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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 13, 2016 8:24:40 GMT -5
Highly interesting thread, Niz. A great bike, too. But then....it's hard not to like a Vespa.
I've never seen the internals of a Vespa before. I've had that picture in my mind of an engine sitting just a bit further back than on what we now think of as a standard scooter, and off to the right. But now I have a much better picture in my mind's eye of just what that engine looks like.
I don't have time to read the whole thread right now. But I made sure to finish page 10. It'll be a bit easier to remember just where I left off when I come back.
I'm a bit frightened for you over the possibility of a damaged crank. But I guess I'll learn what became of that when I can read some more. Best of luck!
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 12, 2016 14:28:35 GMT -5
Well this is turning out well, isn't it?
You're bound to want to fix that starter eventually. But being able to get along without it for a while is a nice luxury. You'll have your chance to enjoy your scoot a bit, pick up a multi-meter and get yourself psyched up for that job.
Have fun and best of luck.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 11, 2016 19:04:04 GMT -5
My wife and I went to a motored bicycle rally. We scooted. We were the only ones.
We did a morning ride, then lunch and then an afternoon ride on scenic rural roads with practically no traffic. And the weather actually treated us pretty well. It was a bit warm. But it might have been so much worse.
Everyone had fun. Only a few minor mechanical snafus, easily fixed. I took a few photos of bikes. But some of our companions were more serious and took better pics and video. Perhaps I'll post them when I get the links.
My wife is a bit sunburnt. She's red, anyway. I guess I can feel a bit of burn in my skin. But I had a decent tan to start with and I'm not too worried about that.
But I'm thoroughly tired, I can tell you that much. Soon it'll be a shower for me, probably followed by an early bedtime.
A good day. Too bad we have to wait until next year for the next one.
And maybe I'd better start looking around for fairly local scooter rallies. I hope there are some nearby.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 11, 2016 18:29:43 GMT -5
The Vino really is a cool scooter, isn't it?
You're making progress, doodoo, so don't give up. You're going to have a fine machine.
I'll advise again if I think I have anything worthwhile to offer. But it's unlikely because you're already in better hands with these guys who've come along after my first answer. Keep on pushing and you'll get there.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 10, 2016 20:59:15 GMT -5
Still..........even a camouflaged 'faux' jeep might take a bit too long to find.
Maybe we ought to make the next tag any camouflage painted Jeep or jeep-like vehicle.
That ought to get things moving.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 10, 2016 20:04:39 GMT -5
I scooted today, even though I hadn't planned to do so.
I got to thinking, "Do I want to go to the Beast of Bentonville on a Friday at 7:00 PM during a heat wave? Or would I rather go on Saturday morning shortly after dawn?"
Such a question answers itself.
So I hopped on the scooter. Shopping can wait until the morning.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 9, 2016 19:57:30 GMT -5
I scooted the last couple of days.
I'll have to drive tomorrow since I need to go to the store afterward and get some stuff that'll be too big for the scooter. A shame. I'd rather scoot.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 8, 2016 20:13:52 GMT -5
Well.....first....welcome aboard. I saw that your intro post was a different one from this. But we'll just take care of that here.
Second.....I'm a scooter newbie. So I won't have anything that ought to be carved in stone. But I know a bit about basic, no-start engine trouble-shooting.
With a scooter, I can see already, your first task is learning how to remove and re-install body panels without destroying them. I still haven't gone far with this myself. But I'll be working on it soon.
A service manual for your particular scooter will be handy for the body panels plus other trouble-shooting and maintenance/repair work. You ought to be able to find one for about $30 or so.
You're going to want to have a look at your spark plug. You'll find that pretty much right behind your ankles --when riding-- behind the body panel that sits right below your seat. If it's obviously damaged then there's no doubt that you want to replace it. If it looks okay, then you'll want to test for spark. Do you know how to do that? It's not clear from your post. If not, then ask and we'll tell you how.
