Sometimes You Feel Like A

... nut.

BRU LIVES!

Just needs a new rear axle nut.
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When Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth

... and Michael Jackson still had his original nose, Suzuki used to make scooters under 400cc, they say.
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Maybe NOT Kissin' Cousins

That's the Kymco Yup 250 (left) and the People 250. I got to wonderin' if I could replace some body panels (the front ones, expecially), but I didn't happen to notice the much smaller wheels on the Yup, did I? :)
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Norm's River Roadhouse

Now HERE is a place we should set for a scooting event. It's got it all -- it's far enough away from town to give people a nice ride through the rural areas, they have live music, GREAT BBQ, camping, fishing and more.

What more do you need, people?

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Beer Run

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Nekkid BRU

Fuck the Big Ruckus. THIS IS THE SHIT.

:lol:
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Flo @ ESS

It's not everyday you get to meet a celebrity at your local scooter shop... and sitting on a Genuine Buddy 125, at that.
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I Needed That

A night ride through Percy Warner Park, that is.

I didn't know if it'd be open, but the signage at the Belle Meade end of the park said 11:00 p.m., so in I went. Cautiously, mostly... it's VERY dark in there, and the paved surfaces were half wet, half not. It's tough to know where the edges are unless one slows down. Keep in mind, this is NOT familiar territory for me, so I kept a civil throttle in hand.

About 40 minutes in, I stopped at what looked to be a scenic overlook, and opened a beer. I sat in silence, had a smoke, and listened to a large critter (presumably a deer -- I saw two in the park, tonight) crashing through the dense foliage. I sat at a picnic table, enjoying my beer, watching the distant lightning consistently flashing through the shadowy canopy of trees above me.

It was heaven.

Nice to get out of my head for a while, it was.
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SYM Fiddle: Lovin' This Bike

And again, a big shout-out to Josephine @ ESS for loaning it to me while the Kymco People 250 is in the shop. The parts they ordered for the People 250 from KymcoUSA last Monday didn't arrive last week, so I'm very grateful for the loaner Fiddle.

The SYM Fiddle is a ballsy li'l 49.4cc scooter that really makes me miss my Yamaha Vino. 10-inch wheels do make for a "twitchier" riding experience, but also one that's more responsive. I can flick this bike from one side of the lane to the other with barely any effort -- just a brief lean, and you're where you need to be, ASAP.

Josephine uses IPONE 2-stroke oil in her Fiddle, which is ostensibly strawberry-scented and smokeless. Smokeless, I can attest... but it doesn't smell anything like any strawberries I've ever huffed. :)

Overall, I'm so impressed with the quality of the Fiddle that I'm putting SYM at the top of my tryout list for my next scooter. I really like the looks of the Citycom 300i, so maybe I'll give that one a test ride, soon.
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Quality Product

If the plastics and/or vinyl on your scoot are looking sad, tired or sun-faded, this here is the stuff: Mothers Back-to-Black.

Easy-to-use, and reasonably priced, B-to-B will make your plastics come back to life. Best of all, it's not terribly oily, so you can even use it on your floorboard mat.

Available at Advance Auto Parts and other fine automotive shops.
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Open Apology To KymcoUSA

Mea Maxima Culpa.

Although I didn't intend to go over the top with my open letter to the CEO of KymcoUSA, my dealer reminded me today that in fact, KymcoUSA has never denied me a warranty claim, and he's right. I haven't lodged one, as of yet, but I will.

I just assumed that any claim would be denied, because I'm a second owner, without all of the paperwork that I've read elsewhere on the 'net would be necessary to file such claims.

However, both my local dealer (who is handling the repairs) and I feel that KymcoUSA is a stand-up company, and willing to "work the problem" through to a mutually-satisfactory resolution. If my previous comments were seen as disparagement of Kymco, I sincerely apologize -- I did not intend for that to be the case. To forestall any misunderstandings, I've deleted the post describing what I thought had been a very fair description of my experiences with KymcoUSA (which have been overwhelmingly positive!), to date (including their dispatching of Mike Hancock to look at my Agility 125, a couple of summers ago).

I'll keep the blog updated with further news, as it comes in, but I think KymcoUSA is willing to work with me and James to "do the right thing" where my latest issues with the People 250 are concerned. I appreciate their help, and James' help (really, no one could hope for a better scooter dealer), throughout, and I hope that is very clear to everyone reading -- thank you for staying with me on this.
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Video: Bill Meek & Sandy

I love this -- I've known about Bill & Sandy for a while, but I finally got to meet them, yesterday, at the ESS 2nd Anniversary Ride.

