KymcoForum.com

Search FleaBay for "motorcycle battery eliminator". These are basically honking big capacitors that you wire in place of the battery.

On a side note, if the battery is really dead, kickstarting becomes difficult because the dead batt sucks up so much current that you don't get a decent spark (ask me how I learned this!).

I've had good service from Kymco Parts Online, but I'm in the US so I don't know whether they would/could deliver to the Bahamas:
http://kymcopartsonline.com/catalog/

You can bypass the LCM with two jumper wires. See the picture in this post:
http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=12463.msg125571#msg125571

The LCM on my wife's scooter died; no lights at all. Did this mod and now lights are on all the time. Probably a good idea to keep the battery on a trickle charger, though. I suspect the LCM is there to compensate for the fact that the alternator doesn't provide enough juice to both run the lights and recharge the battery when it's idling.

When it stops, I tried to get it restarted, but it doesn't even act like it wants to start

A bit more detail would help the diagnosis. Does this mean that it doesn't turn over at all, or that it turns over but does not "catch" and start?

If it doesn't turn over (i.e., the starter doesn't do anything when you press the start switch), then it's almost certainly an electrical problem. If I had to guess, I'd say probably a bad ground connection somewhere. The fix is simple but time-consuming since you have to take apart a fair bit of the tupperware in order to get at the connections.

If it turns over but doesn't catch, it could still be electrical, but might also be fuel or compression. When it dies and won't start, try kick-starting it. If you don't feel any resistance when you kick through, that suggests that you don't have compression. Possibly a sticking intake or exhaust valve or just a piece of carbon on a valve seat, but that's a long shot. Since it's an intermittent problem, the first thing I would try is to run a few capfuls of SeaFoam into the carb throat, the put in enough to kill the engine, let it sit for a while, then start it up again.

Since you can start and get a block or so away before it dies, my guess as to the *most* likely problem is a fuel valve (vacuum actuated petcock) that is sticking shut now and then.

This is a 2009 Super8-150 with just over 10k miles. With the engine on, if I switch from low to high beams, they will come on briefly (a second or so) and then go off (both bulbs). Low beams work fine. If I push the switch down (to flash high beams), same thing happens: they come on for brief flash and then go back to low beam.

So:
- it's not the bulbs (the high beam does come on briefly, and both bulbs behave the same way)
- I don't think it's the switch (the high beam does come on briefly, but no amount of fiddling or vibrating will do anything; if I switch back to low, the low beam works, and then I can switch to high again -- briefly).

Before I tear into the tupperware to get at the controller, I thought I'd check if anyone has suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

-- Tom Jupille

I use Stig's technique with the channel-loks. Easy to do and works just fine.

Might be as simple as the starter switch. I had the horn switch (opposite side, but looks like the same kind of switch) fail. A couple of shots of contact cleaner and it now works fine. The catch is that you do have to remove quite a bit of the tupperware to get at the switch.

Mine runs about 10% high (so 35 indicated = 31 actual; 50 indicated = 45 actual; etc.). About the same as the other bikes in the stable (Honda Nighthawk 250; Royal Enfield Bullet 500).