The ONE thing that ruins my ride

Bumpy roads!

I have a 2008 Honda PS125i with 13 inch wheels, it's my first 125cc scooter and I got it second hand with 15,000 miles already on it.

It feels really unsafe on bumpy roads (most roads) it's the biggest thing that spoils my ride.

I Put new tyres on (cheap ones though) and had my local engineer change the fork oil and seals. Still doesn't ride well. The steering is stable I can take my hands off the handlebars at 60 and the steering doesn't wobble. But it just feels unsafe on bumpy roads.

So my question is: is this normal or is there something wrong with the scooter? Should I put better tyres on it?

 

I think any scoot would feel unsafe on bumpy roads, more so at 60, are your wheel bearings ok?? Check by grabbing the front or rear wheel and check for play, I.e face the side profile, grab top and bottom and try and push/pull, if it knocks or moves even a tiny amount, your wheel bearing will need replacing, headset bearings ok? Grab front break and try to push/pull, any knock or movement, headset bearings will need replacing. If the above is fine, avoid bumpy roads at speed.

 

i would be supprised if its your scooter all scooters do it some worse than others its a bumpy road it wont feel as safe as a smooth road

 

Hmm I did those checks huff_diggler, all seems fine to me.

My forks make an awful squeaking sound when I bounce them up and down while holding the front brake. I'm wondering maybe they're broken somehow? I'll make a separate thread about the forks.

 

I'm suspicious of the forks because when I had the seals changed the engineer said it looks like someone disassembled them before and did a bad job of it. I'm wondering maybe they did some weird suspension mods that made it suck. So I've ordered some second hand forks off Ebay maybe they'll be better.

 

OK I replaced my front forks a month ago and it solved the problem. I still don't know what was wrong with the old ones, I can't take them apart, but I guess it was either something wrong with the damping or maybe the inner tubes are slightly bent.