100,000 mile scooters

[davenowherejones]

I did a very short ride today to buy a Lotto ticket and potato chips. Both are very bad habits.

It was only 5C and the mountains were getting snow.

I am having a whole bunch of medical problems and working too hard for my battered 62 year old body.

I have 171,530 km on the 2014 Honda Forza 280.

My Continental Contiscoot rear tire is showing some wear. If I make it through the winter I will need another rear soon after.

With the current supply issues I might order a new tire soon so that I have one ready.

I am thinking of a Pirelli Diablo Rosso Scooter Rear Tire just for a bit of excitement, 150/70-13.

Quite frankly the Forza has such low power that any tire is just fine.

I won a pair of Pirelli tires at a motorcycle show for my Yamaha BWS 49cc. The tires were OK but the $150 installation charge was a bit ridiculous for FREE tires.

The clocks change tonight and I will be confused for the next ten days. I am going to set a personal temperature of 5C this year before I do any low level rides. The mountains are too white this time of year.

[you you]

Good news about the cancer prognosis. There is a few more rear tyres in you yet

[davenowherejones]

My doctors are idiots. I am going riding.

But not right now, it is only 3C. Too cold for this older guy.

[davenowherejones]

It got to 7C today, lunch at Tims in Popkum, walk at Harrison Hot Springs, run to bathroom at home.

I think all this riding has destroyed my kidneys. My doctors are idiots.

I peed on my hands the other day, it was nice and warm for a few seconds.

Scooters are for idiots and that's me.

[you you]

It got to 7C today, lunch at Tims in Popkum, walk at Harrison Hot Springs, run to bathroom at home.

I think all this riding has destroyed my kidneys. My doctors are idiots.

I peed on my hands the other day, it was nice and warm for a few seconds.

Most people use the hand dryers to warm up.

Are you on multiple medications? If you are have you had a thorough review recently?

[davenowherejones]

I think my Forza is parked until March. No money, no insurance. We are getting rain and snow forever.

The mountains around me have fallen down and wiped out most of our major highways. Heavy, heavy rain. Rain today also.

It will take months to repair them all. Billions of dollars.

My power was out for a few days and my internet just came on last night after a 13 day break.

I live in Flood, BC. The Flood family first settled this area a long time ago. A million years ago my area was a lake. The Fraser River eventually cut a channel and drained the lake leaving a large flat area dissected by the river. The valley mountains are only 1 mile apart.

I ordered a new Pirelli Diablo Rosso rear tire but it started in Montreal and went to the main post office at the Vancouver Airport. The roads between the airport and here have been mostly closed.

We had the busiest airport in Canada for a few days. They were evacuating people with helicopters and small planes. I can see the airport from my front window. It was quite the show.

We are under Travel Restrictions, Essential travel Only. There is no gas at some places. The pipelines have been damaged. The bridges are destroyed. The railways are a mess. Lots of big rigs are stranded.

I want to ride my scooter around to survey the damage but with no insurance the police road blocks could be dangerous.

I could also go somewhere and the road behind me may fall into the river trapping me there. That's why we had non-stop helicopters.

My mobile home is mostly water tight so I guess I will stay home.

My neighbour needed a new hot water tank yesterday. We took my Dodge Dakota 4wd to the next town, Chilliwack. Sections of the 4 lane divided highway were missing so they had us using one side of the highway but with traffic going in both directions. But the traffic had to change sides many times.

It was a bit strange going west in the east bound lanes. My friend took too long to get organized so we came home in the dark. I had no idea where or if there was a road. I just followed the guy in front of me.

A neighbour hit one of the many mudslides and destroyed his security company car. He got banged up a bit also.

I want to ride my scooter.

[you you]

I think my Forza is parked until March. No money, no insurance. We are getting rain and snow forever.

The mountains around me have fallen down and wiped out most of our major highways. Heavy, heavy rain. Rain today also.

It will take months to repair them all. Billions of dollars.

My power was out for a few days and my internet just came on last night after a 13 day break.

