After the key switch seemed well and truly f*cked the other day, I conferred with the shop about picking it up next week when the new key switch arrived. No problem. But this morning, after making sure they would be open and happy to just keep the bike there, I decided to get medieval on the key switch. Instead of gently wiggling it and hoping for power, I used quite a bit of force wiggling it around. The bike started and I rode it to the shop without incident.
Bonus: I asked the proprietor of Campus Scooters how much this was going to cost so I could make sure I had the cash in pocket. He said he was going to give Italica a yell about covering it under warranty (the bike is less than a year old and just hit 2,000 miles), and if they wouldn't cover it he would. I told him he at least should get some labor pay, and he told me it would either be nothing or so little to just not worry about what I have in my wallet when I pick the bike up. So as I've said before, I'll say again -- fantastic shop, fantastic owner.
Which brings me back to the "new bike or improve this one?" question.
At least two people have advised me "don't put a bunch of money in this bike -- go find the bike you want." And I am looking. But I continue to think about what I want, and about what I will realistically do with what I want.
Realistically, I'm just not that likely to hop on a motorcycle and ride to Seattle
I really, really, really want more range than I've tested the Bulldog at -- trips of about 100 miles total, no more, in one day. I get nervous about running it more than that on a single-day basis because it has a cheap Chinese GY-6 engine. Average life span, 10k-20k miles.
I wouldn't mind a bike with a beefy enough engine that I could put, say, 500 miles on it in a day without being worried that it will just melt down.
But I think I'd be reasonably happy with a bike that I believed I could ride 200 miles in a day -- not every day, just occasionally -- and not worry about engine wear/collapse.
I also want a bike that's at least a little faster than the 60 miles per hour the Bulldog will do. 70 miles per hour would be great. 80 would be all I could ever realistically need. More than that would be fun but completely unnecessary.
As for rider posture, I was originally thinking "cruiser" -- leaning back like I'm in a recliner, legs stretched out forward.
What I just can't do is the "lie down leaning forward on the bike with your feet behind you" sport posture. Not comfortable even if I didn't have a bad lower back.
What I've become used to, and like more and more, is "standard" posture -- sitting up straight, foot pegs straight down. That's the Bulldog.
I also like the "mini moto" platform in general. It's not huge. It's not heavy. It's agile. Most bikes in the class don't have a bunch of weird-ass "ride modes" and stuff. If they have any digital stuff on them at all it's digital speedometer/tachometer/gas gauge. The Bulldog fits all those criteria.
I've already spent about $400 on hardware to improve it (air scoop, performance fan, variator/belt upgrade) and just make it fit my whims (bar end mirrors, grips, "cruise control" devices), so I have about $2600 in the bike, counting taxes/tags but not counting consumables/maintenance (gas, oil, gear oil).
I would expect to put another $500-700 into the bike to get the engine in the state I'd prefer and probably make it last more than the 20k mile top average. Performance air, performance exhaust, carburetor re-jetting or new carb, oil cooler.
So, my total investment in making the Bulldog "the bike I want," or at least pretty close to it, would be $3,000 to $3,200, most of it already made/paid. I'm $500-700 away from "this is the best version of a bike I like a lot."
Or I could spend $1,000-$2,000 on a "new to me" used motorcycle that I would also want to modify/improve even if it didn't turn out to have problems I didn't notice when buying it, but recoup at least some of that cost by selling the Bulldog.
Or I could buy a new motorcycle (and recoup part of the cost by selling the Bulldog).
The two "new motorcycle" candidates I have in mind are the Lifan KPM 200 and the Lifan KP Mini 150 RS EFI. A third place bike, but not a distant third, is the plain KP Mini 150.
Realistically, the "price out the door" for the KPM 200 is at least $3,500. It's 198cc, single cylinder, liquid cooled, six-speed, listed top speed stock 75 miles per hour. With minimal modifications (less than $500), probably 80 mph.
The KP Mini 150 (probably around $2000 "out the door") and KP Mini 150 RS EFI (closer to $3,000) are the same bike -- air-cooled 149cc engine, five-speed transmission -- but the latter has fuel injection instead of a carburetor and supposedly a different engine tune that makes more horsepower/torque and gets it to 65 mph instead of 60 mph stock. Minimal mods ($200 or so) get the RS EFI to 70 miles per hour. More extensive mods would probably do that for the regular Mini.
In terms of platform, the KP Minis are a lot like the Bulldog -- upright rider posture, small alloy wheels, etc. -- right down to the one thing I don't like about the Bulldog, which is a small gas tank (1.4 gallons). They're supposed to get better gas mileage, though, probably because of the manual transmission helping you keep RPMs down (something I addressed on the Bulldog with the variator upgrade).
But the KP Minis have Lifan NBF150 engines in them. Those engines seem to have about twice the average lifespan of the GY6. I could probably expect to get 40,000 miles out of one of those engines -- more if I install an oil cooler, etc. Rider reviews seem to indicate these bikes are good for 100-200 mile trips, no problem except maybe a sore ass from sitting on them for that long.
Oh, and one additional benefit -- the KP Minis are fairly "naked," making it much easer to get into their engine compartments for maintenance, repairs, and modifications. The fairings on the Bulldog are beautiful, but it's a real pain in the ass to even change the spark plug.
So, I can spend another $500-$700 perfecting a bike I already own and really like, that probably has at least 18,000 more miles in the engine.
Or I could spend $1-2k (less whatever I get for the Bulldog afterward) on a used bike and hope for the best; the benefit is that I probably get something with a solid, long-living engine that goes 80 miles per hour or faster and, once I ensure it's reliable, is reliable for longer trips.
Or I could spend $2k-$3.5k (less whatever I get for the Bulldog afterward) on a new, longer-living, longer-non-worry range, version of the Bulldog that has a "real" transmission.
It's still a dilemma, but I'm leaning toward the first or third option, mostly because I'm not seeing the used bike I want at the price I want to pay on the market at the moment.
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