Vespa Spring Cleaning

I have a confession to make: I haven't written a blog in over two, count 'em, two months. I've been spending too much time on trivial things like my dental application and not enough time on what's important in life - blogging. With that said, the scoot life never sleeps; I've had to do a few fix-ups on the Vespa over these past few months and I figured what better time than now to fill you guys in.

Fuel Lever

On my way over to hockey last week I snapped off the lever part of my fuel lever. Being as it's half of the name, the lever part is shockingly essential and, without it, I couldn't turn the gas off. Now, constantly leaking fuel wouldn't have been the biggest deal in the world, I only pay ≈ $3 a week for gas anyways. So I guess the problem should have been that was that it kept drowning the engine, which was obviously making it tough to start. But the REAL problem was that it was stinking up the garage and subsequently me. So, not only was the broken fuel lever flooding my engine, but it was also killing my game. Had to be fixed. The guys over at Scooter Labs hooked it up with a free lever as long as a bought a shirt. So, in a classic two birds with one stone situation, I both lost the petrol cologne and super cool shirt to match (cool shirt not pictured).

Broken Lever

The job itself was pretty easy. I just unhitched those those two screws and situated the new lever on accordingly. I snapped some shots so you can get a feel for how those two notches go into the new lever.

So here's the final product. I'm pretty sure I put it in backwards (off is actually on and vice versa), but it works so I could care less.

Spark Plug
I've had this scooter for over a year now and I figured it was about time to check-in on my spark plug. Now this job really should't have been too bad, really all you need is a spark plug socket and you're ridin' dirty. The main problem for me was that my socket was about a thousand times bigger than I needed it to be.

I guess the added extension is good for leverage, but leverage is pretty useless when you can't even fit the wrench into the socket. I wanted to just take a hacksaw to it and shave it down, but Grandma Carpentier came in clutch and mailed me a brand new socket set for my birthday (thanks G-ma Carps). The spark plug didn't look too bad, maybe a little carbon fouling, but nothing to call home/write a blog about. I threw a brand new plug in my glove box just in case it conks out on me.

Battery Refill
Turns out my battery was drastically low.

Pop quiz: Which of the following would you refill a WPS 6 volt motorcycle battery with?
A) Tap Water
B) Sulfuric Acid
C) Battery Acid
D) None of the Above

If you answered A guess what? You're wrong, it's D. You're actually supposed to use DI water. As legend as it, if you use tap water it can somehow leak into the battery cause it to explode (yeah right). But, to air on the side of caution, I decided to put on my responsible pants and fill it with DI. The main problem here being that I had none. Instead of buying a whole gallon from Safeway for a whopping $10.95 I decided to stick it to the man and go on a DI water heist at the fly lab. Think Oceans 11 mixed with Inside Man with a sprinkle of the opening scene from The Dark Knight and you're right in the ball park with how dramatic putting DI from the sink into a gatorade bottle was.

The Future Movie Poster for Oceans 15: Get Water or DI Trying

Long story short, I got outta there by the skin of my teeth, refilled the cells and popped the battery back into scoot. My tail light, head light, and horn all still work so i'm going to chalk it up as a win for Nelson.

Kickstand Rubber Feet
Last, but certainly not least, I decided to shell out five big ones for some new kickstand feet. These are rubber ends that makes sure the metal part of your kickstand doesn't ware out. It also helps with stability if/when you're putting the Vespy up on a real uneven surface. Up until now I had blissfully ignored the fact that the old feet were ripped to shreds.

The metal on the kickstand was so chewed up that it was borderline impossible to get the new feet on. I even tried some post-factory modifications (i.e. taking a knife and cutting off the skinnier portion of the boot), but with no avail. So, being a master in the feild of ingenuity, I decided to make my own. I started off with a piece of rubber from my old seat that just so happened to fit perfectly at the end of the kickstand.

From there I used my cunning, wit, stunning good looks, and electrical tape to attach that rubber piece onto the kickstand. It came out lookin' pretty pretty, if I don't say so myself. I guess we'll just wait and see how they hold up for the coming year.

That's all I got for now. I'll be sure to add it some more application/DAT stuff once June starts rolling around. If you just can't wait, you can check out my DAT Prep blog where I update my practice test scores almost weekly. See you on the other side.