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Personally I've given up on branded batteries. I've had Yuasas and Motobatts fail at a young age, and Powerlines/Lexteks (UK cheapie brands) carry on to 8-9 years. There's just no consistency.

Just pick one and go for it

Scooters riding through UK weather sure look like they could have done with the stuff, when new. We deal with salt on roads, you with grit. Thought grit would be easier on metals.....but maybe it isn't?

We don't even get grit on the roads for that much of winter. The winter that we've just come through was an anomaly in terms of snow and ice!

I think it might be more of a cultural thing. From what I gather, there may be more scooters kept in garages and outbuildings in the USA, and continental Europe is much drier than we are here.

I think that many scooters (particularly as they are beloved of the young riders as a first vehicle) sit outside in the UK all year around. Or this is my take on it, anyway! I'm glad your exhaust is doing well. That ACF50 is great stuff. I have the grease version; when I was working as a courier it was part of my winter ritual to smother the underside engine brackets of the bike every couple of weeks after a good wash.

You probably know this...but just in case: you will need extra current for those dual horns, so a separate (fused) 14 gauge line directly from the battery in needed, plus a relay to activate them. I got the dual snail horns on ebay for $9 and the relay for $2. And they sound great! Good luck, Mr. V.

I do know that, but anybody coming to the thread in the future may not, so thanks for pointing it out! I am running a seperate battery live up to an auxillary fusebox behind the glovebox and the horn will be run from there, as you suggest, via a DPDT (although SPST would be fine) which is driven by the old horn connectors.

I've used these to good effect in the past, although I don't actually need the fuse for this application;

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/THGS-Fused-On-Off-Automotive-Fused-Relay-12V-30A-4-Pin-Normally-Open-Car-Bike-black/32842321814.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.2.35573e45oRUwuH&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2_10152_10065_10709_10151_10344_10068_10130_5722815_10324_10342_10547_10325_10343_10340_10341_10548_5722915_5722615_10696_10192_10190_10084_10083_10618_10307_10710_10301_10303_5722715_5711215_10059_10184_308_100031_10103_10624_10623_10622_5711315_5722515_10621_10620,searchweb201603_25,ppcSwitch_2&algo_expid=25ebf017-5986-4cf8-b496-e8d2262806ba-0&algo_pvid=25ebf017-5986-4cf8-b496-e8d2262806ba&transAbTest=ae803_2&priceBeautifyAB=0

The Maxxis tyre is now on the front rim. It looks and feels a lot better. I may have to put the scooter back together this evening to be able to get to work on Wednesday and Thursday. I don't want to have to keep driving my other half's car, which makes some cracking knocking noises from engine... I want it to go blow up, well, ideally never; but if (when) it does, I don't want to be the one driving it! 

Glad you found the issue! Scooters do tend to be a little lighter at the front end so need the body weight forwards for good weight distribution sometimes

Thanks for the advice, I’m going to have a crack at it at the weekend. I have been reading that it could be something loose? Is that possible? It does it sound like a complete replace of the head bearings?

Sometimes it's amazing what a proper adjustment and re-grease can do to bearings. See how it feels. You might be able to get away with not changing them.

Bought my first 150cc scooter and rode it home. Then rode it the next day after that. Learn as you go.

Pretty much the same for me. The UK has very slack laws on getting onto a bike. I did my CBT (day's course for a learner pass) on a 50cc twist and go, then went and bought a 125cc motorcycle a couple of days later. Sat on the driveway, trying to work out how it all worked and how to change gears.

The next day, I rode to work, and every day after that for ten years.

I started because I couldn't afford a car, and the bus was bankrupting me.

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your son's bike. To be honest, it's a bit of a sod of a job; not because it's difficult, but because of the disassembly it requires.

You'll need to take off the front forks, the handlebars again and remove the yoke from the bike. From there, you'll need to use some sort of punch to remove the old bearing races (have to be chiselled until they slide up the yoke) and then use a bit of PVC pipe or something to push new ones on with a mallet and a piece of work.

It's a really expensive garage job because it requires so much disassembly, expecially with removing fairings, but the parts aren't expensive; it's just tedious.

There's loads of helpful tutorials on Youtube. If you've got the bearings, I'd put aside a day to  get it done if you haven't done it before.

The internet tends to disagree, Viper. Depending who, the concensus is 9.6 volts minimum for GM, 10-11 volts for all others. As far as we are concerned, it is the voltage below which the ignition fails or the ECU fails to function. I DID get a new idea from the search, however. That is to test the voltage drop in the fat wires that power the starter, including the ground wire and the start relay. This is done by paralleling the voltmeter with each leg to be tested. The concensus on permissible drop is .5 volts or less. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the service manual about this.

Would this not be same as voltage drop across the battery? If the solenoid (and later starter) are fed quite directly from the battery on the fat cables.