Hi chaps,

I was informed by the dealer when I bought my scoot last week that it has a Jcosta variator fitted (I was also given the original one in the jcosta box) Having never ridden the bike in standard guise, what difference does it make? I'm concerned that it may keep the motor at a higher RPM in most conditions. When riding along in a steady state at 30 - 40mph the motor is doing 4K rpm. When you open the throttle to accelerate (moderately, not wide open) the revs can lift to 6. These kind of RPMs following the morning cold start with a torquey motor like this sounds a little high to me, I'm not a fan of these type of mods on a commute bike so I'm tempted to swap it back to the orginal variator. Before I do tho I'd be interest to hear peoples opinion of what it *actually* does for you. I don't mean here-say, there's plent of that on the web, I'm after first hand experience.

Thanks Rob

You are right it will be running at a higher RPM in most conditions but its not something to be voerly concerned about. If you don't like it, it is relatively easy to swap back.

Most of us I believe are big fans of Dr Pulleys in our standard variators as, dependent on weight you buy, will get you a bit of increase with better mpg and smoother running without it rev'ing its nuts off.

I had a JCosta in my Gilera Nexus 500 for about 2000 miles, the pins wore quickly, they rattled and the scoot sounded like a 50cc ped. Then switched back to standard variator with Dr P's and had a much better experience that in the long run has cheaper running costs.

Hmmm I may well then revert to standard and if I'm happy ebay off the jcosta.
I'm very mech savy but not worked on scoots before. Do you know of any links that give an overview of the procedure? Any specialist tools?

Loved my j costa, best mod I ever did, knocks around 2 secs of 0-60 and puts the biggest grin on ya face while doing it, I suggest leaving it for now as you may like it, then least you gave it a chance if ya didn't! The standard tmax on accelerating away has a lull until the revs hit a certain spot, the needle sticks a while then pings upto correct speed, the variator decreases the lull, adds acceleration and grins, had 8000 miles on my bike with no notable drop in performance and never had a thing go wrong at all on the bike, just coz you commute does not mean you cant have fun on the commute but each to there own, if I ever get another tmax its the first and only thing I would do to mod it but most like the standard bikes, but then a lot have not tried the tmax with a sporty variator in it!

if you want to change it after knowing the characteristics of the j costa then you can compare, although i have not done this on a t max (wish i had one but hey ho )
then this is a link to the 530 service manual in pdf, will show steps, a power tool to take off variator nut, torque up can be an issue if you dont have a variator holding tool, but you could make one,,
anyways link here http://www.tmaxhellas.gr/portal/wp-cont ... 530-12.pdf

Hmmm....a variator made quite a difference to the mk3 Tmax, which was somewhat stodgy acceleration- wise at low speeds, but the mk4 pulls like a train in the same circumstances. One of the things that intrigued me when I swapped from mk3 to mk4 was that whilst a new variator on the mk3 made it rev higher on acceleration, this wasn't the case on the mk4 which felt like a diesel! So I'm sure at all what a Jcosta on a mk4 might be like!

If you decide to keep the j Costa fitted you can now get the weights from Dr pulley and have the better weight life . I have just checked a forum I use in France and most people who have the j Costa are very pleased over the standard fitment . However if you fit your desired weights from Dr pulley to your standard unit you will have an improvement over stock . The majority claim the hole at the start is smaller and midrange and top speed are improved slightly .

Does changing the weights and/or variator incur any penalties in the insurance premium?

Not if you dont tell them!

Yeah right, very sensible that.