I take delivery of my new 2012 Ruckus tomorrow.  My plan is learn to ride stock and 6-8 months from now I want to do a GY6 swap.

 

Anyone have any good/bad experiences with them?  It sounds like most of the gy6 problems I read about are either efi/turbo setups being difficult or wheel wobble with a fat wheel.

 

A stockish gy6 with a normal size wheel/tire will be reliable right?  I want to be able to hit 60 mph but don't want the bike to be too unreliable.

 

Thoughts?

I've had the scooter for about 2 weeks now, it is awesome. Only issues with it are seat stance/handling/power.

I think I'm going to move up my plans for the swap, might be doing it either next month or the following month. I've been talking with Hai from Rucksters, I might go with a 180cc build.

I was thinking of doing a stock 150cc swap and going 180cc/bigger carb/etc down the road but I might just put a strong 180cc in right from the start.

I'm still trying to decide on skinny rear vs fat rear tire. I do not want the fat FLAT tire, looking for either a skinny streetbike style rear or one of the wider chopper looking motorcycle tires.

This week I'm doing:

Lower seat frame
Gas tank cover of some sort (not sure if I want carbon or fiberglass yet)
R6 tail light
P:JDM pegs and kickstand

Next purchase is going to be:
RRGS front forks/brakes (from what I read this is one of the better quality front ends)
Handlebars/controls/mirrors

Last purchase will be motor mount/swap kit. Still deciding what tire size to go with so leaving this step for last.

Any ideas what kind of top speed a 180cc gy6 with a well tuned carb and good exhaust would do? (250-270lb rider)

I'm also trying to decide what rear shock I want. Stance isn't really important - I just don't want to bottom out/I want good handling.

I've done some more research and ordered some parts.

First order:

Dorf seat frame, turtlehead and dingleberry plate/led light, pegleg peg mounts
2x password jdm pegs (regular mount spot and pegleg spot)
Gas tank cover (remove the floor)

I want a really good handling ruck with some power. I think the best route for this is:

RRGS low down forks/disc brake
RRGS rear shock

Gy6 swap (stockish at first probably)

Unsure of wheels
Unsure of tires

If anyone knows of anyone with a good handling ruckus please point me that way.

Your bike should easily do over 60 with your weight and the right gearing and variator tuning. Stay tuned we are going to work on a 230cc gy6 project soon.

That project sounds awesome. I'm really looking forward to that.

Whats the goal for the build? Straight line speed or good at cornering too?

Any chance you can cover these topics in the article:

1) Rear wheel/tire width and handling changes. Maybe cover the difference between:

Street bike style tire on skinny (DIO) rim
Stretched street bike style tire on semi-wide rim (5 inches)
Stretched street bike style tire on wide rim (7+ inches)
and Car style tire on a wide rim (7+ inches)

Seems those are the 4 big ruckus wheel choices. I tried emailing vendors and asking on forums about the handling difference between say a DIO wheel and a wider wheel with a street bike stretched tire. Very hard to get any solid answers/info on this stuff.

2) Ruckus Handlebar mount styles

It seems most people use the bmx/mountain bike stem with some bicycle bars. Looking at the stock mount it just clamps straight down onto the fork tube. The bmx style clamps onto the tube but the pivot point is moved forward (is that the right term?)

Seems to me with the BMX stem you would need more steering input to turn the same ammount that a stock handlebar mount would require? Is this accurate? I was trying to get some solid answers on how the bmx stem affects steering feel but had no luck.

Can't wait for the article!