I recently bought an new 07 Whizzer NE5. It looks great and is a blast to ride. It turns heads everywhere I go and is a great conversation starter, even at traffic lights. The price is cheap if you ask me and that is where I think the problems, or should I say, the fun starts. I bought it brand new which is something I rarely do when it comes to most things mechanical. I really wanted something I could use without working on it all the time.
My Whizzer adventure started when I took that first ride and discovered an oil leak. After talking to my dealer and Dave at Whizzer, I traced the leak to the compression relief cam. I stuck an O ring in it as advised and still had a leak from the new gasket that I cut. I cut another new gasket and stuck it on with silicone. That did the trick. I also took time to open the restrictor plate to full port. My problems were over and I was back on the road with a better running Whizzer, until the head gasket started leaking. After another call to Dave for advise and torque specs, I was able to get rolling again and learn a lot about torque wrenches along the way. A few miles down the road and it starts leaking again. This time I pulled the head off and found it was no where near flat. It had in fact never been machined in the first place. That gave me the opportunity to run one favorite machines in my shop, a 12" Hendey shaper. After taking .055" off and a fast feed with a finishing tool I had it nice and flat. I also slotted the bolt holes with a file to circumvent some slight misalignment issues. I ran a tap in all the holes in the block so the bolts would go in smooth and checked bolt length. It took 15 minutes to get the head back on I was off and riding into the sunset. Wow! What difference that made! It was nice to ride at 35 MPH (fast enough for me) without having the throttle wide open. I noticed also that the belt from the motor to the clutch was misaligned. The tensioner needed about 1/8" taken off to make it right. Back to the Hendey again.
So, do I have all the bugs worked out yet? Not quite. The front axle is too short resulting in the threads being damaged. The nuts were holding to only about five threads. Got a new axle at a bike shop for $2.00 today and will get it installed soon. I also want to change the jet in the carb, advance the timing gear one tooth and try to do something to make the back brake functional at more than 10 MPH.
Has it been worth it? I would say it has. The folks at Whizzer are great and always helpful. I originally wanted a fun form of transportation to beat high gas prices. I certainly got that with a Whizzer, but it looks like I also got a new hobby.
My Whizzer adventure started when I took that first ride and discovered an oil leak. After talking to my dealer and Dave at Whizzer, I traced the leak to the compression relief cam. I stuck an O ring in it as advised and still had a leak from the new gasket that I cut. I cut another new gasket and stuck it on with silicone. That did the trick. I also took time to open the restrictor plate to full port. My problems were over and I was back on the road with a better running Whizzer, until the head gasket started leaking. After another call to Dave for advise and torque specs, I was able to get rolling again and learn a lot about torque wrenches along the way. A few miles down the road and it starts leaking again. This time I pulled the head off and found it was no where near flat. It had in fact never been machined in the first place. That gave me the opportunity to run one favorite machines in my shop, a 12" Hendey shaper. After taking .055" off and a fast feed with a finishing tool I had it nice and flat. I also slotted the bolt holes with a file to circumvent some slight misalignment issues. I ran a tap in all the holes in the block so the bolts would go in smooth and checked bolt length. It took 15 minutes to get the head back on I was off and riding into the sunset. Wow! What difference that made! It was nice to ride at 35 MPH (fast enough for me) without having the throttle wide open. I noticed also that the belt from the motor to the clutch was misaligned. The tensioner needed about 1/8" taken off to make it right. Back to the Hendey again.
So, do I have all the bugs worked out yet? Not quite. The front axle is too short resulting in the threads being damaged. The nuts were holding to only about five threads. Got a new axle at a bike shop for $2.00 today and will get it installed soon. I also want to change the jet in the carb, advance the timing gear one tooth and try to do something to make the back brake functional at more than 10 MPH.
Has it been worth it? I would say it has. The folks at Whizzer are great and always helpful. I originally wanted a fun form of transportation to beat high gas prices. I certainly got that with a Whizzer, but it looks like I also got a new hobby.