I am having constant problems with my lights, by here's a guy who seems to have his problems figured out with HID (high-intensity discharge headlights a.k.a. Xenon bulbs):
http://www.scootercommunity.com.au/forums/t/2943.aspx
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Compatibility: Avispa Verucci
Here's one more of the same: Avispa Verucci scooter. I think Verucci is the brand and Avispa is the name for the 150cc model.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Planned repairs
I went to my dealership this Thursday and picked a whole bunch of stuff that I needed to replace. This included both stands, lenses for the rear light and an 18 Watt front headlight. Can't wait to finally fix all these things.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
How you can support this site
When searching the web for information, I usually feel quite grateful finding little bits and pieces that were put there by all sorts of hobbyists or enthusiasts. It used to be, the better the page, the faster I was able to get the info and get out of there to work on my own stuff. This has changed quite a bit since I started this site last year.
This site has in fact began to draw some people this past summer. Enough to make it meaningful to keep putting my time into it, but insufficient to make it sustainable. Given large enough number of users, we could have a forum to share experience. I could also post content from other people. I'd hope I won't eventually get every possible breakdown!
Large number of visitors would warrant purchasing a spot to at least host download files such as the manual or even the entire site. The adds have not yet translated into any actual cash in my pocket. I am mostly doing them to figure out how this stuff works. All expenses have to my own and this only makes sense if there is sufficient number of people benefiting from it.
These days, when I come across a site that I find genuinely helpful, I don't just grab-and-run. Instead, I try to give something back. Usually it is not the money, but some other internet-valuables. Mostly, I try to leave links to such sites either on my own pages or forums or any other place online. This draws in more visitors - and the hosts can decide themselves what they want to do with it. If you want to help this site, think for a second if there's any way you could mention it or just leave a link somewhere. At this point, there is exactly zero links to this place in the whole world wide web (or so Google tells me). Yours could be a 100% change! This being said, of course please don't go around spamming.
Another and much more involved way to contribute is to write about you own experience. This could be riding experience, advice for beginners, or a description of some repair or modification. Reviews of dealers or store experience would be great as well! If you feel like contributing in this way, let me know! Just leave a comment here and I'll send you an email.
This site has in fact began to draw some people this past summer. Enough to make it meaningful to keep putting my time into it, but insufficient to make it sustainable. Given large enough number of users, we could have a forum to share experience. I could also post content from other people. I'd hope I won't eventually get every possible breakdown!
Large number of visitors would warrant purchasing a spot to at least host download files such as the manual or even the entire site. The adds have not yet translated into any actual cash in my pocket. I am mostly doing them to figure out how this stuff works. All expenses have to my own and this only makes sense if there is sufficient number of people benefiting from it.
These days, when I come across a site that I find genuinely helpful, I don't just grab-and-run. Instead, I try to give something back. Usually it is not the money, but some other internet-valuables. Mostly, I try to leave links to such sites either on my own pages or forums or any other place online. This draws in more visitors - and the hosts can decide themselves what they want to do with it. If you want to help this site, think for a second if there's any way you could mention it or just leave a link somewhere. At this point, there is exactly zero links to this place in the whole world wide web (or so Google tells me). Yours could be a 100% change! This being said, of course please don't go around spamming.
Another and much more involved way to contribute is to write about you own experience. This could be riding experience, advice for beginners, or a description of some repair or modification. Reviews of dealers or store experience would be great as well! If you feel like contributing in this way, let me know! Just leave a comment here and I'll send you an email.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
How to convert your scooter's odometer to miles
The odometer on your Chinese scooter most likely shows the distance traveled in kilometers. This is often the case even if the manual or your dealer says it will actually be in miles. You can check this of course by traveling a short distance, writing down the readings and then checking the distance against your favorite maps website, i.e. Google Maps.
To convert kilometers to miles, simply divide by 1.602 . That is , 1km = 1/1.602 mi = 0.624 mi.
To convert kilometers to miles, simply divide by 1.602 . That is , 1km = 1/1.602 mi = 0.624 mi.
