Garage. SYM Joy Max 300 ABS.
Issue: MOTO Magazine - June 2014, July 2014, August 2014, October 2014, November 2014
Author: Dmitry FEDOTOV, photo of the author and Evgenia LYUBIMOVA, Alexandra KULNEVA, Evgenia BOBRIKOVA
Over the past few years, small motors have existed for me only as part of test trials, and as a permanent transport - no way. But I opened this season on the “three hundred” as a daily vehicle.
Surprisingly, having changed from a “liter” to a “three hundred”, I don’t regret it at all. Am I getting old? Call it what you want, but you must agree: a “toilet” for two helmets and a bunch of junk, coupled with a small glove compartment, a cigarette lighter socket and even lighting, distinguish the “maxi” from a motorcycle. Yes, no 3 seconds before the first hundred, but the engine potential is quite enough for a confident start ahead of the flow, the maximum speed is lower - but instead of the usual 10 liters, the consumption fluctuates around three or four. Still, competent injection and the start-stop system do their job.
The latter is worth mentioning separately, since until now it was a novelty on two-wheeled vehicles. It works like a car: a couple of seconds after stopping and the engine stalls. I touched the gas handle - the engine started, let's go. It’s great, but in our realities it’s not always safe, as I’ve already seen the hard way: when I stopped before the crossing, I heard a signal and squealing brakes behind me - I should have stepped on the gas and moved to the side, but the engine had already treacherously stalled. It’s good that the truck driver managed to evade, and even better is that the system is turned off with a button on the left remote control.
Is the average speed of 100 km/h realistic? Quite, and as practice has shown - even for a 29-horsepower scooter.
I wanted to test SYM long-range from the moment it got into the editorial garage, and finally the right opportunity presented itself. I am ready to pass the “Russian Boomerang - 500” standard, founded by the Dubaser motorcycle club. The essence of the standard is to drive 250 kilometers from the checkpoint and return back within the allotted time. For the 29-horsepower Sim, 6 hours and 20 minutes were allotted, but for myself I raised the bar higher: my goal was a nomination, for which 5 hours were allotted.
I chose the simplest route: Moscow - Yaroslavl - Moscow, exactly 500 kilometers of good highway, frequent gas stations and relatively light workload won me over, so on Saturday morning I drove up to the starting point, the first gas station after the Moscow Ring Road.
Having poured out “don’t spoil me at all”, he jumped into the saddle. I twisted the gas handle all the way and didn’t let go until the second gas station in Rostov the Great. There, a little more than 8 liters fit into the tank. Not bad, considering that by that time I had already covered two hundred kilometers. A cruising speed of 140 is quite enough for confident overtaking of trucks and a feeling of completeness on the highway, but you can put the speedometer needle even further. With a tailwind up to 150, during long descents up to 160, but on them the mechanical limiter in the variator is triggered, and the car, as if someone is grabbing it by the ass, stops accelerating.
After driving the next 200 kilometers, I began to feel more acutely the flaws of the ergonomics: my back ached, resting on the step on the seat, I wanted to stretch my legs and arms somewhere. What is good in the city turns into discomfort on the highway. Well, it’s okay, it’s just a little bit to the goal, I’ll be patient. Moreover, the average speed of one hundred kilometers was exceeded, which meant there was time for relatively frequent smoke breaks and warm-ups.
“Sim” threw the pig just before the finish line: 500 meters before the final checkpoint, I felt something was wrong. I stopped and realized: the rear tire was flat. It was a good thing that the finish line was very close - we could finish it.
In general, the record did not work out: a flat tire took almost twenty minutes, and I did not meet the desired five hours. But I was still far from the allotted six, so I was still given the standard. Having finished, I rolled the scooter to a tire shop, where, together with the specialists, I looked for a puncture for a long time... and couldn’t find it! The culprit was the “nipple”, which began to suddenly and severely poison her. I had to remove the wheel myself, after first unscrewing the caliper, half of the pendulum, muffler and shock absorber. Despite the fact that all the bolts are located quite conveniently, removing and installing the wheel took about forty minutes. The tricky angular “nipple” was replaced by a regular, straight one. So far this is the only failure in a month of operation.
One of my former colleagues explained his departure from the profession this way: “A good car is like your own slippers: Everything is as it should be and there’s nothing special to say, but it’s already disgusting to look for dignity in bad ones with a magnifying glass.” Fortunately, SYM from the first category is good in all respects. So what can we say about him?
Just don’t think that “good” means “boring.” You should see the beaming faces of my colleagues (who take advantage of every opportunity to “grab a car”) after every trip.
Of course, if you want, you can also find spots on the Sun, not like the shortcomings of a scooter made on the distant island of Taiwan. In the city you want the car to be narrower, in the countryside - more powerful (however, these claims are ridiculous - such are the congenital defects of the semi-maxi class, nothing can be done). The “hump” of the backrest and the famously folded lower edge of the front shield leave virtually no opportunity to change position during a long trip - and you want to pull back and stretch your legs, but there is nowhere. But the most annoying thing is the mirrors: they sit on the front shield on short legs, and the pilot’s figure takes up half of their generally rather large area, and in order to see who is driving behind you, you have to move sideways. It’s not without reason that many Joymax owners replace their mirrors with a less stylish, but practical option with long legs.
However, this is exactly the case when with a magnifying glass you have to look not for advantages, but for disadvantages. And the pros of the car clearly outweigh the cons. I don’t even know – what pleases me more? An excellent pickup that allows you to always be the first to start from the stop line at the green light and not hesitate when overtaking? Or a huge container under the saddle, where you can put all your equipment, acquiring a “civilian look” (those who have ridden “Americans” will understand me: the number of cup holders is an important characteristic of a car). Or the suspension settings, which one would like to call “noble”: despite the short travel, they absorb bumps without choking. Or the effortless precision with which the device rushes into the gap between cars stuck in traffic jams.
But still, you get the most thrill not from energetic dashes along the freeway or from weaving through traffic jams. (Oh, it’s too wide! Or am I a little old?) The most pleasant thing is to slowly roll along the side streets under the friendly rumbling of the engine - for which I invent the 101st way to get to work, bypassing major highways.
Of course, the island of Taiwan is far from mainland China: the climate there is completely different (I don’t mean the weather). And local manufacturers have plenty of experience: the same Sanyang Industry, whose products we know under the SYM brand, began producing motorcycles under license from Honda back in 1962 - and a few years later began supplying parts to assembly lines in Japan. But it’s still scary to imagine what will happen when the production of all of China reaches the level of its island neighbors?
I just can’t get rid of the habit of using equipment other than for its intended purpose: on asphalt “tourists” I climb into the sands and mountains, on a city scooter I’m eager to hit the road.
Over the past three months, the “simalet,” as we nicknamed the editorial scooter, has twice confirmed its title as an excellent long-distance driver. First, I passed the “Russian Boomerang - 1000” nomination on it, organized by the Dubaser motorcycle club, driving along the route Moscow - Vitebsk - Moscow in 10 hours 34 minutes. An excellent result even for a “liter”, considering that for an hour of this time I had tea with my Belarusian friend. During the entire trip, there were no losses, with the exception of the bolt securing the muffler “can,” which broke off along the thread either from vibrations, or from constriction, or from thermal expansion of the exhaust pipe. Which, by the way, did not cause any consequences other than small metal rattles.
At TO-3, which was carried out 400 kilometers earlier than the required mileage, a new bolt was screwed in to replace the fragment, and at the same time the air filter, engine and transmission oil were replaced. The only revelation were the rear pads, which asked for replacement so early (at that time the odometer showed 5,600 km), but at a price of 1,116 rubles per set, this is an affordable luxury.
After the maintenance, I made another forced march, this time going to a bike festival in Lida, Belarus, covering more than 1,800 kilometers. And again without incident, with the exception of the same muffler bolt, which again separated from the Simalette while on the move. Perhaps the only surprise was the consumption, which increased to six liters per hundred in the “gas to the floor” mode, but this figure remains quite reasonable, although not so pleasing after 3.5 liters in the city.
In general, the device, without any discounts for its Asian origin, is excellent. Both in the city and on a long-distance route, he, like the pilot, feels great. Yes, there are some problems: a muffler bolt that comes off, an unsuccessful nipple design, which we wrote about in the June issue (“Moto” No. 06-2014), but these are all trifles. Only one design feature really seriously alarmed me: the Simalet has neither a pressure sensor nor an oil level.
Check oil lamp, you say? Yes, out of habit, the flashing indicator made me nervous, crawl around the engine with the dipstick unscrewed in my hands and put a “litrushka” of oil in the trunk, but a visit to the service center put everything in its place: the lit light simply hints that, based on the mileage data, it’s time for oil would change. And this “check” is reset by pressing the right button for five seconds, located in the middle of the tidy.
So far, the Simalet has not been noticed to eat oil, but in life anything can happen, from banal underfilling to holes in the crankcase. What to do then? In the meantime, we continue to wind up the mileage and periodically check the level...
Summer ended as quickly as the set of standard tires, so the Simalet met the golden autumn already in winter.
- Operational period: from April 15, 2014
- Total mileage - 8593 km
- Expenses - 30,792 rubles.
Eight thousand on the odometer is, frankly speaking, a small number, but by this mileage the rear tire had become “humpbacked”, and the pattern in the middle left only dents. Why so fast? Thanks for this must be said to both driving with the handle turned out and braking on the verge of ABS activation, which the standard tires coped with a bang.
There were no problems when turning, even in rainy weather, but with the onset of cold weather, the tenacity of the tires disappeared somewhere, so much so that several times the stern tried to overtake the bow. And this is on asphalt that has not yet had time to cool! And what will happen at five degrees, when under the wheels instead of a puddle there is a cocktail of sodden leaves?
For demi-season shoes, we chose a set of German Heidenau tires: K66 for the front wheel and K62 for the rear. Models that are popular among advanced scooter riders here and practically popular in their homeland, Germany. No sooner said than done. The wheels were assembled, the vehicle left the service station and... at first it was disappointing: the new tires completely changed the handling, especially in corners. The device, which willingly dived into a turn, now needs to be slowly put into it and just as smoothly lifted, and in large inclinations the Simalette noticeably moved to the outside of the turn, like an enduro on its “boobs”. But the main revelation was the excessively early chatter of the brake levers on dry asphalt!
But after the first rain everything fell into place, and I changed my anger to mercy. Yes, on dry surfaces the ABS turned on earlier, but before locking the tires begin to squeal, which makes it possible to calculate the force on the lever. The main thing is that on a wet road, the new wheels lock noticeably later than the standard ones, and it doesn’t matter how many centimeters of water are under the keel!
It turned out that the handling was also improved: for example, lightly pressing the rear brake now helps to quickly turn the car into a turn. The bottom line is that the impression of the tires is more than pleasant, and most importantly, the closing of the “flying” season has been pushed back at least until November.
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Reviews of Sym GTS Rating: 4.4 out of 5 7 reviews found
17.02.2012
In my youth I was “sick” of motorcycles. During my student years, I earned money in construction teams and bought a JAWA 350 (638). 1986-92, traveled 22,000 km without problems. I had to sell: I got married, a child was born. The motorcycle disease, of course, did not completely go away, but the exacerbation passed. And until the summer of 2010. somehow there were no serious thoughts on this topic. But the disease relapsed, and St. Petersburg got stuck (not Moscow, of course, but still). I started looking at what it cost, thinking and deciding. But in 2010 I never decided to buy it, although I decided that in the spring I would definitely buy a fifty-kopeck scooter. I thought it would be enough for me in the city, but I don’t need it outside the city. There was no thought about the brand of scooter - only KYMCO (the boss at his dacha has been riding one for 8 years - no problems). Of course, they are more expensive than the Chinese, but new Japanese and European ones are even more expensive, and I didn’t want to buy a used one. As a result, I bought the simplest version of KYMCO Agiliy 50 for 52,500 rubles. I carefully ran it in, did all the maintenance, and removed the limiter in the variator. The maximum speed is 65 km/h according to the speedometer (according to GPS - 56), acceleration from a standstill is quite brisk, but then it’s terrible: the dynamics drop catastrophically, there is no controllability at maximum speeds. In principle, it was already clear during the run-in: the device is only good in traffic jams - it can “leak” everywhere. The main advantage of “fifty dollars” is that you don’t need a license, which means you won’t lose them in any case. The advantages are also the lack of registration with the traffic police, technical inspection, insurance, and a fine of max. 200 rubles. (only as a pedestrian or cyclist). But as soon as the cars started moving normally, you’re already out of the flow at fifty dollars. And this is unpleasant and, most importantly, unsafe, because... Even trucks and public transport are already starting to catch up with you and, naturally, overtake you. In May, the boss bought a HONDA Shadow VT750CS motorcycle (chopper type). I rode it and remembered how normal motorcycles should ride in terms of dynamics and speed. But in terms of landing and maneuverability, especially in traffic jams, it’s absolutely not my option. And the boss also realized almost immediately that he had bought the wrong thing, because... lives outside the city (long runs along the Ring Road). Shadow is a motorcycle for measured riding at low speeds - neither the upright position nor the lack of wind protection is conducive to fast riding, and maneuverability in the city leaves much to be desired (especially in comparison with a scooter). Well, I got hooked on the motorcycle. I started choosing and asking prices. I already clearly understood that I didn’t need liter sports in principle. 400-600 civil cubes are enough (without any “R” and “RR”). I didn’t consider new equipment for financial reasons, but relatively new devices are not cheap, and I also didn’t want to take on a 10-year waste or get into serious debt. And then the idea came to me - to look at big scooters. “125” was eliminated immediately, because... This is the same “fifty dollar”, only a little more powerful and faster. But at the same time, I already had license plates and licenses (I wasn’t going to pretend to be “fifty dollars”). KYMCO Xciting 250, 500 are good, but expensive (damn!). The used Japanese somehow didn’t excite me (it’s beautiful in appearance, but it’s a “pig in a poke”, but I wanted to drive it and not have it repaired). And so I got to SYM scooters. I really liked the GTS. I sat in it, compared it to the JOYRIDE 200, and found the GTS to be a very comfortable ride. Moreover, the GTS was also available with carb. 250, and 300i. I'm hooked on the 300i. While I was gathering my thoughts, the 300i was sold, the next one will arrive in a month. Take carb. I didn’t want 250 anymore. Okay, I decided to wait, and I had to prepare financially. A week later I got a call: I have a 300i, a man bought it in October 2010, drove 1700 km, now he wants to exchange it for a quadric, if I pick it up right away, the price will be 150,000 rubles. (and the new one is 174,000 rubles and they promise an increase in price from July). I came, looked and decided to take it (that means it was fate). The scooter is in new condition, not a scratch anywhere, technically. Excellent condition and even more than a year warranty. I took out an express loan from my boss and on June 30, 2011. became the owner of a SYM GTS 300i gray 2010. (264 cm3, 24 hp according to PTS). Information: the SYM company belongs to the Korean company Sanyang Industry Co (by the way, the automaker HYUNDAI also belongs to this company), the SYM plant is located in Taiwan. I won’t describe the appearance – there are plenty of pictures on the internet. The seating position is comfortable, especially in comparison with the “fifty kopeck” car, on which you sit like on a stool. Both legs can reach the asphalt normally. The center of gravity is low, weight 190kg. It’s practically not felt: it’s easy to maneuver at low speeds, and it’s also easy to hold in place. It didn’t take any getting used to – I sat down and drove off. True, the dimensions are larger than those of the “fifty kopeck”, but in traffic jams it is much better than on heavy motorcycles. And by that time, in addition to riding a “fifty kopeck,” I had already regained my motorcycle experience: this was the HONDA Shadow, and the boss’s new motorcycle, the BMW R 1200 RT, bought in mid-June. And until the end of the season, I periodically use all of the above devices (the boss left the HOND as a “weekend” spendthrift, and my “fifty kopeck” has not yet been sold, it sits in the office and I periodically “stretch it” on trips to the city center). And every time I switch to SYM from a heavy and awkward motorcycle, I am convinced that my choice was correct (both from a material and practical point of view). “Fifty dollars” comes to mind as a kind word when you need to drag the SYM onto a high curb, or when you need to make your way through a “dead” traffic jam - with a number it’s somehow scary to ride like a bike, you can get a considerable fine, and you only have a (driver’s) license! And I also need them for work! The acceleration dynamics for 300cc are excellent (I didn’t even expect them) - it’s not a shame to drive between the rows and be the first at a traffic light. I’m not going to race with anyone, but it’s easy to get away faster than the flow of cars even at half throttle. I haven’t ridden with a passenger yet - I can’t say anything (and the “fifty kopeck” with a “vegetable” passenger is full even “from a standstill”). The CVT allows you to fully use the potential of the engine without making any effort - just turn off the gas and go. True, it twitches a little when moving smoothly from a standstill and at walking speed, but it doesn’t bother me. A sharp start without problems. The exhaust sound is solid, can’t be compared with a fifty-kopeck car. : both at 0C (it was in the fall), and after 3 weeks of parking, and “hot”. The carburetor “fifty kopeck” also starts, but not always with a “half turn”. While warming up, SYM holds 1700 rpm, after 1-2 minutes it drops to idle 1200. I let it run for 2-3 minutes, and drove slowly, while driving it warms up to two stages, it does not rise higher even in the heat. In cold weather it takes a long time to warm up, but outside the city it may not warm up to two degrees at all. I think we need to cover part of the radiator with a shield - the technology is southern. Wind and, accordingly, dirt protection is quite decent - in wet weather the feet are dry, the jacket is clean, dirt gets on the hands and helmet (the helmet visor gets dirty). The visibility to the rear is not very good - the mirrors are located far ahead on the “plastic”, but they do not rotate with the steering wheel. I can’t evaluate the light of the headlights - I didn’t drive in the dark. The suspension is quite comfortable, but I would make the front fork stiffer - sometimes it breaks. The maximum speed is 130 km/h according to the speedometer, it picks up quite easily, then it hits the limiter of 8000 rpm. Comfortable speed is 100 km/h (rpm just over 6000). It doesn’t blow away, holds the road perfectly, and has a reserve of traction for overtaking. You can drive along the Ring Road without any problems. Average fuel consumption is 3l/100km. I use 95, although 92 is also possible. The engine runs smoothly and pulls well even when cold. Doesn't eat butter. There is no kick starter, if the battery runs out you just need to light a cigarette. You can't start it from a pushrod like a motorcycle. When purchasing, I did a TO-1500 (more to maintain the warranty). The price tag for maintenance for such equipment cannot be called humane - I already understood this from the “fifty kopecks”, and the dealer further reduces the frequency of maintenance (and they are already frequent), citing difficult operating conditions. There were no technical problems until the end of the season, I don’t plan to sell SYM, so I decided to cancel the warranty. I changed the oil myself and cleaned the air filter. From now on I will service it myself according to the manufacturer’s regulations and solve problems as they arise. During winter parking, I fitted a 28L trunk to stow a cover, raincoat, jacket, etc. and do not take up space under the saddle. There are some comments on the article about this scooter on sim.ru (the admin didn’t miss the link)! - the gas tank cap normally “shoots off” and doesn’t kill anyone. The truth is that it is not conveniently located (too low). But refueling is a decent “haemorrhage”, because... The “pistol”, no matter how you twist it in the neck, immediately “shoots back”. You have to “sip” it in a thin stream for a long time, standing bent over. If you fill it up to full, you can easily overfill it - you won’t be able to look into the tank. In the “fifty kopeck” you also have to “strain” the fuel, but you can see the level by taking out the “gun”. - I have an integrated helmet that fits in the “toilet”; - I have never touched the electric opening button of the “toilet”; - the yellow switch is on the back wall “toilet” blocks the engine from starting, and not the above button; - the author would do well to decide on the “toilet”, otherwise he has a “toilet” under the steering wheel and a “toilet” under the saddle too. - I haven’t checked the maximum grip properties of standard tires ( and thank God!), the brakes are absolutely normal, they’re enough for me (though I don’t drive extremely).
