Paul's rants - Scooter gloom - why such machines can make me feel drained.
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- One of the reasons - or the main reason for my generally having a cut off date of 1980 for machines I work on - Indian made RE Bullets being an exception - is to avoid some of the characteristics found on this fairly recent scooter, where all sorts of bodywork makes access difficult and components are crammed together in tight, confined spaces. Here, I try to explain why just the sight of something like this can create an atmosphere of gloom, whereas many British classics with work to be done are usually seen as a welcome challenge.
I got given a Chinese Electric Bicycle...i repaired about 20 design faults....when Fault 21 appeared I Chopped it up with a Grinder and Lobbed it in the Skip....
My original training was with Hondas in the late '60s.......very very different,
As someone who works on old bikes fairly frequently, I couldn’t agree more about these things.
I quite like the old 2-stroke Vespas, but the new automatic stuff is a different world.
The original Lambretta and Vespa were the stuff of legend for the mods in the days of my mum and dad’s youth.
It is a cheap little urban runaround scooter, intended to do a job at minimal cost. Mending it will usually be straightforward when you get past all the accumulated dirt, salt and rust, which will always be there because nobody ever bothers to clean it.
People who consider themselves ‘bikers’ will always sneer at it, but in an urban environment it has lots of advantages. That thing will get you around London just as quickly as bikes costing ten times the price. When you get where you are going, you can chuck your hat and gloves (cheapest possible) under the seat and walk away without fretting about it getting damaged or stolen.
You certainly won’t need to spend anything on polish. Everybody should have one.
I love a scooter , me .
Modern cars are the same,engines crammed into spaces where it’s easier to remove the engine to do certain jobs,bumpers needing removed to replace headlight bulbs! Give me the older stuff any days 👍🏻
Elegant engineering & built to last has been replaced with disposable appliances! SAD!😱
So you don’t fancy giving us a nice long test ride video then! Go on you know you want to.
I love my vintage Geniune/ Vespa scooter 🛵. 2 stroke,shaft drive and a kick start. Simple reliable and fun 😊. Not at all like the junk from China. Certainly not a disposable appliance. Lots of history too.
These things are built to be disposable. I feel a little sorry for them. No one will ever love them, want to collect them, look lovingly back at happy days on them. Built to be forgotten. Purely cheapo transport. No joy in the handling or looks.....
i feel your pain Paul....now i am depressed
Had to watch this in a locked room I would never live it down if I was caught , ( tongue in cheek )
I hated to see some of the Italian scooters come into the shop. Pitas short for pain in the ass to fix especially early fuel injected
Well said. Thanks !
I feel the same way about cars. Bloody awful to work on.
My old ZZR, 11 bits of fairing before you could get to the engine! I almost…. toyed with getting a Suzuki Bergman. I then saw some service videos for ‘simple’ things like air filters, tappets etc. what an absolute nightmare to get to!!! Yes they may be neat and run well, when running, but absolute pains in the rear if you need to fix them.
And the fuel tank and coils had to come off - then you had to be a mining engineer to get to the plugs
G'day Paul, never had one and never will , cheers mate, Neil 🤠.
Hello Paul, cheap rides for kids I suppose but they never appeared safe to me. You could show this scooter to the chap who berates British bikes! Game set and match!
Cheers Kevin
I had great times on my Vespa 150 but would never own a Chinese scooter. The difference is HUGE.
I expect you'd turn down modern faired bikes too Paul. I was reading a service book for one some years ago. 3 hour job just for the spark plugs. I avoid working on cars for the same reasons.
Many years ago I used to have to build and pdi new Chinese scooter's and bikes and found many were broken from the crate. Hated them with a passion.
Hi Paul, greetings from Thailand, laughed my ass off at the comments you make in this video, keep it up young man, always good to watch your videos
Thanks!
Straight in the skip.
The most soul destroying incarnation of these things are the electric versions
Hi Paul. I must have missed this at the time but I can understand how these machines make you feel. My daughter has one of these for a year or so and at first it was a challenge to see if by proper maintenance I could make up for the lack of engineering sympathy in the original build…….but after all the lubing, replacing cadmium plated screws with stainless steel etc I came to the same opinion as you! They have no redeeming qualities aside from cheapness (in every sense of the word)
Belongs in the canal
Time to get a Big hammer.
Scooters are handy for folks who can’t get their leg over a conventional motorbike and struggle with gears. I will probably end up with one to keep me mobile and smiling when I am in that category. No excuse for crap quality though.
Personally I love the Vespa.
They always make me chuckle.
Wouldn't have a piece of Chinese crap anyway.
I wouldn't want to work on any scooter though as every one of them is a nightmare of tight working spaces and just plain aggravating.
