fix my scooter

The Silver Surfer rides again. Today I went to my favorite coffee shop, then tried to ride scooter whilst carrying coffee. I don’t think that this plan was really thought through well at all.

Yet, despite the new coffee stain on my pants, I was happy…I opened up the throttle and sped down University Avenue, “meep-meep-ing” my horn at passers by as the earflaps on my aviator helmet flew up like little wings.

I felt like a badass. A badass with a coffee stain on his pants. But a badass nonetheless.

I found the ditch today on Broomfield Road after some maniacal ass forced me into oncoming traffic whilst riding on the Silver Surfer to go get a haircut. Yeah. That was great, despite giving off the appearance of being suicidal. (Ref. earlier point about not getting out of bed today being a good plan.)

Damage looks like: one headlight. one brake grip. one right side cover. one pair of khakis. (one ego…)

Thanks, helmet.
Thanks, prick on Broomfield.
Thanks, random people who stopped to make sure I was just dazed and not dead.
Thanks, Laphroaig and ibuprofen…

have the engine torn apart in the kitchen, awaiting some hard to find bits.

my ‘86 honda ch150 needs a new transmission, a new throttle sleeve, a new battery, and new tires. anything else beyond that is purely cosmetic. naturally, it’ll need registration, and insurance, but i’ll cross that bridge when i’ll come to it. i’ve gone and blown my whole paycheck this week on an ebay auction for a spare motor, which i’ll be scrapping for parts. this means i’ll be biting my nails and closely watching my finances until thursday, when the check clears, and my next check arrives. between then, i’ll be so broke it’s not even funny. but i’ve been putting this off for to long. it won’t get me up and running, but i’ll be so much closer.

it’s a bummer though, because i was originally saving this money for an Etherwave theremin that i’ve wanted for years. but i guess i can always get that later. it’s not like they’re out of production or anything like say, parts to a 20 year old motor scooter.

to fix something that has been stolen.
Bye Chilperico, you were a darn cool lovely ride.
I’ll miss you.

(I’ll spare you the curse to those who stole it)
(and this is my welcome back to Rome, I guess)

I spent yesterday morning and afternoon at Ivan’s house pulling apart the electric wiring on the scooter. Not as bad as it could have been—and now everything is working! It was a joy to ride after dark last night with full headlamp, blinkers, break light and odometer indicators all lit up. Thanks, Ivan!

I installed a new headlamp and it now works after tracing some incorrect wiring. There’s still a problem with the blinkers. The front blinkers work, but don’t blink—unless I hold one of the rear blinker lights is pressed in just so. In which case they blink backwards (front left, rear right at the same time). Oh – and somehow installing the headlamp made the brake light stop working.

I’ll hit Ivan up for a little help this week.

(I’d just need a paycheck: missing^{1^ piece under the front light, 60€ - plastic, mind you - new cover for the handlebar, 140€—guess what? yep, PLASTIC!)}

1^ In Italian scooteristic jargon missing can be easily replaced by stolen.

I spent a couple hours at Southend talking to Darin & Jim about the Passport. They did great work getting it to it’s current state: it’s well-tuned, runs great and Darin located a few parts for the Passport off a parts bike. But I still have to spend a few hours tracing down the final electric issue so all the lights work. Right now I have a brake light working, but no blinkers or headlamp. The horn works, though.

I plan to pull the wiring apart in the coming month and get this rig road ready.

Ivan came over and helped me hook up the battery and get the scooter started. I still need a major tune-up, but it runs suprisingly smooth. The electric starter still works like a charm which is rare on these older Honda Passports. So far I’m into this scooter $45 (battery, acid & chrome polish). If I can keep it all under $300 I’ll be happy. Thanks to Ivan for donating this old piece of crap to me from his garage.