Kymco K-Pipe 50cc

I’m 16 and just got my first motorcycle – The K-Pipe 50cc. This bike is great! It looks and sounds very nice, but since I have owned it I’ve noticed a major flaw in the bike. Hills are it’s worst enemies!

If you run into an incline in 3rd or 4th gear (the gears you need in fast moving traffic) the bike will lose all power and you will be riding up the hill at about 3 or 4 mph or just stall completley!

Kymco specifically say in the user manual to only use half revs on the bike until you have run it in for 1500 miles, which I obviously respect because I want to look after my first bike, but the only way to go up hills is to drop the bike into 2nd and go up the hill at full revs, acheiving a maximum of 18 mph.

Due to the bike only having a small 50cc engine which is also a four-stroke, it has a very low amount of torque, the acceleration is not great either.

Because of not being able to go up hills in traffic, I feel like a bit of an idiot and I probably look like one to other road users! The bike is really cool but the lack of torque brings it right down and is a major disappointment.

I think I need to look into getting a larger rear sprocket, but considering the bike is already limited to 28mph on flat ground, I dont really want to lose any maximum speed potential, so I don’t really know what to do?