150cc Ice Bear Terifecta Trike
 

Good news, the trike shipped 2 days ago on the 29th and is on it's way! :clap:

The shipper is SAIA, which I've never heard of before, but I'm definitely excited. From the vids I've watched I gather that it does 49-50mph when you get it, and after the GY6 is broke in it will do 53-55mph. So I foresee the 171cc kit in it's future. The $365 kit comes with the bigger jug and piston, performance carb and camshaft, with a UNI pod filter, and a longer intake and throttle cable. I'm also gonna purchase the taller gears. :tup:

With the 171 kit you'll have the fastest mobility scooter at the retirement home...first to the meals every time! :lmao:

“Meals “ ?nope the big race is to get to the diaper change station first .

They called and scheduled delivery for Monday morning. :clap:

Can that big rear box be dropped closer to the axle ?

I had considered that, but then you'd be looking for longer turn signal stalks, and possibly adding another brake light.

I'm not real familiar with the GY6. I've worked on maybe a handful of 50cc and 110cc, and they seemed to be solid little motors. I'm very familiar with CVT clutches though from working at the Polaris dealership and tuning my Scrambler. And I'm sure I'll end up buying a kit for it, probably just the mid grade though.

I'm also curious as to see where the valve lash is set at. All 3 CG engines we've bought were screwed down tight. Is it Monday yet?.. :hehe:

I have a GY6 ATV and Utv. Both engines have been running flawlessly. I've never had to touch the valves on either. The ATV is over 5 years old and the UTV over 3 years old.

It's here! Ice Bear Terifecta 150cc Trike. Still gotta put the fenders on and the rear storage trunk and the 2" hitch ball. Taking a break from the hot weather and letting the battery trickle charge. :clap:

looks great .

I think I already voted but in case I didn’t ,throw that rear box away please !

Ehh.. I'll try it both ways. But since it's basically a utility scooter I figure the more storage the better, and it's got a good bit of storage under the seat and a glove box in front of your knees.

It's 94° here in Ohio for the next 4 days, so Jay is gonna be here at 6am tomorrow morning to finish it.

I have the same heat here ,it’s sucking the life out of me but I at least live on a river so I can swim to cool off

looks good, Frank...will be interested in your riding reviews, and evaluations...and in what you get into with making it yours...(mods)

Cool trike. We usually see SAIA trucks in TX, AZ & CA, so it looks like they are expanding their territory.

SAIA started out as a small trucking company here in Houma, Louisiana. At one time they were the best around. Not sure how they are now after going nation wide.

SAIA only carried the bike to Tennessee and then handed it off to a UPS contract carrier.

Initial thoughts
 

Well after waiting out the heat and a short rainstorm I took the trike out for a test ride. First off the CV carb sucks, throttle response is very slow, but the kit I'm buying comes with a performance carb that isn't vacuum operated.

I am impressed at the amount of torque the bike has and it accelerates quickly to 45mph, but then it starts running out of gear and rpm. So it creeps up to 50, and eventually 53mph on the flat road. And a steep incline will bring it down to 40mph. I realize it's not broke in yet but stock I don't see those numbers getting much better. Just for $#its and giggles I took it out to a gravel hill that's so steep I have to lock in my Toyota 4x4 just to climb it, and mind you it's about an 1/8th mile long. By the time I reached the top I was only doing 19mph, but it made it. I also took it down a long pavement hill and achieved 64mph, which felt a little sketchy.

The digital cluster seems to be fairly accurate, but the fuel gauge is not. When you get down to half a tank the gauge is flashing empty. The hydraulic disc brakes are outstanding, and the rear works better than the front on gravel because that's where all the weight is and a huge contact patch. The mirrors suck, they give you a good view of your shoulders and not much else, so some aftermarket ones are in order.

Now on to the handling. Let's just say it's a singular sensation. Because of the solid rear axle it doesn't like to turn, AT ALL, and requires both hands on the bars to negotiate a curve. That being said it is surprisingly stable even taking a curve at 45mph, and on a straight stretch it requires very little steering input.

On to the suspension. The front forks are plush and handle pot holes well, and don't dive under heavy braking. The rear shocks however are a different story. I've got both of them set at the lowest preload and it still feels like riding a hard tail Harley Davidson. They barely compress when my 260lbs climbs aboard and if you catch a pothole with one of the rear tires it's bone jarring. A shock upgrade is definitely on the list.

Rider comfort. I'm a little too big for the thing, so some handlebar risers are needed, and I'm gonna fab a bracket to attach highway pegs or floor boards to.