Well, you did your good deed for your friend but my advice is don't do anything that brings on the black dog. It's not worth it.
I don't mind, infrequently, motoring about on them, but will NOT wrench on one...or expend the time/effort to be adept at doing so.
I share your lack of joy with trying to repair things that have been built to not be repaired. Everything about them is a chore, and there’s no sense of elation at hearing it fire up, just a feeling of ‘ glad I don’t have to waste any more of my life on this’.
I have jobs that need to be done and some jobs that are not pressing or strictly necessary but I’ll know I’ll get a lot of pleasure from. Like remaking a bracket that although functional could look better. Fixing this scooter is the exact opposite of that.
Interestly enough a few years ago I got a non runner which had spent most of thr 7 years not going anywhere, I started taking off one piece then another, until I ended up with the frame which needed sandblasting, I hand painted it, no believer in the usual crappy way, lasts for 5 minutes ...
My girlfriend had a chinese scooter until last year and there was always something wrong with it that I had to fix. Nothing on it is well designed. She lost the key one day and I had to strip every single bit of plastics off it to swap the ignition over. What summed it up for me was that the side stand was too long and didn't lean the bike over so she could never use it. It's like they just grabbed one from a pile of parts and slapped it on there. The only thing I found easy to do on it was hotwiring it to ride it home when she lost the key, I just pulled a panel off and stuck a paper clip in a plug after watching a youtube video on how to do it...
It's not always a good job but somebody's got to do it. So sorry for your pain 💭🤔😡🏁🏍️🐑🇵🇭🏴
The Chinese are making some very good stuff these days-they've had to to match European quality.. As for scooters , when I started having problems with my knees I traded in my bike for a Burgman 400, and it's a very practical and comfy daily ride. It is as you mention though, a bit of a pain to work on because of all the plastic you have to remove first.
I see thousands of them these days, mostly delivery drivers, they are a fact of life.
Personally I can't ride a bike any more but I could cope with a scooter as its a step through
Honestly they are a lot of fun to ride, they are super nimble and practically turn on the spot. I'd just get one that isn't Chinese
I am working on a T N G 49cc Chinese junk, carbs are the main issue ready to put a hammer to it,
Don't like anything that you can't see what the front wheel is doing when riding.
You won`t be taking it on the mountain run then🤣
If you want a challenge try getting to the engine on a honda pc800. Its a good job they are 'honda' reliable, in the first place.
hahahaa they are not that bad ,,,done my time on them ( the plastics can be a pain to remove and brittle ) They have a "methodology " in order to work on them use a cordless driver to get at stuff ( a carb is a 30 min job if that ,,assuming its not got green snot in it ) However, newer scooters are "disposable" ( Honda Scoopy ) you run it low on oil and the "bearing" surfaces are part of the casting as is the cylinder which kinda makes them "unrepairable" ,
This one's carb had the green snot in it and a blocked pilot jet to sort out. Many Honda engines have their cams etc running direct in the machined out castings and can render components scrap if the oil is not changed in time and kept topped up.
I suppose theyre better than cars
Doing 50mph on a scooter is so much more dangerous than 50mph on a motorbike. All to do with size of wheels. I look with horror at the maniac scooter riders in London.
🤣 You'd have had heart attack if you saw me on my 225cc Lambretta. Rear set pegs and ace bars. Once your weight is more over the front wheel, it stops that old quirk of going straight on or sliding off on bends.
I've redeemed myself since those days of youth, now I have a Triton
@@750triton At least one person has put a Yamaha YPVS 350 engine in a Lambretta. That should make for an interesting ride.
@Turnipstalk Back in March I went through a "puddle" that came within a whisker of stopping my 19" front wheel. Bottomed out the suspension and launched me out the saddle.
@Turnipstalk Very true ! I had workmates in the late 1960's who went from London down to Brighton on Lambrettas every weekend in the Summer. There were an amazingly high number of accidents, hardly surprising when they were two up on the scooters.
@Turnipstalk I also have to say that as I cruised down the A23 in my Mk1 Cortina to Brighton, that many Lambretta riders were under the influence of alcohol ! Probably numbed the pain when they fell off.
I have a BMW G310r (not even made in Germany,but India)and if you dont keep on top of them by constantly cleaning and lubing,I think it would look as rubbish as that scooter,so its not just the Chinese making cheap rubbish.
Bloody things 😀
Yes indeed!
Horrible, sums up most modern stuff.
Looks a right crock of sh💩t , probably powered by a Chinese cloned version of the Honda GY6 twist & rip CVT auto scooter engine. They are pain ,takes more time to strip all the plastic & other gubbins out the way ,than to work on the carb ,engine & CVT system .