Whether you are chased by a dog, or you encounter a deer while scooting the mountains, if you don’t know what to do, these encounters can result in serious collisions.  Many experts say that the best approach to survive such a collision is to safely avoid hitting the animal. The California Motorcycle Handbook adds: “If you are in traffic, however, remain in your lane. Hitting something small is less dangerous to you than hitting something big—like a car.”

Here are some basic tips you might find useful.

Tips to avoid hitting a deer

• If you encounter a deer on the road, be extremely cautious passing it. Slow down and be prepared to stop.
• Watch for deer crossing signs. If it is a deer inhabited area, slow down, cover your brakes and watch the sides of the road. Slowing down will decrease your braking distance and will give you more time to react.
• Deer are most active at dusk and dawn, so be extra cautious at those times.

• Deer travel in groups, so if you see one, probably there are more, slow down and be prepared.

• If a deer freezes seeing your headlight, flashing your headlight may break the spell.
• Note that, if you swerve to avoid the deer, you might hit something else instead, such as an incoming vehicle or a tree.

What to do if you are chased by a  dog

If you are chased by a dog, start by slowing down and approach the animal slowly. As you approach it, accelerate away and leave the animal behind.

The post Tips on animal encounters first appeared on scootcats.

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!

The post Changing your scooter’s brake fluid-Part 2 first appeared on scootcats.

With the arrival of spring and the great weather, we welcomed the riding season one more time. This means more riders hitting the roads, unfortunately it also means more accidents.

Here are some safety tips to consider:

• Choose your position in traffic so that you remain visible to drivers
• Anticipate what might happen at all times
• Use your turn signals
• Wear a helmet and protective gear if possible
• At night use reflective clothing or stickers to remain visible
• Do not hesitate to use your horn as a warning
• Always check the vehicles behind you prior to braking

Also read the article …where to start.

The post Safety Tips first appeared on scootcats.

Those of us who have never been to New Zealand often see its beautiful nature on TV and simply can’t help ourselves from admiring the country. But there are so many more things to admire about New Zealand. At least there are two more that are going to be mentioned in this article.

First one, there is an organization called ACC (The Accident Compensation Corporation) which provides comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents as well as temporary VISITORS! Isn’t that great? Who does that?

In order to keep its costs low, ACC also works towards preventing injuries from happening. How do they do that? Simple: By educating people!

Which brings us to the second item, ACC teamed up with some key motorcycle groups to create the scooter survival website, which is admirable. Hard to believe there is a government behind that. The content is highly useful and the design is dynamic and modern. OK, it was intended for NZ, but most of the content is valid for any scooterist in the World. So go and benefit from it! You can find anything on the website, including tips on properly gearing up, buying, maintenance and handling. Not to forget the library of highly educational videos.

Currently, scooter survival is running a safety campaign called “Add another layer” aiming to get young scooter riders to cover up bare skin in order to reduce serious injuries during a crash. To promote the campaign scooters in the area are being dressed up in fabric. Watch this video to see how scooters are being stripped down and covered in fabric: http://scootersurvival.co.nz/videos/scooter-dressing/

Hope to see our government caring for scooter riders and spending some money towards educating scooterists one day.

The post New Zealanders on how to survive the scooter accident first appeared on scootcats.

The post Changing your scooter’s brake fluid-Part 1 first appeared on scootcats.

No one wants their scooter to be stolen. You can lower the risks by taking preventative measures, such as locking up your scooter each time it is parked.

Here are some tips on how to and how not to lock your scooter…

First of all, always make sure you activate the steering lock, this will prevent the thieves from simply rolling your scooter away. Using a disc lock or a grip lock or putting a chain around your wheel without looping it around an anchored object will still make your ride vulnerable to lift-away theft. Secure your bike to an immovable object that is fixed to the ground, such as a lamp post. This will protect it against being lifted into a truck, known as lift-away theft. Note that, if you just chain it to a sign post, the sign can be removed and the bike can still be lifted. Same applies if you just chain it to a short pole as seen in the below picture.

Not the best way to lock up your scoot

One of the best ways to lock your scoot is to use a chain and a u-lock. Cables on the other hand are generally less secure, since they are often easier to cut through. Some scooters, such as the Genuine Buddy, have by default a u-frame welded underneath the frame, you can pass a chain through the frame and then attach it to another object. Draping the chain through the wheel won’t be as effective, because of the wheel being easily removable.

locking the wheel only

welded u-frame underneath the scoot

Use quality locks that can not be removed with simple tools. Thieves will usually go after easier targets. After you lock it, if possible keep your scooter out of sight; instead of parking in front of your front door, park it in your backyard. If they don’t see it, they can’t steel it.

Covering it, will avoid thieves from knowing what kind of scooter you have, if the brand and condition are not obvious, they will be less interested in steeling it.

If you are riding in groups, securing the scooters to each other will make it difficult to roll away the scooters.

securing two scooters to each other

The post Tips for locking up your scooter first appeared on scootcats.