BWS-125 in the shop

Loads of bikes come in to have work done, i just never snap pics of them!.
This BWS-125 belongs to a WWW.BWSFI.COM member, over the past few months he's been modding it, now i personally think its ugly but you have to appreciate the trick parts installed......

Ohlins rear shocks!
Forged front rim....... in green no less!
Custom made pipe (thats what he came in for)
Green paintwork

Anyway i brought the wrong lens that day so most of the pics were useless, to make things worse it was dark so lighting was awful.

Which big bore kit? ---- Z-125

Get asked this about 5 times a week, posted about it in forums numerous times but i dont think anybody reads it!.
I dont quote top speeds as its impossible to claim, but your stock bike pulls at least 55mph, everything below will nudge it past 60mph at least......... want more, you need gearing and thats another subject for another time.

(its important to note that you will need AT LEAST a aftermarket clutch of some kind in order to do any of this!)

There are almost infinite possibilitys of displacement on our engines, to save you lot time i shortened the choice down to a few sets........ well theres still quite a selection:

• 155cc
• 164cc
• 192cc
• 202cc
• 215cc
• and more if you sweet talk me via email!

Not good with tools and trying to install this yourself, skip the paragraphs below and just choose 155cc, that bolts right in place of your old cylinder/piston and can use the original pipe and throttlebody without a hitch, you can upgrade to a 32mm throttlebody later on for more power and speed if you wish.
With the right CVT settings you have around 11bhp+ with this setup.

Pretty good with tools, have good or reasonable knowledge on how a 4 stroke engine works?.
Well 164cc is the one for you and is my personal choice for our daily rider!.
Same big bore kit as the 155cc kit but with a 3mm stroker crank, this means spilting the cases (complete bottom end rebuild)
Makes more torque than the 155cc, revs alot higher, feels smoother and obviously makes more bhp.
CVT settings are very crucial for this setup, get the roller weights wrong and it will be the same as a 155cc.
To get the best from this setup you need a big exhaust (yoshimura make a good one) and a 32mm throttlebody.
Peak power of around 14-15bhp.

Sending the bike to a tuners or have done bike or car tuning before?.
Well 192cc and above is for you, reliability stays the same regardless of engine size thanks to the strong piston/cylinder and crank combo, just choose one to suit your budget.
You will need to machine/bore the crankcase, install a new aftermarket crank and head.
These engines go balistic when around 200cc, they rev to the moon (shy of 10,000rpm) and pull very hard, if your not careful from a launch you can flip the bike easily*
* I have heard of 2 experienced bike riders doing this in the past few months, im serious, be careful!.
Hard to quote figures as i have only dynoed a 223cc, but 20bhp is about right.

Hope that helps.

13 second scooter parts

Engine is still away getting coated in ceremic goodness, in the meantime i'll show off the special parts.

First up we have the 75mm piston, exactly the same as our other ones we sell just without the anti-slip coating on the side.......... why?
Well our factory cant add it when the piston is this big, plus its not that important as the bike is only going to be running for around 45 seconds at a time!.

You cant just buy a 75mm piston, it has to be specially made and only one place has the mold for it.
Yes i am tooting my own horn.

Ok here is the head with work in progress, its as big as we can go, any more larger and the gasket will not be able to seal this engine together.

 

Lastly we have the crank, its a seriously impressive piece of enginering, it weighs twice as much as a stock crank!.

This post is very brief as i have only about 5 days left until the engine must be ready, the head takes time to get right and i only have one availible to me, if its screwed up i miss the deadline........

The 13 second scooter

We have all heard the term '10 second car' thanks to the fast and the furious film series, well heres a new one for you.......... '13 second scooter' sounds like a dream but its very much a reality.
Right now in the workshop im working on a engine thats going to fulfill this very purpose!.

You probably think im just going to shove a T-MAX 500 engine into a bicycle frame, but you would be wrong.
Im actually using a humble Yamaha 125cc engine............... modified of course and using an actual  road going scooter frame!.
I wont be using a turbo, supercharger or even nitrous, this engine will be 100% N/A.