Wow factor. I stopped at a couple of buddies houses and they had never seen anything like it. The fit and finish is on par too. The metallic burgundy looks great with the polished aluminum rims. In person it's a sharp looking machine. :)

Looks good Frank. :tup: As far as the rear shocks, If it's anything like my ATV they will soften up once they get broke in. When i first got the ATV i couldn't even budge the rear or front springs. After a few off road trips they are about perfect now.
Power gets a little better once broke in as well. You need to find a god GY6 forum and see what those guys are doing. I've never fooled around with the weights in the CVT but from some of the videos and stuff i've read there is a big improvement once you get the right combination.

www.rollingwrenchdenver.com has everything I need.

Another interesting thing is it actually had good oil in it! It's got Rotella T4 15w-40 in it now, but an oil change wasn't necessary. I think once you get over the $2,000 mark ($2,525) the quality of China bikes goes up.

And the manufacturer had a misprint on the weight. The the total was 420lbs with the crate and pallet so instead of 570lbs dry I think it's actually 370lbs.

I haven't done the valve adjustment yet but you can hear them tapping so I know they're not screwed down tight.

Terrible. Few years ago they knocked over or dropped a full dressed marine big block with a gear on the back of it. They fixed the crate and tried to say it was already damaged and concealed.

They also put a fork through my kayak and packing tapped the hole in the bag it was in...

One of our branches still insist on using them and has about 5x the claims.


Put a hurtin on any power scooters yet?

No, it only has one birthmark, the paint is scratched on the front fender in between the forks. But you can tell it was done during assembly and really cant be seen without looking for it.

As i said this was years ago. When it was locally owned they were probably the best around. After the owner Johnny Saia past away and was sold off everything went down hill.

Cousin Jay took the Trike out yesterday for about an hour and a half. He concurred riding it is definitely a singular sensation, and it's not like riding an ATC200X because the wheel base is much longer. Said it was fun but takes some getting used to in the curves, and he kept putting his feet down at stop signs. :hehe: Loved the brakes and hated the rear suspension.

And the gas gauge is completely wonky. He filled it up at the station and it read full, but as he was pulling out of the station it dropped to 3/4 tank reading. I wouldn't even be concerned with it but the bike doesn't have a reserve. Being that he weighs 120lbs less it takes off even faster with him and it carries him up steep hills at 47mph (about 40mph for me). But top speed for him is also 53mph, so that tells me the bike is just running out of rpm and gear.

And at both stores he stopped at it drew instant attention, questions, and compliments. After he brought it back he fired up his Hawk and took it out for a few hours, he wanted me to tag along but I'm not gonna ride it again until I get tags and insurance, still waiting on the MCO.

The Trike came in a much heavier built crate than the Hawks and TBR7 did, so I used the angle iron to repair my toy hauler trailer gate. I got it fixed and about halfway painted. :tup:

Today I finally received the MCO for the Trike after 9 days. The ones for the other 3 bikes showed up up in 3 days from TXpowersports. It'll be interesting to see what they say tomorrow at the title office because the manufacturer is listed as DIAX, which I'm sure isn't in their system. It's also listed as a motorcycle, rather than a scooter or trike.

Do both rear wheels drive ?..




.

Yessir, solid rear axle, which makes it a bear to turn.

The Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless in a world of criminals who operate above the law. 🤠

I think she broke in today at the 340 mile mark. All of a sudden it ran and idled better, wanted to run 50mph at half throttle, and the top speed went from 53mph to 60mph (needs to be geared a little higher).

I gotta say I'm not disappointed with this thing, it gets to 50mph with a quickness, and even climbing a hill you definitely can feel when you roll on the throttle. And for exploring secondary roads I find myself letting off the throttle and grabbing the exceptionally good brakes alot more often than I expected.

Ice Bear makes a quality product. Nothing's come loose, all the fasteners I've checked had loctite on them, and the fit and finish of the plastics is amazing. And it came with quality oil in the crankcase, I wouldn't have had to change it. But keep in mind after tax tag and title it was almost $3,000.

She's looking good Frank. :tup: Have you rode two up on it yet? If so, what speed will it run up to? I have a freind and his wife looking to get one of these. They would probably only ride 45-50 mph max and both are pretty small people. About equal to one Frank. :p

This afternoon the girlfriend wants me to take her for a spin. She weighs about a buck ten so that will put us just under 400lbs. I'm guessing it'll pull 2 people around just fine.

I'm really loving all the storage compartments, the one under the seat is huge. And the glove box in front of your knees is really handy for your phone, cigarettes, and a 1 liter bottle of pop.
I'm gonna order a 1500ml fuel bottle to keep under the seat. I figure that will make up for not having a reserve.

Out ripping and tearing on the mobility scooter today, there were old lady's trembling in fear and young children staring in awwe.. After a few hours of exploring gravel roads it was time to purdy her up at the car wash. 🤠

I'm starting to believe you get what you pay for when it comes to China bikes. This thing costs about enough to buy 2 Hawks, but..

It came with quality oil in the crankcase, the valves were properly adjusted, the carb didn't require any tuning, cold it fires right up and idles at 1100rpm and the choke is automatic. I checked the disk brake caliper mounting bolts and they already had loctite on them. And the digital speedo is spot on, GPS confirmed.

I've literally had to do nothing to the bike, other than mounting the rear tires and fenders and trunk and mirrors it comes plug and play. But I've researched other Ice Bear products and while being a bit more expensive you get better quality. Even the freaking headlights come perfectly adjusted.

Just a couple of pics from our ride last Thursday. After about 4 hours the variator started chattering/shuddering on low speed acceleration, because the cheap China belt was coming apart. But I got a good kevlar belt to put on it today after I clean up the inside of the CVT.

Damn site still won't upload pics.. >:(

I have pretty much given up on uploading pics and resorted to just posting pics by img links.
[Img]link[/img]

Gates belts are pretty much the standard when it comes to scooters. I think that is what TGB puts in theirs from stock. My 150cc TGB had about 18,000 miles when I had to change out the belt. The 50cc TGB 2T I used for my side job/adventure riding around Hollywood, Cal. last year just ran and ran. I cannot recall how many miles it had on it, but it was something like 10k. I don't think anyone did much to it other than put in gas and add 2T oil periodically.

Yessir, I bought a Gates Premium Powerline belt infused with Aramid (kevlar is a patented brand name and can only be used under license). I installed it yesterday and went for a ride. The only time my variator chattered (twice) was under hard acceleration from a dead stop. A stage 1 racing CVT kit is $249 + tax so that's next on the list. A stage 2 kit with Revena clutch is $538, but that's a little too rich for my blood. :tup:

Losing my GY6 CVT virginity
 

Well today I put the $210 NCY Performance CVT kit on the Trike and learned a few things. The chattering was caused by flat spots on the roller weights that barely had 300 miles on them (china junk that should have lasted 3k miles).

This was a very tedious task, ever done a steering head bearing replacement? Now imagine over 100 and some ball bearings that are less than 1mm in diameter and trying to load them in the clutch spring carrier one by one and the only thing holding them in place is a thin layer of grease.

Well I got the performance kit all together and it worked flawlessly, except now it takes half throttle to get it moving. This is because the kit I ordered was for a scooter and not a Trike so it has 10 gram roller weights, and the Trike came with 14 gram weights. So now it's a tractor when it comes to climbing hills but I hate giving it that much throttle to take off.

Next dilemma, everyone says wedges are better than roller weights, but is a 14 gram wedge the same as a 14 gram roller weight? I love learning new things but this has been a trial by fire experience.

The wedges, or sliders, are supposed to allow the cvt to give you a slightly lower (higher?) gear ratio, resulting in some increase in top speed. They dont claim to help on the lower end of the rpm range.
-I have read threads where the wedges are effective, and threads where they were not.
-I think it comes down to how well you tune your individual scoot to to compliment the wedges.

And the learning curve continues
 

Thanks to my friends at GY6 Performance and the fella that owns Parts For Scooters I now have a better understanding of what's going on. The performance clutch I installed came with red 2000rpm springs for hard launch racing, and being that the variator turns half the rpm of the engine (more or less) that's why I have to hit 4000rpm to get moving. So I have blue 1000rpm springs on the way that will bring it down to 2000rpm to get moving (similar to stock).

On to the variator. Both it and the new clutch bell housing are significantly lighter than stock and it has steeper ramps for quicker acceleration/engagement. The weights also affect top end speed at a given rpm (I lost 7mph but now it climbs hills like a tractor even with a passenger).

The kit came with 10gram roller weights and stock was 14gram, so the next conclusion is to order 14gram weights to regain my top speed, right? Not necessarily, due to the steeper ramps this will likely result in full variator engagement at a lower engine rpm and hurt my acceleration. Which means I'll probably be better off with 12 or 13gram roller weights. So it comes down to trial and error which should be fun because there's 10 bolts holding the cover on, and because it contributes to structural strength you can't run it with the cover off.

Oh well, gotta get it right I suppose. :tup:

profile and balance of the weight has a lot to do engagement behavior too. ramp profile, tip vs root weight make for a lot of decisions lol.