Wednesday, November 22, 2023

I'm Glad I Adopted a Phased Breaking-In Plan for the Scooter

The ride home after buying the scooter was about five miles, and I took it reasonably easy. I've taken it out for anywhere from 1-5 miles since then.

This morning, my son had a medical appointment five miles away. Ten-mile round trip -- a chance to step things up and see how it performs! -- so I rode there while he and Tamara  followed in the car.

The basic point of this trip was to find out how it performs when it has to go ten miles at (usually) top speed.

I found out. The first five miles were great. On a couple of downhill grades I basically buried the speedometer, which goes to 50mph but seems to be about five miles off (upward). Just zipped along. What fun!

About 2 1/2 miles into the trip back, the thing suddenly lost power. It completely died about the time I got pulled over, and wouldn't restart. I spent a few minutes sitting there using my phone for troubleshooting suggestions, then tried again and it started right up. I didn't really punch it the rest of the way home.

Likely a clogged vent or fuel filter. Glad it didn't happen halfway through a hundred-mile trip. This way it's a minor inconvenience that I can look into and either correct permanently or learn how to correct on the fly (one trick seems to be opening the gas cap -- if it's a clogged vent, there will be a "whoosh" sound).

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