It’s been a over a year since I last wrote about the Tank Touring 250.  Our first unit was 1 of 4 units that were brought into the states for testing purposes.  This scooter, after the one year testing period was destroyed since it could not be sold or registered in the United States.  It was for TESTING PURPOSES ONLY!  Many of you have sent me emails asking me about the continuation of the report on the Tank Touring 250.  I want to first apologize for not writing this article sooner.

I want to give you a little bit of background on what took place with the following batch of new test unit.  First, we all recall mid last year, the issues that the 250 Touring was having with overheating.  Some people were saying the electric fans were not big enough; engine cooling system was not engineered properly, etc.  This issue was corrected simply by dumping all factory coolant and replacing it with a good US grade all weather type coolant.  Manufacturer also recommended changing the oil to US grade full synthetic.  Not really one of my choices for oil in scooters, but in this case it seems to work good with our new Touring.  Some other components, such as the thermal switch, had to be changed however, Tank the Manufacturer is not allowing us to disclose the exact changes that were done. Manufacturer’s recommendation seemed to correct the overheating problem.

In addition to these issues mentioned above, we also experienced a problem with the scooter stalling after certain speed.  I took the scooter for a long ride.  The 250 Touring performed great.  Acceleration and braking were both good.  Handling was very good.  The vibration on the Tank 250 seemed to be comparable to others in the same category. In general the scooter ran great.  Keep in mind that we are also a Kymco dealer, so my standards are very high.  I decided to get on the freeway. I took the Central Ave freeway on-ramp.  I accelerated; it was great until I reached 65 to 70 miles per hour.  The  scooter began to loose power.  I pulled into the emergency lane.  Tried to start the scooter and no luck starting the bike.  The scooter was cranking but it was not firing.  Waited a few minutes, tried again and nothing.  Called the shop, they brought “Big Bertha” our cargo van with the trailer and we towed the scooter back to our shop.

The mechanic spent several hours looking for clues.  It seems like fuel starvation, like not enough gas to the carburetor.  We ordered a Kymco 250 fuel pump to install in Tank Touring.  After I received the new fuel pump, I noticed that the one from Kymco was identical to the one from Tank.  We installed the new fuel pump, made some additional changes and tried again.  Once again, the scooter stalled on the freeway.  This time I was able to ride in the emergency lane to the next exit and get back to the shop using surface street.

We parked the scooter, removed panels (left the scooter naked). We got really busy and of course it was hard for us to find time to work on the scooter.  It sat there for over 7 months.  A couple of months ago, we decided to pick up our project Tank Touring 250 were we left it.  We changed the carburetor, shortened some of the fuel lines (they were extremely long).  Put a new NGK spark plug, changed the oil, the coolant, and installed a brand new Interstate battery (these really work great!).  We went through the bike carefully ensuring that everything was up to par.  The bike fired-up, sounded great, felt good.  The big test was for me to take this bike on the freeway.  

I was a bit nervous because the scooter had failed this test in a couple of other occasions.  I took the same route.  Took Central Ave to the 60 freeway, down the freeway on-ramp.  The scooter accelerated to 30, 40, 55.   I merged into the lane carefully, continued to accelerate.  I knew that the problem started any time I would reach 65 to 70 mph.  I continued to accelerate, 60, 65, 70…  Passed 1 exit, passed 2 exits and the scooter was performing great.  I took highway 71, and the scooter continued to perform with no problems.  By now I am enjoying the ride.  Feeling much better about the scooter I took the scooter for a 30 mile ride.

About 3 weeks ago, a customer came by wanting to buy a 250.  He asked if he could buy my Tank Touring 250 and my little Tank Touring 250 then received a new owner.  Last week he came by the shop and he told me that he was very happy and that the scooter was doing great.  Going up hills was a breeze with the 250 and that fuel economy was good. Since then new owner has replaced the speedometer cable, and continues to scoot through Rancho Cucamonga.

Last week I asked the shop to assemble a scooter for me.  This time the scooter of choice was a 2006 Bajaj Chetak in black.  I stated customizing the scooter but that’s another article.