Pages

Monday, September 09, 2024

270 To Win, Part 2

Initial maintenance for two-wheeled motor vehicles: Oil and gear oil change at 300 miles.

I took the Italica Bulldog 150 in to Campus Scooters today for that ... at 270 miles (OK, 271, but that was after showing up, finding out it would be most of an hour until it could get in, and riding a short distance for lunch, then returning). For all intents and purposes, I consider anything between 260 and 280 to be 270 when it comes to maintenance mileage.

Why 30 miles early? Because Mondays are less busy for me than other weekdays (as you can tell by the inflated post count today). I write Garrison Center columns on Tuesdays and Thursdays, there's usually more RRND content to comb through/curate on Tuesdays through Thursdays than on Mondays, and I figure Fridays are busy at the scooter shop (they're closed on Saturday and Sunday).

They didn't spot any red flags. The ride home went fine. Mission accomplished.

I intended to ask several questions, but only remembered to get one of them in:

A number of people -- including my mechanic friend -- tell me that I should run premium gasoline in the machine.

A few YouTubers who are "scooter-focused" say no, in a Chinese scooter it's more important to run ethanol-free gasoline than it is to run high-octane gasoline.

The lady at the shop: If it's a "daily rider" vehicle, go with high-octane (which is what I've been doing, btw). Ethanol isn't great for carburetors, but it's only really bad for them if it's the kind of vehicle that sits for long periods.

So, I'll stick with high-octane. But I may look into some of the fuel treatments intended specifically to save engines from the ill effects of ethanol.

No comments:

Post a Comment