Toys for Tots run.

November 24 was the Legacy Vet's M.C. Toys for tots run in Tacoma Washington, there were about 250 bikes with over 300 riders and passengers. All told just under 2600 dollars and a truck full of toys was raised for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. I was told the largest bike was 125 cubic inches and I had the smallest at 125 cc, I was also the only scooter there.

Can you find my little piggy there in with the hogs. Photo on right.

The photo on the left shows some of the riders at Mary Bridge at the end of the the ride, I was going to go up on the parking structure and get a better one but my batteries died and i only had one set, live and learn.

It was a fun day with live music, a bar-b-que, and a raffle.

I would like to say Thank You to Destination Harley and all the riders for their support for Mary Bridge.

TOYS FOR TOTS, TACOMA

November 24 is the Mary Bridge Children's Hospital Toys for Tots run.
They start a Destination Harley-Davidson in Fife WA. 10 dollar donation, new toys welcome, [no stuffed animals please], BBQ AT NOON. Reg at 11am ride leaves at noon.
Info: Sgt. Bilko 253 208 7791 or 253 278 9535
Won't my VINO 125 and myself look out of place at a Harley dealer, I will take pictures.
I have personal experance with Mary Bridge with my son, please come if you can.

Questions about Mobil1.

This is about my use of synthetic oil and Mobil1, as generated by questions from my post titled Mobil1.

Can you elaborate a little more on what those numbers mean? Those lower percentages of metals, are those presumably worn off from engine parts? What made you decide to try Mobil 1? I've heard that synthetics are much better in low temperatures, so this is good timing.

First you need to know what I am using for my limits, this comes from Bob is the oil guy.

Table I. Engine problems predicted with oil analysis.
Indicator
Acceptable Levels
Engine Problem
What to Check
Silicon (Si) and Aluminum (Al)
10 to 30 ppm
Dirt ingestion
Air intake system, oil filter plugging, oil filler cap and breather, valve covers, oil supply
Iron (Fe)
100 to 200 ppm
Wear of cylinder liner, valve and gear train, oil pump, rust in system
Excessive oil consumption, abnormal engine noise,performance problems, oil pressure, abnormal operating temperatures, stuck/broken piston rings
Chromium (CR)
10 to 30 ppm
Piston ring wear
Excessive oil blow-by and oil consumption, oil degradation
Copper (CU)
10 to 50 ppm
Bearings and bushings wear, oil cooler passivating,radiator corrosion
Coolant in engine oil, abnormal noise when operating at near stall speed
Lead (Pb)*
40 to 100 ppm
Bearing corrosion
Extended oil change intervals
Copper (CU) and Lead (Pb)*
10 to 50 ppm
Bearing lining wear
Oil pressure, abnormal engine noise, dirt being ingested in air intake, fuel dilution, extended oil drain intervals
Aluminum (Al)
10 to 30 ppm
Piston and piston thrust bearing wear
Blow-by gases, oil consumption, power loss, abnormal engine noise
Silver and Tin
2 to 5 ppm 10 to 30 ppm
Wear of bearings
Excessive oil consumption, abnormal engine noise, loss in oil pressure
Viscosity Change
Lack of lubrication
Fuel dilution, blow-by gases, oil oxidation, carburetor choke, ignition timing, injectors, injector pump, oil pressure
Water/Anti-freeze
Coolant leak or condensation
Coolant supply, gasket sealed, hose connection, oil filler cap and breather
* Significant as wear metal, only for engines using unleaded and diesel fuel.

As you can see he also says what the cause of the metal is, and also other things also.
My numbers,Iron- 12 ppm with Yamalube 10w40[ will be given first], 8ppm with Mobil1 a drop 25%, Lead- 4 ppm, down to 0, Copper- dropped from 15 ppm to 5 ppm, Chromium and Aluminum both went from 3 ppm to zero ppm, neither sample had any Nickel or Silver, and Tin dropped from 2 ppm down to 0 ppm.
Those are wear metals, and based on these numbers I would have to conclude that synthetic oil does indeed cause less wear on engine parts.

