Scooter Maintenance
By Dave Ashton
I am an avid scooter rider. Scooters have a bounty of benefits over motorcycles like better gas mileage, simpler maintenance, and you don’t have to wear black leather. One of the most important aspects to keeping your scooter or mo-ped put-putting around is good maintenance. I have found that there are some basic tools that you can use to provide the best maintenance for you beloved gas-sipping friend.
First, I am not a mechanic, actually the opposite; I am the mechanic’s fumble-fingered younger brother. Here I will relay to you a few tips that I have found work well when it comes to maintaining your scooter. I am not going to do a step-by-step how to change your oil layout, scooters are diverse and different and to do a one-size fits all how-to would be impossible.
My dad always said the common saying, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” In this quick article I will attempt to do the latter.
1. The first step to proper maintenance is boring, really you may not like this one bit, but it is a necessary evil…read the owners manual. A lot of people don’t do this, most of the “how-to” and “step-by-step” can be found here. The downside is that unless you are Mr. Mechanic with a constant supply of black grease under your fingernails this may not be enough, go on to step two.
2. YouTube is your maintenance friend. I did my first scooter oil change by reading the owners manual and searching for YouTube videos on “how to change the oil 2009 Honda Ruckus.” It really does help to get the visual that small videos can provide. The key to searching on YouTube is knowing what to look for, that is why reading through the owner’s manual is step one. You may exhaust the videos on maintenance that YouTube has to offer, that is where step three comes in.
3. Join an online forum for your particular brand and make of scooter. When I first found this token of scooter knowledge I was blown away. People were turning their scooters into something that Batman would chase the Joker on, although you don’t have to dive in that deep, I’m not sure if I would even recommend it. Online forums offer a wide-array of knowledge and tips, both general and specialized. If you can’t find a D.I.Y maintenance project on these forums it is probably impossible to do.
Use these three steps and you are on your way to a long-lived scooter. So tip your hat as you put-put past the hulking gas guzzlers knowing you’ll have a well-maintained gas sipper for years to come.
I am an avid scooter rider. Scooters have a bounty of benefits over motorcycles like better gas mileage, simpler maintenance, and you don’t have to wear black leather. One of the most important aspects to keeping your scooter or mo-ped put-putting around is good maintenance. I have found that there are some basic tools that you can use to provide the best maintenance for you beloved gas-sipping friend.
First, I am not a mechanic, actually the opposite; I am the mechanic’s fumble-fingered younger brother. Here I will relay to you a few tips that I have found work well when it comes to maintaining your scooter. I am not going to do a step-by-step how to change your oil layout, scooters are diverse and different and to do a one-size fits all how-to would be impossible.
My dad always said the common saying, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” In this quick article I will attempt to do the latter.
1. The first step to proper maintenance is boring, really you may not like this one bit, but it is a necessary evil…read the owners manual. A lot of people don’t do this, most of the “how-to” and “step-by-step” can be found here. The downside is that unless you are Mr. Mechanic with a constant supply of black grease under your fingernails this may not be enough, go on to step two.
2. YouTube is your maintenance friend. I did my first scooter oil change by reading the owners manual and searching for YouTube videos on “how to change the oil 2009 Honda Ruckus.” It really does help to get the visual that small videos can provide. The key to searching on YouTube is knowing what to look for, that is why reading through the owner’s manual is step one. You may exhaust the videos on maintenance that YouTube has to offer, that is where step three comes in.
3. Join an online forum for your particular brand and make of scooter. When I first found this token of scooter knowledge I was blown away. People were turning their scooters into something that Batman would chase the Joker on, although you don’t have to dive in that deep, I’m not sure if I would even recommend it. Online forums offer a wide-array of knowledge and tips, both general and specialized. If you can’t find a D.I.Y maintenance project on these forums it is probably impossible to do.
Use these three steps and you are on your way to a long-lived scooter. So tip your hat as you put-put past the hulking gas guzzlers knowing you’ll have a well-maintained gas sipper for years to come.