So how are we going to do it?
With some love and care we can bore and stroke the little 125cc to 331cc, yes thats over 2.5X bigger.

Now the tricks needed to stop the engine from exploding in to a ball of flames after 10 seconds i cant reveal, but i can tell the specs:

• One of our special pistons at 75mm diameter
• A extremely strong CNC 17mm stroker crank with a mother of a connecting rod
• Special high flowing 4 valve head
• Titanium exhaust (for weight reasons)
• ceremic coating everywhere
• No water cooling!!!!!!!!!!
• Extreme high compression
• Special gearing set for the 1/4 mile
• 42mm carb......... not decided on the type yet

I already built a junior version of this motor in 280cc guise and it ran 14.2 seconds with a 220lb rider.
So unless this thing explodes before it reachs the end of the strip i cant see it not setting a 13 second time.

Im hoping this will become the new category for drag racing, right now the limit is 239cc, they made this rule a few years ago when it was about as big as you can go, but thanks to recent developments in technology over 300cc is now possible.

Pictures soon...........

More show info

The Taiwan scooter show is one the largest of its kind in asia, its a pretty big deal for scooter tuners like ourselves.
This is our first event so we plan to hit the floor running with a kick ass stand and really nice products on display alot of which you havent even seen yet.

Both of our Z-125s will be there on display wearing some nicer clothes and a 52'' plasma tv showing off our videos from youtube and some newer ones in full HD.
The show is in the middle of april and it runs for 4 days.

2010 Scooter expo

Havent been doing nothing during chinese new year, these scooter shows take alot of time and money to arrange.
So far our booth is shaping up to look like this:

 

Still have lots more work to do, but its nice to see some results from all the planning.

How much power?

Its chinese new year so we are busy running up and down the country visiting family, giving and receiving red envelopes, so getting on the net is kinda hard.

But i recently came across this dyno print out from a local magazine for a competitors 155cc kit, this kit is very similar to ours in that it comes with all the parts needed to complete the conversion (fuel injector, cam etc.).
The red line shows how much more power you can make when you add an ECU and tune the a/f ratio..... i was surprised to see that it makes a large difference to the top end power, where the stock ecu just tails off at 60ish mph the aftermarket ecu just keeps on pulling to over 70mph!.

Though this is not our kit, it gives you an idea of what to expect from a 155cc conversion.
BHP shown is at the wheels.

Whats so scary about fuel injection?

What is there to be scared of, its really not very complex to tune and the system is so basic your atari from the 80s crunches more numbers than the ECU on your scoot!.
Yet for almost 2 years now no tuners in taiwan have really touched FI bikes, most have just offered conversions to switch back to carbs and this has created a wave of misinformation that even i was guilty of falling for.
In short its lack of skill and knowledge thats caused this, not because FI is impossible to tune.

To understand just how serious this is you need to know how big scooters are in taiwan, let me compare:

You know honda civics, in you country (usa, europe, almost anywhere in the west) they are very popular with younger guys (or girls!) and the tuning industry is quite simply HUGE (turbos, engine swaps, superchargers, bodykits etc.) ...... right?.

Well times that by 10 and install that user base on a tiny island and you have taiwans scooter tuning industry!.

There are more scooters in taiwan than people and scooters out number cars by about 5 to 1, though taiwan is small it does have alot of people, i think scooters out number the population by 2.something to 1!.

Scooter tuning is a big thing over here, kids are poor and cant afford cars, so scooters offer them the thrills they need for a price they can afford.

The only people buying the new wave of FI bikes have been older people or people not looking to tune, everybody else has been paying throught the teeth for older models with carbs, in fact the older bikes have demanded higher prices because of this crazy situation!.
It wont last long, our '272' has been doing the rounds in magazines, race events and also attracting attention on the street....... people are learning that FI can be tuned and that FI is indeed the future.

