Friday--assembly

I received the scooter today at about 130pm. I examined the carton and there was no damage at all. I removed the cardboard and I took off the bubble-wrap before I signed. Scooter was in good visible condition with not a scratch.

I tore down the front, and sides, and looked at the wiring. There were a couple of wires that were loose, but they look like they may have been for the non-existant radio. The ends had been sealed with the shrink type insulation. All connectors that I could see were in what appeared to be good shape, I had to remove some of them when I took off the front, and I made sure to plug them back in. All electrics that I saw checked out--again--except for the non-existant radio. I did not try to arm the scooter.

I removed the bottom panel, which was a real bitch until I figured out it was held in place by four screws on the front and side--no screws on the actual bottom. I did this in order to inspect and to drain the coolant. There was no nasty debris, but the liquid was a light blue with a slightly sweet taste--I just tasted a bare drop--I did not chug the stuff. I removed the cap and drained out the bottom hose. I did not get a whole lot of coolant which bothered me, but I replaced everything and put back in 100% undiluted coolant--figuring that I may not have gotten out all the old stuff. It looked clean, but I will change again in a couple months when there is warmer weather. The panels are not what I would call hard to get off, but for one person it was time consuming. The windshield was a fairly easy install. I have not at this point put the mirrors on. After the coolant, I drained the oil which looked more like canola than anything else. When you think about it--veg oil would be better for the Chinese purposes. It might run alright for a while, and it would not make them have to jump through any haz-mat shipping hoops. Replaced with 10w30 non-synth. Now the gear oil was curious. I alwasy heard that there was a top bolt and a bottom bolt. You take both off to drain. It took me a bit because I found out the top "bolt" was a plastic screw-in similar to the engine oil dipstick without the indicator. The bottom was the traditional bolt with the copper washer. It took a while to get that to drain--it's been cold here. This is something again I will change soon probably. I used good synth gear oil. While that was draining I inspected the hoses. What I found was that they seemed to be in good shape, well connected, and what surprised me is that most of the hoses have a protective wire "spring" around them. I thought that was pretty cool. Never heard anybody else talk about that. I think I will leave the hoses as is until they seem like they need replaced.

Battery tender jr. finished at this point. I put the battery in the scoot and (still not having the bottom side panels on) tried to get it to start. I did this for a bit and then my mechanic friend came over and inspected. He said there was gas pouring out the bottom from an overflow and it looked like the carb needle might be stuck. I was careful not to crank it for too long at a time. At this point it was late, and he needed to shut up the shop, so we packed it in for the night. The scoot is an awesome looking bike. I can't wait to get it going. Hopefully that will be tomorrow.