Step 1: Make sure you have the engine kill switch selected (check image below for more information)

Step 2:Next step is to remove the light and cell phone charger jack. Remove the screws securing the battery cover and carburettor cover.  Remove the 4 bolts securing the “met-in” box and lift it out to the scooter.

Step 3: View the seat/ “met-in” box removed

Step 4: Remove the screws and small plastic panels on both sides

Step 5: Remove 2 bolts holding black plastic to the frame. Remove 2 screws near gas cap. Remove screw in colored plastic at the body seam and the  screw attaching colored plastic to black plastic in engine compartment.

Step 6: Remove black plastic piece (with lid to gas cap) and replace gas cap.

Step 7: Note the flexibility of the colored plastic body. This will allow for removal of the valve cover in a bit.

Step 8: The part circled in red is the valve cover. This is what must be removed before you can inspect valves.

Removal of the valve cover requires the removal of 4 bolts, 2 nuts and 2 hoses.

The top 2 bolts and top hose can be seen in this picture. (circled in green)

Step 9: Now to the bottom right half of the valve cover. Remove the bolt and hose. The bolts and nuts can be removed with standard wrenches.

Step 10: Remove the 4th bolt and two nuts on the bottom left of the valve cover.

You will probably observe the valve cover separate from the cylinder head a bit. A little oil may drip from the now separated parts.

Now on to the trickiest part of the job, removing the valve cover from the bike. To do this, push down on the back half of the bike to change the orientation of the engine relative to the frame. Whilst you are doing this with you right hand, try to wiggle valve cover free with your left. Flex the colored body plastic (not too much) to make a gap a gap for the cover to slip through. This may take several tries, but you will get it eventually. Just think of the time saved by not taking all the body plastic off.

Step 11: Next get the engine to stop dead center. To do this you will have to turn the engine by hand while you look at the two visual indicators.

Begin by removing the three bolts holding the chrome piece onto the crank case. (note that oil filer is dangerously close to one of the bolts. Make sure the oil filer is blocked when removing the bolts to prevent bolts from dropping into your engine.)  Remove the circular hatch (upper left) part with a screw driver.

Step 12: Sandwiched between the fly wheel and the chrome plate you just removed is small easy to loose part. (see spring next to it.)

Step 13: With a 19mm sprocket, begin rotating the engine clockwise.

Step 14: The engine will be at “TDC” when the “T” mark on the flywheel aligns with the index mark on the case and the circle timing chain sprocket is visible.

Step 15: Select the blade on a feeler guage with a thickness of 0.1mm and slide into the gap as shown. If the blade will not fit the gap, the gap is too tight and must be let out 0.1mm.

If the blade is not be contacted on both sides, the gap is too big and must be closed 0.1mm

If its clear that the blade is being contacted both sides and passed through the gap with a small amount of friction, you are in good shape.

Step 16: If the valves need adjustment loosen the nut (see image below) and either unscrew or screw by hand until the proper gap is reached. Hold the adjusting screw in place with an adjustable wrench while you tighten down the nut.

Inspect the gap with feeler gauge to ensure the gap did not change while you where tightening the nut down.

Step 17: You may want to get an extra gasket on hand before you do your adjustment. Although the seal is rubber and reusable, it does wear out over time and can be damaged in the process. You never know exactly what you are going to find out when the cover is off so its better to be prepared.

Thats it! You just saved $100+ and now you know even more about the scooter you love. Now if you kept everything organized assembly should be quick and painless.

Guide to getting the cheapest Scooter insurance

As some of my regular readers know I have a larger number of different motorcycles and scooters. So every year I have the problem of finding cheap and quality insurance.

To help my loyal readers and maybe some new ones, I have decided to put together a 4 step process on how to get the cheapest scooter/motorcycle insurance.

Step 1 - What cover do you need?
Step 2: Get your Quote
Step 3: Play with the quote
Step 4 - Renewal!

Now you might think that this guide will be only helpful to those looking to renew their insurance but you would be wrong! In nearly every insurance policy that I have had, you are able to cancel the insurance without incurring a penalty.

So even if you have just bought your insurance just follow these steps to check you have the cheapest insurance.

Step 1 - What cover do you need?

Age!- Are you under 21? then this will mean that you should only go for third party insurance as the excess will be massive. I knew of one young man who had an excess of £500 on a scooter worth £600!

Mileage: Don’t overestimate.. and remember its just for that bike/scooter not total mileage including driving. Generally my mileage is around 5000 miles for all my bikes.

Security: If you want cheap insurance then make sure you look at getting your bike/scooter off the road. Most insurance also require a gold standard lock so make sure you get one.

No claims bonus: On average a no claims bonus of one year can reduce cost by around 40% so make sure you keep your no claims if you can.

One of the main problems that i came across in the UK was the lack of scooter insurers, so you need to do a little research to find out what insurers work with scooters.

