Ask Sarah

Got a Tech Question?  Email Sarah at asksarah@motoiq.com

Hey Sarah, what did the cost of all the Phase 3 mods on the Ruckus cost? I'm looking into getting mine modded.

If bling isn’t your thing, you can skip some of the pretty stuff and save about $600 but to get to the 50mph, open your wallet.  Look to spend about $650 to mod your Ruckus with the Phase 3 mods.  Most of these can be sourced through www.battlescooter.com or www.bowlsla.com but demand is crazy right now so you might find a lot of "out of stock." 

Although the SPE's and FFF's on other Ruckus forums have been flaming us on our combo claiming to get more with less, we stand by the combination listed below as the minimum needed to consistently reach 50 mph on a flat surface with little wind with a rider up to a real man sized 210 lbs and not having to draft or get into a ridiculous gangsta tuck.

A properly jetted PC20 carburetor is important.  The emissions bound stock CV carb is a pain to deal with.  We like the Bowls kit which uses a Shengway PC20 due to its price and completeness although Battlescooter.com and JC racing have nice kits as well using genuine Keihin PC20's.  The Keihin carbs are slightly bigger and might have a performance advantage on highly modded Rucks although we have gone really fast with our Shengway.

A properly tuned Polini variator is critical as well.  The Polini has the largest diameter of all the variators on the market for the Ruckus.  The big diameter means that it has a higher high gear ratio so you can get the speed even with the limited RPM and top end power of a stock GET engine.  It is also critical to tune your variator for your weight and riding conditions with an assortment of variator weights.  We feel that most people should do best with 5.5 or 6 gram weights in the Polini variator.  Lighter riders should go for the 6 gram and heavier, the 5.5.

The high performance racing coil shown here isn't important to reach 50 mph but the CDI unit is.  The stock rev limiter is set at 8900 rpm and you simply need more to reach 50 mph even with the bigger Polini variator.  The Posh CDI raises the revs to 10,500 rpm.  Don't worry, you won't reach that with a stock but bolt on engine and even if you could the GET is tough and can take the high revs no problem.  To all of the SPE's and FFF's on the other forums.  Without this you are not going to hit 50 mph unless the downhill you are on is pretty steep or you have one hella tailwind.  Rice lies!

A good exhaust is a must even though many forum tuning gurus might disagree.  The stock exhaust is pretty restrictive and needs to be changed to reach higher rpm.  We prefer exhausts with larger primaries and a straight through perforated core like this JDM Yoshimura.  The USDM Yosh has a smaller primary pipe.  Beware of the Supertrap type exhausts like the Kitaco.  Those have a lot of backpressure.

Although not absolutely needed to reach 50 mph, the following parts are nice to have and don't cost you too much and will help you accelerate faster.  Battlescooter clutch springs, really help you get out of the hole faster by raising your launch rpm.  JC Racing flywheel helps acceleration and a Daytona kevlar belt whose thinner profile gives you a lower effective gear ratio out of the hole.