What made me try Mobil1? Two things I came from the air force where I worked on F-15 aircraft. The turbine engines used synthetic oil and I we ever did was sample it, after every flight.
I know of only 2 times the oil was changed both involved bird strikes. So I knew that synthetic oil would preform at high temp.
I researched different synthetic oils and went with Mobil1 based on cost and several people I know who use it, but I can get it at Costco for $30.00 a case of six. I use a liter of oil for each change so six will get me 5 changes and a bottle of make up oil to use to make the liter.

Yes synthetics do flow better in the cold, Mobil1 has a pour point of -45C, much colder than I will ride in. It also has a flash point of 224C.

I hope this has answered some questions about my use of Mobil1, and you find it useful in making your decision whether to use synthetic oil or not.

To Mod or not to Mod.

To mod or not to mod that is the question. Lots of people modify their scooters for varies reasons, performance, fuel mileage, or just to make it stand out in a crowd. Is modification good or bad? That is for the rider to decide. I wrote this to get people thinking about to mod or not to mod.

Me, I have chosen not to do any modification at this time. My scooter a 2006 YAMAHA VINO 125 doesn't have a lot of after market parts yet, but there are some. When I say I haven't done any mod's, I haven't modded the engine, cvt, or exhaust.
I have added an aftermarket windscreen, for comfort and protection from bug and rocks that get kicked up. I also changed the spark plug to a iridium one, for easier starts both hot and cold.
I also switched from a petroleum base oil to a synthetic one, this has reduced wear in the engine. At the present time I do not foresee any mod in the future for my scooter.

The performance is where I think it should be {for me}. I can keep up with traffic zero to fourtyfive and my mileage is great at 80 miles per gallon.

I feel the YAMAHA engineers got it very close to perfection when they made this scooter. Do I think I could improve it,yes. Do I think that it would be cost effective, not at this time. I do not think at this time , for me, the money spent for mods would not equal the gains made. I will wait until I need to do something more than just routine maintenance.

I think the VINO 125 is the perfect commuter, and day tripper. When used within its limits it can't be beat.
So will I mod mine, no not yet.

Who gets it?

Is Yamaha the only one of the big three that gets it? Consider, they have the 50 cc Vino, with a carburetor,the 50 cc C3, with fuel injection, the 50 cc, two stroke, Zuma, and moving up Yamaha has the Vino 125, the 250 cc Morphous, and the 400 cc Majesty.
Yamaha has a scooter for any need, for any one, for intercity commuting, to day long touring.

Honda has the 50 cc Metropolitan, and Ruckus, and then they go to the 582 cc Silverwing.
That is what I can find for Honda 2008 scooter lineup from the Honda website.

Suzuki has only the Burgman in 400 cc and 650 cc nothing in the small and medium size scooter classes.

In my opinion Suzuki is missing out on a lot of market share by not having any offerings below 400 cc, and Honda has left out the medium sized scooter market.
Yamaha seems to have a better grasp on what the scootering population in America wants.

If Honda would have offered something in the 125 to 200 cc class I would be riding a Honda instead of a Yamaha.

I did not mention Genuine or Kymco as I do not feel the have the dealer network to be a truly major player in the U.S. Although by all accounts they do make a quality product.
When Kymco get the dealer network they will have more offerings in more sizes than the others. Just recently a Kymco dealer opened here, a review of this dealer is coming so stay tuned.

As the cost of gas continues to climb more people will look at scooters for transportation probably to and from work mostly. That in force the manufactures to rethink the U.S. scooter market, and local the rethink how the view the scooter. That will be a GOOD day.

Tour Master "Jean" Textile Pants

Tour Master "Jean" Textile Pants are on sale at newenough.com for $39.99

in sizes from xs to xxxxl. looks like a good deal.

I am in the market for some new riding pants

600 Denier Carbolex® shell with 1680 Denier Ballistic Polyester knee panels for comfort, durability and abrasion resistance
Durable 1680 Denier Ballistic Polyester seat panel helps to minimize slipping
Rainguard® waterproof/breathable barrier
Double-stitched construction throughout
Removable CE-approved knee armor with TM’s exclusive Three Position Knee Armor Alignment System
Removable soft hip armor
Dual-stretch panel waistband with belt loops and rubberized inner waistband so your clothes stay tucked in
Two hand pockets with right hand change pocket and two rear zippered pockets
Fully lined

Seatbelt Patrols.