I live in Flood, BC. The Flood family first settled this area a long time ago. A million years ago my area was a lake. The Fraser River eventually cut a channel and drained the lake leaving a large flat area dissected by the river. The valley mountains are only 1 mile apart.

I ordered a new Pirelli Diablo Rosso rear tire but it started in Montreal and went to the main post office at the Vancouver Airport. The roads between the airport and here have been mostly closed.

We had the busiest airport in Canada for a few days. They were evacuating people with helicopters and small planes. I can see the airport from my front window. It was quite the show.

We are under Travel Restrictions, Essential travel Only. There is no gas at some places. The pipelines have been damaged. The bridges are destroyed. The railways are a mess. Lots of big rigs are stranded.

I want to ride my scooter around to survey the damage but with no insurance the police road blocks could be dangerous.

I could also go somewhere and the road behind me may fall into the river trapping me there. That's why we had non-stop helicopters.

My mobile home is mostly water tight so I guess I will stay home.

My neighbour needed a new hot water tank yesterday. We took my Dodge Dakota 4wd to the next town, Chilliwack. Sections of the 4 lane divided highway were missing so they had us using one side of the highway but with traffic going in both directions. But the traffic had to change sides many times.

It was a bit strange going west in the east bound lanes. My friend took too long to get organized so we came home in the dark. I had no idea where or if there was a road. I just followed the guy in front of me.

A neighbour hit one of the many mudslides and destroyed his security company car. He got banged up a bit also.

I want to ride my scooter.

When this forum finally implodes. Which does seem quite soon on appearances...

My vote to best poster goes to DNJ

[davenowherejones]

Yes, I do live an interesting if not bizarre life.

[canthai]

Taking a look at the news re: flooding in the lower mainland.
Should get back there, buy another tractor and tridem end dump.
Will be LOTS of work on road repair/rebuilding.
But I won't - loving retirement !!!

[davenowherejones]

They are planning to get one lane each way on the Coquihalla #5. Some of it will be both directions on one side of the divided highway.

That was emotionally disturbing going the wrong way in the lane going to Chilliwack. I had a friend do that in Abbotsford because she had dementia. Dangerous.

It is hard to do concrete repair work when it is below freezing. The Coq is a mess. Some fairly big bridges got damaged. They are going to put up temporary bridges to get traffic moving. I bet it will take most of a year to fix everything.

[davenowherejones]

Taking a look at the news re: flooding in the lower mainland.
Should get back there, buy another tractor and tridem end dump.
Will be LOTS of work on road repair/rebuilding.
But I won't - loving retirement !!!

There was one washout that they were repairing with big rocks.

Only two or three rocks to a regular dump truck.

A fleet of dump trucks was going back and forth for a few days.

[davenowherejones]

The highways are starting to open up. I have a few diabetic medical problems.

I have no money these days. The insurance ran out on my scooter so it has been parked for a few weeks.

Our weather has been really bad with wind and rain. It has snowed a little bit.

I went out to my scooter to bring in my water bottle. There might still be water in it.

I tried open the seat but my key would not turn. The pins in the lock cylinder were frozen?

I squirted some WD40 into the lock. It still would not turn.

I put the key in slightly crooked so that the pins were pushed about a bit. The lock opened.

I started the scooter and ran it a bit to charge up the battery a little.

I went and looked at a small Coquihalla River diversion that they have been working at for a week. The river is undercutting the bank at the Fraser Canyon Hospital.

The diversion is moving some of the water away from the hospital but not by much.

They are dumping hundreds of truck loads of big rocks and gravel at the hospital. It is not working.

They are going to try the repair for another week.

As I type this I have realized that my water bottle is still under the scooter seat.

I have had way too many serious head injuries.

[davenowherejones]

A lot of our storm damaged highways are open again. Barely open. I would like to take a trip to see the damage and repairs.

It is only 2C outside right now. I will wait until March to go see the lower elevation repairs. The high mountains will have to wait a while longer.

I should start the Forza and let it run for a while. It might get a little warmer after lunch. My tin shed got a little damaged with a heavy snow load on the roof. I was worried about the Forza inside for a few days. There is still a lot of snow in my back yard.

