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x18 problems/help needed for beginner

3068 Views 16 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  f22master, 
S
5
(Sorry in advance for the lengthiness of this post)

I recently purchased an used 2011 x18 super pocket bike and it has been running well but I was disappointed by the speed or lack thereof. Just going off the speedometer on the bike (I know these are inaccurate, but still) it says I'm not getting much more than 40mph when I'm wide open in 4th gear on flat ground. I'm 5'10" 185lbs so I don't think my size is a huge issue. I'm also aware that these bikes are advertized as going 60+mph but that's only with aftermarket performance upgrades, but I want to get as much power as I can out of the bike without investing a huge $ amount into the bike for aftermarket parts.

I've been looking for ways to make the stock bike go faster, including removing any/all governors on the bike and through my search of the forums I've had a hard time figuring out how to find & remove the governors.

Air Intake Governor?
I looked at the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4npmlpkOjc&feature=related after seeing that there may be one in the air intake, but as the pictures illustrate I did not find any metal airflow restrictor. There was only the foam air filter inside the two pieces (where I thought a governor would be) and the mesh screen as seen in the picture. Could I leave the part that I unscrewed off the intake? Or would it not make any difference?

Carburetor & Throttle Governors?
I then decided to look at the carburetor and twist throttle to see if there were governors in either. I couldn't see anything that would have been a governor in the throttle (I may be wrong as I'm very inexperienced at these things). I took off the intake tube going into the carb and saw (as seen in the picture attached) the gold colored choke disk and the needle (I think?) attached to the throttle cable. I've added a picture of me pointing to the area where the throttle cable screws onto the carb for good measure so you all know what I'm talking about--I actually unscrewed it to check it out and see if there was any restrictor in that and it didn't look like it. I took a picture of the throttle cable with needle, slider & spring so let me know what you guys think or if you see something I don't. I twisted the throttle to see if anything would change while I was looking through the opening into the carb from the air intake and saw no change or movement.

So What Do I Do Now?
I don't know what to do now. The plastics are a pain in the *** to get on and off so I'm keeping them off until I can figure out how to make some minor tweaks to this thing to get the full power out of it.
I was thinking about getting a new carb and saw many people recommended getting a 20mm or 22mm if you're planning on keeping the bike fairly stock so that's what I'm planning on doing. Any suggestions on what carb to get would be very helpful. Can I just get a ~$50 carb and see noticeable gains in speed or do I have to go big with something along the lines of a Mikuni carb?

In Conclusion...
Please help me out if you know how to do all of this. Again I am very new to working on these bikes so please use terms that are not too difficult for a newb to understand. The simpler the better! I'll make sure to ask any questions if I don't understand what you're referring to. I can post more pictures if necessary as well.
Like I said before, I'd like to get as much power & speed out of this stock bike as possible without buying a bunch of expensive performance parts. However, if there are some relatively inexpensive parts that will make noticeable differences in speed I'd like to check those out as well.

Btw this information may be useful for anyone trying to identify my bike:
Year 2011 purchased from Minipocketrockets.com
LC152FMH
*Iz022114*

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EPR
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I got my 2008 X18 from MPR, cut the lower body work off. The easiest way is to split the body at the bottom and lift the whole body off. My first time was a nightmare, kept burning my hand trying to work on it, so I cut the windsheild down, and cut the lower body off and got a HP X12 side exhaust and made it fit. See photos.
The newer bikes might have a stop inside the throttle housing. The new carbs don't have an air/idle screw. You might need to make a bigger pilot jet & main jet size. If you have the money, you can change the PZ19mm carb and get a 22mm carb on eBay for $25. The carb may have an adjustable main jet needle on the carb piston. Moving the clip down a slot makes it richer at idle and vise versa.
It should go faster than 40mph, my modded one goes over 60mph.

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f22master
These are some basic, easy, cheap upgrades.

22mm carb (direct bolt on): http://www.pccmotor.com/22mm-carburetor-honda-crf50-xr50-crf-xr22505050.html

Air Filter: http://www.pccmotor.com/red-foam-air-filter-cleaner-xr50-crf50-klx110505011014.html

Exhaust (will require some bending, but easy to do. they also have several colors to choose from): http://www.pccmotor.com/blredmupiexx.html

CDI (another direct swap. 3 colors to choose from): http://www.pccmotor.com/race-no-rev-hyper-cdi-box-xr50-crf50-50-70-150505070125.html

Those few mods, costing ~$110, will wake that little motor up! It will actually pull through the gears, easily going over 50mph (with the right gearing). And it will sound bada** with that exhaust (i have the same one).

