Post by bluegoatwoods on Jan 4, 2020 6:13:24 GMT -5
I was fairly active here for a while. For about a year now I've been avoiding forums (fora?) because I was spending a bit too much time on the internet. I'm understating it. Far too much time puts it better.
Also I retired in the late summer of 2018 and found.......to my surprise.........that I just wasn't scootering very much. I no longer had a destination to go to. I hadn't taken that into account. I tried to ride a bit just for the sake of riding. But I've got too much else to do around the home to be riding very much for it's own sake. I'm also heavily into bicycles and need to put a bit of time into that as well.
There are four scooters in this family. A 2016 Honda Metropolitan for my wife and a 2009 Kymco People 150 for me. I also picked up two Chinese 150 cc scoots not long after buying those first two. They were mostly meant as spares. Yet I've found that I'm really fond of my Icebear 150. I've forgotten the model name. But it's one of those that was meant to look like something from Europe in the 1950s. It's a really sweet bike. Sometimes I think of selling one or the other of my bikes. I don't need two, after all. But every time I choose one or the other I'll find myself riding that one and thinking, "But I do like this bike........." and then I have second thoughts.
The fourth bike is one of those red Tao Tao VIP 150s. I've always been fond of that bike as well. It grips the road very nicely, for instance. But I've ridden it much less because I turned it over to one of my daughters pretty early in the game so that she could have some transportation. It really hasn't done so well. I don't think it's the bikes fault. I think it's my daughter.
Bless her..........but she just doesn't have the 'feel' for what a machine can and can not take. (My wife's not very good with that either, by the way.) She's beaten that poor machine very nearly into tiny little pieces. I had to take it away from her. It wasn't going to last much longer. I'll give her a ride to work during the winter. Come spring.......she's going back to a bicycle. That actually started a few months ago when I took the scooter away from her. She hasn't done badly with the bike. She'll be okay.
So now I'm working on bringing the red Tao Tao back from the near-dead. And it's enjoyable. I've got it running and took the first test ride on it in a while a few days ago. I seem to have a bit of an issue with fuel starvation under load. But I'll figure it out sooner or later. And I'm remembering what it's like to cut up my hands and forearms squeezing my hands into those tiny little spaces in the engine compartment. Meh....I can do without that. I guess I'd better think about getting some small 'blankets' of some sort to cover those sharp edges.
Once I've got it running well I'm going to need to start reinforcing those body panels with their broken plastic tabs and such. And who knows what other looseness and broken stress points I'll find in there? This project will last me into the summer, I think.
But I am fond of this bike and I'm not unhappy about working with it again. And doing this has reminded me of the fact that these really are charming little machines.
And that got me thinking, "Well......I really ought to check in on 49cc scoot again. They're good folks over that way". Hence this post.
I've got to close this up now in order to avoid spending too much time on the internet again. But I'll make it a point to come back soon and go over the new posts and see what some of you others are doing.
See ya soon!
Also I retired in the late summer of 2018 and found.......to my surprise.........that I just wasn't scootering very much. I no longer had a destination to go to. I hadn't taken that into account. I tried to ride a bit just for the sake of riding. But I've got too much else to do around the home to be riding very much for it's own sake. I'm also heavily into bicycles and need to put a bit of time into that as well.
There are four scooters in this family. A 2016 Honda Metropolitan for my wife and a 2009 Kymco People 150 for me. I also picked up two Chinese 150 cc scoots not long after buying those first two. They were mostly meant as spares. Yet I've found that I'm really fond of my Icebear 150. I've forgotten the model name. But it's one of those that was meant to look like something from Europe in the 1950s. It's a really sweet bike. Sometimes I think of selling one or the other of my bikes. I don't need two, after all. But every time I choose one or the other I'll find myself riding that one and thinking, "But I do like this bike........." and then I have second thoughts.
The fourth bike is one of those red Tao Tao VIP 150s. I've always been fond of that bike as well. It grips the road very nicely, for instance. But I've ridden it much less because I turned it over to one of my daughters pretty early in the game so that she could have some transportation. It really hasn't done so well. I don't think it's the bikes fault. I think it's my daughter.
Bless her..........but she just doesn't have the 'feel' for what a machine can and can not take. (My wife's not very good with that either, by the way.) She's beaten that poor machine very nearly into tiny little pieces. I had to take it away from her. It wasn't going to last much longer. I'll give her a ride to work during the winter. Come spring.......she's going back to a bicycle. That actually started a few months ago when I took the scooter away from her. She hasn't done badly with the bike. She'll be okay.
So now I'm working on bringing the red Tao Tao back from the near-dead. And it's enjoyable. I've got it running and took the first test ride on it in a while a few days ago. I seem to have a bit of an issue with fuel starvation under load. But I'll figure it out sooner or later. And I'm remembering what it's like to cut up my hands and forearms squeezing my hands into those tiny little spaces in the engine compartment. Meh....I can do without that. I guess I'd better think about getting some small 'blankets' of some sort to cover those sharp edges.
Once I've got it running well I'm going to need to start reinforcing those body panels with their broken plastic tabs and such. And who knows what other looseness and broken stress points I'll find in there? This project will last me into the summer, I think.
But I am fond of this bike and I'm not unhappy about working with it again. And doing this has reminded me of the fact that these really are charming little machines.
And that got me thinking, "Well......I really ought to check in on 49cc scoot again. They're good folks over that way". Hence this post.
I've got to close this up now in order to avoid spending too much time on the internet again. But I'll make it a point to come back soon and go over the new posts and see what some of you others are doing.
See ya soon!