Broken centerstand
My center stand broke today as I tried to park at a store. Because the kickstand has broken some time ago and wasn't replaced, I have no normal way to leave my scooter anymore. So I have to sit on the whole day. Kidding. I ended up riding back home and jamming the scoot between my house and fire staircase. Fortunately enough the spot is just wide enough to hold the scoot. The odometer is now at 7028 km - that's about 4400 miles.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Gravel
It's that time of the year again - the city of Minneapolis fills its emergency rooms by covering road with loose gravel. This is supposed to heal the roads a little, but it also means scores of people who loose control of their vehicles and skid on this stuff. You probably know this already from driving your car, but things are way worse for the scooters. Scooter on gravel road is sort of like a cow on ice (or at least that's how I imagine cows on ice). The hardest part comes when you slow down or take a turn (think of turning from a normal road to one with gravel). The wheels tend to lock and the scoot starts skidding. Scoot carefully!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Changing transmission oil on my scooter
It is normally recommended that scooter transmission oil be changed at least once a year. Once I hit 6000km - probably more then a typical year's worth of riding - and especially after that long ride to Duluth, it seemed like transmission oil change for my Baron was due.
There are three types of oil you can find in motorcycle and auto stores, besides the cleaning/penetrating types. These are various types of engine, automatic transmission fluid (ATF) and gear oil. While our scoots have "automatic" transmission, the V-belt transmission works quite different from car's AT and what I believe should be used for scooters is the gear oil. This is the stuff that goes into manual transmission boxes and perhaps other machinery. Gear oil is standardized similarly to engine oil, by a range of viscosity. I dug online a little and found suggestions to use 75 to 90 W oils for scooter transmission. This is exactly what I'll be going for.
It is a good time to remind you that I am not in any way offering a professional advice on these pages.
What I found in AutoZone was a cheep and very convenient bottle of 75-90W, exactly what I needed. It cost about $6. The most expensive one from Mobile-1 (with a larger range, up to something like 140W), was about 15$. The bottle is so big it will last a lifetime, I just wanted to use mineral oil. All of these bottles had convenient funnel tip which helps to squirt the oil into the transmission box and set the level correctly.
So there you go - it's meet-the-bottle moment (these are full-resolution images):
Main points about it are
-It is gear oil
-It is rated 75W-90 (wider range is OK)
-It has a funnel tip
The oil is drained from a drain plug on the bottom of the V-belt box. There's really a small amout of it. I drained mine into a glass jar. This fill screw is on the side of the transmission box. Here's a pic:
The screws are M6 and so they take a 10mm wrench or hex sockets.
Notice aluminum gaskets on each of these screws. They get smashed a little by the screws and hold the seal to keep the oil in. It is a good practice to replace these sorts of things, but I just put mine back in.
Draining was easy. I drove it around to warm up the oil a little. Then I stalled the scoot (which means turn off the ignition), put it on a center stand and undone the drain screw. Some dark and really thick oil come out. It really looked like it was long due! (Undo the level screw to let the oil flow out easier.) Since it was so viscous, I had to wait upward of 10 minutes as it just kept oozing out. Then I cleaned the drain screw and its gasket in this very stuff (which in fact becomes a great penetrating oil) and put them back in.
Filling is easy with the funnel-tip bottle. The bottle is flexible, and you just squeeze the bottle to force the stuff in and then let whatever is in excess to flow out. I repeated this to make sure the oil filled all the cavities. Once again, it takes a rather long time for it to drip out. The scoot is supposed to be horizontal for this procedure, so I just did my best to kinda lift the front wheel up a little. I am not sure if this was at all necessary. Then I put the level screw with its gasket back in.
The seals. Since there's no level meter (the level is simply at the position of the fill screw), my biggest worry was that it will leak some oil without me noticing. It got the screws tight with a ratchet, but not crazy-tight as to not to crash the gaskets or break the threads. Then I rode a little and parked the scooter overnight with a piece of paper under this area. Nothing came out so I assume I did this correctly. Still, there was a little grime on the level screw later on when I did this picture.
The ride. The scooter did seam a little quieter and smoother, but hey maybe it's just in my head. I have my idle set too low so the scoot sometimes stalls at intersections. It does seem to happen less often now after the change.
There are three types of oil you can find in motorcycle and auto stores, besides the cleaning/penetrating types. These are various types of engine, automatic transmission fluid (ATF) and gear oil. While our scoots have "automatic" transmission, the V-belt transmission works quite different from car's AT and what I believe should be used for scooters is the gear oil. This is the stuff that goes into manual transmission boxes and perhaps other machinery. Gear oil is standardized similarly to engine oil, by a range of viscosity. I dug online a little and found suggestions to use 75 to 90 W oils for scooter transmission. This is exactly what I'll be going for.
It is a good time to remind you that I am not in any way offering a professional advice on these pages.
