Can Your Scooter Do This?

Even though he’s a little goofy looking to some people, my little Yamaha C3, affectionately known as Scooter or HappyScooter has really impressed me in my three months of ownership. Even though I’m already taking motorcycle lessons in preparation for moving up to a more powerful machine, I don’t think any other bike will match the utility that ole HappyScooter offers. For example, last night, I decided to do a grocery run, but I didn’t drive my Subaru Impreza down to the coffee shop. Do I ride home and get the car?

If I was riding a motorcycle or any other scooter, I’d probably have to consider changing vehicles if I wanted to do a regular shopping trip. Not so with HappyScooter. I went to the Thrifty Foods and loaded up with whatever I needed and tossed both completely full bags of groceries into the massive storage area inside my Yamaha C3. With a gentle push on the cover, followed by a click, I was ready to head home to make dinner.

I was actually wondering how much the extra weight would affect the performance. Although HappyScooter had just gotten his very first tune up and new variator weights, I was expecting the performance to be somewhat less with the extra cargo. Turns out he happily hauled the groceries and my ass home with no complaints, maintaining roughly the same speeds with maybe just a half KM/h less up the 10% grade hill by my house. I’ve taken smaller bags of groceries in the past, but I’d never loaded up to nearly overflowing.

Although this is pretty great, it’s not as cool as what these two crazy kids did…

Across Canada on a Yamaha C3 Scooter

Mike and Keri rode from Vancouver, BC to Barrie, ON on their own HappyScooter. Their 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter travelled over 4486KM over 11 Days. Here’s the kicker. They did it on only $153.76 in gas! I know that Subie drinks that much in a single round trip to FRYS Computers. They have put together an awesome journal complete with pictures of their adventure across Canada. You can check it out here.

Everywhere they went, people were amazed by this little machine and I continue to be amazed by it on a daily basis. Even if I do get a bigger bike down the road, I think HappyScooter will still be part of the family for the majority of grocery runs and other around the town errands.

A Recall Already?

Unfortunately, even though I had just gotten back from the clinic with HappyScooter and he’s running pretty awesome, it looks like he’s going to have to go back again. Yamaha has issued a recall notice for him and it sounds kinda serious. Apparently, the connecting rod has been snapping on both the 2007 Yamaha C3’s and its little sister, the Vino 50. Although Mike and Keri didn’t have any problems for over 4486KM’s, I would get it sorted ASAP as this could leave you stranded.

You can find more information about this recall and a number to call right here. Although it is a US Recall so far, the Scooters are identical and I expect to hear from my dealership once they get the notices.

In the meantime, I’m heading for a scooter ride to the coffee shop with my laptop. Meep! Meep!

Scooter’s First Check Up

So this week, Scooter made it to 1000 KM’s which signalled that it was time to take him in for his break in tune up. The Yamaha C3 doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, but the first service is usually important to make sure that everything is tight and working properly. I took him in this past Wednesday during that ugly patch of weather that we had and just picked him up today. In addition to the usual service stuff, I also asked the shop to throw in some performance variator weights. I got these from a group buy on a site called C3Rider. The Dr. Pulley Slider Weights are lighter than the original weights (4g vs 6g) and are said to improve acceleration and top end speed due to their unique design. For $25 bucks plus shipping, why not.

The Ride Home…

I’ve been riding my scooter pretty much totally stock for the past three months. Except for an oil change at 600KM to Motul 5100 motor oil, I’ve done nothing to improve its performance. At the same time, I also refreshed the final drive oil using stock Yamaha Gear Oil. Although the scooter did seem smoother after swapping out the totally silvery crap that leaked out of my engine, there was no improvement in top speed or climbing performance.

After rolling out of the parking lot, I noticed immediately that the acceleration was different. Before, it would slowly take off and accelerate evenly. After the service and the change to the Dr. Pulley 4 gram slider weights, the scooter now accelerates just a little slower, but then takes off like a rocket after about 10 KM/h. You can really feel the scooter take off. Since there is so little horsepower in the 49cc engine, any changes are immediately noticeable and this was definitely noticeable.

Other Performance Increases…

Besides the change in the acceleration, the change in weights have improved mid range power and top end speed. The 10% grade hill that I have to ride up to get home would normally rob me of power quickly and drop my speed to a lowly 30KM/h. With the new pulleys, the speed drops very slowly and bottoms out at 35KM/h in the steepest part of the hill.

