A few questions from a euro ruckus/zoomer...

[gammakid]

Hi all,

I've had my 'zoomer' for a few months now and have been having loads of fun with it (08 version). There are a few things i'd like to do however and some advice would be very welcome.

firstly, because it's a euro version it's limited to 28mph, this is actually fine for the city, but as soon as I hit any kind of straight, I'm very aware of people twitching to overtake me, and apart from being annoying, I rekon it's also quite dangerous!

The law here says that any bike of 50cc must be limited to 36mph, so I don't really want to go faster than that (or not by much anyway) as it will put the bike into a different class. But i really think being able to do 35(ish)mph would help loads from a general safety point of view. So that's my first question: what's the best way to get a euro ruckus up to about 35mph? I was thinking of installing a new exhaust, Polini belt and maybe a new variator. does this sound like enough/too much or would the euro limiter make it all pointless?

Secondly, my girlfriend really wants to ride pillion. I've been told by some people that this would wreck the engine (I weigh about 180 and she's about 90), others seem to think it would be fine!

what i can't figure out is that there are plenty of other 50cc bikes (even the old honda cub50's!!) which can take a passenger, so why not the zoomer?!

I was wondering if anyone else has tried this? there is an Italian company who make a backrest for the Ruckus which folds into a pillion passenger seat when needed, and it's legal there to ride with a passenger, so how much of a problem is it really if you take a passenger? and would any of the speed mods help me with this? (I realize it's not going to break any speed records with two people on it but it would be nice to know it's not gonna blow up!!)

Any help would be great.

GK

[yaris]

I am not sure because you have an euro version but I think the only thing you need to go at the speed you want(and even more if you don't weight too much) is a CDI to derestrict the RPM limit. The american version, stock, run around 40mp/h

[Kami no Chiizu]

I believe Euro Zoomers have the Metro 2 Variator. You'll wanna get a new variator, I'm pretty certain of that...

[chanito]

As usual Kamino is right, getting a stock US version of the variator will get you to 35MPH, i would recommend just getting a polini variator and you should be OK, i weight over 220 lbs and take my daughter to school (she is about 100lbs) and we do OK ;D

[Dandy Dan]

Yup, replace your restricted variator with a stock non-european variator (from N. America or Japan) to get to about 35mph or with an aftermarket variator (i.e. Polini) to get to about 40mph.

The Ruckus is rated at 220lbs for the max load but there are a lot of big people (i.e. 300lbs) that I know of that are riding Rucks regularly so you should be fine with two. I've ridden with two on many occasions and besides being slower accelerating it's been fine.

[Firegut]

I've seen an '08 NA ruckus hit 37mph with 400 lbs of man on it. It took a while, but it did eventually happen.

[Dandy Dan]

Whoa.....we haven't given this man the:

[RickAudible]

Fellow Londoner! I've taken both myself and the Wife to work on my Zoomer with no trouble and it's stock. Same issue with me, it's almost scary on long bus lane-less stretches (with or without pillion) but I've just got the Polini belt and Variator after reading up a bit. I'm gonna go with stock weights in Variator and see how it goes. As far as pillions go, dealer didn't see a problem so I checked with Honda UK and got a 'no comment' then contacted the police who informed me there was nothing specifically listed regarding the Zoomer and passenger. I've still decided I don't want the scrutiny so I've added pegs and the patented Schwinn buddy seat ($22 on Amazon instead of €111 for Italian backrest mini seat) I figure the Honda rear carrier accessory will do for handgrips so that's on the way. PM me if you need help, believe me I had a lot of trouble sorting it all out.