Mileage Calculation #5 - 76 gasoline

Time for another calculation.

(2948-2895)/0.750 = 71 mpg










Higher than last time by a couple MPG's! I didn't ride any more conservatively than normal. Looks like the average is 73 MPG so far. Not too bad. Sure beats the low 60's that I thought I was at but no where near the 96 MPG that Yamaha boasts. Maybe I should change the name of this blog.

Time for better gloves?

I have been using some "fashion" gloves bought from some leather company at an outlet store for $15 which are good for warmth but which aren't really designed to resist abrasive situations that I may be exposed to on the scooter. I had held off on getting motorcycle specific gloves for one reason - to save money. I sold the aftermarket seat that came with my scooter. The $45 from that plus my American Express credit is enough to buy the gloves, but I still held off for whatever reason. I just didn't feel like spending money until I saw this.

Is that scary enough for you? That's got to be the worst photo of motorcycle damaged hands I've ever seen in my life. This guy is a member of scootertime.net and had to soak is hands in salt water 3x a day and change bandages 3x a day. He was off from work for 2 months to recover! Ugh. His lesson to everyone? Wear gloves. Maybe it's time to get some cheap insurance on this and just get those gloves. Go ahead and click on the photo for a closeup.

How did this happen? He reported on the forum thread that someone had swerved in front of him. Something happened and I'm thinking he fell off and had skid across the pavement. Yuck.

Cool Scooters

This is Yamaha's Hydrogen model, FC-me. It's only a concept model though. Too bad b/c it looks amazing - amazing enough to steal. Wouldn't want one of these in our city.

How to use the center stand

Duh! It supposed to be an easy task, but that's how I hurt my wrist the first week with Uncle Victor's scooter. I've had a series of different methods I've used to put on and off the center stand and have only figured out the best way just today by pure accident. While taking the photos today, I really wanted to be able to take the scooter on/off the center stand more efficiently w/o having to get on and off the scooter since I was doing it a billion times an hour to get all the various shots.

ON THE CENTER STAND - Method 1
To put the center stand on, I had stood left of the scooter and put ball of my right toe on the lever with my toe facing towards the front of the scooter. As I depress the lever, my arms pull the handlebars up and towards the rear of the scooter. After watching Youtube, I discovered another method that props the scooter up on the stand much more easily.

ON THE CENTER STAND - Method 2 (current)
This method uses body weight more than strength or momentum which makes it very easy to do.

1. Stand facing the left side of the scooter.

2. Rest your right foot on the center stand lever with your toe facing the REAR of the scooter. With your right hand, hold onto the rear storage rack. Grasp it where the, "Never sit on this bar" sticker is.

3. Now put your body weight over the ball of your right foot over the center stand lever. Your right hand is used more to secure the scooter than anything else, but you can use it to help push the scooter slightly to the rear (or to your right).

OFF THE CENTER STAND - Method 1
When I first got the scooter, I held both handlebars while seated and pushed it forward off the center stand. It would usually take a few times to do. Finally I jerked it and messed up my wrist. Still not completely better yet even today.

OFF THE CENTER STAND - Method 2
Since I can't hold the handlebars anymore b/c of the pain in my wrist, I slip my forearms underneath the handlebars and use my bicep to push the scooter forward. This really relieves stress on my wrists and has worked. Looks goofy, but it works.

OFF THE CENTER STAND - Method 3 (current)
I discovered this last method (the method I use now) almost by accident. I figured if I could hold the rear storage rack to put the scooter ON the stand, maybe I could use the same method to take it OFF the stand. I gave it a try.

1. Again, face the left side of the scooter as you stand beside it.

2. Place your left hand on the left handlebar. Place your right hand on the rear storage rack.

3. Using your right hand, push the storage rack forward towards the front of the scooter. It takes a lot less effort than you would think. The left hand doesn't really do anything. It's just to secure the scooter so it doesn't topple over after the scooter gets off the stand.

My First Scooter Photoshoot!

My first photoshoot for the Vino 125! I finally got my DSLR camera back from Uncle Simon. He's been borrowing it for a project of his. Took a trip to South of Market to see what kind of backdrops I could find and this is what I came up with:

This is my first photo with all my gear! Can you see the gloves on the seat? Ignore the dirty rims. I forgot to clean them but just came back from the garage and they're partially sparkling clean. More cleaning this weekend will prep her up for a sunny ride with Uncle Victor who just got his scooter working again.

