Ross and PatROCK were walking next door (from the shop) to Burger King, when Ross called out something unintelligible, and made a throwing motion over the fence towards me. 
I have to believe that the last fill-up has tossed a wrench in thangs, although theoretically, it shouldn't, since fuelly.com calculates by how many miles you traveled and how much fuel you put in. If you'll recall, I filled-up last Sunday before my ride with Jason, but I only needed about 1/2 tank to top up. Still, any time you fill it to the cutoff point, fuelly wants you to treat that as a fill-up (and any time you don't, you log it as a partial, as that will throw things off if not recorded as such).
Some online research suggests that EBC part# FA197 (or FA197HH) will fit my front caliper (and about 30 other bikes). I have a local dealer that has these pads in stock. However, some online illustrations show the above (what I need), or they show two of the "B" pads in the above illustration (which fit my rear caliper, but not my front -- need that "hook" on the "A" pad to match what's on there, now). This reference says it fits front and rear, but I can tell ya, the rear looks like two "B" pads, as illustrated, while the front looks like one each, A+B.
The front brake pads and the rear brake pads are NOT interchangeable on the People 250. I know this because I had ordered a set of rear pads back when I had my caliper issue, but that was premature. My front pads are gone, and are now scarring my rotor. I hope the shop doesn't mind that I ordered the front pads and a rotor (in lieu of wages for this week). 
Acceleration from 0-50mph is like being shot out of a cannon, so I suspect these 20g sliders are a lot lighter than the stock rollers that Kymco fits the bike with at the factory.
Patrick got my scooter reassembled, and it fired right up. However, it is still overheating. We did see some steam this time, but Patrick thinks that was due to spilled coolant, and not to a leak.
Still diagnosing the problem, but the mechanic does not believe my head gasket to be compromised.
Hey, my valves are now adjusted to factory spec, though. They weren't far out, but...
Photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com (Creative Commons).
I've been a fairly big fan of SeaFoam, regarding supposed additives that help keep a fuel system clean and a small engine happy, but I've been reading a lot of praise for this product, StarTron by StarBrite. Since ESS has started carrying it, I decided to give it a try, and will let you know how it works out. The claims are that it helps to counteract the deleterious effects of E10 fuel (90% gasoline/10% ethanol; thanks, Congress!). Since 1oz. treats six gallons, I added ~0.3oz to this last fill up, performed this morning as I was going to work at ESS.
Vapor lock?
Never reaching more than halfway on the temperature gauge, now, and that's in heavy traffic in our wonderfully warm spring weather.
I worked at the shop yesterday, and it was a busy day. Near the end of the day, it slowed down enough that I was able to remove the front cowl (10 screws!), and hope to "bleed" the air out of the cooling system. The service manual admonishes one to do this, but does not describe the method for doing so. So, trying to be logical, I noted that the radiator cap is the highest point of the cooling system, so I opened the cap, and started the scooter.Photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com (Creative Commons).
Looks like I needed it, hm? Got over 14,000km on that bad boy, but it should have gone at 11,000km.
Can you believe that a couple of hours ago, there wasn't a flake of snow on that seat? Now, I know... that's not a lot of snow. But this is Nashville, people. In the 14 years I've lived here, this much or more accumulation has only happened like three times.
Here I am, arriving at ESS this past Wednesday for "Project X." More about that as time goes by.
Willy prepares to split the case on the engine of his 1981 Vespa PX125. This previously was owned by Plumgood, who painted it Barney-ass Purple, go figure.
The case... she is split! Unfortunately, the kickstart shaft which he was trying to repair is FUBAR, so he's going to part this engine out, and put a 200cc Vespa engine in the Purple Pimpala.
Closer examination shows that the front bolt that holds the rear caliper to the swingarm has vibrated itself completely loose. If not for the muffler, it would have hit the road some time ago, but as it is, it backs out only as far as the muffler will allow. That distance, however, is sufficient to allow the caliper to clear the threaded end of the bolt (probably designed that way so one can change the rear brake pads without removing the muffler, if one is talented enough).
The end result being that the caliper, now only being held by one bolt, was allowed to pivot on the axis of that bolt, and that last application of the rear brake was enough to cause the front of the caliper body to contact the rotor, which cut into the caliper like a saw blade. Good thing I wasn't going very fast, eh?
As you can see, the end of the caliper where the damage is is now discolored to a bronze-like color, instead of the aluminum color of the rest of it. I hope this does not mean that it is irretrievably damaged. The rotor only has some small nicks in the very edge, and no burrs, so I think it is okay.
The whole caliper, uninstalled. I couldn't get the small wrench I had with me into the tight space to re-tighten the front bolt, and I wasn't going to try to remove the muffler there at the gas station. So I removed the caliper from the rotor, and hung it over my rear passenger footpeg to get it home (it definitely would not have been safe to leave it attached as it was). Today, when I needed to ride again, I removed the caliper, entirely, to prevent further damage to it or the brake line.
