Scootcats would like to remind you that Mad Bastard Scooter Rally will be held this year between June 21st and 23rd. For those who don’t know what it is: The Mad Bastard Scooter Rally is an 800 km (or so) scooter ride through some great Canadian scenery, while collecting as many “mad” points that you can along the way, with the winner getting a brand new scooter to go home with!

This year’s rally will take place in Belleville, Ontario, Canada and it will be 600 kms (~ 373 miles) with bonus loops close to 800 kms. Different classes of scooters can participate in this race:

Straitjacket (24 hours) – All scooters (& motorcycles) up to 50 cc in capacity.
Heavily Medicated (20 hours) – All scooters (& motorcycles) greater than 50 cc but no greater than 110 cc.
Therapy Required (18 hours) – Scooters greater than 110 cc but no greater than 200 cc.
Day Release (16 hours) – Scooters greater than 200cc.

For more information please visit MBSR site.

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Sometimes you might need to drain gas or oil from your scooter. One way of doing this is to locate the drain plug and let the gravity take care of it. To locate your drain plug please check your scooter’s manual.

Especially for draining gas, there is an alternative way of doing things. Recently, I had to load my scooters to a moving truck for a long distance move. And liquids and flammables were not allowed on the truck, so I had to drain the gas from the scooters. A cheap hand pump (for only a few bucks) I found at a local auto parts dealer did the job. It looked like this.

pump

There are pumps from $2 to $100. For this kind of job, the very basic one was good enough. Next part is to find a container that is at least as big as your gas tank. Check your manual for information about the size of your gas tank. Always remember that gas and such liquids must be handled very carefully due to their flammable nature.

Now, let’s start the process. Lower the sucking hose to the very bottom of your gas tank by pushing it as far as it goes. Then lower the other end of the pump to the container and start the flow by pumping few times. If your gas tank is higher than your container, once the flow starts it should continue until there is no gas left in the tank.

hose going into the gas tank

other end of the pump going into the container

If at any point of time you need to stop the flow, just raise the container higher than your gas tank’s level.

After draining the gas or oil, don’t forget to properly dispose of it. DO NOT flush it down the drain, or DO NOT pour it to the nature.

Have fun!

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Changing your scooter’s battery is one of the easiest quick fixes. Especially if your scooter has been sitting idle for a long time, rest assured that sooner or later you will need to do this. Hopefully this article will help you.

First step is to find where your battery is. In most of the modern scooters the battery is under the floor panel where you put your feet. Some Vespas have them under the seat. In doubt? Look at your scooter’s manual.

floor panel

locating the old battery

removing the old battery

Once you find the battery location, open the cover if there is any. Start by removing the negative terminal first (usually it’s the black or blue cable), followed by the positive terminal (usually the red cable). Remove your old battery. Replace the old one with the new and charged battery. Reconnect the wires positive to positive terminal, negative to the negative terminal. To remove and connect battery terminals, all you need is a screwdriver.

brand new battery

reconnecting the wires

connecting the blue (negative) cable

connecting the red (positive) cable

Again your scooter’s manual is the best place to look for what type of battery you should order. Your dealer can order one for you or you can order online. Most of the time, if you place your order through a dealer, they will also get rid of your old battery for you, for free.

Remember to dispose of your battery in a correct manner since it contains toxic materials bad for your health and for the nature.

That’s it, you now have a brand new battery in your scooter!

The post How to change your scooter’s battery first appeared on scootcats.

Click here to read the first part of this article: Changing your scooter’s brake fluid – Part 1.

Now to the actual brake fluid change. All this work is done and pictures are taken on an Aprilia SR50 scooter. Your scooter might be different, the concept is always the same. Find the reservoir, find the bleeder valve, pump, suck out the old fluid and add in the new fluid. But how?

Here is how…

First of all you need to familiarize yourself with where your brake fluid reservoir is. If it is somewhere visible and accessible, that’s good! Less work. If it’s like in this Aprilia SR50, get ready to dismantle some fairings. The tools you will need for this depends on the screws. Usually philips screwdrivers, allen keys, wrenches need to be laying around.

I’m not going into details on how to remove all the fairings, here are some pictures showing the removal process.

Remove Fairing 1	Remove Fairing 2
Remove Fairing 3	Remove Fairing 4

After removing all the fairings you will see the brake reservoir. It’s the black squarish, thing. For this SR50 all we had to do was to shift and tilt the fairing. A complete removal was not needed.

Brake Reservoir at last

More Brake Reservoir

While you’re looking at your brake reservoir, before opening the screws, go ahead and locate the brake fluid bleeder valve. It’s a round screw in the shape of a valve, usually protected by a soft plastic cover. We didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it, but it’s easy to spot. Go to your front or rear brake, and look for it on the brake piston. Here is a picture of our bleeder kit tied to this scooter’s bleeder valve.

Bleeder Valve

Once you secured your bleeder kit to your bleeding valve, go ahead and remove the brake reservoir cap. It’s as easy as removing the screws holding the brake reservoir cap. Usually under the cap, there are one or two plastic parts (check the pictures below). Especially be careful with the one that is closer to the fluid, try to keep it clean all the time.

Brake reservoir	Brake reservoir
Brake reservoir

Now that you opened the brake reservoir, if the brake fluid is sitting there for quite a while (like more than 1-2 years), you’ll see that its color is now pretty dark. This will actually help you

Very slowly start squeezing the brake lever, do not look directly into the reservoir, because squeezing the lever might shoot brake fluid drops in your eyes ( happened to me! ). You will see the brake fluid slowly filling up your bleeding kit container. This is where a friend helping you will be very handy. You should never see the reservoir empty! This is very important (See pictures below for an empty reservoir). The instant the reservoir gets empty you’ll start inserting air bubble into the brake line. Having air in your brake line is the least thing you want.

While squeezing and releasing your brake lever, slowly start adding new brake fluid to the reservoir. Squeezing while topping will push the old brake fluid out through the bleeding valve and fill the brake line and the reservoir with the new fluid. Remember not to overfill your reservoir.

Topping Brake Fluid

Empty Brake Reservoir (Don't do this!)

After a while (depending how fast/good you squeeze, the length of your brake line and the size of your brake reservoir), you will start seeing clear brake fluid coming off your valve (in your bleeder tube). This means you’re done!

Tighten your bleed valve, fill up your brake reservoir, close and seal it. Now test your brake lever. It should not feel squeeshy, spongy, soggy. It should feel firm. If it’s not, that means you have air in your brake system.

What to do if my brake is not firm?

You should go back to the first step of opening your brake reservoir and valve and start pumping your lever while adding brake fluid. At some point you’ll start seeing bubbles in your bleeder kit’s tube. Do this until you see them no more. Put everything back together and test your brake again. It should feel firm now.

Well, I guess at this point, hopefully, you have a brake system full of new brake fluid. Go ahead and enjoy the ultimate brake power of your shiny scooter. Remember to brake for stray cats!

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Scootwash

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Although the details are not clear, Yamaha India (India Yamaha Motor) hints two new electric scooters for the India market.They also are mentioning two new bikes for the country as well.

The scooters will be designed in Japan but they will be specific to the India market. According to India Yamaha Motor Director (Sales and Marketing) Jun Nakata the release date is “near future”.

The post Yamaha to sell 2 new electric scooters to India. first appeared on scootcats.