DIY Tutorial - Tire Fender Replacement

With the leg shield removed, it's much easier to get access to everything and remove the tire fender. Now onto the tire fender removal tutorial:

Step 1:

There are two screws on each side of the tire fender. Remove all 4. The lower right side (left if you're facing the scooter) one is shown here.

This is the new fender. Note that the two holes on each of the far sides is open. The suspension components fit in this space. As you can see, the fender can easily slip though the unfinished circle. There are two other holes in the center however. The tiny one is a screw which needs to be unscrewed from underneath in one of the next steps. The other larger ovular hole is where the speedometer cable needs to be pulled out from.


Step 2:
There are two hex screws shown in this photo. Remove those. They both secure the front half of the tire fender to the rear. We're only removing the front half, so these need to be take out. It's a bit tough to get access to it being that everything is so tight. But here's a tip...







....reach underneath the right side of the scooter where there's a larger notch in the rear portion of the tire fender where it's easier to access and see what you're doing. Using the circular side of the 10mm screwdriver, remove these two bolts. This is the toughest part. It'll take time and patience, it's worth it once it's done.







Step 3:
Here's the scary part - not really. I looked it up in the service manual that I downloaded and what appears to be a hose is actually the speedometer cable. It's not a brake line. Worse thing that can happen is that this thing no longer functions which means the speedometer won't work. Worse thing that can happen with a brake line? Lots worse.


So the rubber hose is unscrewed (I used a pair of pliers), pull it gently to reveal the cable inside. Pull further until it looks like the photo here. It's really dirty. I didn't bother cleaning it b/c I don't know enough about what that black stuff is? Dirt? Lube? If I clean it, do I need to relube? Errr, I have no idea.




Step 4:
This is the easy step. Just pull the cable/hose up through the hole. Since the leg shield has been removed, there's plenty of access. This photo shows the gap between the black dust shield and the tire fender. See the hose peeping through?








Step 5:
By now, 6 screws have been removed - four on the sides of the fender and 2 underneath. Everything is now ready to remove. Tug at the tire fender gently. You'll notice that it fits fairly tight. See in the photo how the width of the suspension components (black spring-like thingy) is wider than the width of the fender? You'll have to gently stretch the fender outwards to clear these shocks.


The scooter should now look like this! Bare naked! If you feel like changing the horn to something louder, now's a good time. I still haven't had a chance to buy the stripped screw remover (stripped it last time when I tried to do it), so I can't replace it now. Maybe later. Stock horn works okay for now.












This is the underside of the fender that was just removed. These next few steps are to remove the components from the old damaged tire fender and place them onto the new fender.






Step 6:
Remove these screw tabs from the old fender and secure them to the new one before you lose them. There's one in each corner.






Step 7:
One of the pieces is this rubber gasket. It pulls out like the bottom cover of a piggy bank. Secure the ring to the new fender.






Step 8:
One of the safety components are the orange reflectors. Remove these with the same 10mm wrench you've been using, Locktite the screws and secure them to the new fender. Locktite probably isn't required, but I noticed they used it at the factory so I figured I'd do the same.



Step 9:
Remove the structural piece from the old fender and place it on the new. This will require removing the screw on either side and the bolt clip shown here.






Step 10:
When you secure the black metal piece to the new fender, be sure that the tiny hole in the bracket here aligns with the hole in the fender. This will make reinstalling it on the scooter much easier. You'll have to do it anyway so may as well do it now.




Step 11:
Reverse all the steps and tada! The new front fender is on!

DIY Tutorial - Leg Shield Replacement

When I bought the scooter, both the sides of the leg shield and parts of the front tire fender were scratched. During my parking lot training session, I made it worse and scratched both sides. Since I got the replacement parts for cheap ($25) and it was raining today, I thought I'd give it a hack and replace the parts.

Your dad's pretty good with his hands and likes tinkering with stuff, but I kept away from anything that could possibly make the scooter malfunction if I did something incorrectly. This means I stayed away from the brake lines and caliper. I also did not have to remove the front tire.

Step 1:
Gather your tools. Apart from the ratchet, extension and philips screw driver head as shown in the other tutorials, the only other thing you need to remove the fenders is a 10mm wrench. Be sure it has two heads. One like this and the other with the circle.




Step 2:
Remove the headlight assembly. There is one screw above the Yamaha sticker in the center at the bottom of the chrome plate. There are two additional screws on the back on either side of the steering column. The handlebars need to be turned on the opposite direction to get clearance and reach the screws. When you're done, it should look like this. Notice the scratch on the front right side of the tire fender.





Step 3:
See where the wrench is? Remove that screw and washer. Remove the one on the opposite side and set it aside. Don't lose 'em!






Step 4:
Now we'll have to remove the signal light bracket. These two screws secure the bracket to the scooter's frame. Notice the4 wire connectors. Unplug these. The pair with the brown wire goes to the left signal. The other ones are for the right. Don't get them mixed up when you plug it back in later.



Step 5:
Remove 6 screws on the inside of the leg shield (black plastic part where your feet are). There's 3 along the left and another 3 along the ride side. Don't forget this top one. I hadn't seen this originally and was wondering why the leg shield wasn't coming off.




Step 6:
Remove the silver bolt on the either side of the scooter - two total.







Step 7:
Slowly and gently just tug on the painted leg shield's sides and it should come right off. You may have to pull up then away b/c there are tabs securing it to the black half towards the top. Tada, you're done. Before your scooter looks like this, you'll have to feed the signal lights and bracket through the center hole in the panel. It's a bit tight, but you can manage.


Step 8:
Remove the Yamaha sticker from the old leg shield and put it on the new one if you want to keep it. Takes a bit of work to remove it. I used a special plastic glue to adhere it. Strong glue or some black/grey 3M tape should be sufficient too. Reverse all the steps to put everything back together if you don't need to replace the tire fender. If you do, keep the leg shield off because it'll provide much more clearance and make removing the tire fender much easier. Not too bad so far, eh?

Give me a wave

Got another wave today. Yup, that simple gesture makes my day for some reason. Actually it wasn't really a wave. More of a honk. I was turning up the windy road by the Cliff House when a scooter rider coming the opposite way smiles and gives me a friendly honk. I've never been given a friendly honk before and by the time I could react with a return honk, he was gone. I wasn't about to take my hands off the handlebars at 35mph going uphill - not a chance. I hope he saw my nod though. So dude, if you're reading this, "Hello!"

Button snap failed

It hasn't been that long since the jacket arrived in the mail from New Enough and unfortunately the Joe Rocket jacket has already torn. Due to no fault of my own, the button snap came off. It's still stuck on the band. As of today, I'm still a lanky 5'-8" 148lb guy with chicken arms. There's no way my buffness could have snapped this off. The right side is fine. Just the left has come undone. Ugh. I hope New Enough or Joe Rocket can help me out.

I've gone to at least 7 different tailor/dry cleaning places and they all said they wouldn't be able to help. Ugh. I'm on hold now on the phone with Chris from New Enough.

Awesome!! Chris just put an order in for me to send me a new one! And without asking, he's even going to send me the new replacement jacket before I send my current messed up one! That means there's no downtime from my scooter. I get to keep riding. I was worried that I'd have to send my current one, be w/o a jacket for whatever number of days it takes for New Enough to receive it, process it, inspect it and send me out a new one. But no, they're sending me a replacement today!

Excellent. New Enough so far has amazing customer service. They even pay for shipping both ways! Good stuff. Very happy customer.

Win Some Lose Some

After sharing a parking space with a cager, I came back to find our meter to be expired. Technically scooterists are responsible for the meter if the cager leaves the space. But I wondered if we would both get tickets.

He had a ticket on his windshield.

I turned to my scooter (wondering if they were to give me a ticket, where would they put it?) and no ticket! I just saved myself $65. As happy as a clam, I took photos of the poor ticketed car and my ticketless scooter.

As I made my way to see your Uncle Victor, I had realized that I left my sunglasses on the back of the scooter!!!! Uh oh. I pulled slowly to a stop hoping with a 1% chance that the sunglasses was still on the back.

Nope. Gone.

I had some time, so I backtracked to the parking space I had left to look under cars and all over the road but no sunglasses. Gained $65 in potential parking ticket, but lost my $52 glasses! Ugh.

*Deep breath*

Very disappointed, but at least the stock market did okay today. Didn't sell any shares so all gains are still on paper, but it at least makes me feel better that I'm technically not negative on my liquidity.

Another freebee - A license plate frame

All chromed out. I wanted to buy this awhile ago from Kragen but at $13, I had to pass. That's more expensive than a car's license plate frame!

What else can $13 buy in scooter terms? 4 tanks of gas or insurance for a month. Luckily Amazon sells it too for way cheaper, $6.15 shipped. But of course, again it was free for me! American Express points paid for it. This accessory cleans up the look of the rear and the chrome matches all the other accents surrounding the bike.

Light me up with another FREE mod

Ebay gives away money to customers who buy stuff and I guess this year I collected $2.08! Not a lot to work with but I was sure I could find something for $2.08 shipped. Bulbs? Nope, got those. Batteries? Nope, got those too. I finally decided on this headlamp. Why did I get it?




I chose this 5-LED headlamp for it's flashing feature. Motorcycle riders sometimes install a headlight modulator that automatically flashes the headlight so it's more visible to cagers (car drivers). These modulator's typically cost $60-$100 (although I found one later for $42). This ebay headlamp though is FREE! I hope to mount it in the cavity just below the headlight. The horn is currently there and will have to be relocated. I plan to do this anyway when I upgrade the horn, so it shouldn't be a problem.


The switch on the LED-headlamp is located at the top and hopefully it can still be easily accessed after it's installed cleanly on the scooter. More to come.

Mileage calculation #4 - Chevron gasoline

This time I went to 76 instead of Chevon. I doubt it'll make a difference and even if it does, I won't be able to tell with such as mall tank.

(2895-2827)/0.994 = 68 mpg

Noooo! It's getting worse and I paid more than $3! We're now in the 60's as far as miles per gallon goes. This is the most gas I've ever dumped into the tank to date! I was in the red, but it looks like I still had about a quarter gallon left of fuel!



Looks like actually did have time to go to a different 76 gas station to save a dime. Hahaha.

Super Rain

Wow, it's pouring out there a lot harder than the last time it rained. Just ruined my scooter day. I better get used to this as winter approaches. It definitely helps the pocketbook to get a scooter in a down season, but I can't enjoy it as much until the weather gets better.

This TNG Milano (China knockoff of the Yamaha Vino 125) has one improvement over the original - the rear seat backrest! I finally found some pricing for this and it's not cheap.

Parts look exactly the same as the Yamaha Vino 125, huh? I'm not even sure the backrest is compatible, but it sure looks like it!

The bracket is sold separately from the leather piece: $34.93 + 24.50 + tax + shipping ends up to be around $80!

Way too much especially since I don't plan on having a passenger 99.5% of the time.

Free parking?

I arrived in Downtown to attend another SBA course, How to Buy a Business. Since I came early and had some extra time before 6pm, I thought I'd try what the last meter maid taught me. I rolled up to the meter and pressed the single button these meter maids use to see which spaces are expired and which still have time. I was hoping to find a spot that still had some time left over.

Surprisingly, they were all expired except for one. Some of the expired ones were occupied with scooters/motorcycles though. That's a $65 ticket! Since no spaces were available that already had time, I just picked a random one and popped in my quarter. Good to go. Even the quarter and gas costs are cheaper than paying the alternative $4 round trip bus fare. The funny thing is that my whole tank of gas costs less than one trip back and forth from home to Downtown.

$65 ticket?

I'm still subject to parking tickets in 2 hour street parking spots. Gotta move the scooter in about 25 minutes. My friend got one of these tickets and it's brutal especially for a scooter! Meter maids are getting harsh in this economy.

Move the scooter even though there wasn't any chalk marks on it. Wonder how it would do if I parked it on a sidewalk. Hmm...

First group ride

If you want to call two people a group then I did my first group ride today. Victor and I pretty much ran around the City. Visited Uncle Simon at the Whatsup Dog shop to pass out some Mango Lassi samples and then headed to a SAAB car shop to get some help with Vic's Elite. The battery doesn't seem to hold a charge.

We found out that the scooter's voltage regulator may be out of wack. It's not functioning correctly and the scooter battery is actually getting too much charge but still not holding onto it. The last battery was about to explode! Big bulge on the outside. Good thing it was swapped. We'll see if the voltage regulator (ebay) was the culprit.

Road around Chinatown too to run some errands. It's really nice being able to zip in traffic and park anywhere!

Mileage calculation #3 - Shell gasoline

I filled the tank to the bottom of the filler tube again.

(2827-2761)/0.888 = 74 mpg

Ouch. That's 7 mpg less than last time. But at $2.84 for 6 days worth of traveling, I can't complain. It's still ridiculously cheap compared to the car. Gas prices are increasing. I had paid less than this two weeks ago for Premium 91 octane. At less than one gallon though, there's basically zero difference.




The odometer is getting closer to 4k miles. Once I reach that I'll need to do more maintenance - oil change, etc. I've only ridden about 500 miles since I got the scooter. I think it was at 2,310 when I got it.

Brake Light Modulator DIY Installation

First off, the installation is very easy. I am by no means an electrician of any sort. I just happen to have tools from working on a tricycle and other household stuff I try to attempt. I originally wanted to use t-tap connectors to splice the wires, but no one sold them! True Value didn't have it. Neither did Ace Hardware nor even Home Depot! I ended up going with the quick splice ones.

These are the tools you'll need:

1. Pliers (or really strong fingers)
2. Scissors
3. Quick splice connectors ($3.24 from Ace Hardware)
4. Screw driver with philips head
5. Wire stripper (you don't really need this)
6. Ratchet set with 10mm hex
7. Utility knife (I used the scissors in place of this)

First we need access to all the wires, so we need to remove the right side blue shell. In order to get access to that top screw, we need to remove the passenger handlebar thingy.







This is where the 10mm hex ratchet comes in handy. Remove the 4 bolts that hold it on (two on each side). The bolt closest to the front is longer. Make note of that b/c you don't want to put the wrong on back on later.






Once removed, just set this aside with the four bolts and washers so they don't get lost.









This green plug powers your right rear turn signal. Remove it from the blue shell so it's not hanging and in the way. Put the shell some place safe as to not scratch it. There are two other connectors. The wires we need to access are connected to the white connector at the very top. Notice there's one that has a hint of brown. It's not that one. Do not mess with that.




This is a copy of the instructions that came with the Kapscomoto Brake Light Modulator. I've highlighted the wires in the corresponding color on the Vino 125 to more clearly indicate how the connections are made for this installation.





It's this one that you'll be playing with. Disconnected it like I did here and you'll see three wires. Grab your scissors and cut the black plastic wrapping that surrounds the three wires. You're just doing this to get better access to the three wires inside. You should have at least 2-2.5" to play with. The black wire is the ground wire. The green one with the yellow stripe is the one we'll be cutting. Ignore the blue wire.



Cut the green wire leaving at least 1" sticking out of the white connector. Yes, really. Cut it. IGNORE THE BLUE WIRE. Cut only the green one. Next you'll splice the red wire on the modulator with the green wire shown on the right using the quick splicer. Do the same thing for the other side of the green wire with the white wire of the modulator. Finally, splice the black wire of the modulator to the black wire on the scooter.


I tried to clean it up a bit. Using 3m double stick tape, I mounted the modulator gizmo to the scooter frame. I ziptied the rest of the wires to get a cleaner look. If you use other types of splices, it'll look much cleaner, but for some reason I chose to use the quick splice type which is unfortunately much bulkier.




The mess here could have been done much more cleanly using butt connectors for pretty much a permanent connection or disconnects like the one below.





Why I didn't use these to begin with? I guess I mistakenly thought that I was required to connect wires through the middle rather than from end to end. I should have used these disconnectors (male on the left and female on the right) for a cleaner look and flexibility of removing later.


Before putting everything back together in reverse order, put the key in the ignition and switch it to on. Confirm that the rear brake light is on. Pull the brake lever to test that it indeed the brake light turns brighter and flashes before turning solid again.





TROUBLESHOOTING:

1. If the brake light does not turn on when the key is turned to the on position, check the wire connections. When I did this originally, this happened to me and I spent forever trying to figure out what happened. Just resplice the wires. Pinch the quick splicers with your strong finger or a pair of pliers.

2. If the brake light turns on and immediately starts blinking as soon as you turn the key to the on position and the brake lever doesn't do anything, then you spliced the wrong wire. This happened to me when I accidentally spliced the blue wire b/c I didn't know which wire I was supposed to mess with.