And the results are in...

[jasontheparamedic]

Finally after several weeks of getting tools and figuring out how to remove the variator nut, I finally have the results of stock vs J. Costa variator. It is very amateur, but it gets to the point. It was uploaded to Youtube using my wife's account.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68tWyjJbHEE

[daugava]

So you get ~57mph with stock and ~61mph with new one... this is kind of odd, I am getting 61mph with stock.

[jasontheparamedic]

See this thread I made about a month ago.

http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=308

Most likely the gradual wearing on the belt has to do with with loss of top speed. Plus the USA version of the PCX seems to top out at less speed than the other versions in other parts of the world.

Plus with slow twisting of the throttle I even got as high as 64 mph on the speedometer today. With aggressive throttling I only got 61 mph, as shown on this video I did yesterday.

[ese12105]

Good video. thanks for all the hard work!!

[ese12105]

Maybe I should ask corsport how hard it world have been to do something like that...

[jasontheparamedic]

I was just thinking the same thing. I saw that they claimed to have made a video but it was too long for Youtube back around summer of last year. Why couldn't they edit it down to appropriate size? It would have saved a lot of trouble.

[maddiedog]

Good video.

We have no idea why Corsport ever acts / acted like they did, so let's keep that out of the discussion. I don't think it's relevant here, so I'd prefer we didn't discuss them on this forum.

I think it's interesting how the speed just ever so slowly INCHED faster towards 61mph with the JCosta variator, then stuck there. It supports the train of thought that the ECU limits the revs at around 61mph in the USA.

I analyzed the video times the best I could to put together a JCosta vs Stock acceleration comparison:

JCoster.png (18.94 KiB) Viewed 4871 times

With such a small sample size, it's hard to conclude anything, but it looks like the JCosta performs same as stock accelerating through lower speeds, better than stock approaching top speeds, worse than stock at the stock's top speed, but then accelerates past the stock's top speed (probably in this case due to belt wear). I'd imagine if you replaced your drive belt, we would probably see the same top speed out of both stock and the JCosta.

My conclusion:
There is some truth that the JCosta does help acceleration through some ranges. The variator may help your top speed. But, as was concluded on ClubPCX, your speed gains will be limited to 61mph unless you change your ECU.

Thanks for sharing the video, Jason. I think this gives closure to the debate that was raging here: http://www.clubpcx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18. I think I should note, if it's your first time reading the thread I linked to, many of the posts on that thread have been modified or deleted by the merchant selling the variator, so take what you see with a grain of salt.

[Woolley]

kinda proves its not worth it then.

[maddiedog]

It might be for some people. If you have a lot of money and want to gain a bit of acceleration to beat people in drag races, it's certainly worth it.

Losing 10 pounds or ditching the bitch riding on the back will help most people win a race more than this though.

[ese12105]

Sorry maddie about bringing them up. It was supposed to be a bit of humor. But thanks to you to for your number crunching.

[jasontheparamedic]

When I was going to see my patients today, I noticed that when I took the interstate I could go up to as high as 64-65mph. That was only when other cars were around. When I took a rural high speed road to another patient I could only go 60-61mph as noted in my video. Maybe the other cars on the interstate created a 'drafting' effect to allow me to go faster. I wish I could get video of this but it was an unexpected finding.

I am going to keep the J Costa for its 8,000 mile lifespan on since I went to a lot of trouble to get this project done, including borrowing the tools for the weekend. Being that I can use the bike (due to faster top speed) more often for my work it will cause me to run up the miles faster on it vs the car. I have a belt on the way but the rest of my stuff from powersportsplus.com is on major backorder. Four mph may not seem like much but it is important to me for using the bike instead of the car for my work.

I wish I could have done more than 2 runs a piece on the bike but Tampa is a very busy area to do this task. When it comes to elevated areas the J Costa's effect drops off sharply. So basically, for hills, it's useless.

So, I hope this was useful in hopefully settling this issue about the variator. When I eventually get the new belt I will let everyone know if it helped with speed, acceleration, etc.

[ese12105]

Drafting can definitely make a big difference. The engine will not have to work nearly as hard with the less wind resistance. I find this during my commute as well. I can get up to 60 with very little effort while drafting and when I'm not it's a much bigger ordeal.

[maddiedog]

When I was going to see my patients today, I noticed that when I took the interstate I could go up to as high as 64-65mph. That was only when other cars were around. When I took a rural high speed road to another patient I could only go 60-61mph as noted in my video. Maybe the other cars on the interstate created a 'drafting' effect to allow me to go faster. I wish I could get video of this but it was an unexpected finding.

Hmm, this changes everything again.

I wonder if you'll see even more speed with the new belt too. Interesting.