While going to church today I saw on the freeway warning signs, the one they put traffic alerts and amber alerts on, that they were going to start nightime seatbelt patrols.
I have no problem with them doing that, but feel that there is a better use of an officers time.
I wouldn,t want them to go after aggressive drivers or look for drunk drivers or anything like that.
End of rant.

Pulled over because I ride a scooter.

Sometimes we all get bored, even cops. Don’t stop reading; I’m not going to bash cops. One of my lunch buddies is a cop.

Some background for this story, I am 6 foot 4, and north of 350, and ride a Yamaha VINO 125, a scooter. I will freely admit that I am the upper limit for this bike, but it is the perfect fulfillment of my needs, but I digress.

I was riding home from work one night minding my own business, doing the speed limit.
I look in my mirror and see the police car that I just passed going the opposite way, slow down and turn around, and start going my direction.
A few minutes later I see blue, blue blue, lights in my mirror, so I pull to the right so he can pass me. He follows me into the right lane, so I figure he wants to talk to me. I pull over, and so dose he. At this point I am wondering why I have been stopped, I think back over the last couple of minutes to see if I have broken any laws, and can think of nothing that I have done.

I turn off the engine and am removing my helmet as he walks up. He politely asks me to get the bike, which I do.
When asked why he has stopped me, he replies “I just wanted to see if you really were as big as you looked. I’ve never seen anyone of your size on something so small before.”
I laughed and we spoke about scooters, what mileage I got, how fast it would go, what was my range per tank, and so forth.

I thanked him for supplying me with a funny story, and went home.

For Blog Action Day

When I saw the request for bloggers for blog action day I thought that sounded like fun, so here go's.
I started riding a scooter to save money, gas was close to three dollars a gallon at the time, and my truck gets 20 MPG where my scooter gets 80 MPG. I am now spending less than 10 dollars a month on fuel.
My truck a Toyota Tacoma has a 2400 cc, four cylinder engine, my scooter a Yamaha Vino 125 has a 125 cc single cylinder engine. This means that I have 75% fewer pistons, with an engine that is 95% smaller, and gets four times the mileage.
Instead of putting pounds of emission into the air I am putting ounces out over the same distance. I also have a smaller vehicle and that mean that my damage to the road is a lot less.
So I am not only polluting less but with less wear on the road I am doing my part there also, they don't have to repair the road as often, so that means, they have less pavement to dispose of, and also less pavement they have to make, which in turn means less traffic just sitting there with their engines running, pumping out exhaust and not getting anything for it.
I started riding to benefit myself but it turns out I am benefiting the world and my fellow humans also.

Mobil 1

I made the switch to Mobil 1 a while back but did not have a place that could analyze oil samples, I have sense found a place locally. My first two tests involve Yamalube 10w40 and Mobil 1 10w30, I know the weights are a little different but I don't think that matters. I change my oil every one thousand miles. What I noticed was that the Yamalube dropped two grades from 10w40 to 10w20. The Mobil 1 stayed in grade that being 10w30. The wear metals that were tested for and showed up, Mobil 1 showed a drop in all of them.
Iron a 25% drop, from 12 ppm to 8ppm, Lead a 400% drop, from 4ppm to 0ppm, Copper a 30% decrease from 15ppm to 5 ppm, Chromium a 300% decrease from 3ppm to 0ppm, Aluminum a 300% drop from 3ppm to 0ppm, and Tin a 200% decrease from 2ppm to zero ppm.
I know that this is only one test for Mobil1 but I am less than 500 miles from my next oil change and will have that oil tested also. I do believe that these results will hold up at the next test.

Cool Weather Part 2

The biggest thing I have noticed with riding in the cool weather, daytime temperature of 60 or less, is that as the temperature falls my fuel mileage go's down. I have checked all the thing such as tire pressure, oil level, and air filter all of these are good or within limits, so its not that. As a plus I do get my power, not that I can prove it with a dyno., but my acceleration is better. I believe this is due to colder air being more dense, meaning that it has more oxygen per volume than warmer air, the down side is the fuel is cooler so it doesn't atomize as well.
I do enjoy riding in the cooler weather, but caution must be advised, the days are shorter, and we have more rain this time of the year. At night the man hole covers blend in really well especially if wet. So lets all be careful and enjoy this time of year.