On flats, after the initial acceleration and take off, Scooter willingly, and smoothly, makes his way up to 63KM/h which is somewhere just over the 60KM/h mark and right before the Yamaha logo on a Canadian Spedometer. I have also noticed that on downhill slopes, the rev limiter no longer kicks in as quickly nor as harshly. I have yet to find the limit so I’ll report back when I can get a good downhill run.

The mid range is very usable, allowing me to easily surge with traffic and keep up smoothly with the twist of the throttle. I am really liking the results of this quick and easy $25.00 upgrade.

What About The Restriction?

The Yamaha C3 does have a washer that restricts top speed slightly at the expense of acceleration and mid range speed. Esentially, it makes the belt ride up on the variator a little higher, taking away a lower gear, while giving you back a higher gear. Since I’m really loving the way that it is driving right now, especially in the mid range, I don’t think I’ll be removing that washer anytime soon. Even the guy who discovered this modification decided to put the washer back in likely because he felt that it was way more driveable with it in. I’m sure that in flatter locations, this mod would be nice.

Any Other Mods Coming Up?

Despite the fact that there may be a new motorcycle in my future as I’m out taking a Motorcycle Riding Course right now in preparation for my Class 6 Road Test, I will probably keep my beloved Yamaha C3 around. It’s way too much fun to ride around.

I do want to pick up a new exhaust for it so that it makes a bit more noise in traffic instead of running silent and freaking out people at crosswalks. I’m still trying to find a good one that I can buy immediately, instead of having to wait 5 weeks for it to show up. I haven’t really been able to find any good information on what sort of performance increases there are from this upgrade though. Hopefully someone with experience can leave a comment here for me.

The other thing that I’ll want to do is switch to a proper street tire to reduce rolling resistance. Most of the ones that I’ve seen are also a bit taller, so they should improve the top speed of the scooter, without screwing up the mid range. I’m all for more top speed, but I won’t do it if it screws up my hill climbing. Not to mention, the taller profile should also give me a couple more inches of clearance so I can drop a knee without scraping the center stand, which I’ve done quite a few times already. Scary.

I’m a Proud Owner of a 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter!

Over the last week, I’ve been tweeting my intentions to buy a scooter. Today, you’re looking at a proud owner of a 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter. The C3 is also known as the VOX in Asia and the Giggle in Europe. With a massive 49cc’s of displacement, it’s probably weaker than a John Deere ride on mower.

Why a Scooter?

The motivation to buy one didn’t come from seeing scooters in Taipei. Far from it. Those people are crazy. It came from me realizing that I refilled my tank for $65.00 in my Subaru Impreza after coming back from Taipei. Gas was around $1.20/L when I left…then shot up to $1.49/L when I came back. The news the other night was also talking about the impact of a $3.00/L gas price with similar stories coming up from the US. As I filled my tank up, I remembered that I used to fill it for less than $50 less than a year ago. What a difference!

Because I work from home, I rarely have to drive anywhere to be honest. My only daily commute is to the depot to pick up parcels. Because of all the stop and go traffic I have to endure, I end up filling up once a week, or at least topping up every Monday for around $30 – 40 on average. Add to that I have to climb out of a hilly area, and my gas mileage is utter shit. To be honest, my only real need for a car is to come out to Richmond for Dot Com Pho because of the distance.

The Short List…

Because I didn’t have a Class 6 Motorcycle License, I was limited to the growing 50cc and under range of Scooters. In British Columbia, if you have a full blown Class 5 drivers license, you can buy a scooter and drive it without passing the Motorcycle test. Basically, you’re limited to regular road speeds which is about 50-60 km/h.

In this range, there are a number of Scooters available from names like VESPA, Yamaha and Honda, as well as Korean and Chinese brands. I decided to stick with either Honda or Yamaha and ditched VESPA because they tend to be extremely overpriced for the features that you get. However, try to tell that to a VESPA owner. Not to mention, I wanted somewhere to pull my Scooter to locally in case I had any issues and both Yamaha and Honda had service centers very close to where I live.

I narrowed my search to three scooters: Honda Ruckus, Yamaha BWS and Yamaha C3.

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