pioneer nevada no power

[krueger1428]

hello, iv'e just bought a pioneer nevada 125, nice looking bike but has very little power on hills and even on the flat especially when i change into 4th gear and nothing in 5th. carb setup? sprocket ratio? any suggestions welcome, cheers
____________________
PAT.SMITH

[Teflon-Mike]

What do you expect?
Its a slightly heavy, cruiser style, 125 with an air cooled,m CG based push-rod engine making barely 10bhp, built for the Chinese and Asian domestic market where they have a 55mph motorcycle speed limit, to which most are restricted to meet.
Even fresh out the crate, this is never going to have been or ever be a particularly fast motorcycle, or have the oomph to 'cruise'.

Next up, is it the bike or is it you? You say it struggles on hills, and doesn't get up speed in 4th or 5th.... yup.

Big problem with a lot of 125's is that riders, especially new riders, more so car-drivers of recent times taught from the start to use tall gears 'for ecconomy' try doing that on a bike and short shifting up through far too many gears at far too low a speed and then expect far too much of the throttle they are loath to use.

To make a little bike shift, more so a peculiarly under-powered commuter 125, more still an over-weight cruiserette 125, you have to THRASH THE PANTS off them little engines!!!! Which is rather perverse for something given laid back cruiser styling!

The gears... top, 5th, is usually very tall, an 'over drive' which may be great for cruising at 30mph to keep the revs down and beg a little extra ecconomy... but its a 125.... if that aint ecconomical enough, get a push bike! Makes about 10bhp at 10,ooo rpm, and the power delivery is pretty smooth, so 1bhp per 1ooo rpm, means 3bhp at about 3ooo which is enough to pull 30mph, even a little extra to accelerate to 40, and maybe 5K revs 5bhp, in top, BUT, much over 45mph you are in a situation where you dont have much spare power ro accelerate, and by 50mph the power ramp is beneath the drag ramp, and it tops out, because it doesn't have enough power at those low a revs to go any faster; you have to change down to 4th, get the revs up, get at the power, and then it might accelerate to its terminal velocity of around 55mph... and a lot of especially new riders wont, higher gears to go faster, changing down seems counter intuative, whilst reving the thing to get at the power seems to be wasting ecconomy and thrashing it to death making lots of noise for little motion... BUT its a 125 air-cooled four-stroke, that's how it delivers ecconomy from just not having an engine able to make big power and burn big fuel... if you want more ecconomy that the thing can deliver, thrashing the heck out of it... get a push bike and pedal hard!

Oh-Kay.... so expectations lowered to what the bike might actually be able to achieve if its in good fettle.

Riding habbits adjusted to get all it might be able to deliver if its in good fettle.....

It will STILL be slow.... its a 125 cruiserette FFS, if you want fast go get a licence and buy a Hyabusa for as much fast as your wallet can handle!

BUT.. accepting that 'slow'.... you can start to fault find.... And old rule of racing....

BEFORE looking for MORE than standard, make sure you have all you should AS standard.

Little learner bikes tend to suyffer from diabolical standards of maintenance and very daft ideas of 'mods'... so go check the Haynes book of Chinky bikes, and give the thing a good once over; look for bodges and bad mods; and undo them; then do a full and propper service, including everything on the to-do list, because good odds none of its ever been done, buy former owners who have bought it cos cheap and dont want to pay a mechanic to do stuff, and have been too scared to look at oily bits themselves DIY, and or have fidled badly!

These little bikes need thier tappets adjusted every 2000 miles or so... good chance they have never been looked at.. more chance that PO's have effed with the carburettor cos that looks so much less scary, or tried changing sprockets cos on a push bike you change up to go faster, dont you?

Do basic service jobs... ~ALL of them... return any mods of bodges to the book... you aught get book performance... remember IF you ride it right.... dont short shift.

IF not... THEN we can start trying to fathom out why you might not... but as is we are all peeing in the dark trying to fault find by voodoo!

YOU have the thing infront of you; you can see it, touch it ride it; so go dfo the basics to get a handle on it... and IF your problems persist, come back, we might be able to help...

BUT its a pretty gutless 55mph motorcycle from the go get, it aint never going to be fast, its always going to struggle on hills, and swapping sprockets and stuff wont make much odds to that even if its in decent shape to start with, its not in the things nature, and you would achieve more buying a bike that as stock does more of what you want and hope it to, than effing around with this one.... get even more still if/when you have a full licence and can but something thats not 125cc, where even the fastest of the fast, not learner legal or A1 complient two-stroke sports examples can only just make about 30bhp and struggle to nudge the ton, and are still only as fast as a thirty odd year old four-stroke single commuter 250, that is about as far from 'fast' or powerful as anything in the used bike guides!

Before fixing bike, fix riding, before looking for more than standard, make sure you have all as standard, and you have a gutless cruiser style 125 commuter that only makes 2/3 of even the learner A1 power limits..... it aint NEVER going to be particularly fast, this does not immediately suggest the bikes got a fault... a mechanical one or a design one....
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'