What I found in AutoZone was a cheep and very convenient bottle of 75-90W, exactly what I needed. It cost about $6. The most expensive one from Mobile-1 (with a larger range, up to something like 140W), was about 15$. The bottle is so big it will last a lifetime, I just wanted to use mineral oil. All of these bottles had convenient funnel tip which helps to squirt the oil into the transmission box and set the level correctly.
So there you go - it's meet-the-bottle moment (these are full-resolution images):
Main points about it are
-It is gear oil
-It is rated 75W-90 (wider range is OK)
-It has a funnel tip
The oil is drained from a drain plug on the bottom of the V-belt box. There's really a small amout of it. I drained mine into a glass jar. This fill screw is on the side of the transmission box. Here's a pic:
The screws are M6 and so they take a 10mm wrench or hex sockets.
Notice aluminum gaskets on each of these screws. They get smashed a little by the screws and hold the seal to keep the oil in. It is a good practice to replace these sorts of things, but I just put mine back in.
Draining was easy. I drove it around to warm up the oil a little. Then I stalled the scoot (which means turn off the ignition), put it on a center stand and undone the drain screw. Some dark and really thick oil come out. It really looked like it was long due! (Undo the level screw to let the oil flow out easier.) Since it was so viscous, I had to wait upward of 10 minutes as it just kept oozing out. Then I cleaned the drain screw and its gasket in this very stuff (which in fact becomes a great penetrating oil) and put them back in.
Filling is easy with the funnel-tip bottle. The bottle is flexible, and you just squeeze the bottle to force the stuff in and then let whatever is in excess to flow out. I repeated this to make sure the oil filled all the cavities. Once again, it takes a rather long time for it to drip out. The scoot is supposed to be horizontal for this procedure, so I just did my best to kinda lift the front wheel up a little. I am not sure if this was at all necessary. Then I put the level screw with its gasket back in.
The seals. Since there's no level meter (the level is simply at the position of the fill screw), my biggest worry was that it will leak some oil without me noticing. It got the screws tight with a ratchet, but not crazy-tight as to not to crash the gaskets or break the threads. Then I rode a little and parked the scooter overnight with a piece of paper under this area. Nothing came out so I assume I did this correctly. Still, there was a little grime on the level screw later on when I did this picture.
The ride. The scooter did seam a little quieter and smoother, but hey maybe it's just in my head. I have my idle set too low so the scoot sometimes stalls at intersections. It does seem to happen less often now after the change.
Friday, July 18, 2008
So my small kickstand just fell off
As I parked at a store today, my small kickstand simply fell off. Good thing I kept the scoot from tipping. What fell off was a fact a piece of it -- the metal simply broke! This is a little scary if only because the frame may be of the same quality and fixing that would be a pain. It also looks like it make have broken along a welded edge because the metal is spongy and has bubbles in it. Or perhaps its just Chinese take on Swiss quality, and the metal is shit.
Anyways, a piece of it is still hanging. I flipped it to the "up" position and rode like that. I am now at 6328km, and that's 3900 miles.
Anyways, a piece of it is still hanging. I flipped it to the "up" position and rode like that. I am now at 6328km, and that's 3900 miles.
Monday, July 14, 2008
It's Ride to work day this Wednesday!
It's the ride to work day tomorrow! Not like it's different from any other day's riding to work for a real fan ;) but just in case you had some excuse from riding tomorrow - see if you can drop it!
http://www.ridetowork.org/
I'll keep my eyes open to see if there will be any visibly changed presence of scooters on the roads in Twin Cities.
http://www.ridetowork.org/I'll keep my eyes open to see if there will be any visibly changed presence of scooters on the roads in Twin Cities.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Trip to Duluth from Minneapolis
I went to Duluth this past 4th of July. This was a 300 miles trip and a major undertaking for me. In fact I never took my scoot anywhere that far. Duluth is a small port city on Lake Superior but in fact a largest fresh water port in the world or something like that. It is a common weekend destination for folks in Twin Cities. After all, this is about the only place you can get to in a day's worth of riding from here :) That is, of car riding. I learned one of friends attempted this on a scooter but wasn't able to get there. His story was he just had to refuel too often and so he turned back. I think he used one of juiced Genuine 50cc scooters for that trip. Well, mine is a 150cc so I had a better chance - but only one short evening to prepare!
View Larger Map
(Normal route would be of course 35W going straight all the way to Duluth harbor area.)
Here's what I did to get ready for the ride:
Changed the oil -- it was long due. Good thing I got some earlier that day. So the whole ride went on fresh oil.
Tightened as many nuts as I found. The wheels seemed tight on :) Checked nuts and bolts on muffler clamps and engine-muffler joint, the kickstands and brake calipers.
Checked the tire pressure. My back tire tends to leak a little. Got it back up to 33psi.
Found out one of my rear shocks is full of dirt and oil. Wiped it all out to see if it's leaking (looks like it does).
Packed some tools. Because I just did an oil change, I tool a 17mm socket and a ratchet in case I have to tighten it a little. Phillips screwdriver for panels battery etc. and a 6mm Allen key in case the mirrors get loose (which happens regularly with mine). Then I came across mount straps that I won at the Rattle My Bones last year. This is the stuff you'd use to mount a scoot on a truck. Since I quite seriously anticipated never making it, I took those as well. None of this stuff became of any use.
Packed some spare things in case of rain. Jacked and a pullover. Long sleeve shirt not to get fried up. Usual gloves and unusual helmet with dark shield. Spare goggles. Water bottles, backpack and a lot of bungee cords to tie it all down once I get tired. A camera and yeah, my tripod. Got some snacks before leaving.
Already on my way, got sunscreen and some maps at a gas station early next day. I have experience burning myself on scoot rides. The wind cools you down and before you know it, it's all done. Given it was going to be at least eight hours of riding under bright sun, I made sure to cover myself as much as possible. Surprisingly, the only "cars" at that station were trucks, SUVs and perhaps some minivans but not a single happy face.
The ride
I got out at about 10:30am. The Cenral quickly became 65th highway - with 65mph speed limit. This was a little stressful but hey at least it has plenty lanes to take over. Whenever the traffic would get heavy, I went at 60mph. However I'd often try to go down to 50mph. The day was hot and I was quite worried not to overheat the engine. 60mph for me is far in the red zone and as fast as I can make it go.
The things soon started to look quite rural. The cars disappeared, and so did any signs of big cities. Forests and farmland - it is really easy to loose track of signs and just keep riding straight ahead. Having to jump highways kept me awake - and hell was it easy to miss some. At some point I took a wrong turn and got onto that very 35W - going back to Minneapolis. I was a long while before the next exit - and I had to take a large piece of the road over again. Then later on Google maps seemed to send me over towards a federal prison, or so the road signs said!
At that point I was on Hwy 123/23 - a great road with beautiful sights. The only problem was it didn't have any gas stations. By the time I got close to Duluth, I was almost empty with the arrow just about to lay flat. But hey I made it! On my way back I tried a side road and found a gas station there. However, some of it was actually closed down by the department of commerce - not an encouraging sign indeed! Here are a few pictures from the trip (all are clickable for a larger image):
The damage
There was of course a good chance that my scoot will simply stop in the middle of nowhere. My biggest worry was the heat and the stress of driving at large speed for so long. The engine could have easily overheated in that day's heat and many-hour riding its max. Or it could be something benign like a molten plastic piece somewhere. Well, I was lucky not to get down with anything like that.
As I was going back, some screws must have finally fell off from the plastic panels on the front fork (the one with the headlights). Some of the joints there must have been broken from flipping the scoot long time ago; once it all got loose, the remaining mounting brackets got more than their share of stress and some must have broken from that. So I took out a little side panel just not to loose it and kept going. The large front panel would make quite some rattle but it stayed put and I was able to finish ok. Surprisingly, the tool that I actually needed --- and of course did not have --- was a roll of duct tape!
Other than this, there was no apparent damage whatsoever. The scoot seems to be doing just fine, it is now at over 6000km.
A little statistics
It took me just over four hours to get back. The weather got colder (I arrived just after midnight), and since the task was complete anyways I was driving at 60mph most of the way. With getting lost and lower speeds, it took me about 6hrs to get to Duluth. So with experience, it is quite possible to have a normal day's trip there on a scooter!
I put on a total of 549km, or about 340mi. I've used just over 5 gallons of gas, and the mileage turned out to be 66 miles per gallon. This is a little surprising given that I'd expect lower mileage driving at my scooter's top speed. On the other hand, there was no stop-and-go thing.
I've spend an exact total of $20.47 for gas on the whole round trip. That is, if you don't count some assholes that turned out to charge my card $5 for some mystical carwash, but that's a whole different story.
Well, as this is getting really long, I'll just stop here. It was hell of a day!
View Larger Map
(Normal route would be of course 35W going straight all the way to Duluth harbor area.)
Here's what I did to get ready for the ride:
Changed the oil -- it was long due. Good thing I got some earlier that day. So the whole ride went on fresh oil.
Tightened as many nuts as I found. The wheels seemed tight on :) Checked nuts and bolts on muffler clamps and engine-muffler joint, the kickstands and brake calipers.
Checked the tire pressure. My back tire tends to leak a little. Got it back up to 33psi.
Found out one of my rear shocks is full of dirt and oil. Wiped it all out to see if it's leaking (looks like it does).
Packed some tools. Because I just did an oil change, I tool a 17mm socket and a ratchet in case I have to tighten it a little. Phillips screwdriver for panels battery etc. and a 6mm Allen key in case the mirrors get loose (which happens regularly with mine). Then I came across mount straps that I won at the Rattle My Bones last year. This is the stuff you'd use to mount a scoot on a truck. Since I quite seriously anticipated never making it, I took those as well. None of this stuff became of any use.
Packed some spare things in case of rain. Jacked and a pullover. Long sleeve shirt not to get fried up. Usual gloves and unusual helmet with dark shield. Spare goggles. Water bottles, backpack and a lot of bungee cords to tie it all down once I get tired. A camera and yeah, my tripod. Got some snacks before leaving.
Already on my way, got sunscreen and some maps at a gas station early next day. I have experience burning myself on scoot rides. The wind cools you down and before you know it, it's all done. Given it was going to be at least eight hours of riding under bright sun, I made sure to cover myself as much as possible. Surprisingly, the only "cars" at that station were trucks, SUVs and perhaps some minivans but not a single happy face.
The ride
I got out at about 10:30am. The Cenral quickly became 65th highway - with 65mph speed limit. This was a little stressful but hey at least it has plenty lanes to take over. Whenever the traffic would get heavy, I went at 60mph. However I'd often try to go down to 50mph. The day was hot and I was quite worried not to overheat the engine. 60mph for me is far in the red zone and as fast as I can make it go.
The things soon started to look quite rural. The cars disappeared, and so did any signs of big cities. Forests and farmland - it is really easy to loose track of signs and just keep riding straight ahead. Having to jump highways kept me awake - and hell was it easy to miss some. At some point I took a wrong turn and got onto that very 35W - going back to Minneapolis. I was a long while before the next exit - and I had to take a large piece of the road over again. Then later on Google maps seemed to send me over towards a federal prison, or so the road signs said!
At that point I was on Hwy 123/23 - a great road with beautiful sights. The only problem was it didn't have any gas stations. By the time I got close to Duluth, I was almost empty with the arrow just about to lay flat. But hey I made it! On my way back I tried a side road and found a gas station there. However, some of it was actually closed down by the department of commerce - not an encouraging sign indeed! Here are a few pictures from the trip (all are clickable for a larger image):
The damage
There was of course a good chance that my scoot will simply stop in the middle of nowhere. My biggest worry was the heat and the stress of driving at large speed for so long. The engine could have easily overheated in that day's heat and many-hour riding its max. Or it could be something benign like a molten plastic piece somewhere. Well, I was lucky not to get down with anything like that.
As I was going back, some screws must have finally fell off from the plastic panels on the front fork (the one with the headlights). Some of the joints there must have been broken from flipping the scoot long time ago; once it all got loose, the remaining mounting brackets got more than their share of stress and some must have broken from that. So I took out a little side panel just not to loose it and kept going. The large front panel would make quite some rattle but it stayed put and I was able to finish ok. Surprisingly, the tool that I actually needed --- and of course did not have --- was a roll of duct tape!
Other than this, there was no apparent damage whatsoever. The scoot seems to be doing just fine, it is now at over 6000km.
A little statistics
It took me just over four hours to get back. The weather got colder (I arrived just after midnight), and since the task was complete anyways I was driving at 60mph most of the way. With getting lost and lower speeds, it took me about 6hrs to get to Duluth. So with experience, it is quite possible to have a normal day's trip there on a scooter!
I put on a total of 549km, or about 340mi. I've used just over 5 gallons of gas, and the mileage turned out to be 66 miles per gallon. This is a little surprising given that I'd expect lower mileage driving at my scooter's top speed. On the other hand, there was no stop-and-go thing.
I've spend an exact total of $20.47 for gas on the whole round trip. That is, if you don't count some assholes that turned out to charge my card $5 for some mystical carwash, but that's a whole different story.
Well, as this is getting really long, I'll just stop here. It was hell of a day!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)