My furnace is on right now and will probably bankrupt me. I expect another heavy snowfall before I start riding again.

I need to get off my fat ass and start walking. The sidewalks had a lot of snow on them. It is mostly melted but still dangerous.

I have ordered a few parts ready for the riding season. A muffler gasket from Norway (???) and an air filter from China. The fifty days that my next rear tire took to get here was just plain silly. I can get a local oil filter no problem. I have a spare belt. I think I need a front brake disk but it is too cold to go measure it.

5 weeks to riding time if the weather cooperates.

[davenowherejones]

Well it got up to 5C, the government weather page lies big time. They promised 10C a few days ago.

I tried to start the Forza in the shed. I cranked it, took a break and cranked it some more, took another break, etc

The factory 2014 battery was starting to run down. I hooked up my micro solar charger. I live beside a 5000 foot mountain so the sun don't shine here a lot of the time. A whole lot of dynamite could solve that problem. The neighbours might complain about the noise.

Eventually I got it started. I let it run for 10 minutes. It never did fully warm up. I will try again next week. I left it on the solar charger.

[davenowherejones]

I tried starting the Forza today. Started easily at 4C outside temperature. I will leave the charger on for a few weeks till it warms up.

My spare muffler connection gasket arrived today from Norway. It came in an 8x12 inch box. One cubic inch part in the corner of a 144 cubic inch box. It looked so funny hiding in the corner.

Has anyone tried muffler cement or hight temperature RTV in place of the $32 Canadian gasket which does not last that long?

30 odd days to riding season.

[mymitzi]

How many of those do you think you've gone through,Dave? Still on my original at 30,000 mi When I take the muffler off, usually open that nut that compresses the gasket extra loose and then wiggle the exhaust enough to open the gasket wide enough so it goes back on rather easily [so far, so
good] Knew that thing was pricey........but that's crazy! May try to fabricate something, when the time comes.

[davenowherejones]

I don't know how many I have bought but I will look. I think I have bought 5 in about in about 107,000 miles. Not a lot but they are expensive for what they are, $52 CDN an ounce (17 grams for $31 Canadian $). And they are hard to get. Norway???

I have had a few muffler clamps break. I ride on gravel roads sometimes. I have worn out a lot of rear tires which means the muffler has to come off, a very stupid design error. Also to work on the rear brakes requires the muffler to come off, a very stupid design error. The catalytic converter is right next to the rear brake cylinder, a very stupid design error.

I have re-used each gasket multiple times although Honda says to replace it each time. My current gasket should be good for a few more removals. I will run it until it becomes Harley loud!!! Side note, I had the exhaust off one day and out of curiosity I started that little almost 300cc engine up, it was very loud, I should become a pirate!!!

Loud pipes save lives by annoying the shit out of everybody. I was in a parking lot getting on the bike beside a mother and her small child. The mother told her son to quickly cover his ears as I was going to start the bike. She did not notice that the bike was already running.

I have had numerous people asking if the Forza was electric. It would be a fun engineering project to turn it into an electric with lithium batteries and a rear hub motor. Too bad I have no money.

I have a Pirelli Diablo Rosso rear tire behind me waiting for some warmer weather to install it. The ice might be gone by March.

[glencoeman]

Yes, I have reused that gasket many times, replacing rear tyres, servicing the rear brake caliper, replacing rear brake pads etc. I removed the silencer when it was new as I knew how expensive those gaskets are. Just slacken off the exhaust/silencer clamp and wiggle the silencer free after removing the three large mounting bolts.

[mymitzi]

18391-MN1-670 GASKET, MUFFLER 1 $18.86 This is the current price through Honda USA. Free shipping if [pick-up at Honda Dealer]

[canthai]

Has anyone tried muffler cement or hight temperature RTV in place of the $32 Canadian gasket which does not last that long?

I answered the question in the other thread - use gasket paper and red RTV
Using it for cars, trucks, tractors, dozers, for years