Cooler Weather Part 1

One of my co-workers told me his girl friend asked if I was still riding "That Scooter" as she called it. He told that I was still riding, she said I was insane. I can see her point, it is cooler and the rain has started to fall up here, but I only stop riding when there is ice on the road.One thing I have noticed, due to the cooler weather the cruisers are thinning out, going to work I used to pass 12 to 15 now lately I am only seeing 5 or 6, maybe they don't want to polish all that chrome again and again due to rain. That's not a problem when you ride a scooter that has allot of plastic body work, it's just wash it and let it drip dry.

Mirrors

I got tired of looking at my shoulders so I bought new mirrors with longer arms. The arms are 2 inches longer, not as long as I hoped for. The over all length is 7.5 inches, still not long enough.
I have seen some in the J &P Cycles catalog that have 10 inch arms think that I may give them a try.

New Hand grips
I just got some Kuryakyn ISO-Grips for my scooter part number ZZ50006 in the j&p cycles catalog, but I got mine locally so they were cheaper as I did not have to pay shipping.They are bigger around and softer then the stock ones, which will fit my big hands better, and they also look a lot better, like they belong there.

I put the safety gear label here because they are easier on your hands then the stock grips.

They are much bigger in diameter which is much better for my large hands, the raiseed portion allows air to get under your hand, this allows your palms to breath. All in all a very good upgrade for rider comfort.

Painted

As you can see the painting is done and the color match is good all that is needed is to let the paint cure and to wax it. I am very pleased with the out come but more so with the total cost of this repair.
The total time involved was 2.25 hours, my windscreen was scratched, it took the brunt of the fall, it took just under an hour, and is clear again.
The front fender had one spot that was scratched about 2 sq. inches, but not deeply, took about 20 minutes.
The front leg shied, that I feature here took the remainder of the time.
The paint that I used was just a can I got from the auto parts store for less than 7 us dollars.

The key to the type of repair in my opinion is to take you time and don't start sanding with to big of a grit. I started with 360 grit, for big removal, then went to 600 to smooth it out.
600 still left scratches that could be visible so I sanded it with 1800 grit, and finished with 2400 grit to give it a real nice smooth finish. All sanding was wet sanding.

The sand paper that I used is micro-mesh, had an old military kit that was used to polish aircraft canopys, work great. That is about it if I Think of any more I will do another post.

Sanding is done.

Well my sanding is done, I started with 360 grit and wet sanded all the scratches and gouges out, the deepest was .007 in. Then I went over the area with 600 grit, again wet sanding. When I was happy with that, about 5 minutes, I switched to 2400 grit just to smooth it all out, again I used the wet sanding method of sanding. All I need to do now is clean the area real well mask it off and paint it.

Newest Adventure

My newest Adventure with my scooter was a result of my dropping it in February. My windscreen was scratched but not badly, so I spent 50 minutes buffing it out with Micro-Mesh, there are still a few of the deepest ones but they are thin and cause no problem.

Then I did my front fender and it came out great, so I had shown a before and after to a friend who suggested I put this section in my blog so here It go's.

The area circled in blue is the area I will fix. There are no breaks in this area so the fix is very easy, sand out the grooves and gashes till it is smooth and then repaint.

Next time I will put up sanding shots. I do intend to make this repair without removing this panel, at least that is the plan.

Many Scooters

Today as I was running errends I saw five other scooters, 1 Elite 80, a Zuma, and three other Chinese scooters. Here in Tacoma I don't see many scooters on the road, but at work there are four other people that commute to work on scooters, and about two or three dozen that do so on bigger bikes.

Funny comment

Why is it that when people see a large man on a scooter they feel compelled to ask stupid questions or do stupid things.
Take today for example, a guy in a SMART car looked at me and pointed and laughed, I lifted my modular helmet front and replied " You drive THAT, and your laughing at me, Erkel."

Heat and safety gear.

As the weather heats up 80F or better I find myself with the thought of its only a short trip you don't need to wear that, a tee-shirt and helmet is fine. At that point I think back to the articles I read about crashes with people wearing just that, then I put on all my gear.