Back to the system itself, its frightfully simple and nothing at all like a modern car.
Modern cars have FI systems that are controlled by amazingly powerful ECU's that are computing many different things at once (air density, temp, fuel quality.......god lots of things) to constantly adapt the fueling and ignition timing to stop the car blowing itself up and to pass emissions while putting out good power.
The Z-125's ecu isnt like this........... its like a casio watch, it doesnt monitor anything but the O2 sensor, when it does bother to crunch the numbers its given back from the O2 sensor, you have been waiting about 5 seconds!.
Ignition timing is fixed and it has no control over it, it doesnt measure the air temp or density, doesnt take into account the engine over heating, its got a set map with about 5 or so variables to change to........ which takes around 5 seconds.

The simplicity of it is a right pain for a tuner like me, but its also a mixed blessing, allow me to explain why:

You can change the injector to a higher flowing one, the ecu doesnt know and carrys on fueling like stock, so if you get the flow rating right you can get it fueling almost any engine setup you want!. 

You can manually adjust the ignition timing, it will never know!.

If its running rich you can enlarge the intake or install a larger throttlebody, it will never know!.

Just plug in an O2 reading wideband (even a narrowband) experiment with different setups until you get it as close to perfect as possible, the standard ECU will carry on fueling with a hitch!.

One annoying problem that cant be fixed is the response, remember i said it switches maps or reads the O2 sensor and takes a while for it to adjust, well your stuck with that.
So you can be going WOT from a dead stop and its riding perfect, that you roll off to about 50% and then go WOT again, it will bog down for a few seconds while it decides to adjust or you can close and open the throttle again.

Annoying i know, until they install a ECU thats faster we are stuck with that.

Driving in Taiwan

Not really scooter related, but its interesting since not many foreign guys actually drive over here!.
Driving in taiwan is like getting your teeth pulled out without any painkillers, its a horrid experience that no well taught person should ever have to go through.
Nobody follows traffic laws for:

• Parking, they will park randomly everwhere, double parked, triple parked, parking on corners, parking on the sidewalk causing people to go around, hell even when they have a minor fender bender they will stop and wait for the police in the exact location where it happened regardless of where and when it happens (yes rush hour in the middle lane on a highway).

• Traffic lights, taiwanese are colour blind, they will accelerate on amber going red and the over side usually jumps early since they dont want to wait, usually a scooter rider gets killed because of this stupidity. Even if a cop is present at an intersection drivers will just jump lights with the cop doing nothing, the cops are another issue which i will bring up another time. 

• Highways, you know how we have slow lanes and over taking lanes usually 3-4 all together with the outside lane used for high speed?. Well not in taiwan, sure we have brand new highways with 4-5 lanes in places, but nobody bothers following the rules, you will often if not always see a bunch of cars taking up all 5 lanes going the same speed, if theres a gap in any lane its used to overtake. Put simply its chaos, to make things worse the top speed is a measly 62mph, 80 mile journeys take almost twice as long as back home because of both of these factors combined.

• Indicators, nobody here understands how to use them nor do they care to!. They will just pull out into traffic without looking or indicating and also randomly stop with no indication either, this goes for cars and scooters, scooters are worse since in taiwan the largest vehicle in a accident is usually guilty regardless of why, so alot of the lower classes just ride around without a care in the world and try to crash into the more expensive cars just to make some quick cash.

• Sense of danger, they have none of any kind, they will happily surround your car at traffic lights and crawl off the line at 10mph clogging up traffic while zig zagging around without a care in the world. If your flying along at the legal limit in the fast lane, dont be surprised to see a scooter swerve across from his scooter lane (2 lanes away!) into yours causing you to slam the brakes, this happens at least 10 times a day, beep, shout, scream, flash lights...... they will not react in any way and pretend nothing happen (to save face).

Theres many more horrible things which i will probably post about in the future when i get vids or pics.

