Saturday, October 15, 2011

"I can get 80 miles to the gallon on this hog."


Six months of scooter commutin' later, and I have learned a few things. Mostly maintenance things. The riding itself gets to be a pretty normal part of everyday life in less time than you'd think, and what you are left with is the wrenching. Taking your scoot into the shop is outrageously expensive. Hourly rates for labor rival what you'd pay to get your car fixed. $60 to change a belt? $75 for an oil change? Yeah... not so much.

My BMS, unfortunately, is plagued by a weak charging system. I have not found that this is a common problem for scooters in general, or for this particular make. I guess I just got one with a factory defect. My answer to this has been the purchase of three batteries; one wet cell, and two AGMs (Absorbed Glass Mat).

The first battery, a standard lead-acid unit purchased at a local scooter shop, lasted all of a few days before discharging beyond the point of no return. This really pissed me off, because I made an effort to listen to all that the mechanic at the shop had to say about prepping and installing it, mainly because I assumed that scooter batteries were special somehow. I should have just trusted my instincts. I mean, batteries have been a big part of my life... I soon learned the hard way that you can't return a battery that you destroyed based on poor advice.

Next, I got wise and looked around for the best, most maintenance free unit I could find. The Motobatt 9 amp-hour AGM battery seemed like a great deal for the money, so I pulled the trigger online and waited a few days for it to ship. One of the big selling points for me was that it came fully charged, so I wouldn't have to worry that I would get into a charging deficit pattern right away. There's no denying that it's a great battery. I noticed right away the quick starting and how much stronger the engine seemed to run. I also noticed a big jump in the fuel economy as well, if you can believe that you can actually improve on excellent. Lots of power on take-off, bright headlights, etc. It was like a whole new beast. In about a week though, I started seeing the familiar pattern of harder starting, and sluggishness off the line. The volt meter was going down slowly. Frustration. Anger. Disillusionment.

I rode the scoot to the hardware store and picked up a motorcycle battery charger. Sometimes the universe just rubs your nose in it. The bike was dead when I got back out to the parking lot. I spent 15 minutes struggling to kick start the engine on this little stub of a crank arm, placed conveniently underneath the body-work, which scraped most of the skin off my ankle. I am sure that if I had been looking at myself from outside of the situation, I would have laughed 'til my sides hurt.

Turns out the charger was money well spent. It not only tops off a declining charge, but will "condition" a weakened battery to help it hold on to a little more energy. Good stuff. Whenever I would see the voltage begin to drop, I could remove the battery and take it inside to charge overnight and be good to go in the morning. Not the ideal, hands-off relationship to have with a vehicle, but this arrangement is getting me to work and back without too much trouble.

I bought another AGM just to be on the safe side and have a back-up. I'm not the smartest guy, but I have to say, I have my moments. This was such a good idea. Now, I rotate the two good batts on and off the charger, which is more or less working full time. I don't wait for things to get bad before swapping them, either. It feels almost luxurious.

It should be said, and I will include this for the benefit of any scooter newbies out there that might happen onto this post, that if your ride's battery is slowly working it's way downhill, it's not all your fault. I did learn something interesting about both motorcycles and scooters, and their electrical systems. Just like in your car, the grounding system is the chassis or frame of the bike. If you park it on the kick-stand, you are making a great connection to ground right there. The power from the battery will eventually drain out through this point. Finding out about this was a real "a-ha!" moment for me. Of course! How could I not have realized this? So now, I park the scoot with it's stand on a piece of cardboard, rolled up newspaper, anything to try and slow down that constant leeching of e-juice.

This has helped me to some degree, but I still don't get the charging that the scooter requires in the 12 or so miles from home to work each day. On weekends with it just sitting, I am lucky if there's enough power to kick it over on Monday morning. You are probably asking yourself, why don't you just fix the root problem? My short answer would be: time and money. How much do I want to invest in something that I probably will wind up selling in the near future anyway. A bigger bike is calling, and I should off-load the scooter while it still has relatively few miles on the clock. The ad will read, " 150cc Scooter, Low Miles, Extra Battery."