Brake job

Today i undertook a change of my front brake pad, I did not feel that this was going to be a hard or complicated job as I have the Yamaha shop manual.
I read the manual, made sure I had the proper tools, and the correct parts. This was not to be the case. The disassembly was uneventful as the three bolts were easily accessed being in the open.

Reassembly was the adventure had the caliper off slid the new pads in tried to put caliper back on and found out no matter what I did it would not go on. Took the casting that holds the caliper and pads off, and tried reassembly that way still no go, upon inspection found that the caliper is hitting the pads. I removed the pads and measured them and found out they were thicker than the factory stock pad, a little use of sand paper took care of that.
Put the pads in the casting installed the caliper on the casting mounted every thing on the fork leg and installed the 3 bolts and torqued them all down. completed a test ride to confirm I replaced all parts properly.

Total time 1 hour 12 minutes.

Traffic lights

Why can't the powers that be fix the traffic lights so the sense motorcycles and scooters.
I mean really how long am I supposed to wait, I wait one full cycle and then when safe I go. This is only an issue at night, when there are fewer cars on the road. I know running a light at night is not that safe, but there is no legal way to do this. When I ask law enforcement I get differing answers depending on who I ask, And I cant find it in the RCW.

Hard Heavy Rain.

Today was a day of off and on showers. When I got ready and left for work no rain but a very dark and ugly cloud heading my way. Work is 15 to 20 minutes away depending on traffic, well I thought I would just make it, and would have if I didn't hit every light on the way.

The rain started 1.5 miles from work, and by the time I was 1 mile from work the sky open traffic slowed and the water on the road just stood there and got deeper.
The ruts in the road hold lots of water and SUV drivers had great fun drown me in it, if I slowed down they slowed down, so I let them have their fun.

When I arrived at work, my jacket was soaked but my shirt was dry, my pants soaked, but this is not bad, as we have at work a drying room with a glove drier and a clothes dryer, and I keep a change of clothes in my locker so I was able to work dry.

Rally and adventure.

Saturday June 23 2007. I took my scooter to a motorcycle rally and ride, this one, our first was hosted by the Lakewood Washington Police Department, and was part of Lakewood's Summer Fest. We arrived at the city hall and saw about 60 bikes, mostly cruiser style, and most of those were Harley's, probably 40, then there were the big sport bikes including one beautiful 'Busa.
Also in attendance was a young lady on a 50 cc Aprilla sport bike, and myself and my scooter TANTOR, a 2006 Yamaha Vino 125.
After I registered us, I had a dough nut, it was hosted by a police department after all.
Then they had a small skills test area that lots of bikers were trying, some of the larger full dressed cruiser were having a tough go in making it through, but most made it on their third try, all most all of the sport bikes made it through on one try. I watched for about 20 minutes then I mounted Tantor and took my spot in the staging area, I must admit I had an advantage in not having to use a clutch, I was also the shortest wheel base there, so needless to say I nailed it the first time.
When it was time to go we had a route and safety briefing, then we formed a column of twos and left.

We rode through Lakewood,University Place, and into Ruston,and the Tacoma water front and on into King County, where we had a stretch of interstate 5, about 3 miles.
{ Please note I do not condone taking a scooter with ten inch wheels and a small 125 cc engine out on the freeway and I did so only because we had a police car at the end of our group. I can say it is nice to know that my vino 125 will do 63.4 mph but that is with the throttle pin wide open and turning 8400 rpm which is 100 rpm off red line. There were three such runs in this ride.} Ten inch tires and grooved pavement make for a sphincter tightening ride. The only time that I lost site of the group was when we pulled up an 8% grade, with the throttle wide and motor screaming I went up at 30 MPH but I caught up to them in about 2 miles

The first 72 miles I spent behind a Harley, this would have been more enjoyable if he had been able to corner, I had to keep slowing down as I kept riding up on him because I could corner alot better than he could and I could not pass him as he had 60 to 80 horsepower and I have 11.

The day was fun and I learned alot about my scooter and myself, it's nice to know that that Tantor is capable of short stretches of freeway, I could go off on a longer ride but would like to stop about every 60 to 90 minutes just to stretch and get blood flowing back into my backside, and finally if I stay on secondary roads I can get over 100mpg but the freeway run at WOT dropped my mileage down 90.5 mpg.