Hello, my name is Leo and I'm in Houston. I bought this 03 ruckus from a friend a couple of weeks ago since they finally decided to sell it to me. I bought it with dry rotted blue tires and rode it around for about two weeks till it wouldn't stop raining so I decided to take it apart. First thing I did was get a 06+ ecu and got it up to 40. I could only get him up to 35 or so before and I have no idea what kind of maintenance was done to it. It was stock so I'll be doing all maintenance. My goal is to be able to reach around 50. The frame will be a non metallic brownish white poop color and the battery box will be sapang bronze. Cameron(rucks name) will have a 10x8 fatty and a mojo stretch. So it starts

Sorry for the crappy picture. This is how he looked before. The front tire was replaced because it wouldn't hold air. I like wheels btw


After a little taking off. I don't know what I'm doing so I'm learning as I go and from what I've read in the forum


Took the gas tank off and started disconnecting wires to take the motor and swing arm off in one piece.


Disconnecting more crap


And how he sits until later today

I'm not doing anything crazy with it and will be staying with the GET. I have some parts that I've been collecting. This is my first ruckus and bike build so I'm learning as I go. Hopefully I wont be asking too many question.

So I got home and worked on it a little more. Soon after I had everything disconnected and it was in two pieces

I kept taking it apart





Polini variator with 5.9 and 6.9 gram weights

New polini belt and variator installed

Took more things apart



This is how it sits now

I'll mess with the weights once it's together and running ok. My exhaust came in and I have an intake so I'm going to have to mess with the jets. Sounds like it's going to be annoying but oh well

I took the frame off started like this, I just cut what I think wasn't needed, so I hope I didn't ruin it

There were a lot of tabs to hold the wiring but they would look ugly with paint because they'd stand out and I figured I could re route it anyway and use zip ties and whatnot. My plan is to weld the seat frame to the frame so it can be one piece. I didn't look too much into it because it seemed straight forward so I had to rethink things after cutting, oh well.

It was too general so I just started cutting

Then I started cutting stuff off the frame and sanding it down


This is how I left it yesterday

Looks like your off to a great start my dude! cant wait to see the finished ruckus

Thanks!
So I started cutting with kind of knowing the measurements I needed and kind of stripped the frames


A friend helped me with some cutting and then test fitted


Then he helped with welding. I tried too but I still suck at it


Also cut the bars out so it's ready for the stem and new bar

This was the finished product and then I started grinding away at the excess which was a good amount on the areas I did



Afterwards I sanded a little and rattle can primed it with sandable primer

Then I used bondo to fill the areas that were uneven and this is how I left it till next time I work on it

I sanded, primed and painted the plastics. The frame still looks like crap so I keep trying to make it right but it's taking me longer than I thought. I hope to finish it today and then spray
This is primed after a little sanding

Then painted. I still had sepang left over so I just used that and that's the reason my frame will be the other color, I have some of that paint left too.

another ruckus under the knife...

I did the motor and gear oil change. They were both black.

I also got around to paint most of what was left. Don't mind the bag, I didn't care to paint further up




I also cut the "ears" off of the headlight bracket and will be relocating the blinkers and horn

diggin the color choices man, keep it up.

Thanks
I got it up and running yesterday but still not done. I rode it around the neighborhood but my MNNTHBX GP exhaust is too loud for my old neighbors so I'm going to have to sell it and get another muffler. I haven't hooked up the rear brake and the throttle cable seems to be a little short for my 12.5" stretch even though I have drag bars as I want to hide it under the gas tank. I still need to do the taillight wiring since I went with the turtle head. I need help figuring out how to take all the slack from the rear brake and where this coolant line goes

I also spent 10 minutes polishing the gas tank so it's meh but shinier than before

The front brake kinks when I turn so I need to move that around. I think those are my only problems. It really didn't ride bad with the exhaust and no intake but I'll recheck when everything is done.

everything look goo so far. Can't wait to see it in person.

Thanks! It looks like I'm going to need a longer throttle cable since I can't hide this one

I've ridden it around at it's very slow. It doesn't stutter or do anything weird except if I'm wot for a little while and I come to a stop it'll shut down. I looked at my plug and it looks black which I take it as being too rich. This is with nothing done to the jets. I have an exhaust and intake and still figuring out what to do with all the lines that came off the intake box. If anyone has any clues on what could be done please lmk

I didn't want to spend a dumb amount on a kickstand so I looked for a cheap one to chop and weld. I got this one from a member here

I cut it and left it at a friends and he surprised me with it welded and painted Don't have a good pic but you get the point

It'll have to be cut again once I lower the front.
I also took the carb off yesterday to re-jet but the stupid bolts on the cover stripped (which I expected) so I'll be getting those off today and putting in a 42 and 82 then checking to see how that runs. I'll also be "porting" the carb since I hear it helps.

So I got the jets in, ported and semi sanded it down, cleaned it, then reinstalled the carb. I didn't get to ride it because I lost the grip that connects to the throttle cable but I turned and revved it.
I don't have a before since I'm sure everyone knows what it looks like. My friend told me you don't want it perfectly smooth so I left it a little rough.

How I left it

I feel so close to finishing it up! I'm just waiting on a longer throttle cable, rear brake adjustment and the kinking to the front brake