What Albrecht doesn't mention, probably because it's little known
outside the UK, is that small light three-wheelers (including the
Reliants of the 1960s-1980s) could be driven on a motorcycle licence
with no need to take a car test. This made them quite popular. Heinkel,
incidentally, was another German manufacturer.

In the UK, there were a few short-lived brands. Some, if not most, used
the Villiers 175-250cc two-stroke lumps. I remember someone had one when
I was at university in the mid-1970s.

His model had what was proudly termed a "self-starter". This was -
honestly - a length of cable from the kickstarter on the engine to a
pull-handle on the dash.

Of course, there was no way your right arm had the starting power of
your leg, so you still had to open the engine bay and jump up and down
inside it to start the bastard thing. And woe betide you if you knocked
it into gear while you were doing that.

 

Correct, plus the fact that you could drive a three-wheeler without a
car drivers license. A motorcycle license was sufficient.
Getting a license here was (and is) pretty costly, so every now
and then you see an elderly person driving the Briton 'Reliant'
(what's in a name).

The BMW-Isetta in fact had 4 wheels, but the rear ones were so
close together that they were considered to be one. It had an
overbored single 250cc (I think it was bored to 300cc) and
the whole front of it was the door. The steering wheel folded
aside when you opened the door. My dad owned one, but
sold it as fast as possible because it was pretty scary to
drive it.

Rob.

 

Legislation considered those two rear wheels to be one, because
they were very close together. It ment you could drive it with a
motorcycle drivers license. Still can (if you own one).
But there were three wheel BMW-Isetta's too. They looked
the same.

I was told that German companies were forbidden to produce
things that could be used as wartime material right after WW2
and thus went into 'car-business'.

There were more three wheelers. The Messerschmidt that looked
like a planes cockpit on wheels, and one my dad owned for a while
(one wheel at the back). We never figured out what brand it was.
It had a name up front (Fulda) and also the papers of it said 'Fulda'.
We later found out that Fulda was a tire brand (and of course the
name of a german town, so maybe it was made there). It had a one
cylinder two stroke (175cc?) right behind the seat, so you could
swap the plug just by reaching behind your back. Had to be done
often.
The rear wheel was chain driven, and gear shift was sportscar like,
because the stick only went forward and backwards. It was linked
directly to the probably original shift of that motorcycle engine. One
forward, pull free, pull two, pull three. I don't think there was a
four.
The seat was wide enough to accommodate three persons, but
legroom was not great. If you moved your feet too much, you kicked
out a headlight and bent the 1 inch alu bumper too.
It had an electical starter (a funny thing that swung forward backward
until it had enough momentum to overcome the pistons' compression
and that drew 75 Amps out the 6 Volt battery).
It had a wooden frame, and the outer shell was pretty thick aluminium.
It looked like an egg split in half. Fun to drive because it was so
low
that at max speed (I figure 40 mph) you got the impression that
you sat in a formula 1 car (with worn out rear tires and enormous
oversteering).

Rob.

 

WANT!!!

 

I'd love to see The Doctor's face if you came home with one of them...

 

I'm amazed. I'd have thought the EPA would have blocked them, even back
then.

 

She'd fill it with gardening gear and take it down to the allotment.

That reminds me - I'm a serious bidder on a Piaggio Ape at the moment.