The GY6 Scooter Project Origins

I am always looking for a project to keep me busy, both mentally and physically. It can be anything from designing and building CNC routers and laser engravers/cutters to yard work. This year, I am going to rebuild a 150cc GY6 engine and the scooter it came out of.

I didn't know I was going to make scooter mechanics a project. It just sort of happened. Last summer (2014), I happened onto an electric scooter at a garage scale. It was in good shape physically, but the previous owner had ruined the batteries by letting them freeze in a storage shed. Normally, that is not an issue, but she also stored them fully discharged. Then when she tried to use in the the spring, she overcharged the sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries. They swelled up like pumpkins and were toast electrically.

The electric scooter ready for sale.

So I bought the scooter for a very low figure, purchased new batteries, and it ran like a champ.


Unfortunately, it was pretty underpowered for me, at 220 lbs. It just wasn't going to be the utility vehicle I had hoped. (Technically, that scooter was legally classified as an electric bicycle - limited to 25 mph.) But it was fun to putter around on.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to get it out of winter storage, reinstall the batteries (that I had charged and stored in my heated workshop) and list it on Craig's List for sale. That happened on Saturday.

On Sunday, I noticed there was a garage sale just a couple of blocks away and decided to go browse around. The first thing I saw as a 150cc TN'G (Twist N' Go) scooter. It was dirty and kind of scraped up from having been laid down on the road at some point. The owner said she thought it would run, but the battery was bad (sounded like a good omen to me), and had been sitting in the garage for a few years. Before that, she had driven it to work everyday. It has a total of 2856 miles on it.

I asked what she wanted for it and she simply said "Make me an offer." At the risk of insulting her, I really low-balled it (limited by the amount of cash I had in my wallet, and I rarely carry cash). And she said "Yes!" I gave her the cash I had, loaded it in my pickup, and brought it home.

Later that day, I got a call on the electric scooter I had listed. We haggled a bit, but within a couple of hours, the caller was on my doorstep, cash in hand, and ready to take the scooter away.

The best part is that he paid me enough that I was able to recover my original purchase, pay for the new batteries, AND pay for the 150cc scooter I has just bought.

So, I now have a non-running 150cc scooter with a zero $ investment. Sounds like project time to me!

I spent the last couple of weeks tearing down the scooter (removing all the body and the tires and engine) and discovering what I could find online about this scooter. I found very little about this particular brand. BUT, I did find that nearly every gas-powered scooter produced in China and Taiwan in the last 20 years or so has an engine manufactured by the same company in China - Twist And Go. They also make most of the frames and many of the body parts. Each retailing company puts on their own paint jobs and maybe a few custom body parts and the like, and gives them different names.

That means, if you find information about the engine and electronics for one scooter, you really have it for all of them.

And that is what this blog is about - my adventures of learning, and putting into practice, everything I can about these scooters.

The engines are just size-variations of the Twist And Go GY6. The GY6 originated with Honda, but has been copied and is now the basis for nearly every scooter on the road today.

With this project, I will be documenting my experiences - both good and bad. I hope you will join me. Be sure to comment as often as you wish. I welcome your thoughts as well as any advice and experience you care to share with me and my readers.