A 2005 Vino, did you say? If so, then I imagine it's carbureted. As opposed to fuel injected. So if the spark plug shows spark, then go ahead and verify that fuel is at least reaching your carburetor. If this checks out as okay, then there'll be some carburetor internal trouble-shooting to do. But we'll wait just a bit on that.
If you have verified spark and fuel to the carburetor, then you ought to make sure that your bike is getting air. Check the filter. This doesn't even require body panel removal and it's plenty easy. I only didn't suggest it first because it's not likely to be the true cause of your trouble. But a new air filter would be a good idea in any case.
If you can verify spark, fuel and air are getting to that engine then come on back for further advice. Chances are that some of these more knowledgeable folks here can give better advice than I can. But I'll try my best, too.
Best of luck.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 7, 2016 23:45:25 GMT -5
Put 4 tubular brackets on your scoot. Use those flexy fiberglass tent poles to arch over your scoot. Cover with fabric from an old dome tent, maybe the one you got the tent poles from. A piece of thin lexan could be used for a windscreen. I know, it will look like crap but 'functional'. It will work in rain unless there is a severe crosswind. It's right up my alley! I'm well known for modifications to vehicles, clothing, all sorts of everyday stuff. I modify it to make it fit me just a bit better. And a lot of my 'engineering' looks pretty amateurish. Before the summer is out I'll be posting a write-up and photos of my home-made Bar-Mitts. I've never made a pair for a scooter. But I've made enough for bicycle that I'll know what to do. And I'll cut body panels if they're in the way. And I won't care what it looks like. I know this is going to happen already because I have a long track record and I've already been eying those handlebars. I try to avoid massive amounts of duct tape. But I revel in a lot of boiler-plate modifications. Here's where I seem to be just the opposite of most others: I think it's good looking. I'm a bit bewildered over the fact that they don't.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 7, 2016 17:11:49 GMT -5
I took my wife's scooter to the dealer where we bought it for routine maintenance. It's at 920 miles and the Honda shop manual says to have some things gone over at 600. One thing I remembered quite clearly was that valve lash should be checked. The guys at the shop said, "Naah.....you don't need to do that yet". And I took their word for it, thinking that maybe I'd misunderstood.
The cost was almost $170. When I got home and looked more closely at the paperwork it seemed to me that what they had done was change the engine oil, the rear end oil and the air filter.
Now this is disappointing. Had they pulled body panels and done some real checking of important components plus some real work, I'd have considered $170 to be a real bargain. But for what they actually did, I feel like a sucker.
Okay......they need to cover their overhead and make a reasonable profit to boot. Fine. I've made my contribution. And that's the last one. I don't need them that badly.
I knew from the start that I had the mechanical know-how to do most anything one might need to do to a scooter. There would be things I'd need to learn, of course. But I knew I had the ability. I went to the dealer in the belief that that first routine maintenance/check-up was so crucial that it had best be left to the pros. I thought I was doing the wise thing.
Maybe I did. After all.....I learned a lesson. They, on the other hand, pocketed perhaps a hundred dollars or so and alienated a customer who could have been pretty faithful.
I also loaded that bike onto my pickup truck twice today. On the second time I loaded my Kymco People 150 as well. The reason is that on Saturday my wife and I are driving over to a town about 30 minutes or so to the West, meeting up with some other riders and going on a 50-60 mile rural cruise. I needed to demonstrate that I could load up both bikes alone and find decent spots to put them and to tie them down.
I had no real doubts. I just wanted to do it before the morning that we needed to get moving. It worked fine. I could get them both in nice and cozy. With good tie-down spots available and plenty of room left over in the bed for other stuff.
The only problem is that the weather channel is predicting sunny and 102 deg F for Saturday. Oh, well.....
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 5, 2016 17:42:21 GMT -5
Okay....here's my scoot in front of a three-wheeler. and I'm not too sure just how to proceed. You see,........ ......that jeep-like vehicle is a Volkswagen Thing. First one I've seen in many years. So if I ask you to tag that then this thread might die. Only the California/Florida guys will stand a chance. And even that might take a while. How about this? A camouflaged faux jeep.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 5, 2016 12:39:46 GMT -5
An outstanding man, to be sure.
One of the things that came to mind with his death was remembering how we insisted on calling him Cassius Clay long after he had changed his name. You could still find people who would not honor the Ali name until about the time of Watergate or so. I was one of them. We were a bit contemptuous about it.
Our reason --or mine anyway-- was that we didn't believe his conversion to be sincere. We thought he was 'showboating'.
In the obituary from the BBC yesterday afternoon they told about a match in 1967. I was just a kid then and don't remember this. But his opponent had also refused to recognize the new name. It sounded as though he'd been a bit contemptuous, too.
Apparently throughout the fight Ali challenged this guy with, "What's my name??!!" Clearly enough that the audience could tell what was going on. Some matches do get a bit personal, of course. But it sounds like this one was so much so that people wondered if it had crossed the line from sport to real combat.
They didn't say --or I didn't notice-- whether this guy ever 'cried uncle' on the name issue. I also didn't notice just who won this match. But we're talking about Ali here. So my money would go on him.
I think I understand him better now than I did forty or fifty years ago. Yet he's still, in some ways, so enigmatic that I doubt my ability to pass much intelligent judgement on him. But I like him a great deal more than I did back then.
Physically he was obviously a man-and-a-half. At least. He had an ego the size of Texas. Yet it usually wasn't obnoxious once you got to know him a bit. Even when he was angry or bragging, there was something humorous and, seemingly, well-meaning about it. It took me a while to perceive that. But once it sunk in, he became pretty like-able. He was bold at a time when it might well have gotten him killed and he would have received very little sympathy. It's kind of a miracle that it didn't happen. But he prevailed over those who might have done so much like he prevailed over most of the folks he faced in the ring.
An astonishing man, overall. And I'm sorry to see that he's now gone.
And I'm also sorry to go just a bit off-topic. But I think that Malcolm X deserves an honorable mention here. A similar sort of personality. Somewhat frightening. Yet I think he was sincere and would have led people in good directions. I wish he'd lived longer.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 5, 2016 12:01:34 GMT -5
I scooted on Saturday!
Sunday is a day off. My wife does work today. In a couple of hours. I'll escort her to work on our scoots, just for the fun of it.
I'm also fixing an exhaust leak on my motorized bike right now. When that's done I'll take my daughter out riding. She can ride my Kymco and I'll ride the motorbike.
She's ridden her Mom's Metropolitan a couple of times and liked it. Now she'll get a chance at a bigger bike.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Jun 3, 2016 22:14:41 GMT -5
I'm cheating a bit, I guess, by bumping this thread since I've been riding my pedal bike to work the last three days.
My scooter is quite new --to me anyway-- and I'm still thrilled with riding it, of course. But I've also felt myself getting soft for a while now. So I simply have to pedal my butt around more than I have been doing for a while.
And it really did feel good. On the first morning I found myself thinking that I felt pretty weak for about ten minutes. Then I got 'in the groove' and felt good and strong that day in both directions. Thursday I felt the same. So far, so good.
I wondered if I ought to scoot this morning. But I felt strong. So I went ahead and pedaled. But today I could feel that I was getting just a little bit spent.
Coming home is a fairly serious climb. About two thirds of the way up I had to shift down into my very lowest gears. Though it still felt good I could tell that I was dipping into my reserves.
So tomorrow it's the scooter for me. I feel just fine about that because I've earned it.
And I'll try to remember to bump this thread legitimately tomorrow evening.
A bonus: next week I only work three days and then it's followed by five whole days off. This is because I'm shifting my schedule around to cover staffing gaps for a colleagues vacation. That's not a problem, of course.
But three days on, five days off. Life is good......
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Post by bluegoatwoods on May 30, 2016 15:43:24 GMT -5
I just love this scoot. Exactly the type of thing I long for.
In fact, I copied a few of the photos from this thread and put them in a folder for ideas for styling my own bike in a similar manner.
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