First of all...

HELLO EVERYONE! Long time lurker, first time poster. Bought my '09 Ruckus in November and it's been a race to mod the hell out of it ever since!

Here's what's going down right now,
(in order of mod/tuning)

-Oil change and fresh spark plug (100'ish miles ago)
-Yoshimura TRC exhaust and Battlescooter 2 stage AFK (ditched the stock airbox)
-New battery and re-jetted the carb to better suit the intake/exhaust
-New Daytona kevlar drive belt and Daytona Drag variator (2 days/30'ish miles ago)

(all parts ordered from battlescooter)

Now here's the problem, pre-variator swap I was pushing near 40 mph (~37-39 mph) just poor acceleration and the expected drag uphill. Since swapping the variator and drive belt my acceleration is worse, I'm redline puttering at about 15 mph and have an average top speed of about 25-27 mph.

My question(s) is(are) this(these), is that the nature of the Daytona Drag Variator?
Do I just need to upgrade the CDI? (I'd rather not)
Did I just not find the right variator for me?

I double checked my install and everything went back together correctly, I'm hoping to chalk it up to the 'break-in period' and that after another 20-40 miles or so everything will settle in and my acceleration will come back. All I was looking for was something to get me to about 20-25 mph a little quicker and a little help getting up hills. Not trying to increase top speed, although that would be a welcome side effect.

Whadda ya got for me everybody?

Oh and call me 'Shack'

What weights did you put in the variator?

The ones Battlescooter included with the variator. They appeared identical to the stock ones upon initial inspection. Not the rollers pictured on the BSstore. They were white, not red like the ones pictured. I'll check tomorrow morning once the rain has passed.

No way you should have lost that much speed, that variator should perform at least as well as stock, even right out of the box. Just a thought here, you said you also rejetted the carb, did you ride it any between the rejet and the variator change, or did you do both at once? Does the engine still run good and rev up like it should? The reason I ask, if the engine isn't running right, that couldn't be caused by the variator and would most likely be a jetting issue. If the engine's running fine but you just aren't going anywhere, that would be a variator issue, but I don't know what could cause it unless your belt is slipping for some weird reason. You can start it on the centerstand with the cover off, rev it up, and see if the belt moves up and down like it should. I don't know, but it's not the nature of the variator, and a CDI won't help.

I don't know if that was helpful or just confusing . Good Luck!

Buy my old polini. I was hitting 43-45 and I weigh 245lbs! $65 and its got 2 sets of weights...problem solved

There was plenty of ride time between rejetting and swapping the variator. The engine runs just fine, it was idling rough with the new intake/exhaust setup, hence the rejet, and then ran just fine.

It's most definitely the variator and/or new belt.

You're definitely a help thus far, I'll pop off the cover and rev it on the center stand as you suggested. Sounds like a good idea.

Double check install. This is not what should happen.

You're telling me?! I'm about to get out there and take a look. Still cold and wet from last nights storm. Lazy

Alright, I got the cover off and my install is good. I gave a few revs, but I'm a n00b and not exactly sure what I looking for. To my eyes everything seems in order.

It should do this. Watch how the belt travels up on one end and down on the other...

Nope. Not doing that. Is it possible that I could have over tightened the clutch bell nut?

As a side note, I swapped the included rollers, which have creamy green rim, for the factory rollers which have a rosy pink rim. I did that before seeing the last post. It helped with acceleration but the top end still suffered.

Upon further inspection, the daytona is behaving as it should, it's just not the variator for me.

Stick with the Stock Variator! The After Market ones won't live up to a Stock one!

Belt too short?

If you still have your old belt might try swapping it back on.

Runt

One mod at a time..

Then you know where you lose alot instead of slapping everything on at once..