Put simply driving in taiwan is awful, almost equal to parts of africa, the 3rd world....... for a country that copys the japanese system and trys so hard to be internationally recognised as a leading country in asia, they have a long way to go.

Street racing in Taiwan

Street racing in Taiwan is alot like driving for 2 hours in rush hour traffic to go watch paint dry.
How something so interesting and exciting can be made so boring is beyond me, but the Taiwanese really know how to do it.

Let me set the scene.........

Tuner A calls up Tuner B (lets say we are tuner b) hes heard about this super evil monster of a bike you have built from other customers or friends and feels a little threatened by it, so to save face (this is asia remember!) and perhaps drum up more interest in his tuning services, he schedules to meet you at 1am on the outskirts of the city.
So you arrange transport (or ride there depending on the bikes noise level) and arrive at the location 30 mins before hand to prepare............PAUSE............

There is your first mistake, nobody in this country arrives on time, you could be there for over an hour waiting for them to turn up, sure you can call them up to ask where they are, but they will always lie to you and say they are around the corner.
9 times out of 10, they cant even find the place anyway........

...........PLAY.............So they eventually turn up along with perhaps 20-50 people coming to watch, andrenilin should be pumping by now right?.
Problem is you have no idea what your racing, sure he said hes bringing a Cygnus with a 280cc engine to race against your 272cc Zuma, but is he running NOS are you going to strip his engine and see hes not running a bigger piston or longer stroker crank?.
You cant ask anyway, thats considered rude in this culture, so nobody dares to ask in case they sound like they arent confident, of course i would ask which usually backfires with laughter and mocking in their rather crude local dialect (taiwanese not mandarin which is the normal language here).

Both bikes are removed from the vans or riden to the line where they will be starting from (usually half a mile away from where people are standing) wearing no armour or helmet, nobody is there to say go and without anybody knowing they will just set off.

Bikes fly past, usually only one of them as 9 times out of 10 the losing bike backs off halfway or stops, loads his bike into the van and claims one of the following:

• You cheated and jumped before him
• His bike broke down
• The police were coming

Thats right, almost never is anyone crowned the winner, no money is involved and the setting up lasts about 1 hour with the race lasting 20 seconds.

Its rubbish, pointless and boring not to mention irritating as hell knowing that you won fair and square but the other shop claims all sorts of nonsense in the name of saving face.

I hate street racing here, i dont do it anymore, hell i dont even like the official events as its like monkeys at a zoo, with some people getting multiple runs and timing equipment thats faulty!.

Is bigger better?

I get alot of emails daily about what big bore kit is best for the Z-125, or in some cases people who are 100% certain they want this engine kit but its clear its not really ideal for them.
Maybe its my fault for developing too many kits and as such i have decided to re-refine it a bit more in the next site update.

155cc is going to do alot for most people, it almost doubles the horsepower when used with all the right parts and offers great value for money.
No bottom end strip needed, no machining, no ecu remapping, this can be installed by almost anybody with a nice set of tools and a garage in a single afternoon.

164cc is exactly the same as the 155cc just with a 3mm stroker crank, its an odd engine kit that nobody but us offer, to some people the price difference and work involved doesnt seem worth it, but they are dead wrong.
This kit is without a doubt the ultimate kit for the stock case.
The torque is increased, the max rpm is increased and the vibrations are actually smoothed out thanks to the balanced CNC crank, this actually rides better than stock!.
Nobody has ever dyno'd this setup but i estimate 12-15bhp with a very smooth line.

155 and 164 are sold as complete kits, but thats only half the story, there is more power to be had from these small displacements.......
32mm throttlebodys raise the power everywhere from idle to redline.
Titainium valve kit gives a mild boost to the high rpm range.
Gearing kit allows you to acheive a higher top speed while still keeping the bottom end torque.

Like our Z-272 all the big bore kits use forged pistons and iron sleeved cylinders, overkill some might think, but i like over engineering, it allows me to sleep at night!.