After that you need to get into brake mods, and then suspension mods, then some good tires.
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S
Thanks to the both of you for the help!

EPR I was thinking of altering the body a bit since I have the plastics off already. The windshield/front end keeps getting hung up on my front break lever (not so much on the clutch when I'm turning right). It seems I need to either find a way to keep the windshield more rigid so it stays up or I need to alter it a bit.
I do like the look of having the bottom half of the body kit off, I may have to do something like that.

f22master I was looking into gearing and now that you've brought it up what gear ratio should I go for? Or should I just stick with my stock gearing?

I'm going to order the 22mm carb, air filter, CDI and muffler. Hopefully I'll see noticeable gains from all those.

I have noticed the stock back break is a piece of sh**. Do a lot of these bikes have this issue? Even though I'm typically using the motor to help me slow down with downshifting and all, I swear that back break does next to nothing.

Also, I noticed the shifter on my bike gets stuck here n there. I haven't noticed a trend yet since I haven't been riding it for too long but it is anything but smooth shifting. It seems to get hung up and sticks. I'm guessing its just the manufacturer's cheap parts but if this is a common issue with a solution I'd like to know.

Thanks again for all the help
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S
I also tried calling PBU for a headlight assembly kit and they said they don't have them anymore.

If someone could direct me to a place to order a headlight assembly kit and a rear break light assembly kit that'd help a ton!
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f22master
Just to make sure you know, the pipe that i linked will require bending to fit. Also, you may have to remove your electric starter motor. But it is by far the cheapest pipe out there, and works great once it's on. Ill try and get some pics of mine up tonight or tomorrow.

All the other parts i listed are direct swaps.
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f22master said:
Just to make sure you know, the pipe that i linked will require bending to fit. Also, you may have to remove your electric starter motor. But it is by far the cheapest pipe out there, and works great once it's on. Ill try and get some pics of mine up tonight or tomorrow.

All the other parts i listed are direct swaps.
Click to expand...
What tools would I need to bend the pipe? I don't have access to a garage that has the tools I'd like to use so direct swaps are really what I'm looking for, but I'm not opposed to the challenge.

Also, will the air filter http://www.pccmotor.com/red-foam-air-filter-cleaner-xr50-crf50-klx110505011014.html make much of a difference? Especially since it's an air cooled bike it seems like having the intake so close to the motor and stuck inside the interior of the frame won't allow it to 'breathe' as much as the stock one that is connected to that lengthy tube. I attached a picture of the stock air filter...I was thinking of just cutting off the end of the piece that I'm holding to allow more air to enter the filter. Would that make any difference compared to getting a whole new air filter?

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f22master
Get the foam one. Throw the stock one away. like, NOW. haha

The only real bending you will need to do is in the main bend coming from the head, just bend it some more. All you need is a way to securely hold the pipe. A vice works best. But i just checked, and you WILL need to remove the starter motor... Not a big deal to some, but most love it too much... lol.

Ill get pics tomorrow.
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S
Ok well I ordered the parts you recommended so I'll have to let you know how it turns out.

And it doesn't seem like it'll be too hard to bend it. Seeing some pics of it will help me out though. I'm fine losing the starter motor if it means increased performance.
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BlitzMInc
hey, there a ton of things to do and mod, and its expensive after awhile compared to what we paid for the bikes but ill say in the end you get a nice machine that you essentially made yourself
my x15 will hold its own against $3-5k bikes on the track
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f22master
5
Here are some pics of the exhaust. Also, that is the 22mm carb, and the foam air filter you see.

As you can see, my pipe is wrapped. I HIGHLY recommend wrapping your pipe. The wrap is a bit expensive, but burning yourself on the exhaust ******** sucks! And, it will keep it from melting your plastics and other stuff it gets close to. Also, it isnt perfectly centered at the back, but if i took some more time with it, and made one more bend in the back straight section, i could get it **** close.

The main part you will have to re-bend is the main 'U-bend'. Just tighten it up a bit, and it should be ok. As you can see, the starter will have to be removed (you can see the hole where mine was on top of the engine).

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H
Hey everyone. I am new to this site and i dont know how to start a new thread so anyway,,, i just got a an x18 from a guy on craigslist and when i went to pick it up, the bike had a 150cc YK engine swap and a 12" swing arm extension. The plastics on the bike is all messed up and it did not have a bunch of things that a stock x18 has. Like a battery, electric start, horn,speedometer, gear indicator light, light/turn signal switches, etc... So my question is how do get my bike to has all those things that a stock x18 has?? I want to know how fast i go and what gear im in. And also i would like for the bike to have an electric start instead of a kick start.
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CAM2
f22master said:
Here are some pics of the exhaust. Also, that is the 22mm carb, and the foam air filter you see.

As you can see, my pipe is wrapped. I HIGHLY recommend wrapping your pipe. The wrap is a bit expensive, but burning yourself on the exhaust ******** sucks! And, it will keep it from melting your plastics and other stuff it gets close to. Also, it isnt perfectly centered at the back, but if i took some more time with it, and made one more bend in the back straight section, i could get it **** close.

The main part you will have to re-bend is the main 'U-bend'. Just tighten it up a bit, and it should be ok. As you can see, the starter will have to be removed (you can see the hole where mine was on top of the engine).
Click to expand...
Not getting burnt isnt the only advantage behind wrapping the pipe....As the exhaust progresses down the pipe it cools,,as the exhaust cools it gets denser and the flow slows down choking back a bit of performance because the denser air acts as a blocker......

When you wrap the pipe it keeps the exhaust gasses superheated..superheated exhaust flows fast n furious........If youve never seen a HP Cadillac or Mercedes engine test watch the exhaust manifolds...They glow cherry red to white hot..........
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f22master
CAM2 said:
Not getting burnt isnt the only advantage behind wrapping the pipe....As the exhaust progresses down the pipe it cools,,as the exhaust cools it gets denser and the flow slows down choking back a bit of performance because the denser air acts as a blocker......

When you wrap the pipe it keeps the exhaust gasses superheated..superheated exhaust flows fast n furious........If youve never seen a HP Cadillac or Mercedes engine test watch the exhaust manifolds...They glow cherry red to white hot..........
Click to expand...
Yes, but the gains there are minimal. More so in these engines. Actually, with crappy tubing, the excess heat can often cause the pipe to crack, where it otherwise wouldnt when unwraped. But that would only be in much larger motors, creating much more heat. Heat is Power is Heat.

And, If it was such a big gain, why wouldnt Cadillac and Mercedes have it on their engines? ;)
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CAM2
f22master said:
Yes, but the gains there are minimal. More so in these engines. Actually, with crappy tubing, the excess heat can often cause the pipe to crack, where it otherwise wouldnt when unwraped. But that would only be in much larger motors, creating much more heat. Heat is Power is Heat.

And, If it was such a big gain, why wouldnt Cadillac and Mercedes have it on their engines? ;)
Click to expand...
I did testing on this on a dyno I used to have in my basement and alls ill say is.....................Its more than minimal in a single cylinder engine with restrictive exhaust tubing.......I gained an extra 1.25hp to the rear wheel. with wrap,,headpipe porting and exhaust mod...


The cars i brought up have a different kind of heat coating on their exhausts its called ceramic composite materials...If heat wasnt a factor in flowing gasses quickly then why allow it to get as hot???
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BlitzMInc
well beyond all the technical numbers, i started my wrap a few inches past the head so i could see if the pipe was glowing, and stopped it just past the gas tank, mostly just to keep the inside my bike cooler
plus i put some of the heat resistant tape on the inner bodywork, that stuff is incredible
howie, if all that stuff is gone then your gonna hafta buy it all back, it sounds like you got a drag bike that doesnt need all that anyway
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f22master
CAM2 said:
I gained an extra 1.25hp to the rear wheel. with wrap,,headpipe porting and exhaust mod...
Click to expand...
I would be willing to bet a rather large amount that MOST of that 1.25hp was from the later 2 mods. I highly doubt exhaust wrap would gain even 1/4hp. Think about it, how much hp can hot air make once it's already left the combustion chamber(not talking about 2 strokes!)? The only performance advantage is to keep the air hot, to extract it faster, to get a little easier flow for the next bit of exhaust gas.. It may free up a little bit of hp, but not much.

If you still have access to that dyno, you should unwrap the pipe, do a few runs, then re wrap it, and do a few runs. That is the only way you can conclusively find the gains from a wrapped pipe.

Either way:
Safety >>>>> Performance
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