I took the plunge and bought a Garmin Etrex Legend GPS, which I mounted on the dash panel with velcro in between the dimmer switch and the speedometer. I gps'ed the StradaVariator today and found that the speedo is off by very close to 8.5% throughout the whole range from 35 mph up to top speed, an indicated 64mph, but actual 58.6mph. I thought it was pretty close to the cars my wife and I drive, just by how it seemed in traffic. So we checked them with the GPS. Our 92 Chrysler is off by 8% up to 50mph and remains off by a near constant 4mph after that, and the 96 Ford Escort is off by about 7.5% all the way to 65mph.

Next to knowing my actual speed, the other bright spot of the GPS test is that I found out that my 0 to 40 time(actual) is about the same as the time I was getting up to an indicated 40mph(36.6mph), in the low 9 sec. range. Apparently I have a lot better throttle and steering control when I'm not using my left hand to hold and and push the button on a stop watch. I guess weaving around some doesn't help acceleration much. I have also found out, after five two-way top speed tests done in the past week and a half, three with the rear trunk mounted, and two tests without it, that the scoot consistently goes 1 1/2 mph faster with the empty trunk mounted than without it. It seems that having the trunk on(along with the windshield, which is mounted permanently) must give it a profile that helps air flow around the scooter better. I sure have noticed that people coming up behind me seem to crowd me less when the trunk is there... maybe they don't recognize it as a scooter("moped" in many people's minds) as easily from behind, when the large trunk is there.

I guess I have some more work to do.... I can cruise at 50-52 actual mph with 2/3-3/4 throttle under most conditions now, and I really want to up that by another 5 mph.

Did my first full test of the StradaVariator after changing belt, variator weights, and Fuel filter today, the 1st day since then with decent weather. Low 70's and about 5 mph wind.

Before variator tuning and belt:
40 mph/5600 rpm
50 mph/6900-7000 rpm
55 mph/7600 rpm
60 mph/8300 rpm
62-63 mph/8600 rpm
0-40 mph 9.6 sec.

After:
40 mph/5600 rpm 140 rpm per 1 mph
50 mph/6250 rpm 125 rpm " "
55 mph/6600 rpm 120 rpm
60 mph/7200 rpm 120 rpm
64 mph/7800 rpm 122 rpm
0-40 mph 9.2 sec

I noticed the big rpm difference immediately on riding the scoot, no way did changing the weights make all that difference. If you read the original post you may remember that I tried to change the belt by pulling the movable clutch pulley out so I could work the belt over the variator fan as described in instructions on how to change a cvt belt. I could only get it halfway and that was incredibly stiff. After reading a description of the CVT at the following link, I am positive that the clutch was stuck, or at least not moving very well because of the huge amount of sticky rubber dust. It not only wasn't getting into high gear, but once I initially accelerated up to moderate cruising speeds, when I tried to accelerate again, the clutch wasn't always moving back in smoothly to get back into the power band.
http://www.teamcalamari.com/zuma/variator.html

Between the air impact wrench beating away on the cluch to get the bolt loose and put it back together, and blosing, tapping, and shaking the dust out, I fixed a problem I didn't even realize that I had. The bad thing is..... it kind of really screws up the before and after testing of the changes I did. I can't possibly have any idea of cause and effect of the changes alone, since the clutch wasn't working right before I made them.
Even though the weather's not been too co-operative, I've been riding it almost every day the past week, testing it to see what I have under a variety of conditions and have these observations:

-It accelerates more quickly at 55 degrees than when in the low 70's.
-I can run 55-57 mph at between 60-75% throttle under most conditions(winds up to 15-18 mph) in relatively FLAT Northern Indiana and NW Ohio.
-On initial acceleration up to in town speeds of 40-45 acceleration is much smoother than it was before.
-Before, the fastest speed I ever saw was a downhill, 63 mph indicated. I've seen 68-69 mph on a downhill run since the latest mods were done.
-Since rpms at 55 mph is almost exactly where peak torque is, 55mph should get pretty decent mileage.
-The seat gets pretty uncomfortable after an hour and a half, but the ride's great.... Love those air assisted gas shocks.
-Headlight is adequate at night for speeds up to 50 and that's all.
-I've had to lower the idle speed by about 300 rpm twice now in the last 200 miles.... Breakin seems to be progressing nicely, so I'm going to change the oil out for synthetic now.
-Done testing for awhile, back to normal scootin around... didn't feel too safe flying through traffic with one eye on the tach and speedo, and only able to pay about half as much attention as I should to what's goin on around me. Lived through it though...... whew!!

