tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-22:379708zebeezebeezebee2009-11-08T10:40:52Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-22:379708:4030Ringadingding2009-11-08T10:40:52Z2009-11-08T10:40:52Zpublic0So, I got the Mighty Scooter back on the road the other day, thanks to a very obliging bike shop who passed it for rego despite some Major Problems.<br /><br />I've been riding it to work this last week; I'd forgotten how much fun the silly thing is.<br /><br />It's not a latte-sipper's vespa or a money saver's cheap transport, it's an antisocial flouro orange 2 stroke with a loud pipe and all the go faster bits. (Malossi this, Poloni that, Vinci the other... They race these things in Europe.)<br /><br />And as of today the Major Problems are fixed. The bit where the scooter motor (which is the back half of the bike) fits to the rest of the bike was a little bit knackered. Well, a lot knackered.<br /><br />The connection is based on 2 bolts which run through tubes inside other tubes, and uses high density nylon bushes between the tubes and the other tubes. These eventually wear and when they do the motor tends to describe tasteful and terrifying arcs in corners as the cornering forces provide force vectors that Keith Code would not approve of.<br /><br />THe repair kit arrived from the UK a couple of days ago and today I took the thing down to a friend's place to do the work.<br /><br />A certain amount of precious bodily fluids (its, not ours, no SCSI here) spilt all over the floor, a certain amount of "how the hell are you supposed to undo this?" and "OK, what's stopping that moving" and "this was designed by monkeys on crack!" and of course "so why is this left over?" later and my bike's handling has been transformed.<br /><br />It doesn't wiggle through corners anymore, it howls through them. (As long as you use the bizarre braking/throttle technique you need to power an auto through the corners after braking to the right entry speed)<br /><br />This thing has weird effects on people riding motorcycles. A patch-wearing Hells Angel admired it in the pub carpark because of the noise the pipe made "reminds me of my RD250LC, was my first bike!" he said. A GSXR-sportbike rider was very annoyed at being dragged off by a scooter at the lights and wheelied for quite a distance at the next lights. I was offered "Whatever you want for it" by a scooter rider on the way home the other day. I've had people turn up their nose at it until it started then seen heads jerk around as if on strings at the noise. I've had people make loud sniffing noises savouring the smoke and sing the praise of 2 strokes.<br /><br />I think you have to be a rider of a certain age to appreciate a twoey, especially a loud one. <br /><br />As if there's any other kind....<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=zebee&ditemid=4030" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments