Good-bye Vino 125

After plans to have a baby, the scooter's been sold to a dear friend who hopefully is enjoying it almost as much as I did. Unfortunately, this is the end of the blog. There will be no more posts regarding the my beloved modded Vino 125. She will be missed.

Reported scooter stolen

I had left the Vino outdoors overnight for the first time. Not only that, but I had left it outdoors in the rain. The worst thing I figured could happen is that the mirrors get rusty.

My attempts to contact my friend to let me store the scooter in his garage temporarily failed. He was not available until the next morning. By then I was already driving to my scooter to go pick her up.

As I approached the intersection looking around the corner expecting to see my blue scooter, I saw nothing.

The scooter was gone!

Could I have parked it somewhere else? Could it be on craigslist? No and maybe.

I drove quickly to the closest police station to file a report. I had never done anything like this before. I came prepared with a photo of my license plate number from my phone. As I gave the full description to officer Hernandez, I could feel the reality of never seeing the scooter again become more and more real.

As I left the police station with my head trip down I knew was time to call the insurance company. Luckily I had theft coverage.

I made the claim over the phone then headed home to tell my wife what had happened. Only having driven five minutes did I realize I had my garage door opener in my jacket pocket hidden inside the scooter seat.

The thieves could be in my house right now!

My wife was sleeping but I called to wake her up immediately.

"Sorry to wake you honey but I need you to set the alarm right now and lock the garage door manually!"

Why, what's going on?

My scooter got stolen.

In hindsight I should've asked my wife to call me after unlocking the garage door. I was so worried about her for the next 10 minutes while driving home.

It only took the second before I started to smile.

"Did you look around my moms house?" said my wife.

"No, why?"

"You parked in there yesterday. Don't you remember?"

"Oh shit," I said with embarrassment. "I am such an idiot I thought to myself."

She drove me back to where she thought I parked my scooter. She was right as usual. I don't know exactly how to read I was but is definitely embarrassing.

"You can tell your friends how much of an idiot I am."

I am now blogging on a street corner because apparently you cannot take your own property after it has been stolen without it first being formally released by an officer.

It's been at least 40 minutes Where I had time to think exactly what I would say To the officer once he showed up.

"I am sorry. Thank you for coming out. I know you have better things to do than to compensate for me being such an idiot.

Scooters of Asia

Just came back from a trip to the east not long ago and got a chance to check out some of the local rides.

Battery Dies

I purposely drive home to pick up my scooter to run an errand only to find that the rear light was on! I had left the key in the ignition with all power running for the past 4 hours! Ugh, I attempt to turn the engine over halfway anticipating that it won't start. To my expectation, it didn't. 

Great, that means I gotta drive the car. Fuel ain't cheap at $4.95/gallon.

I had read awhile ago when I first got the Vino 125 that you can't jumpstart a scooter with a car safely. My friend has done it on occasion, but I keep hearing that jumping a tiny bike with a big automobile could cause serious damage to the bike. Safety also becomes a concern. 

After calling up my buddy with a battery tender hoping to borrow it only to find out he's out of the State, I research a bit online and find some good news. 

Others had shared the same concern about jumping a scooter with a car, but the way to do it safely is to do it without turning the car on. Hmmm, typically the donor car is running as it's hooked up to whatever vehicle is being jumped. Not the case with jumping a scooter apparently. 

After further researching, I found out the simplest solution. But would it work? The emergency kickstart. I didn't think this would work b/c my logic says if there's no juice, there's no juice. The kickstarter would only work if there was some sort of mechanical glitch. 

And last time I tried it for fun, it didn't turn the engine over even on a perfectly good battery. 

Problem? I hadn't engaged the brake which is required for the engine to turn over. Having read this reminder online, I ran downstairs with my laptop to give it a try. Pulled the bike on it's center stand, pulled the kickstarter peg out, engaged the brake and stepped down. 

Nothing. 

Stepped down a second time. 

Bingo! It worked! The engine started!!! Awesome! Too bad I did this the next day and wasn't able to ride the scoot to run my errands, but this new knowledge is still saving me from having to borrow the battery tender. The kickstarter officially works and now I know how to use it. If you're reading this, you do too. 

So next time either one of us leave the key in the ignition at position two with all the electronics running only to return later to find out there's no juice in the battery, use the kickstarter! Awesome!

Selling Point

With gas prices reaching skyrocket prices, it's probably a great time to sell. The thought of parting with my scoot though is a bit depressing. It's done so well for me. Parking has been awesome. Negotiating through traffic has been a plus. The time it's saved me has bee priceless. Leaving all that to go back to a car is just plain sad. 

The scoot will most likely be on the market next month. That's only a few weeks away!

No Pee Pee

I almost learned the hard way. 

Never ride a scooter if you gotta go pee. I downed 3 glasses of water over dinner, used the restroom once and figured I'd wait until I got home to go again even though I had to go again before I left. Bad move. 

The road vibrations make it unbearable, not to mention unsafe. Having to think about not drenching the scoot on a hot dry day is way too much to think about when you have road hazards to avoid. I'm hitting up the restroom one last time before I ride home next time. That's for certain.

Found this on the Corolla forums. Apparently it worked for the owner, so I figured maybe it'll work for me too. I vaguely remember having that eyelet connector thingy somewhere downstairs. Found it! I even had one last quick splice left! 

Tried it and nada. Didn't work either. Man, I'm running out of ideas soon. I'm keeping track of everything I've tried obviously through the blog but I'm also crossing out the ones on my "Options List" post. I guess I'll just be waiting for my Error Code Eliminators. It'll be a couple weeks.