I just got back from running an errand on the StradaVariator. Nothing was quite as I expected, but I think I'm pleased. First of all, the weather's not really cooperating. When I tested, just two days ago, the temp was 75 degrees, and there was basically zero wind. Today, it was 55 degrees and there was 15 mph wind plus gusts. I had to put a bit more than a lb of air in each tire to get them up to the cold pressure they had on sunday, 25 lbs front and 28 rear..... at the recommended 30 and 32 psi, front and rear, it was kinda scary leaning it over in corners and curves, I looked at the specs in the Haynes scooter manual for scoots of similiar size with the same size tires. The average was somewhere around 23 to 25 psi front and 26 to 28 for the rear tires. I decided to try 25 front and 28 rear since I weigh 220 lbs. Much better handling! With the higher pressures it seemed to "dart around" in corners too much... I think there is a much better contact patch at these pressures.

I couldn't really do a proper test in those conditions and didn't feel like stopping and making notes as 55 degrees seems really cold right now, even though I'm sure by March it'll seem downright balmy. The clutch now kicks in from a stop at about 300 to 350 rpms higher than it did before. Accelerating from 10 to 45 mph it's turning higher rpms than it was before the belt and weight changes. I did a top speed run on a flat section of road that never seemed long enough for it before. I went 67(according to the speedo) mph with a 15 mph wind behind me, and then about 6-7 min later on the way home, was able to go an indicated 60 on the same piece of road running straight into the wind. Although it seems to be running several mph faster on the top end, from 50 mph on up the cruising rpms(when not accelerating) are much lower at all speeds since I made the changes. It's kinda like it was revving too high because it was never getting into the highest gear. It never went over 8000 rpm today, where it was running 8600 rpm before at 62-63 mph.

I did do several 0-40 timed runs.... two into the wind which were each done in 9.8 sec. The two with the wind at my back were 8.0 and 8.2 sec. I didn't think that wind would have that much effect at speeds up to 40. The average for all four runs both ways was 8.95 seconds. A big improvement over 9.6 seconds.
I will wait a few days til there are similiar conditions as when testing before, and less wind. I didn't get the specific rpms at various speeds to compare with the the previous numbers. It will be three or four days, according to current weather forecasts, before I get all the figures for exactly how it stacks up against the stock speeds and times.

Got it done.... it is raining as forecast, so testing will have to wait til another day. There was a lot of powdered rubber to clean up inside the cover over the CVT assembly. I tried, just for the heck of it, to get the belt off as I read somewhere on this site, I believe. By working the belt down into the clutch, squeezing and prying the clutch apart with your hands til it is all the way down to the spindle on the clutch, then working it off over the variator fan. I couldn't possibly do it! Either whoever wrote that has a lot wimpier spring on their clutch, or they're a real brute. (Added by later edit: I figured out later that rubber dust had gotten into the clutch, causing it to stick)
I had to use 120 lbs of pressure in an impact wrench designed for 95 psi, to get the bolt loose. Even then it beat away on it for awhile before it began to turn. I weighed the old rollers all together and compared the weight to the 12gm DR Pulley sliding rollers, and the stock ones weighed 1/5 oz more, so they were 13 grams, as expected. There was no visible wear or flat spotting on my stock rollers. Besides the six rollers, there are three little plastic bushings that fit on the sliding part of the variator so it can slide back and forth freely on three square metal 'spindles'. The sliding weights fit as though they were made for a stock variator. While I had the CVT cover off, I took the insert out of the end of the rubber air intake snorkel, wrapped a piece of window screen over the snorkel, securing it with a plastic cable tie, and put it back on the CVT cover. Another thing I did was to put the largest large fuel filter I could find in the fuel line between the vacuum activated fuel switch and the carburetor. The fuel filter is for Cub Cadets with 18-27 hp engines.

I put it back together, making sure to give the bolt on the variator a final shot with the impact wrench at 120 psi, once it wouldn't turn any more. I put the kickstarter back on, one tooth higher than it was originally, but still can't start it with the kick starter, even though it's turning over better now (and flooding even more quickly) when I try to kickstart it.
Since it's raining, testing will have to wait, but on the stand, the back wheel doesn't start spinning now til rpms get just over 3000 rpm, where before with no load, it would start turning at anything over 2500 rpm.

I forgot to mention a no $$ mod I did a couple weeks ago. I took off the top cover of the air cleaner, so I could examine it, and decided that the really large (for the engine/carb size) paper filter should pass plenty of air, but the tiny little air snorkel opening into the engine compartment didn't look like enough to me. I put the cover back on and rode it till good and warm, then felt all around the air cleaner cover to see where it was hot and where it was cool. The back side over the engine was pretty hot, but the front side, right behind the seat hinge, wasn't hot at all. So I figured that would be the access point to the coolest air. I took the cover back off and drilled a number of 5/16" holes on the front side of the air cleaner cover and put it back on. I didn't block the snorkel hole so some fairly hot air can still get in too. Then I ended up having to richen the mixture, which I did as much as I dared with the mixture screw (don't want it to fall out). After changing the belt/sliders, the next change I plan to make is bigger jets for the carb. At that point I'll probably really open up the front side of the air cleaner cover and block the snorkel, so it gets all cooler air, instead of hot air from the engine compartment.