Step 2: Get your Quote

Get a quote via the main scooter insurance company. I like to use Ebike but you are free to use any that you find during your research.

Step 3: Play with the quote

Excess - Try different excess’s to find the right combination that works for you. Many insurance policy’s differ greatly depending on the amount of excess is chosen.

Haggle - Give the guys a ring and explain that you have found it for cheaper but would prefer to go with them. This can work… but i always feel a little cheeky.

Car insurance / House Insurance - If you already have insurance with the company you choose then try and get the price down even more.

Consider Pay as you go - Ebike actually allow you to get pay as you go insurance. This can work well if like me you don’t use all your bikes every day of the year. You can find out more at the Ebike website

Step 4 - Renewal!

Remember!! That most insurers will automatically renew your insurance.. so make sure that you have checked for cheaper insurance before this happens.

I got stung by this once, but never again!

 I have a Givi E52.

For my money it’s the best as it is the biggest available with the soft backrest attached by wife finds it much more comfortable to ride with me than without a backrest.

I bought the black one that comes with the lights installed because you get the lights with it already installed for less than the coloured boxes without lights.

However, I discovered that you can’t depend on the lights. Apparently they are incandescent mini bulbs instead of the LEDs I was expecting and don’t last. One of them was burned out or broken within weeks of me getting the box. The connection to the wiring system - so you can easily remove the box from the bike - isn’t the best either as people would often tell me my brake lights on the box weren’t working, so when I transferred the box to my Exec I didn’t bother with connecting the lights.

My Kymco 250 made a whining noice when it started and I had to replace the belt at 12,000 km. It had started squealing every now and then when I applied throttle to accelerate from a stop. It didn’t make the noise when starting the engine though.

The issue was due to the belt stretching. The belt width was still fine. Someone else reported the same problem at about the same time. You could check by removing the belt cover - the silver painted cover below the black air cleaner case. If you can pinch the top & bottom of the belt together in the middle (or come close), it has stretched.

If the issue you are having is due to the belt  it is fairly easy to check.

First try the fuses that are hidden behind the cover to the left of the Lockable Glove Box. There are several fuses in there and one of them is for the horn. It may be either blown or missing.

Otherwise just getting at the wiring is somewhat of a nightmare. Among other things the largest single piece of plastic on the bike has to be removed. To do that you have to take off the following: the handlebar covers; the part of the dash under the handle bar covers;  the surround around the rad; the centre piece on the front of the nose of the bike; peel back the floor board covers on both sides. Do not try this without the proper shop manual.

All of that takes two people about two hours. Then all you have to do is fix the wiring problem and then put all the bits back on.

Recommendation: if you’re going to do all of that anyway to fix the horn, buy a Stebel Air horn and install it while you have all that stuff off. The 650 horn is pretty poor for normal use.

Last year a friend of mine did this on his Kymco S125 and explained to me how he did it.

After you remove the nose plastic, it is pretty simple to splice into the wires for power. You always want to make sure that your leads on the LEDs never touch and short out your system. I used really bright yellow LED bulbs that I got from a guy in Taiwan.

Since there isn’t really a bulb housing, I used a round file to make the hole big enough to push the bulb in and used silicon to hold it in place. Also think about using using rubber as well as a possible mount along with the silicone.

Remember you also have to include enough extra wire so when someone has to take off the nose to do something, there is no strain on the wiring.

Last week my wife had a massive go at me regarding the state of our garage. As you know I like to do little bit of scooter restoration at the weekend which can lead to a little bit of mess. So this weekend I have decided to do something about it. I searched the net and came across this site that sells garage cabinets so I took a quick look. Now if your into shiny metal things - then this place is nirvana. Whilst I did have my eye on the $12k Scootsdale Garage cabinet (Great colour would go with my Vespa!) I decided on some metal pegboards that will keep the majority of my tools off the floor - which is one of the gripes my wife had with the garage.

Check out what one of my friends made : A motorised cycle!

“Hi, It started out as a Huffy Beach Cruiser that I bought at a Thrift Store for $15 and it kind of got out of control from there. The fuel tanks are old pump style fire extinguishers from the early 1900’s and has kersone lanterns from the late 1800’s which have been bulbed and wired for light along with sirens from the 50’s that run off a 6 volt battery and Power Wheels motors. The sidecar started life at another Thrift Store as a pull behind cart that a small child would ride in behind a parents bike and it went from there. The sidecar frame is wooden covered with canvas and sealed. I don’t know why I built it except just to see if I could and with a lot of trial and error I got what you see. My Very First motorcycle show I went to I won “First Place” in the antique class and won “Best Fabrication” of the entire show! I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out, what do you think? Coming soon are pictures of my son’s OCC Stingray bike which is where all this really got started. By the way thats him riding in the sidecar in the Avatar while it was in the cardboard mockup stage”