It's very impressive, in person, I'll tell ya.

For more Bill & Sandy, see Sandy's website.
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Free T-Shirt

I can ride with pride, now that I have a t-shirt with a curvy cartoon woman on the back of it. :) Well, that and Kymco sounds like they may be helping me out with my repair issues on BRU.

Thanks, Kymco!
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The Only Scooters

... that haven't turned to shit under my ass in May, 2009:

A toy modern Vespa, of some sort (who can keep up with them?), and...

... a toy Honda Metropolitan.

When I returned home today, after a wonderful ride through Percy Warner Park (and then, the breakdown of Josephine's Fiddle), there was an envelope on my doorstep from a neighbor kid, containing these 1:24 replicas -- and damned detailed they are, too. That was awfully nice of him to share his toys, like that. If he won't let me give 'em back, I'll have to come up with something nice for him... he's being raised by his grandpa, who has cancer, and just lost his grandma to cancer, a few months ago.
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Verdict

Broken.

Cam.

Chain.

At 8600km. Right after a blown head gasket at 8400km. Major, major repairs on a bike that should be under warranty. To replace this, the engine has to come out, the case cracked, and many, many hours of hard labor.

Up next: Open Letter To KymcoUSA.
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Thanks, Josephine!

The People 250 is in the shop, now... soon, the verdict will come in.

In the meantime, given that I may be starting a job next Wednesday, Josephine @ ESS offered to loan me her nifty li'l SYM Fiddle 50 to get me around. I, in return, offered to rent it from her, but she wouldn't hear of it. So, I hit upon a compromise: The shop's mini-fridge has been down for a couple of months, so I said I would give them the one I got from a Peabody student who was going to throw it away last May. After all, I just use it to store beers and condiments. :)

So again, ESS comes to my rescue! Best Scooter Shop In Nashville? Well, duh!

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Last Week For Better Karma

I'd really like for you to consider clicking this link, signing up with if.net, and voting for my video in the contest.

Why?

'Cause I'm going to give it to this guy, if I win it. As bad as I seem to need wheels right now, I think Bez needs them worse. He's got a family to support, whereas I just have a couple of cats (and they're great cats, but they don't eat all that much).

So, please -- consider going over there and voting for my video, and voting against the other losers in the Top 5. ;)
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Six Days Later

... and I'm pushing that 367lb. biotch up this hill, again. Fortunately, I was a half-mile closer, this time. :)

I don't think this has anything to do with the previous repair(s), so let me be perfectly clear: I don't think this is ESS' problem. I think this is just my "string of good luck" for May, 2009 (which includes frozen bank accounts and other stupidity that's all conspiring to TRY to prevent me from getting to a really good job interview on Tuesday afternoon, it would seem).

This time, I was riding up this hill, when suddenly I heard a quiet "thunk," and the bike shut off. I went to try to start it, and the starter motor came to life, but spun quickly, unburdened by engagement with the flywheel.

Push, push, push. Rest. Try the starter again. Same thang.

I'll be glad when my luck changes.

UPDATE: Here's what it was.
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Battery Update: Good, So Far

Get 'er started, rode around the neghborhood for ~45 minutes (so if there WAS a problem, I wouldn't have so far to push it!). Gettin' ready to head over to ESS, so we'll see if it starts on Try Number Two.

UPDATE (to the update): The scooter gods seem to be smiling on me. I've stopped and started the scooter at least a dozen times, today, so I'm hoping the trickle charge overnight resolved the battery issue. It'd be odd, since it really doesn't take much to kill a motorcycle battery, but right now, life is good.
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It's A Wonderful Life

This has been an eventful day.

I'll not cover the part prior to noon, where I had a good job interview (yay!), and got to walk a lot and take buses, etc.

Instead, let's go straight to the scooter stuff, since this is, after all, the scooter blog!

Okay, let's catch everyone up (if you're caught up, click here): On Friday, Chris at ESS fixed a very troublesome and nefarious issue on the People 250 -- the completely busted head gasket. I am happy to report there is no more leakage, and when the scooter is running, it runs like a scalded opossum. Head gasket repair = AWESOME.

As I was riding back to the homestead with the newly-fixed head gasket, I ran into traffic for the TSU graduation ceremony. Crawling traffic. As soon as I let off the throttle, the engine died. "Okay," thinks I, "Chris may not have gotten the air intake tightened up, etc., when he was quickly re-assembling the bike so's I could ride my sole transportation home that day, which was very thoughtful -- shit happens." :) I figured I could resolve that in fairly short order on Saturday.

Saturday morning, the bike starts up, no problem. I still have to keep some throttle applied to keep it going, but I haven't even looked at that, yet. I run a short errand, and back to the homestead before the storms rolled in. After the storms, I went to run another short errand, and the bike won't start. The idiot lights on the "dash" come on, as does the headlight. Hmmm. Okay, I reckon I need a jump, but no one's around to offer one.

Sunday morning: Now, the bike won't start (surprise!), and no idiot lights or headlight. Uh-oh. Battery must be daid. Really, really DEAD as a doornail. That ain't right.

Today, James calls to suggest that his brother-in-law (who lives around the corner from me) stop by to jump the bike, and that I ride it straight into the shop (which is closed, but James, being the great scooter dealer that he is, offers to come in on his day off to help me figure out the issue). His BiL comes by, and we jump the bike. It starts, and he notices some white smoke, and we both smell that sickening burnt insulation smell which indicates a much scarier problem. Needless to say, as soon as we disconnect the jumpers, the bike dies again. Uh-oh.

I decide that it might be a good idea to disconnect the battery, on the theory that if it isn't totally wasted now, it sure will be if I leave it in-circuit. While I'm doing that, I also reckon I might as well undo the four bolts that hold in the seat bucket, and pull it out, so I can inspect for electrical fire damage. :)

The first thing I noticed was this: There was a vacuum hose disconnected from the intake manifold (at least I think that's what that is!). Aha... that would probably explain the whole "dies-without-throttle" thang.

The vacuum line (highlighted) was misrouted so that it was pinched between the bottom of the seat bucket, and the plate at the top of this photo. This caused the connection indicated by the circular portion of the highlight, above, to pull free. I reconnected the line, and re-routed the line under the plate (as shown in the photo).

Now, onto something that was clearly my fault.  :)  

This is the connection to the cigarette lighter adaptor socket. on 5/8, when new-guy Josh and I were trying to get the seat bucket out at the shop, we could NOT get the connector to let loose. So, Josh helpfully suggested that we unscrew the li'l brass nut on the back of the socket, which freed up the whole thang (and caused us to have the socket in a half-dozen little pieces). Anyway, we taped up the loose connectors, and when Josh was re-assembling it later that afternoon, I specifically recall telling him not to worry with putting that back together, since we'd have to dick with it again when the head gasket came in.

So, off I rode, with these connectors taped up... but they, too, were trapped between the bottom of the seat bucket and the frame. D'oh!  You guessed it -- my fat ass sitting on the scooter eventually wore some of the electrical tape through so that there was an intermittant near-dead short to the frame. Well, now we know what happened to the battery.  :)

I went inside to call James and share the good news -- I think if we get the battery to hold a charge, we're golden!  Yay!  Another local scooter guy, Oliver, was enlisted to bring me a jump and a battery charger, and/or a haul into the shop in the back of his truck, if all else fails.

Oliver arrives, we jump the bike, and eureka!  Life seems good!  Bike runs like a top, doesn't die when we disconnect the jumpers, and is idling normally. Oliver goes on his way, and I go for what I thought was a long enough ride to charge the battery.

That's what I get for thinkin'.

I wound up my ride ~2.5 miles from home when I went into a store, and shut off the engine. When I came out, nada. I was close to a Pep Boys, though. They helpfully jumped the bike for me, but as soon as we disconnected the jumpers, the bike died.  :(

So, I pushed that 367lb. mofo all the way home, uphill, both ways.  :)  Actually, I did "coast" it on the few stretches of slight-downhill slope... which leads to the funny. A cop got behind me on one of those short coasting jaunts, and pulled beside me (rolling at 2mph), berating me for not having my helmet on...

"[huff-puff] I'm not [huff-puff] riding [huff-puff]... I'm [huff-puff] PUSHING!"

"Well, get your helmet on!"

He drives off, and I decide I don't need heat stroke on such a nice day, and ignore the cop's well-intentioned but bad, bad advice.  :)

The battery is on the slow-charger, as I type. We'll see where we are tomorrow morning.

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