I'm planning to replace the CVT belt with a Gates 835 20 30 belt and also put 12 gram Dr Pulley sliding weights in the variator tomorrow. So I did some test so I'd have notes on current engine speed and performance of the StradaVariator.
I tested 0 to 40mph times, as indicated on the analog speedometer, which reads almost exactly the same as both of our cars at both 40 and 50mph. Once I figured out how to get off the line quickly (roll the throttle on gradually... fairly quickly , but not sudden wide open throttle) I got 0 to 40 mph times of 9.6 seconds both ways on a flat road.

According to the analog speedo and tach, both of which came on the bike, here are the mph/rpms at different speeds:

40 mph/5600 rpm
50 mph/6900-7000 rpm
55 mph/7600 rpm
60 mph/8300 rpm
62-63 mph/8600 rpm

I would have liked to use a GTech Pro that I have used for testing mods on cars, but it attaches to the inside of the windshield with a suction cup and I wasn't sure what it would do to the plexi windshield on the scoot, also if it fell off, I could lose it. It has to have be aimed at the road ahead of the vehicle. My gas mileage thus far has been between 70 and 71 mpg, before and after installing the iridium plug and windshield. I think I'm probably riding a little faster since I installed the windshield, because faster speeds are more comfortable now.

Just over two weeks ago(Aug 10), I bought an RX150TE from a dealer just over 70 miles away from where I live. I elected to have the dealer assemble the scooter, which cost an extra $75. The following Wednesday I picked it up with a trailer. It was a red one as pictured, but with dual discs, and gas shocks. When I got there I started it, did a cursory check for loose bolts and parts, checked the headlight and taillight and loaded it into the trailer.
After I got home that afternoon, I went for a short ride around several blocks and discovered the turn signals didn't work. After looking on scooter forums, I figured they probably pinched a wire installing the mirrors, and found that they had. I called the manager right away the next morning and he said to bring it in and they'd fix it. After arranging for insurance and licensing it, I rode it 38 miles over the next couple of days, and then changed the oil. Top speed at that point was 58 mph and judging from it's ability to keep up with urban traffic I drive in every day, I judged the speedometer to be very close to the same as both cars we own. I decided that it was a good excuse for a road trip and rode it back to the dealer on aug 23. I went down a little traveled state highway (2 lane blacktop), and kept it between 52 and 55 most of the time.

When I got there, the mechanics didn't know for sure what was the flasher or just where it was... and neither did I. When they decided what the flasher was, they tried replacing it with one off of another scooter... that one turned out to have been wired wrong internally and blew fuses, and for awhile confused the issue as to what was going on. In the meantime, they started looking over the wiring harnesses and found a connecter that wasn't covered at all by the little plastic boot that was supposed to cover it, and it was laying right on a metal frame member, so they taped that up. They also found a poorly routed pinched wire to the left rear signal. Then they 'borrowed' a flasher from an RX150 that had been returned for mechanical problems, and it worked. However I had no right turn signals yet, although both sides flash when the hazard switch is activated. For whatever reason, they were reluctant to 'borrow' the turn signal switch from the other non-running scooter. So I ended up spending 3 1/2 hours there while they removed and replaced almost all the plastic body panels on the scooter, and went home with working left turn signals, hazard lights, and a promise that they will send me a turn signal switch. We'll see! It's only been a few days, and maybe I'll get it next week.

I took the little tabs off the sides of my current switch so I can just lift it out without having to disassemble the plastic dash/handlebar cover again when I get another one. That allowed me to go ahead and install the touring windshield I had on a QianJiang scooter (now sold), and I also installed a 28 liter trunk I had on the QianJiang, both originally bought at Heeters (www.heeters.com). With the windshield installed the indicated top speed went up from 58 mph to 62 on level ground, but at around 8600-8700 rpm, well above the 8000 rpm redline. I know from past experience with a number of Honda engines of varying sizes, that shouldn't really be too fast for the engine, because they usually redlined at 9000 rpm or higher when Honda built them.... but I expect that churning along at that speed for long would seriously shorten drive belt life. I have 281 mi. on it now (450k) and just changed the oil again... still some shavings in it. Haven't changed the gear oil yet, so that's probably overdue... I'm going to get a tube to put on a funnel and put some 75w/90 gear oil in it. I put in a CR7HIX iridium plug and the difference seems a bit odd to me... it idles slower on average than it did with the original chinese plug, but smoother, no longer quits when the choke first goes off. It seems to pull more strongly through midrange speeds (30 to 55mph), but with no difference in top speed.