Loose Rear Wheel

Soon after I got my Baron, the back wheel got wobbly. I could sense something was wrong with it from the weird feeling at the turns, and squeaky sound from the rear breaks at low speeds. Pun it on the stand, and there it was - the back wheel would wobble by almost an inch from side to side! My guess is the wheels are something they put together at the dealership, and it just wasn't done quite right.

Turned out tightening the rear wheal axle lug nut was all there was to it. The size of the nut I recall is 21 or 20 mm. The size matches typical sized for car wheel lug nut - the ring of nuts that you have to take off to replace your tire. So go dig in your car's spare tire compartment, and pull out the lug nut wrench. These are made as either single-size long bent socket wrenches or as two metal bars welded together forming a cross, each bar ending with a socket thus giving you four different sizes.

Mine got loose before I hit my first thousand kilometers. So if you just got your scoot, it might be a good idea to check yours. Here's how to do this:


Put your Baron on a stand. Check if the wheal wobbles horizontally. Press the rear brake (left handlebar), then try tightening the nut with your lug nut wrench. If it was lose, then you might have just saved yourself from some serious trouble! With the kind of wrench that I had, there wasn't much room because the muffler was in the way. So I'd turn the wrench a little, let lose the breaks, turn the wheel a little so there's room for the wrench movement again, and repeat. Here's a wider view: