Death (and Resurrection) of a Bulldog

The Italica Bulldog 150 died today. I was entering a traffic circle at low speed when suddenly ... nothing. Engine stopped running, dash lighting went out. No biggie as "emergencies" go (nobody behind me honking for me to get out of the way, plenty of roadside room to start diagnosing, etc.), but obviously concerning.

As soon as I had the bike roadside and had established that there was simply no electricity reaching the dash and headlight, my first thought was "loose battery cable." So I pulled the seat off, grabbed my tool bag from the storage compartment, and prepared to open the battery compartment to check that.

And, for some reason, the 1/4" ratchet with 10mm socket that I was sure I had in my tool bag wasn't there. Sigh.

I decided to give Dave at Campus Scooters a call. I bought the bike from him, I've had it maintained and modified by him, and his shop actually offers a "free pickup" service for non-running scooters in the area. He couldn't just come running (he runs small staff during the summer and had an appointment about to arrive), but he talked me through some diagnostics on the phone while advising me to find a place to park it until he could come pick it up.

Will the bike kick-start? No.  And, oh, btw, there's a hose hanging down by the kick start lever that looks like it should be fastened to something (turns out that was a drain hose -- apparently the bolt holding it in place had worked its way loose; very recently, as it wasn't like that a few days ago when I washed the bike).

Well, find a place to park it and ... HEY, THE DASH LIGHTS ARE ON! BIKE STARTS RIGHT UP!

I rode it to the shop without further incident. Dave opened the battery compartment. The cables were a little loose, but probably not loose enough to cause the problem. He tightened them up. That left three main possibilities:

1. Temperature. If the CDI box gets too hot (or maybe it detects engine heat through a sensor?), the bike will shut down. As it happens, when it died I had just spent about 15 minutes behind a city bus, stopped more than moving, and then on a 25 mile per hour surface street. So maybe it did get hot from insufficient airflow over the engine on a 90-degree day.
2. A wonky key switch. The solution to that, short of replacing it, is to wiggle it and turn it on and off until something happens. Which, really, I had done before calling Dave, but maybe not enough?
3. The bike knows I'm looking for a replacement and thinking about selling it and decided to get a little revenge. Yes, I'm superstitious that way.

I guess we'll see if it happens again. If not, it was probably just a loose battery cable.

I've recommended Campus Scooters before, and I'll do so again now. I think it's worth noting that there was no charge for the 10 minutes of labor Dave put in, and that his prices are eminently reasonable when there are charges, and that he doesn't tell you it's the flux capacitor on the Johnson rod just so he can charge you for an unnecessary repair.

In the meantime, I've ratcheted down my search for a new bike because I finally hit the combination of frustration and boredom that makes me not want to hit Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace every five minutes. Two weeks ago, I couldn't walk down the street without someone jumping out in front of me and offering me a Honda Rebel 250 cheap. Now they're suddenly few and far between and out of my price range (because they're newer and in beautiful condition -- before, I was finding 2008-2010 Rebel 250s, in decent shape but obviously well-used, for $1200-$1500).

On the "good news" front, Dave says I really should be able to get $1,600 for the Bulldog when I sell it, but that it might take some time to find a buyer in Gainesville because it's mostly students wanting 50cc vehicles. Once I have a  bigger bike, I think I'll put the Bulldog on the market for $1,500 and take $1,200 if someone makes that offer (I was really only hoping for $1,000, so knowing I can get more is nice). Either that or put it on consignment at Campus Scooters.