How to:Free and cheap CVT mods and tuning

I have read a lot of posts in here and no one seems to explain how to get your CVT to work to your advantage. The CVT is a good thing to have and if properly tuned will help a lot with takeoff and a higher top speed.

Free tip: Remove the CVT cover, buzz off the front varieter nut so that you can slide the pulleys off the shaft ( I say buzz off because if you do not use an impact you can strip or bend something by trying to hold it from rotating while wrenching or ratcheting) When you pull the varieter apart you will see that there are 6 grooves inside and 4 roller weights in there. Take out one of the weights and respace them evenly leaving only 3 back in, one weight one empty slot, one weight and one empty slot ... Reassemble and do not put the black cover back on the CVT, you will notice that now the engine screams before the front varieter allows the belt to ride up (shift) Your accelaration is now better and your top speed may have increased due to that your bike stays in the power range longer and doesn't upshift till it can actually pull the taller gear.

Under $20 mod: Same as the first mod but purchase some lighter weights from a moped performance shop, they are a standard moped size (there are some larger rollers but if the shop asks your bike takes the smaller more common ones) The stock weights weigh about 7.5 gr although I have seen a lot of variations so that is one reason why some X1s run better than others. You can get the aftermarket weights in .5 gram increments, 3gr, 3.5gr, 4 gr etc.. Now start trying different weights in there, you can use up the other grooves and install 6 weights in there that are lighter and get different results. Remember label your packages of weights because when you do mods to the motor you will increase the engine's rpm and may want to go to lighter weights to take advantage of the new power band.

It is also helpful to delay the shift of the rear spring, it seems like the stock X1 spring is very stiff and shifts about as late as you would want to but you can install shims in front of it to stiffen it up if you want to experiment.

When I modify mopeds we often install "overdrive varieters" basically the front pulley is designed so that it will allow the belt to ride up higher and give you more gear. I do not have the manufacturing capability for such a part but I am sure many of our aftermarket parts suppliers are reading this and maybe someone will put it in the works.

Let me know if this helped you and if you get good results

The weights are inside the front varieter. The weights push on the back plate of it to cause the belt to ride up on that front pulley giving you a higher gear, it is only one nut to take that thing apart so I would not consider this difficult. Lowering the weight of the rollers is like putting in a stiffer clutch spring somewhat, basically it will require higher RPMS before they work and shift the varieter into a higher gear so it gives you better take off, its like shifting your car at a low rpm or your motorcycle, you get better speed if you let the motor rev up and shift higher. THe nice thing about all the standard moped weights is that you can order them in .5 gram increments so as you do mods you can go to lighter weights when your power band moves up and that way your mods will make even more difference.