2004 Peugeot Ludix Trend 50cc

[gtd65]

Thought I should move this out of the Riders Super Cub thread before getting one of these..

We have a Ludix Trend that I rescued from standing outside our neighbours' house for 5 years.

Ours has a Motobatt (MBTX4U) fitted which has been fit-and-forget. It gets a new plug every year. The air filter is a strange thing on these. Unless you cut it open with something like a Dremel, the whole housing is sealed. It's quite expensive to replace.

I got some advice to take it off, pour paraffin in it, slosh it around, pour it out and let it dry out overnight in a ventilated area. That worked a treat.

The fuel in the carb, sat for 5 years, had predictably gone off and gummed up the jets, but it was easily sorted. The only trouble we've had on an ongoing basis was that ridiculous auto choke. Auto choke units last for around 3 months before they cark. It's a known issue and why folk sell Ludix-compatible carbs on ebay with a manual choke lever. I set up a temporary fix by cutting the intake hose to the air filter to a length where you can get to it to place your hand over the end. Blocking it with your hand richens the mixture and the bike fires first push of the button every time even when below 0C.

Installed my replacement battery today which arrived after a 1 day delay (3 days instead of 2) - all appears to be OK with that.

I'm hoping my replacement air box and filter arrives this weekend - I am have issues starting it from cold and need to cover the carb to make it start as you say - I'll do a test of the auto choke to see if it fully extends and retracts as it should - suspect that it isn't especially after hearing your advice that they last for about 3 months! That's mental!

I did see that there is a manual choke conversion available for roughly £10.

It is a royal pain in the arse trying to kick the scooter with that stupid lever and cover the carb at the same time

Starter motor has had the bendix removed for some reason - will need further investigation. This would make things much easier than that god awful kick start shenanigans! I'm not sure if some of the starter bendix gears from some of the Chinese scooters might fit - they are significantly cheaper online.

This is the new project scooter:

[gtd65]

This was the manual choke lever that I've seen - not sure if it is suitable for the Ludix or not though?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scooter-Moped ... 462758ba07

[Capitano]

Looks decent enough. They are terrific fun when running properly. Ours is only derestricted by removal of the spacer on the variator but it keeps up with a standard C90 near enough.

Funnily enough I start it using the kickstart whilst covering the intake. It's a technique that's easy once practised. The Mrs uses the electric start 100% of the time. Thankfully for her the Motobatt spins the little starter motor without fail after 5 years, even though it may not get ridden for a couple of months during Winters.

Another tip is to use a hidden cable tie to provide an alternative way of opening the seat. The seat lock on ours has slipped twice. I've stuck an oversized screw to hold it now but it is a bit of a disaster if you have almost run out of fuel and can't get the seat up at the petrol station.I'll photograph the cable tie dodge tomorrow and post it up.

We use fully synthetic 2 stroke oil but the belt and rollers fitted now are cheapies from ebay, at about a quarter of the cost of genuine Peugeot ones and it runs really well on them.

That choke lever may work. I have a feeling that the auto choke has a needle as well as the brass plunger on that one but the fixing looks the same. For less than a tenner it's worth a punt to find out if it works. If not, it's no big deal to keep covering the intake. Ours has been like that for over 2 years now since I stopped buying auto choke mechanisms that failed.

[gtd65]

Looks decent enough. They are terrific fun when running properly. Ours is only derestricted by removal of the spacer on the variator but it keeps up with a standard C90 near enough.

Funnily enough I start it using the kickstart whilst covering the intake. It's atechnique that's easy once practised. The Mrs uses the electric start 100% of the time. Thankfully for her the Motobatt spins the little starter motor without fail after 5 years, even though it may not get ridden for a couple of months during Winters.

Another tip is to use a hidden cable tie to provide an alternative way of opening the seat. The seat lock on ours has slipped twice. I've stuck an oversized screw to hold it now but it is a bit of a disaster if you have almost run out of fuel and can't get the seat up at the petrol station.I'll photograph the cable tie dodge tomorrow and post it up.

We use fully synthetic 2 stroke oil but the belt and rollers fitted now are cheapies from ebay, at about a quarter of the cost of genuine Peugeot ones and it runs really well on them.

That choke lever may work. I have a feeling that the auto choke has a needle as well as the brass plunger on that one but the fixing looks the same. For less than a tenner it's worth a punt to find out if it works. If not, it's no big deal to keep covering the intake. Ours has been like that for over 2 years now since I stopped buying auto choke mechanisms that failed.

The scooter was only £70! So it's very nice indeed for the money

It came with a £175 receipt for an engine rebuild...and there is a brand new exhaust and rear tyre (Continental!) as well that would cost another £100 or thereabouts.

It's almost back to 1980's scooter pricing levels, taking into account the past and present values of money!

Then again, I've already spent about 30 quid for a battery and air box and another £12.50 for a standard rear light unit to replace the horrible cheap looking (but cost 24~29 quid on eBay!) Lexus style light that is currently fitted. I hope to punt this on, to recoup some of he cost of the OEM lamp unit. Oh and I gave my mate 20 quid for diesel to bring it back in his estate car too. Amazing how it all starts to add up!

Now that I'm becoming familiar with the "bent double" kick starting method, the other issue I've noticed is that the scooter will tick over very nicely but does not really want to rev. You can get it to increase revs, if you really take your time/have patience but it's not how it should be.

I'm assuming this is either something to do with the carb needing cleaned (not been run since November last year when it was rebuilt) or because the current airbox is throwing out the carburation completely...? . There's also a pipe that's got a screw stuffed into the end to block it off - not sure what this is for yet - there a similar sized pipe that goes onto the top of the air-box.

I've read elsewhere only to use standard air-boxes because they don't run well with the more open cone type filters?

I've not noticed any issues with the seat lock but I'm all ears about a workaround for getting "locked out"

[Capitano]

Not revving freely could be either of those issues you mentioned. Get a new plug in, clean the car and fit the new airbox then try it.

Could be that it needs some time to warm up, though. Ignoring the advice that bike engines don't need to warm up, ours definitely does, especially in cold weather. It would probably be totally different if the auto choke actually worked properly but until it's had at least 5 minutes running ours is very reluctant to pull away and reach peak revs.

Once warmed up it is peachy but it can be a bit embarrassing at traffic lights when run from cold and it bogs down when you try to pull away wit a queue of cars behind you.

Ours was free. It sat outside our neighbours' house for 5 years after heir Son abandoned it in favour of a CBR125. They bought him the Ludix in 2005 to get to work and he decided that he liked biking so much he bought his own bike.

In 2010 when they went on holiday they asked if I would get rid of it for them as it was probably only worth scrap value now. It was slightly embarrassing when they came back and it was running and MOT'd .

Don't ride it too much if you are intending selling it on. They are great fun and highly addictive.

[Capitano]

The cable tie fits as shown. Note the oversized screw too.



Cut it so that only an inch or so shows at the back of the seat when closed.



Then it can tuck under and be invisible until you need it, which hopefully you won't.

[gtd65]

Here is the image of the blocked off pipe and the other one (from the air pump?) that was connected to the top of the air box:

[gtd65]

Bloody laptop battery is going flat - will continue later....

[gtd65]

I can see what went wrong with your seat release, with the new self tapper installed

I'll certainly put in a cable tie as a backup solution.

I'm quite amazed at the amount of paint flaking off and rust that was hidden under the platic tail piece below the grab rail. You don;t see it at all when it's fitted of course. Then again it is an 11 year old scooter that has spent it's life up North. It's in much better condition than my Yamaha FS1E was in 1982 at 6 years of age!

[gtd65]

Cable tie modification completed today: