FRONT WHEEL REMOVAL

[brianmckewen]

Any suggestions on how to prop up the front of my scoot when I remove the front wheel?

[cleanerman]

I usually have a cardboard  box laying around that I wedge under the front floorboard.

Or, put a cinder block on the back seat.

[CROSSBOLT]

Most will sit back on rear wheel when front is removed...

[Iahawk]

put the scoot on the center stand and use something to hold up the floorboard right behind the front wheel. I stack a number of short pieces of 2x4s to hold it up. You do need to hold it up or it will fall forward.

Anything that is solid and will fill the space will work to hold the scoot up.

What are you doing that you're taking the front wheel off?

[brianmckewen]

New Bridgestone tire, new brake pads and change the front fork oil. I am hoping the new oil will help the rough ride. I have always thought the rough ride was because the wheel base is so much shorter compared to my Honda Helix. Did not know changing the old oil would make much of a difference. Hope it does. Anything over thirty and it is rough. In town this is no problem but on the back roads a softer ride would be a blessing. I would also like to disconnect the electrical component that dims the lights at idle. Half of my riding is at night and I find this feature annoying. Do you know how to do this? I don't think I will drain the battery too much without it, or will I? Any thoughts on this gang? Thanks. Brian.

[Iahawk]

changing the fork oil on mine made a huge difference. It is still a super rough ride vs the Helix, especially like you said as speed increases, but it was a huge improvement. It's a very easy process..I posted some pics about it a while back. I still get that 'jackhammer' effect from the bars between 35-50 but it is much reduced after the fork oil change.

I'm traveling now and don't have my personal laptop..when I get back home I'll pull up the note I made about how to bypass the lighting control module (I copied it off the forum from someone else a long time ago..have never tried it)

[Iahawk]

brianmckewen - ok, found my S200 spreadsheet with all my info...to bypass the lighting control module:

"Light control module – to bypass jump 4 wire plug, 2 blues            
to each other and 2 whites to each other, unplug the entire unit"   

If you haven't seen it, yet, the LCM is behind your front 'grille panel' under the headlight. It's the module to the left of the horn when you're sitting on the bike, circled in yellow in the pic         

[Iahawk]

to be clear...I have not done the bypass of the light control module...I just took note of the instructions that were posted on here a long time ago...mine was unplugged in this pic because I was tracking down a parasitic draw on my bike and tracked it to the LCM. I ordered a new one but it also caused the same parasitic draw on my bike..so I just unhook the negative battery cable between rides...problem solved.

[brianmckewen]

Got the front wheel off no problem. Have done this on other motorbikes, lifting the front wheel up with whatever but did not know if the plastic on the bottom of the scoot was strong enough to support it. It went fine. Put a new bridgestone tire on, new brake pads, changed the fork oil thanks to the great pictures and text on how to do that on this site. Also bypassed the light control module so my lights no longer dim at idle. For whatever reason I did not like that. It was easy to do, again thanks to the great pictures and text. It has not affected my battery with starting and does not seem like it will. Yay! The bike now rides smooth as silk below 40MPH and is much improved above that speed. I used 10 weight oil. Anyone here ever played around with different viscosities? Put a new windshield on it yesterday. It is thinner than the flyscreen so I will put some rubber strips on it to hold it in place better. It does squeak a little. Even if it gets no better with the rubber it will be worth it for winter riding. Should be a 9 or 10 month riding scooter with the windshield. I live on Eastern Shore Md. Winters are not that bad here usually. Thanks for all the help gang. Will write later about my LED tail light project and results. Brian. 

[Iahawk]

amazing what a fork oil change can do, huh?  My forks had one filled with green and one with red oil (or was it one brown and one red?)...do you recall what was in yours?

It made a HUUUGE difference in the ride of the scoot...it still rides kinda crappy...but WAAAYYYY less crappy! I used 10 weight fork oil so can't comment on any different weights.

[Ruffus]

@hawk, maybe this former owner of your scoot was a yachtsailor like me. We do green light on starboard and red light on port side?

[Iahawk]

@hawk, maybe this former owner of your scoot was a yachtsailor like me. We do green light on starboard and red light on port side?

haha!